Authentic Collaboration: Asociación Escuelas Lincoln’s English Department’s Year-In-Review
Buenos Aires, Argentina
It’s not always the case that a group of professionals that are forced to work together actually enjoy it, especially educators who, more often than not, teach in the isolation of their own classrooms.
But this is not the story with the diverse and dynamic English, ELL, Resource, and Medica Center departments at Asociacion Escuelas Lincoln’s high school. Despite our genuine differences in pedagogy and varying interests in language and literature, we like each other and, believe it or not, like working with each other.
As a result, we spend a lot of time in each other’s classrooms sharing informal ideas that cultivate into rich collaborative efforts.
Here’s a year-in-review of them, much of which are continuous from previous years and will continue to exist in the future.
Horizontal Alignment
With common planning time, teachers of the same course meet to create, revise, and amend common summative assessments, common formative assessments, and unit plans.
For example, in English 9, freshmen all take the themes of racism and inequality from after reading Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and deliver social justice projects that make authentic connections to modern issues of social justice.
Similarly, English 10 students showcase their knowledge of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar with a Reader’s Theatre rendition of scenes from the play.
For IB courses, we meet to moderate internal assessments like Individual Oral Commentaries and Written Tasks.
Vertical Alignment
No doubt, developing and using common language and structure to teach analytical writing throughout the entire department and vertically among all four grade levels has aided with consistency and understanding, especially for ELL students.
We use the “5 C’s Building Blocks” language to create effective body paragraphs.
English Language Learners and WIDA
This year, we adopted WIDA, World-class Instructional Design and Assessment. Their mission is the following:
WIDA advances academic language development and academic achievement for linguistically diverse students through high quality standards, assessments, research, and professional development for educators.
As an American International School, the number of non-native English speakers outweigh those of native speakers and having a common and consistent way to measure the developing academic language of our students was necessary.
With the WIDA testing data, we now have a baseline for both entrance and exit exams for our ELL program, with specific descriptors to identify the growth throughout the program. The data has become part of the dialogue when exiting the ELL program and being eligible for the IB Diploma Programme. Teachers have worked together to co-assess writing samples, thus creating a shared understanding of the key qualities of strong writing. In addition, this data is being used to differentiate instruction.
Interdepartmental Collaboration
Once a semester, the English department, in collaboration with the ELL, Resouce, Media Center, and Spanish/Portuguese Departments, hosts a “Young Writers’ Cafe”, where students have the opportunity to share creative pieces either from a class assignment or from their own body of work.
This year, the Learning Center conducted an audit of its services, revamped documents on Learning Center protocols and worked on merging Language and Learning Center Services together
And every year, Support Services collaborate with English teachers on various assignments throughout the course of the year especially on writing and oral assessments.
Research and Media Center
In the formative years of high school, the Media Center Specialist collaborates with grade 9 teachers on a series of lessons on research and notetaking skills and teaches them in the library.
This is further developed in grade 10 with targeted lessons on gathering relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources and using advanced searches and databased effectively. Students are taught to assess the usefulness of each source in answering their research questions and integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
All of these skills are in preparation for the IB Extended Essay and academic research in successive years.
Best Practices
Together, the English department developed a plan to begin a more systematic approach to collaborative planning for the following school year that assists teachers with embedding differentiation in their regular curriculum developing strong Approaches to Teaching and Learning.
Publication
Student work has been published online and in print in Teen Ink.
Allie Pitchon, Class of 2016
Gust Hoornaert, Class of 2018
Marian Mora Conde, Class of 2018
Matteo Provasi, Class of 2018
And many, many more:
- Shoko Tanaka
- Kelly Ramirez
- Julia Block
- Francisco Seambelar
- Ricardo Alvarez
- Roberto Noel
- Grace Cushman
- Tomas Gonzalez Cueto
- Valentina Landa
- Bruno Tojeiro
- Luiza Moreno
- Regina Velasquez Hernandez
- Antonio Assy
- Rachel Stoddard
- Luiza Teixiera
- Isabella Murphy
- Andy Huang
- Alegria Ruseler Smith
- Ambar Mallmann
- Taya Zaki
- Kate Voracek
- Maria Btesh
- Nicolas Grande
- Nicolas Urbicain
- Caroline Chien
- Joaquin Giorgi
Extra Curricular
Gay-Straight Alliance
In efforts to make Lincoln a safe space for all students, members of the department started a Gay-Straight Alliance.
