English

Students will need 8 credits in English to graduate. All students must pass the ELA regents as well. 

Key details about English courses within the school. 

• Content: Introduces a precise claim that clearly and arguably takes an identifiable position, while explicitly stating the author’s purpose 
• Organization: Anticipates the audience’s knowledge level and concern about the claim, and focuses on an interesting topic that informs the reader with ideas, concepts
• Details: Effectively provides facts, definitions, concrete details, and quotations that sufficiently develop the claim, and effectively identifies the author’s use of literary devices/elements
• Accuracy: Skillfully uses words, phrases, and clauses to identify the relationship between the major sections of the text, claim, and evidence
• Establishes a library and borrowing system that is utilized.
• Makes independent reading and writing materials accessible to students: lined paper, pens, post-it notes, etc.
• Uses the reading and the writing workshop, which includes explicit teaching (the mini-lesson) and independent student reading and writing (independent work for 20-30 min.) and an opportunity to share student work (5 min.). Routines and procedures are taught so that students learn the appropriate behavior for each segment of the workshop.