Hello Honored Student!
An honors designation on your transcript will help you get into AP classes next year, and AP classes will help you get into college, which will help you get a job, etc. etc. etc.
A better reason to try for an honors designation is that you might need more challenge in your intellectual life. English rocks precisely because reading, writing, and talking about ideas make you a keen thinker. People who can think well have a much, much bigger world open to them, full of interesting people, places, and art. Music becomes richer. Personal relationships become more nuanced and less dramatic (usually). And to become a great thinker, you need to practice!
Honors is open to all students. The basic requirements are:
1. Complete approximately 10 extra pages of finished, edited choice writing each semester.
2. Read 2 additional books and complete projects that demonstrate understanding for each, each semester.
3. Attend 1 outside literary event and write a reflection, each semester.
Please get your projects approved first. All you need to do is come in and discuss your idea with me.
Follow this space for reading, writing, and outside event ideas! I will be adding to this list throughout the year as ideas occur to me. These ideas might follow the curriculum or be independent of it.
Writing
FRESHMAN WRITING PROMPTS/EXTENSIONS
Color Paper: pick a color you never thought of before and try to write about it. Heck, do the whole rainbow. The more you write, the better you will get at writing. (Idea: choose one sense and describe multiple colors. For example, describe the sounds of the whole rainbow.)
Music Paper: Create a playlist that unites around a theme and explain how each song relates to the theme and why that theme is important for a previously-deaf person to understand music.
Pain Paper: If you wrote about a physical injury, describe the corresponding emotional effects this situation had on you. If you wrote about an emotional injury, write in detail the physical aspects of it.
SOPHOMORE WRITING PROMPTS/EXTENSIONS
Neighborhood Assignment: Write a short paper about your neighbors. Dig into their psychology and how they might interact with you during an earthquake.
Activist Story: Write an imaginative story based on a true episode from your activist's life.
ALL STUDENTS:
Poetry Journal: Writing equal to 6 pages (approximately 20 poems), attempting various styles (haiku, sonnet, matching couplets, autobiographical poems, home poems, memory poems, extended metaphors, name poems, inside self/outside self poems, What I Will poems, etc.). One possibility is to spend some time reading others' poems or lyrics, studying the forms of those poems, and adapting the form to a poem of your own.
Personal Journal: At least half a page a day, unedited (use sticky notes to cover parts you don't want me to read), which comes to about 40 pages per semester, OR you may choose to write in depth (as a narrative or an expository essay) about a major theme that is relevant to your life right now (love, family, growing up, loss, confusion, friendship, etc.).
Major Issue: Read articles about a major world issue (see reading option 3 below). Write persuasively about how to solve the issue. Cite sources and include why it's an issue, who is affected/involved, and organizations working to solve the problem. MAJOR BONUS POINTS including glowing letters of recommendation for going out and getting involved with one of these organizations.
Reading
Option 1: Choose one book for first quarter and one book for second quarter. Read the book, and create a project or paper that demonstrates deep thinking about that book. If you need ideas, come see me.
Option 2: Gather a group of 3-5 people and read a book together. You will be required to meet at least 4 times, during tutorial, in B-25. Notify me in advance of the book you are reading and when you are meeting so I can sit in with your discussions.
Option 3: Choose a major world/national/local issue (the environment, racism, gender/sexuality issues, economic inequality, education, war and/or peace, immigration, etc.) and read approx. 5 articles about that topic each week (total of about 20-25 articles per semester). Write a half-page response to each article that discusses new knowledge and what you think is most important in the article.
Outside Event
Time: Event and Place:
Nov. School Play, Richard III at Franklin High School
Nov. 4-6 Wordstock, at and around Portland Art Museum
4/27/17 Verselandia, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Check out www.powells.com/calendar for author readings - go treat yourself to a nice hot drink and literature either at 37th & Hawthorne (#14 bus) or downtown at 10th & Burnside (MAX, or walk from any downtown bus).
Sunny Childs in the library is always getting free tickets to the usually sold-out Portland Arts & Lectures series at the Schnitz! Check out their website for author events literary-arts.org/what-we-do/pal-home/
The Whole Enchilada
If you want to get all of your honors requirements done at once, consider taking a class!
Literary Arts offers 4-6 week workshops that meet downtown one evening a week. They are spendy, but scholarships are available, so you should be able to go for about $35 (trust me, this is about as cheap as education gets). Check out their current listings here: literary-arts.org/what-we-do/delve-home/current-seminars/
We are also blessed here in Portland with that great pillar of education, Portland Community College! Pass any for-credit or non-credit class in literature and writing with a C or better to receive honors credit. Go to www.pcc.edu and search for the class catalogue under English and/or Writing. High school students must complete an application based on whether you are over or under 16 years old, so make sure you fill out the right one!
Thank you for choosing to be awake, aware, and thoughtful. Have fun!
