Through Academia and Beyond…
The High School English Department at The Koç School consists of 17 fully qualified and accredited teaching staff, drawing on a multitude of educational experiences from around the world. Many of our staff hold Masters degrees in Education and/or English Language and Literature and some have either gained or are currently pursuing doctorate degrees. In addition to their academic achievements , a great number of our teachers are IB English Language and Literature A examiners.
Our faculty are committed to implementing our unique Koç School Standards based English curriculum (KSES) that caters to the needs of our students as they prepare for their academic programmes in university. This curriculum provides a solid foundation for students who wish to study for IB in Grade 11and 12, or continues as an alternative independent Grade 11 and 12 course equipping students who continue with KSES curriculum, the tools to enjoy success in English medium of instruction faculties at national and overseas universities.
KSES is a literature-based curriculum with an emphasis on helping students develop their academic potential and enhancing their fluency across their reading, speaking, listening and writing skills. KSES uses clearly defined and communicated academic standards embedded in a rigorous process of assessment and feedback to provide students with equal access and engagement with the curriculum as well as providing opportunities for independent study. In this way, we help our students to become confident and fluent users of the English language enabling them to meet the personal professional and academic challenges that lie ahead of them.
Specifically, the KSES standards aim at helping our students develop their academic and creative writing, their oral presentation skills, their multidisciplinary English listening and reading proficiency and their confidence to meet the many academic and personal goals ahead of them. Teaching and learning therefore focuses on collaboration skills, creativity, knowledge of contemporary media and information practices as well as reinforcing the value of close reading, open mindedness, as well as personal sense making and insight.
Our material choices reflect the needs and interests of our learners and try to balance a recognition and appreciation of the past with an engagement in the present. Studied writers include Shakespeare, Dickens, Orwell as well as Satrapi, Whitehead and Ngozi Adiche. In addition, contemporary non literary texts covering a wide range of genres and styles provide students opportunities to explore and enhance their appreciation of global issues as well as developing their individual digital media literacies.