News from the English Department
Second Semester Underway
by Katelyn Whitaker
January 27, 2011
Well, what can I say another semester and we're still going strong. After the break the English classes started right in on some new and exciting projects. The Seniors have started their "Senior projects," research papers over their future plans. They all seem very excited about this! Later in the semester we will read the novel 1984 and the students will create senior profiles complete with creative writing pieces as well as resume writing and so forth.
The Juniors are also starting research papers this semester. They have started a unit over literature written about the Holocaust. We are reading the novel Night written by Holocaust survivor Eli Wiesel. Their research papers are over different aspects of the Holocaust. Just like the Seniors these papers will be a large time consuming project but the students seem excited. We will later read a few other novels written by American Novelists.
The Sophomores are finishing up some persuasive papers in which they were given the opportunity to do some arguing. Next up they will get the chance to do some group paced activities. They are starting literature circles. Each group will be reading a different book and they must assign roles. They will have to make a time line in which they will determine how much to read each week. Though each group will be monitored the students will be leading the groups and be responsible for their own job in the group. Along side the literature we will continue reviewing grammar.
Lastly the Freshmen just finished writing autobiographies. These autobiographies will be edited several more times by the students and the final copies will be put in the time capsules they are creating this semester. That's right the Freshmen will be creating time capsules. The finished time capsules will be hidden in the room at the end of the year. During their last year as Seniors they will be able to open them and see the difference between their Freshmen year and how they are as Seniors. This project will take us through the end of the year we will work periodically on different writing projects and questionnaires that the students will put into the time capsule. Each student will also get the chance to create their one container to put their writing and other materials into. As we work on the time capsule we will also review grammar and read a few more novels.
Once again all classes will be giving book reports. I hope the students are as excited and ready for this semester as I am, we have a lot of fun activities in store for us!
