Hunterdon Central Regional High School

ENGLISH
Curricular Highlights
The 2009-2010 school year has primarily been about implementation and experimentation. Our
conversations around student-centered and inquiry-driven pedagogy and the future of education have
grown richer and begun to gel into a number of emerging practices. Ideas that were introduced over
the last few years such as understanding by design, formative assessment, writing workshop, traitbased
writing, genre study, independent and silent-sustained reading have become increasingly
common and accepted. A consistent through-line has been established due to our ongoing
conversations, our use of critical protocols, workshop attendance, department initiatives, professional
development, individual teacher’s continuing education and the use of classroom walkthroughs,
observation, and coaching.
The English department consists of thoughtful and passionate teachers who are self-reflective and
collegial. This spirit permeates the department and is a crucial support system to teachers trying new
approaches and challenging their assumptions. This is evident in both the work of dedicated formal
mentors and that of the informal mentors and colleagues who share their materials and open their
classrooms to new staff. Faculty members have done exceptional jobs meeting with, providing for,
and transitioning both new and replacement teachers to assume full classroom responsibilities. Special
Education educators also continue to be instrumental in their assistance to teachers acquainting
themselves with curriculum and school procedures.
Over the past two years, the English Department has initiated several new curricular processes and
practices. As in past years, professional learning communities of teachers of Freshman English,
Sophomore English, and Expository Writing met as a group during the summer and throughout the
year to articulate the direction and revision of their respective courses. Core unit templates using the
understanding by design approach were updated for all of these courses and the minutes and reports
from each team are shared with the entire department. Teachers continue to conceive and design their
instruction utilizing the backward planning and authentic assessment design implicit in the
understanding by design approach. These curricula along with additional resources are placed on the
departmental shared drive, and access to this drive is extended to special education and ELL teachers
as a way to better articulate curriculum revision across all language arts settings.
Consistent with the newly released common core standards for language arts as well as the practices
implicit in the state’s new unit template, our renewed focus on critical reading and writing with an
emphasis on student-centered practice and choice has positioned the department well for a vigorous
revision of teaching and learning in the 21 st century.
The department continues to develop an articulated writing program whose workshop approach and
common instructional language and expectations has been developed in conjunction with our four
sending districts. These departmental and inter-district efforts aspire to produce a varied yet common
level of writing instruction across districts, shared practices and expectations among teachers, and a
robust and student-centered writing experience for students. Guiding this work are the new common
core standards for writing; revisions to the NJASK and HSPA state tests as well as student
performance data on these tests; standards and performance data on national and international tests
such as the SAT, the AP and the NAEP; standards and goals as articulated by NCTE, the National
Writing Project and the New Jersey Writing Alliance; and articulation with Raritan Valley Community
College, Rutgers University and the other regional high schools in Hunterdon County.
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