Jennifer Brooke

I currently teach IB Systems Transformation and high school English at UWCSEA (East) in Singapore. I have been teaching IB English since 2008 and have served as an IB examiner (alternating courses) since 2013. Serving as an examiner has immensely helped me understand not only the scope of the IB English courses but also their possibilities; in fact, a lot of the innovative ideas for units documented in this site have come from seeing the infinite ways students can successfully approach the IB assessment components while creating meaningful, personal connections with their learning.

During my time at UWCSEA, I have had the privelege of designing curriculum for the new 9-10 UWCSEA program that aligns learning to the UWC mission while preparing students for the IB. I have collaborated on the English curriculum, which includes a “critical literacies” deep dive exploration of English, and on a project-based interdisciplinary course called “The UWC Project”, offered in grade 10. These curriculum designs have challenged me to balance distinct pedagogical values steeped in different cultural traditions while promoting creative thinking and inquiry based learning in the context of a high achievnig school. It has been a humbling process that continues to show me how important it is to keep collaborating and learning from the amazing educators we are priviledged to work with.

Prior to moving to Singapore, I had the privilege of working at The American School of Bombay (ASB) in Mumbai, India from 2013-2020, teaching both IB English A courses as well as serving as the Language A Self-Taught Coordinator. I have also taught at The American School of Milan and The American International School of Egypt, developing curriculum for the “old” English A1 and A2 as well as co-leading curricular changes for the IB Language and Literature course when it was first introduced in 2012 (first exams, 2013). I am thankful to these schools for their commitment to professionally developing their teachers; they have played in an invaluable role in fostering my understanding and appreciation for developing rigorous yet innovative curricla and strategies that holistically prepare students for university and beyond.

Professionally, much of my time and energy in the last 15 years has gone into considering the ways in which learning can be personalized for students. When it was first introduced in 2012, the “new” Language A Language and Literature course presented an abundance of opportunities for students to explore their personal interests and passions with its addition of the Further Oral Activity (FOA) and the Written Tasks. This revolutionized my approaches to teaching, and ever since I have been looking for creative ways to make the courses I teach personal, relevant, and engaging. This inquiry has led me to several Action Research projects around student choice, as well as an exploration into how my role as a teacher could shift to that of collaborator in exploring and supporting student learning.

When I started at ASB in 2013, I was so inspired by our collaborative work as an English department that I thought of ways in which I could take the benefits of collaboration to stay in contact with the 15 or so IB English teachers that I had worked with up until that point in my career. The Lang and Lit course was so much more ambiguous than the previous Language A courses: it required new ideas and new texts, so I decided to start a Facebook group called “IB English DP Language and Literature Resource Exchange” so that all of the intelligent and passionate minds that I had previously worked with could stay in touch, asks questions, post resources, and share success stories. This group continues to serve as some of the best professional development of my career and is rightfully owned by its members.

With the start of the new curriculum in 2020 (first exams 2021), Anneke and I talked about how we could take our collaborative work further. We have been so fortunate to have the mentorship, time, passion and resources to be able to develop course resources that engage students and use researched practices and brain-based approaches to meet the needs and interests of students. We are excited to share these ideas and resources with you and are looking forward to hearing about your own experience teaching the IBDP courses as well as others.

Education
M.Res., The Centre for Editing Lives and Letters, University of London – Queen Mary
B.A. in English Language and Literature, The University of Maryland – College Park
B.A. in Sociology, The University of Maryland – College Park