Clayton High School

Clayton High School English students participate in classes that build reading and writing communities, where students will 

• expand their perspectives, shaping compassionate local and global communities. 

• be empowered to discover and explore personal and intellectual passions, to embrace ambiguity and to grow in head and heart.

• ask questions not just to find the answers, but to make sense of the world around them. By sharing their wonderings and new understandings, they sometimes challenge the status quo.  

• benefit from exploring a wide range of texts to broaden their appreciation for the power and beauty of language and to expand their ability to express themselves and inspire others. 

• understand that structures, conventions, and roles of language differ so that they can approach a text in different ways and for different purposes. 

And in doing so, CHS English students become reflective, critical, and creative readers, writers, and thinkers. 

The conferenced English program provides students with differentiated instruction that builds on a student’s individual strengths while targeting areas for growth and improvement. The department offers conferenced courses that require students to write, conference, and revise nine compositions per year; four in the first semester and five in the second semester. A typical conference consists of a twenty-minute meeting between the student and teacher outside of classes to discuss writing one-on-one.