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Impact II: Projects & Lesson Plans: Expressing Yourself in English

HOW IT WORKS
ESL students don’t read and write enough in their English classes because they have trouble relating to the materials and curriculum presented. Literature is usually taught from an exterior and moralistic perspective. Expressing Yourself in English presents literature and the arts the way students like it: as a vehicle for self-expression and growth. 

The program asks for the students’ active participation in the design and implementation of the unit. Lessons are based on the collective consciousness of the classroom: activities such as reading poetry, writing essays, or viewing movies are based on student selection. The program also integrates several media (music, TV, the Internet, and written literature) into a single vehicle of communication: personal expression and emancipation. Expressing Yourself in English is geared towards the needs of the students to pass the literature-based English Regents exam. The students create electronic collections of their favorite literature that they download from the Internet. They then write either an essay response or a literary piece of their own. Once this is done, their work is collected and published on  the Internet using the school Web site at http://fklane.org.  Assess the needs and talents of your students and include them in your literature-based unit. Remember that literature and the arts are instruments for understanding and changing the individual and his/her world. This program meets various New York standards for language arts: using language for information and understanding, literary response and expression, critical analysis and evaluation, and social interaction.

THE STUDENTS 
The targeted student population for this program is ESL transitional in grades 9 through 12, fluent in English, having at least two years of English-language schooling. Most of the students are juniors and seniors who will have to take the English Regents exam soon. 

THE STAFF
Dinu Pietraru has been a New York City public school teacher since 1988. He has taught English and ESL at the junior high and high school level. He is presently working as a teacher and ESL coordinator at the Franklin K. Lane High School in Queens. 

WHAT YOU NEED
This program requires 10 or more class periods to complete. A computer with Internet access for research and publishing is needed. Additional requirements include word-processing programs and scanners for the student-produced artwork. 

OVERALL VALUE 
Expressing Yourself in English weaves the students’ interests and work into the fabric of the curriculum. For instance, reading one of Shakespeare’s sonnets will bring forth sonnets written by some of the students. The class will then analyze all the work that is produced. The unit is dedicated to discovering the artistic and literary talents and capabilities of every student. The culmination of this learning experience will be publishing on the Internet. By  reading and writing about things they relate to and feel strongly about, students are better equipped to understand and use literature and  the arts as a way to make sense of their lives and to adapt to their at-times-overwhelming environment. They will also be better prepared to take and pass the English Regents exam. 


CURRICULUM AREAS
Technology
ESL
Language Arts

GRADES
9 - 12

MORE INFORMATION
Dinu Pietraru
Franklin K. Lane High School
999 Jamaica Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11208
718-647-2100
dpietraru@nyc.rr.com
Principal
Paul Padota


IMPACT II Catalog 2000-2001
(pdf file: requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

 

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