In today's blog, High School English teacher Jessica LeBlanc shares how she transformed her English 12 curriculum to create a new course that engages her students in the power of literature.
After more than a decade in the classroom, I was given the opportunity to change the curriculum of our English 12 course. I felt like one of the subjects of Grand Designs, snatching the chance to build a completely customized dream course.
I knew the feeling I wanted to create in my classroom: energized focus coupled with enthusiastic inquiry. I wanted students to head to university with an understanding of how they can (and should) weave reading and writing into their lives forevermore.
Here's how I approached designing this course, which I named 'English 12: A Field Guide to Life'.
First, I identified three areas to guide my course design:
It was clear that I needed to change my conception of what an English classroom should look like. During this process, I identified some practices that helped build the foundation of the course:
A choice-based curriculum gives students agency and increases engagement. Within each unit, they have 4-5 texts to choose from. Rather than examining one text together, we examine one theme across multiple texts. Texts are then selected to unite around a theme, while representing a diverse range of styles and focuses.
Students discuss and write about themselves in connection to the texts and themes we study. The units encourage engagement, as they are modeled on our life cycle:
Like life, the units become increasingly rigorous as the year progresses.
To combat the draw of AI, I set out to emphasize the essential humanity of writing. All writing is completed in class. Since students frequently share their writing aloud, writing becomes a communal critical thinking and creative practice. Reading is the only homework I assign, allowing the time and space to read deeply and process without having to switch modes.
Within each unit, we form small groups according to the text. These small groups meet for low-stakes, exploratory discussions. Later, the whole class discusses how authors represent similar themes in their work, showing students the connections between various pieces of literature.
Summative writing draws together all the formative work students have completed within each unit. They select from their existing writings to build 'A Field Guide to [Unit Name, i.e., Childhood]'.
The rubric requires students to discuss how their authors represent themes from their text and connect those themes to their own personal experiences. By the end of the course, students will have written a complete 'Field Guide to Life'.
With the conceptual changes in place, I created a curricular flow from unit to unit. This flow provides stability with familiar pacing, while also shaking up students' expectations with lively lessons.
For example, the unit flow might look like...
Designing 'English 12: A Field Guide to Life' reminded me that, like architecture, curriculum shapes how people navigate and enhance a space. So far, the student response has been overwhelmingly positive – letting students decide what they read has allowed them to take pride in their choices.
I've noticed that students have shown increased engagement as the year moves on, and those who started out engaged have begun to use the course to explore reading and writing in greater depth. This has made for some lively discussions, as students are invested both critically and personally.
Ultimately, I've found that the more I focus on human interaction and encourage students to rely on each other and their own thinking, the more willing they are to trust me. I still have work to do on the course, but it is gratifying to see these kids thrive in the space I was inspired and empowered to create.
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