The Best Nonfiction Writing Hinsdale Central 2016 has arrived!

I'm proud to announce that the most recent edition of Best Nonfiction Writing Hinsdale Central Central has arrived. 

This edition, the seventh in our current format, has 315 pages of the very best writing from Central students. 

Students in the Honors Seminar in Writing course select and edit essays submitted by students in all four years of school at Central.   Watch for another post congratulating the young authors whose work is published in this volume.

Teachers in the English Department use these excellent pieces of writing as models for current students.

The original goal of this project was to "fill a library shelf" with the very best nonfiction produced by Hinsdale Central students.  While we're not there yet, we do have a substantial chunk of that shelf!
 
If you are interested in getting your own copy, let me know: dlange@hindale86.org

More Honors for Hinsdale Central English Teachers

Hinsdale Central English teacher Dr. Kim Williams has been asked to be serve as a consultant as part of a Lesson Study group at Kenwood Academy, a public high school in Chicago.  Her official title will be "Knowledgeable Other" for a group of high school educators working at improving their professional practice through the "Lesson Study" protocol.  This stems from Dr. Williams' work as a teacher at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  Being chosen in this role is a real honor.

More information about Lesson Study process can be found here at the Collaborative Classrooms site.

Two Hinsdale English teachers presenting at local TURN confernce

I was excited to hear that two Hinsdale Central English teachers, Megan Parker and Robyn Corelitz, have been asked to present at the the Great Lakes TURN event on the topic of improving professional practice.  This is an honor for the English Department and Hinsdale Central. 

This conference, which takes place on Friday, November 4, 2016, according to the TURN website,

will focus Making A Difference Improving Professional Practices Through Academic, Social & Emotional Learning.  We will continue to collaboratively examine ways to plan and integrate the implementation of rigorous and challenging student learning and teaching standards, practices and programs. We will also explore new approaches in developing conditions for effective teaching and learning.  Our agenda will feature local, state and national examples of promising practices, emerging case studies, and policies that focus on this joint work.

TURN is a nationwide network of over 200 union locals that work together "to promote progressive reform in education and union practices" aimed at better learning for all students, according to the Consortium for Educational Change (CEC) website.

Megan and Robyn also serve as leaders in the District 86 SEL Committee.  Megan teaches English 1 and English 3.  Robyn currently teaches English 1, AP English Literature, and Creative Writing.

Recent Hinsdale Central alum finalist for national writing contest

Congratulations to Annie Zaher (2016), who was named a finalist in the Columbia College Young Authors Writing Competition for her memoir "How Things Fell Apart," which she wrote last year in Angelique Burrell's Honors Seminar in Writing class.

I'm always thrilled to hear about how Central's young authors are recognized "in the real world" for their ideas and writing.  Congratulations to Annie Zaher and Angelique Burrell.

Read more about the Columbia College Young Authors Writing Contest here and here. 

Congratulations to English Department Student of the Fourth Quarter

English Teacher Robyn Corelitz and Ever Perez ('19)

Congratulations to Freshman Ever Perez, who was awarded the English Department's Student of the Quarter Award for the Fourth Quarter.  His English teacher, Robyn Corelitz, introduced Ever to the students, parents, and staff members at the Student of the Quarter breakfast this morning.  She emphasized Ever's kindness, which rubs off on other students in class to create a positive classroom community, his interest in engaging in all discussions in way that helps ground an "effervescent class," and his ability to read and respond to literature in a humane way.  Congratulations to Ever: I'm looking forward to seeing how he develops in the next three years at Central!

English Teachers Wear Their Hearts on Their Sleeves... or on Their Tee Shirts!

This week was Teacher Appreciation Week.  To help celebrate, the school had a "Twins Day."  Instead of Twins, the English Department became an impressive litter of book-celebrators.  We believe that literature -- and literacy -- matter, and we're willing to billboard our message.

This was an impromptu snapshot taken two minutes before first period started.  There were another half dozen English teachers sporting book tees.

Five Central Students Win National Writing Award

What if a baseball team had so many stars on it that every single player on team was an All Star?   Something like this just happened for Hinsdale Central writers.  We are allowed to invite five students to compete in the national Achievement Award in Writing contest sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English.  Guess how many were top ranked? 

Congratulations to all five of our students, all juniors:
Laurette McNabb
Elizabeth Storr
Shahzar Risvi
Eric Chang
Selin Turkyilmaz

This is an outstanding achievement for each of these students and for the English Department.  I am so proud of all of the English teachers who work together to create an incredibly rich writing experience for students for all four years of English classes and especially of the five English teachers who mentored these five students during the writing process for this contest:  Michael Palmquist, Cherise Lopez, Hasham Bhatti, Gina Chandler, and Jared Friebel.