In addition to being one of the sponsors for the Class of 2015, with Mrs. Johnson, I also teach all of them in this course. We started the year by studying a pamphlet entitled "How To Make The Most Out Of High School." After that, we began studying various aspects of grammar. Former students would recognize this section of the course as the same content I used to teach in "Usage" class. We focus on learning the parts of the sentence, writing complete sentences, improving those complete sentences, and ultimately writing better paragraphs by using all of that knowledge. Along the way, students write several paragraphs and receive one-on-one guidance through the process.
For this course, students present a Personal Experience speech. I decided to increase their public speaking experience by adding a second speech this year, "My Favorite Holiday." These speeches took place right before Thanksgiving.
Second semester began with William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. As always, many students complain and grumble at the beginning, but just a few short weeks later, and most them sing a different tune! There are still some who don't like the play, and that's fine; at least they've read it and formed a legitimate opinion. After finishing the play and the test, we enjoyed watching the classic movie version and then contrasted the movie and the written play.
For fourth quarter, we've been reading short stories. We do a different story each week and take a test after every third story. A big project for this section of the course is the students' opportunity to attempt writing their own short stories. It's taking me a long time to read and grade 58 stories, but I'm plugging away at it and enjoying their work. I like this project so much, that I even did it with them this year, writing and sharing my own short story. Be sure to ask to see your student's story after I've returned it.