OUR MISSION STATEMENT
Who we are:
We are a group of teachers who love teaching English at East Side.
What we believe about literature, reading, and writing
We believe that literature affords people the opportunity to make sense of the world around them, and we understand that reading and writing translate to power and opportunity in the world. We acknowledge that strong literacy skills provide the foundation for success in other disciplines, in college, and beyond. Because interacting with literature raises more questions than absolute truths, we believe that reading grows and requires emotional, cognitive, and social intelligence. We also believe that there is power in language, and as such, authentic reading and writing enable individuals to make their voices heard in the world and can give meaning to an individual’s life. Furthermore, we understand that literature enables readers to connect to people who are both familiar and unfamiliar, allowing readers step outside of their own world and into the worlds of others.
What ES kids deserve from their English teachers
We embrace a pedagogy of love—for literature, writing, reading, and for our students. We have a commitment to teaching students from underserved and marginalized populations and want our students to do more than just to learn how to read and write; we want to empower them to learn how to question, challenge, and dismantle the status quo. Each day, we want our students to engage in reading and writing in authentic ways, and we aim to have our students read and write what matters to them with real audiences. In our English classes, we want our students to think hard, evaluate and re-evaluate texts, reflect with their peers, and be willing to hear and take on a variety of perspectives. We believe that our students have inherent strengths in reading and writing that can be as valuable as our strengths as teachers. We also want our students to take risks, to be vulnerable as learners, and to step out of their skin to understand. We want our students to see a connection between reading and writing today and access and power in the future, especially in college, in their careers, and in the world. We want our students to love reading and writing.
What our curriculum looks like to approach those goals
We accomplish these goals in several ways as a professional community who collaborates, reflects, and shares instructional practices. First, we will cultivate a love and culture of reading in our classrooms. We will design curriculum that is accessible to all of our students and that matters to all of our students and the world around them. Further, we will encourage our students to develop a moral compass by examining literature individually and through discussion with others. We will make connections to literature and writing that enable students to advocate for themselves. These connections will also empower students to stand for social justice. With our support, our students will become independent and agentic about the content and structure of their learning, and will develop their analytic reading and writing skills. We will also encourage our students to examine texts for authors’ intentions, perspectives, and biases.
How We Teach English at East Side
Independent Reading
Independent reading affords East Side students the opportunity to cultivate a rich and agentic reading life during their middle and high school careers. Every East Side student participates in independent reading during English class from between one to two and a half hours every week. This commitment to derives from a belief that the more you practice doing something, the better you’ll get at it. Students read any book of their choosing during this time and maintain records and reflections of what and how they are reading across the year.
Whole-Class Texts
In addition to supporting independent readers, teachers choose a selection of shared texts—novels, memoirs, short fiction, poetry, plays, excerpts from longer works, nonfiction articles, digital media, etc.—for all students in a grade to read across the year. Teachers make informed choices about shared texts choose a variety of texts. Some texts are considered “classics” while others aim to center the curriculum on relevant social issues such as race, gender, gender expression, homophobia, class, and coming of age.
Reading and Writing Workshop
Time, choice, practice, and apprenticeship undergird the East Side English curriculum. The sixth, seventh, and eighth grade work closely with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (TCRWP) to develop a curriculum that reflects these features where students write about their own lives and issues that matter to them, whereby students take positions on controversial issues, find relevant evidence, and defend them in authentic ways, and teachers continually assess and respond to student learning. Throughout middle and high school, teachers bring mentor texts to support students’ apprenticeship in argumentative and narrative writing.
Discussion
Students engage in discussions and debates as a scaffold to respond to literature in meaningful ways. These discussions encourage students to comprehend and analyze the texts they read. They also help students connect how they are making meaning in the text to the world. Students discuss in partnerships, small groups, and whole class.
Assessment: Teachers assess students across the year to measure what and how they are learning, how much they are growing, and how their growth reflects what we might expect students at a given grade level should accomplish. Formative assessments include TCRWP running records, periodic on-demand literary essays, the Reading Inventory and Scholastic Evaluation, quizzes, reading and writing notebooks, daily reading logs, one-on-one conferences, and homework assignments. Summative assessments include end-of-unit essays, short stories, speeches, debates, and performances.
