The Hughes News
Sophomore Honors English Newsletter ~ February 2019
WHAT I WISH MY PARENTS KNEW
UNIT 2: "OUTSIDERS & OUTCASTS"
For Term 3, the students and I are exploring what it means to belong. The Essential Question is, "Is the experience of being an outsider universal?" We began our unit, discussing whether or not we need to belong (versus want) and read an essay entitled "Isn't Everyone a Little Bit Weird?" We will also watch a clip in which musician Ed Sheeran answers that very question, as well as discuss Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (the second of which is our need to belong).
We are currently discovering Franz Kafka's short story "The Metamorphosis" together, which is the character study of man-turned-beetle Gregor Samsa. As we read, we are actively looking for ways Kafka's own life experiences shaped his writing, as well as the various outcasts about which Kafka may have been writing. (After all, it's never just about a beetle.)
READERS ARE BETTER WRITERS
The standards prescribe three modes of writing, which students practice every year kindergarten through twelfth grade: a) Informative/Expository (Term 1 this year); b) Narrative (Term 2), and c) Argument (Term 3). (The mode for Term 4 is up to the teacher; our class will be doing one more Informative essay as well as enjoying The Great Gatsby together.)
Study after study has shown that the absolute best way to help your student improve his/her writing is to....wait for it...READ! In fact, reading has been proven to benefit student writing far better than any isolated grammar unit, batch of worksheets, series of writing warm-ups done at the beginning of class, etc. (Incidentally, the converse is also true: When students improve their writing skills, their reading skills get a boost, too!)
This year, we've got the reading covered, as your student should be starting his/her sixth (!) book just since September! (For comparison, students were assigned four books all year last year, and based on an anonymous survey, there may or may not have been some Fake Reading going on.) So, we are off to a great start!
EMULATION 101
Emulation involves three steps: 1) We first examine a specific writing technique in various works of literature ; 2) We model it together in class during Writers' Workshop; and 3) We then incorporate the technique into whatever writing we publish next.
Some of the techniques covered this year include the following:
THE RESULTS ARE IN: OUR MIDYEAR WAS A SUCCESS!
As you saw on your student's report card (which went live on 2/4/19), the Midyear Exam results were excellent--both performance-wise and grade-wise. (No surprise there, as honors students typically excel at Doing School.) For me, the best part was seeing the students' high level of critical thinking and rich reflection along with the low level of stress. (See the January Parent Newsletter and/or this blog post for a refresher on what our Midyear entailed.) After the midyear, students reflected on the process. Take a look at some of the responses below.
- This midyear was the complete opposite of all of my other classes. For the past week, I have spent 6-8 hours per night cramming information for a Scantron that I am going to forget everything on when I finish. ...This midyear is definitely real world as I get to see others opinions and discuss a real world topic instead of creating a cheat sheet on a giant index card that [another] teacher gave me for a test that should be testing my knowledge not my ability to memorize information.
- In my other midyears, the preparation mostly consists of cramming information in and copying down as much as you can onto a note card. For this Midyear we had to think critically about the topic of education in US schools and where creativity fits in.
- Having this rather than standardized testing is much better ... it allowed me to see the texts differently from different people's perspectives, some of which completely changed how I thought about something.
- I think that this type of learning was more interactive than the typical kind of learning. Instead of memorizing concepts for an exam, we’d actually attempt to dig deeper and have a better mental understanding of the topic you are studying about. It is one thing to memorize something and write it down on a test, but it is another to come up with your own complex, formulated opinion which can be supported or challenged by other individuals. I was much less stressed for my English midyear compared to the rest of my midyears. I felt as though my knowledge was tested on a deeper level during this midyear rather than whether or not I can read something off of an index card that I was up writing until 2 am the night before.
- Other subjects don’t require as much thinking and insight as the English midyear. Other midyears are usually written tests, a good many of them only requiring students to memorize facts, vocabulary, grammar, formulas, etc. In order to do well on the English midyear, you had to be able to carry on an organic discussion with your peers, which prepares students for the real world because this skill is required often in society and the workforce.
- This was different from my other midterms because I had the opportunity to explain my thoughts. [In my other Midyears], I did not get any chances to express how I feel or have conversations with people on what I think about certain topics. I also really liked how ... everyone could have different opinions on something, but it would still be technically correct. [This] experience is also helpful because it could model classes that we would take in college.
- Most of my other midyears require studying, memorizing, and a lot of stress...English was not nearly as stressful as any other subject.
- The learning that took place was stress-free which opened students' minds up because they weren’t just worried about their grades and if they were going to get the answer right or wrong. This helped me learn a life skill rather than content-specific skills about a subject that may not help you with any other topic.
- My English Midyear was great compared to other Midyears because, while we did have a writing assignment, we also got a lot of choices and independence in the Midyear. The seminar allowed me to voice opinions and actually discuss about topics in a mostly free-form way, allowing for more independence. This overall creates a better learning environment for the student instead of just having to drill yourself with information to past a test and then forget about everything within a month.
HAVE BOOKS; WILL TRAVEL...
How to Contact Me
Email: beth.hughes@wpsk12.org
Website: msbethhughes.org
Location: Wakefield Memorial High School, Farm Street, Wakefield, MA, United States
Phone: (781) 246-6440
Twitter: @msbethhughes