Getting the Word to Stakeholders About Quality in the English Classroom

English Breakout Session (Grades 9-12)
Northern California Conference Mid-Winter Professional Renewal, Feb., 2009
Lodi Academy

The breakout session I facilitated was designed to be a positive response to a recent flurry of criticism that several experienced, successful NCC English teachers have faced. Assuming that quality IS happening in NCC English classrooms, we agreed that we need to work consciously and intentionally to help stakeholders correctly understand what is happening in our classrooms as we prepare students for college writing and guide them to the skills necessary for lifelong enjoyment of language and literacy.

Here, in no particular order, is the list generated by the session participants:

• Have students interview a community member as one of their resources for the research paper.
• Keep individual student’s writing portfolios. Show them to parents.
• Bind together collections of writing assignments to keep in the classroom for students and others to browse in.
• Write a letter to parents to include with the school bill.
• Ask the board for new writing textbooks.
• Make interviewing a family member a component of an appropriate assignment.
• Use a bulletin board in the hall outside the English classroom to showcase student work.
• Make a presentation to the board about the English program.
• Make sure students understand how each particular assignment features as part of the writing process.
• Get out the word about how good the ‘writing’ standardized test scores are.
• Encourage alumni to let people know how well prepared they were for college writing by taking your class.
• Put out a school writing publication each year.
• Write about your assignments in the school’s weekly publication.
• Have proactive conversations: “What does ‘writing’ look like for you?” (Then make sure homework assignments look like ‘writing’.)
• Educate stakeholders about the writing process. (There is MUCH more to writing than just generating words on paper.)
• Have parents read the first edit stage of essays and sign off on the essay draft.
• Create an English Dept. website.
• Make personal comments to parents outside of school (in the grocery store, etc) about the quality work their child is doing in your class.
• Involve parent and community volunteers in the classroom.
• Take advantage of national writing events and publicize this fact (Ex: NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month)
• Encourage students to blog as part of an assignment.
• Show students and stakeholders that the teacher does real writing him/herself.
• Share the teacher’s writing in class.
• Post class project videos on YouTube.

Go forth and conquer!

--Rosemary Dibben