Tools for School 2024
Mercy’s English department showcases and empowers diverse perspectives. A foundational shared goal of each class is to teach every student to develop and use her voice, and articulate her ideas clearly and persuasively. Classes seek to inspire a love of literature and storytelling, as well as an appreciation for complexity and detail.
Instruction and lessons are skills-based; where information is not directly provided and students are encouraged to discover the answers to their own questions. Inter-departmental alignment ensures that each English class builds off the foundation of the previous year’s curriculum and skills.
Department Philosophy
In support of the Mercy Mission Statement, the Mercy Burlingame English Department’s goal is to:
Department Objectives
Mercy graduates will be able to:
Writing:
Reading:
Speaking/Listening:
Technology:
Meet Our English Department Chair
Alexandra Estrada is the English department chair and teaches World Literature. She moderates Mercy’s National English Honors Society chapter and its literary magazine, Mercy’s OutLIT. Ms. Estrada loves helping her students build critical thinking skills and encourages them to make connections between their course material and the world they experience. She is inspired by her students who teach her something new everyday.
Ms. Estrada is proud to be an East Coast transplant. Originally from New York, she started her teaching career in Brooklyn and has taught in Vietnam. When she’s not in the classroom, Ms. Estrada enjoys traveling, hiking, running, baking, and, of course, reading!
Ms. Estrada holds a BA in English and rhetoric, cum laude, with highest departmental honors from Bates College; an MA in Teaching English from Brooklyn College; and a California teaching credential in English. She is a recipient of Columbia University’s Humphreys Fellowship for education.
View the English Department overview presentation (2018-2019 Open House).