Dear Parents,

We would like to welcome your children to the new academic year. We are writing to inform you about the aims of the grade 10 programme, teacher expectations and how students will be assessed.

The programme aims to help students develop the four language skills (reading,writing,listening and speaking) as well as their study skills. They will be encouraged to plan and take responsibility for their own learning. This will not only help them now but also in their future lives. A detailed list of objectives will be given to the students the first week of school.

KEY CONTENT:

This year we will be using the following materials:

1. The Pearl and The Curious Incident of the Dog (summer reading)
2. A Raisin in the Sun (play)
3. Of Mice And Men
4. Mosaic 2 Reading

BEING AN EFFECTIVE LEARNER

Great emphasis will be put this year on how to be a good learner.To this end, the students will be expected to keep all their English work in an organised and easily accessible file.All work must be dated and titled so they can refer back to work done previously which will help them do new work better. How each student does all this will be directly reflected in their oral grades and evaluation starts from the beginning of term.

READING

The reading course enables the students to read a variety of texts, including novels, short stories, a play, nonfiction texts and to give a response that demonstrates a good understanding of the text. The course aims to enable students to read for specific information, the main idea and to discriminate between main ideas and supporting information, and to understand organization and style. The programme allows the students to express their own opinions and support them. It also encourages the students to show an understanding of different perspectives from different cultures.

WRITING

The writing course enables the students to write for a range of purposes with a good level of grammatical accuracy, demonstrating an understanding of organization, content and presentation. To achieve these aims students will plan, draft and rewrite their own work. They will analyse their own and others' writing and make concrete suggestions.The focus this year will be on learning to write descriptive paragraphs, compare and contrast and persuasive essays, and film reviews.

LISTENING

The students will listen for specific information and the main idea in a variety of contexts (dialogues, films, guest speakers etc...) The main objective is to strengthen their listening skills so that they can relate back what they have heard with their own comments. Watching English films and TV programmes in students' spare time will help reinforce these skills.

SPEAKING

Students will be engaged in activities which will enable them to communicate and express their knowledge, ideas and opinions in different contexts. They will also have the opportunity to do oral presentations. The students are encouraged to treat school as their English speaking environment.

GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY

The students will develop their knowledge and understanding of grammar and vocabulary through work done in class and at home. They are expected to pay attention to accuracy in their writing and speaking.

RESEARCH

Students will have an opportunity to carry out research in the school library and on the Internet. The focus will be on searching for and identifying relevant information, note-taking, paraphrasing and establishing the practice of using quotes and references.

IT

Students are encouraged to use computers for some written work / projects. Students mainly use IT (powerpoint, CD etc.) in schoolwide projects and presentations.

ASSESSMENT

The students are assessed on the four skills, per semester, in the following ways:

•  Writing.
•  Common exams (based on the skills and the texts studied)
•  Oral Presentations.
•  Performance in the lessons.
•  Homework/time management
•  File/organisation and use of materials

There will be at least three written and two oral grades each semester

As soon as the school year begins each student should be aware of the importance of his/her attitude towards the lesson, the teacher and classmates. Utmost care should be paid to deadlines for homework and oral presentation dates. The students are responsible for the safe and organised keeping of all their materials (books, files, worksheets) and are expected to bring the correct materials to class.

This year the students will continue the Middle Years Programme (MYP) in grade 10 and in English lessons students will be encouraged to develop a holistic view of the world as well as develop a respect for other cultures through intercultural awareness.

We would finally like to take this opportunity to wish our students a happy and successful academic year.