An honors designation on your transcript will help you get into AP classes next year, and AP classes will help you get into college, which will help you get a job, etc. etc. etc.
A better reason to try for an honors designation is that you might need more challenge in your intellectual life. English rocks precisely because reading, writing, and talking about ideas make you a keen thinker. People who can think well have a much, much bigger world open to them, full of interesting people, places, and art. Music becomes richer. Personal relationships become more nuanced and less dramatic (usually). And to become a great thinker, you need to practice!
Honors is open to all students. The basic requirements are:
1. Complete approximately 10 extra pages of finished, edited choice writing each semester.
2. Read 2 additional books and complete projects that demonstrate understanding for each, each semester.
3. Attend 1 outside literary event and write a reflection, each semester.
Please get your projects approved first. All you need to do is come in and discuss your idea with me.
Follow this space for reading, writing, and outside event ideas! I will be adding to this list throughout the year as ideas occur to me. These ideas might follow the curriculum or be independent of it.
Writing
FRESHMAN WRITING PROMPTS/EXTENSIONS
Color Paper: pick a color you never thought of before and try to write about it. Heck, do the whole rainbow. The more you write, the better you will get at writing. (Idea: choose one sense and describe multiple colors. For example, describe the sounds of the whole rainbow.)
Music Paper: Create a playlist that unites around a theme and explain how each song relates to the theme and why that theme is important for a previously-deaf person to understand music.
Pain Paper: If you wrote about a physical injury, describe the corresponding emotional effects this situation had on you. If you wrote about an emotional injury, write in detail the physical aspects of it.
SOPHOMORE WRITING PROMPTS/EXTENSIONS
Neighborhood Assignment: Write a short paper about your neighbors. Dig into their psychology and how they might interact with you during an earthquake.
Activist Story: Write an imaginative story based on a true episode from your activist's life.
ALL STUDENTS:
Poetry Journal: Writing equal to 6 pages (approximately 20 poems), attempting various styles (haiku, sonnet, matching couplets, autobiographical poems, home poems, memory poems, extended metaphors, name poems, inside self/outside self poems, What I Will poems, etc.). One possibility is to spend some time reading others' poems or lyrics, studying the forms of those poems, and adapting the form to a poem of your own.
Personal Journal: At least half a page a day, unedited (use sticky notes to cover parts you don't want me to read), which comes to about 40 pages per semester, OR you may choose to write in depth (as a narrative or an expository essay) about a major theme that is relevant to your life right now (love, family, growing up, loss, confusion, friendship, etc.).
Major Issue: Read articles about a major world issue (see reading option 3 below). Write persuasively about how to solve the issue. Cite sources and include why it's an issue, who is affected/involved, and organizations working to solve the problem. MAJOR BONUS POINTS including glowing letters of recommendation for going out and getting involved with one of these organizations.
Reading
Option 1: Choose one book for first quarter and one book for second quarter. Read the book, and create a project or paper that demonstrates deep thinking about that book. If you need ideas, come see me.
Option 2: Gather a group of 3-5 people and read a book together. You will be required to meet at least 4 times, during tutorial, in B-25. Notify me in advance of the book you are reading and when you are meeting so I can sit in with your discussions.
Option 3: Choose a major world/national/local issue (the environment, racism, gender/sexuality issues, economic inequality, education, war and/or peace, immigration, etc.) and read approx. 5 articles about that topic each week (total of about 20-25 articles per semester). Write a half-page response to each article that discusses new knowledge and what you think is most important in the article.
Outside Event
Time: Event and Place:
Nov. School Play, Richard III at Franklin High School
Nov. 4-6 Wordstock, at and around Portland Art Museum
4/27/17 Verselandia, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Check out www.powells.com/calendar for author readings - go treat yourself to a nice hot drink and literature either at 37th & Hawthorne (#14 bus) or downtown at 10th & Burnside (MAX, or walk from any downtown bus).
Sunny Childs in the library is always getting free tickets to the usually sold-out Portland Arts & Lectures series at the Schnitz! Check out their website for author events literary-arts.org/what-we-do/pal-home/
The Whole Enchilada
If you want to get all of your honors requirements done at once, consider taking a class!
Literary Arts offers 4-6 week workshops that meet downtown one evening a week. They are spendy, but scholarships are available, so you should be able to go for about $35 (trust me, this is about as cheap as education gets). Check out their current listings here: literary-arts.org/what-we-do/delve-home/current-seminars/
We are also blessed here in Portland with that great pillar of education, Portland Community College! Pass any for-credit or non-credit class in literature and writing with a C or better to receive honors credit. Go to www.pcc.edu and search for the class catalogue under English and/or Writing. High school students must complete an application based on whether you are over or under 16 years old, so make sure you fill out the right one!
Thank you for choosing to be awake, aware, and thoughtful. Have fun!