- Context -
About the School
My host school for student teaching was Bordentown Regional High School, which serves students from Bordentown Township, Bordentown City, and Fieldsboro in Burlington County, NJ. Because these towns are rather small, BRHS is home to about 740 students. The overall diversity of the student body is typical. About 67% of the students are white, 14% are black, 10% are Hispanic, and 8% are Asian or Pacific Islander. Many of the students and families are close-knit and have known each other since childhood. BRHS does not have department supervisors or a set curriculum, which allows for teachers to build and pace their courses at their own discretion.
About My Classes
I taught 11 grade English Honors, which focuses on British literature. We started the year with a history of the English Language, followed by the Anglo-Saxons and Beowulf, the Middle Ages and Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal and satirical speeches, a unit on argumentative writing and the analysis paper, and our final unit, the Elizabethan Era and Shakespeare's Macbeth. My 2nd period class had 12 students, 4 male and 8 female, and my 7th period class had 11 students, 4 male and 7 female. The small class sizes allowed for ample one-on-one attention, especially for responding to all student questions, ensured that all students have an opportunity to participate, and gave me time for individual conferencing during our writing unit.
