That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
In English, we spend our time studying language, literacy, and literature, which we see as key to the development of all young people. We see English as a platform to help our students become confident communicators, informed citizens, and imaginative thinkers. We strive for this goal as our students analyse, synthesise, evaluate, and communicate about literature and the world around them.
As an English teacher at Merici College, we are in a privileged position to see the empathy with which students discuss texts and contexts. We are also lucky to witness the curiosity with which students explore their world through the lens of literature and other forms of communication. Furthermore, we see the way perseverance and hard work is rewarded through drafting and reflection. And finally, we see the way our students’ skills develop and are refined over time. All of this makes for a truly rewarding journey.
At Merici College, we also appreciate the vigour with which our students studied English in 2022.
- 2022 saw our Year 8 students explore cultural contexts, study film and literature, and develop cross-curriculum skills to create beautiful picture books depicting the culture they study in their Language Acquisition course. Highlights for Year 8 in 2022 also included an author visit and the end-of-year Shakespeare festival.
- This year, our Year 9 students considered poetry, literature, and film, exploring the relevance of literature over time, as well as the art of rhetoric and the way to respond most effectively to challenging social issues facing us now and in the future. Highlights for Year 9 in 2022 also included an author visit and the Bell Shakespeare performances.
- Our Year 10 students showed passion in their exploration of classic literature this year. Likewise, they showed principled values in their explorations of texts of social criticism. Year 10 also completed an Interdisciplinary Unit, developing their cross-curriculum skills. The highlight for Year 10 may have also been their performance from the Bell Shakespeare Company following their study of Macbeth.
- In our senior years, the increased student choice meant we had students studying and excelling in IB Literature, BSSS English, BSSS Literature, and BSSS English as an Additional Language.
One challenge many students encounter in English is one that Robert Louis Stevenson acknowledged when he said, "the difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean" (Robert Louis Stevenson). Towards this end, the best thing a student can do outside of their enthusiastic participation in English is to regularly practise their writing. To be a little more specific, students at Merici College have the opportunity to share drafts of their work with their teachers, to attend weekly English tutoring sessions every Monday at lunch, and to expand their vocabulary and genre familiarity through our Drop-Everything-and Read program in Years 8-10.
I encourage all students at Merici College to embrace literature for a multitude of reasons, but this year, I would like you to consider F. Scott Fitzgerald’s perspective when he wrote the following: “That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
Mr. Luke Nott
English Coordinator
