Isn't that the questions all parties (students, teachers, and parents) should be asking?
Parents often want to know "How will my child perform?" or "Will they receive good grade?" or "Does the teacher care about them?" Teachers are interested in how the children will affect their room: Their strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes. Just like the teacher wants to know more about the student, the student wants to know the inner workings of the class. "How can I get an A?", "Will the class be boring?","Will the teacher like me?".
Are they all important? Yes. But if the answer to the very first questions "They'll be a year older", we're doing something very, very, wrong.
So what will they be able to do in English III? We're working on 5 specific skills.
Reading: Understanding what is being read, understanding how it is created, and the ability to read things that might not be the most interesting.
Writing: To inform, to persuade, to reflect. We will do a lot of writing for audiences.
Listening: What are people saying? Do I agree or disagree? Are they reliable?
Speaking: Students expressing their ideas in "professional" or "academic" language.
Questioning: The penultimate skills. Being able to generate and work-through difficult, open-ended questions to text.
All of these are related. A student cannot question a text they do not understand the text, they cannot respond to a piece if they do not have ability to question what it is about. Speaking and listening are clearly linked.
A very smart person once told me that I should never say "I teach English". I teach children, and the subject is English. By the end of the year, my goal is that your child will be better at these five skills - a better student for life.