The GSA is a friendly place for students to socialize and also educate themselves and the community about LGBT issues.
They have hosted events such as Ally Week and Day of Silence.
Global Leadership Course
The “Global Leadership Course” is an international based blended-learning course that gives Lincoln students an opportunity to discuss and reflect on leadership and how leaders develop. This year, ten Lincoln HS students worked together in one cohort class with 32 other students from seven international schools, including the American School of Bombay, the American School of Brasilia and Cary Academy, North Carolina.
The aim of the course was to provide students with a practical grounding in leadership theory and practice in a local and global context. The students and instructors met each Friday at lunch. In addition to coursework, students were expected to coordinate an online meeting across time zones with cohort members and leaders from around the world. We are happy to hear that next year (2016–17) the GLC will be continued here at Lincoln and led by Yau-Jau Ku.
National Honor Society
Members of the English department have been advising NHS for many years. The National Honor Society works in conjunction with the Community Service club to create, lead, and support local and school service projects such as co-organizing the local Terry Fox Run and hosting an annual holiday party for the school’s maintenance workers.
TEDEd Clubs and TEDxAsociaciónEscuelasLincoln
Over the course of two years, members of the English department in collaboration with teachers in other departments, in elementary and middle schools, and with support staff started TEDEd Clubs at Lincoln. Students in the club developed TED-like talks, and over 30 students from ES-HS delivered TEDEd Club Presentations.
The 12 best talks from MS and HS were the finalists for our TEDxAsociaciónEscuelasLincoln event, and many of the finalists have been chosen to be model talks on TEDEd Clubs’s YouTube Channel.
Writing Lab
A Writing Lab for students in need of extra writing assistance is available twice a week during lunch on a drop-in basis and at other times during lunch and after school as needed. Teachers from the department work with students to assist them with language skills needed to improve their writing as well as provide instruction on how to become more independent and confident writers.
Meet the Department
Naomi Barbour, ELL Teacher (9 years at Lincoln)
MS Multidisciplinary Studies, SUNY Buffalo State (Expected 2017–18); MA Hons, University of Glasgow
Sarah Fang, English Teacher (7 years at Lincoln)
MFA Creative Writing, University of Maryland; MAT Secondary Education, University of San Francisco; BA American Studies with Honors, Stanford University
Susan Gotthelf, Media Center Assistant
MLIS, Wayne State University, MI; BA, Simon’s Rock College
Belen Rivero y Hornos, ELL Support
Nan Miller, Media Center Specialist (9 years at Lincoln)
MA Library and Information Studies, University of Wales, Aberystwyth; BA University of Washington
Geoff Peate, English Teacher (17 years at Lincoln)
Doctorate, Plymouth State University, NH, (Expected 2016); MA, University of Guelph,Ontario; MST, University of New Hampshire, NH; B.Ed, Queen’s University, Ontario; B.A Honors, Trent University, Ontario
Josefino Rivera, English Teacher (2 years at Lincoln)
MA Education with Honors, Stanford University; BA English with Honors, University of California Santa Barbara
Laura Rock, ELL & Academic Support Teacher (9 years at Lincoln)
MS Multi-Disciplinary Studies, SUNY, Buffalo State Expected 2017–2018; Masters Equivalency Children Special Needs in Counseling and Education; BASW U.K.
Sarah Waldron, English Teacher (3 years at Lincoln)
M.Ed Curriculum and Instruction, George Mason University; MA Education , New York University; BA World Religion Studies, Lehigh University
Ines Villanueva, Media Center Assistant
Lic. en Letras (UCA); Diplomatura en Bibliotecología (UNCA).