We are a group of teachers who love teaching English at East Side.
What we believe about literature, reading, and writing
We believe that literature affords people the opportunity to make sense of the world around them, and we understand that reading and writing translate to power and opportunity in the world. We acknowledge that strong literacy skills provide the foundation for success in other disciplines, in college, and beyond. Because interacting with literature raises more questions than absolute truths, we believe that reading grows and requires emotional, cognitive, and social intelligence. We also believe that there is power in language, and as such, authentic reading and writing enable individuals to make their voices heard in the world and can give meaning to an individual’s life. Furthermore, we understand that literature enables readers to connect to people who are both familiar and unfamiliar, allowing readers step outside of their own world and into the worlds of others.
What ES kids deserve from their English teachers
We embrace a pedagogy of love—for literature, writing, reading, and for our students. We have a commitment to teaching students from underserved and marginalized populations and want our students to do more than just to learn how to read and write; we want to empower them to learn how to question, challenge, and dismantle the status quo. Each day, we want our students to engage in reading and writing in authentic ways, and we aim to have our students read and write what matters to them with real audiences. In our English classes, we want our students to think hard, evaluate and re-evaluate texts, reflect with their peers, and be willing to hear and take on a variety of perspectives. We believe that our students have inherent strengths in reading and writing that can be as valuable as our strengths as teachers. We also want our students to take risks, to be vulnerable as learners, and to step out of their skin to understand. We want our students to see a connection between reading and writing today and access and power in the future, especially in college, in their careers, and in the world. We want our students to love reading and writing.
What our curriculum looks like to approach those goals
We accomplish these goals in several ways as a professional community who collaborates, reflects, and shares instructional practices. First, we will cultivate a love and culture of reading in our classrooms. We will design curriculum that is accessible to all of our students and that matters to all of our students and the world around them. Further, we will encourage our students to develop a moral compass by examining literature individually and through discussion with others. We will make connections to literature and writing that enable students to advocate for themselves. These connections will also empower students to stand for social justice. With our support, our students will become independent and agentic about the content and structure of their learning, and will develop their analytic reading and writing skills. We will also encourage our students to examine texts for authors’ intentions, perspectives, and biases.
How We Teach English at East Side
Independent Reading
Independent reading affords East Side students the opportunity to cultivate a rich and agentic reading life during their middle and high school careers. Every East Side student participates in independent reading during English class from between one to two and a half hours every week. This commitment to derives from a belief that the more you practice doing something, the better you’ll get at it. Students read any book of their choosing during this time and maintain records and reflections of what and how they are reading across the year.
Whole-Class Texts
In addition to supporting independent readers, teachers choose a selection of shared texts—novels, memoirs, short fiction, poetry, plays, excerpts from longer works, nonfiction articles, digital media, etc.—for all students in a grade to read across the year. Teachers make informed choices about shared texts choose a variety of texts. Some texts are considered “classics” while others aim to center the curriculum on relevant social issues such as race, gender, gender expression, homophobia, class, and coming of age.
Reading and Writing Workshop
Time, choice, practice, and apprenticeship undergird the East Side English curriculum. The sixth, seventh, and eighth grade work closely with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (TCRWP) to develop a curriculum that reflects these features where students write about their own lives and issues that matter to them, whereby students take positions on controversial issues, find relevant evidence, and defend them in authentic ways, and teachers continually assess and respond to student learning. Throughout middle and high school, teachers bring mentor texts to support students’ apprenticeship in argumentative and narrative writing.
Discussion
Students engage in discussions and debates as a scaffold to respond to literature in meaningful ways. These discussions encourage students to comprehend and analyze the texts they read. They also help students connect how they are making meaning in the text to the world. Students discuss in partnerships, small groups, and whole class.
Assessment: Teachers assess students across the year to measure what and how they are learning, how much they are growing, and how their growth reflects what we might expect students at a given grade level should accomplish. Formative assessments include TCRWP running records, periodic on-demand literary essays, the Reading Inventory and Scholastic Evaluation, quizzes, reading and writing notebooks, daily reading logs, one-on-one conferences, and homework assignments. Summative assessments include end-of-unit essays, short stories, speeches, debates, and performances.