This semester the high school English Language Arts students have been working out of their new curriculum, HMH Into Literature. One of the more notable units for the juniors was “Building a Democracy” which featured writings by George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and other founding fathers. Upon finishing this unit, the students enjoyed watching Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” Broadway show. Taking what they learned from the unit and from watching “Hamilton”, students formulated a research question that they spent three weeks researching. Now that that time is over, and the unit has wrapped up, the juniors have dived into Agatha Christie’s murder mystery, And Then There Were None. Who was the murderer of nine people on the island? They will soon find out.
The freshmen students just finished their second unit in Into Literature that was focused on “Breaking Through Barriers”, specifically focusing on the question: Are some differences too great to overcome? Now, these students are mid-way through their first novel study in To Kill a Mockingbird. Students have been captivated by Scout and the themes revolving around education, prejudice, femininity, and growing up.
Much like the juniors and freshmen, the sophomores just wrapped up their novel study by reading The Hunger Games. This class had amazing discussion around the future of society, especially that in a dystopian world. We analyzed Katniss and Peeta, as well as the capitol, and who has the most control, the capitol or the people of Panem. Soon students will be completing a full character analysis of a character of their choosing.
The seniors have been hard at work dissecting the writing of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. Though Shakespeare has a unique way of writing, these students have done amazing at translating Shakespeare’s work into modern day English. Looking ahead, students will be completing the rest of the acts of “Hamlet” and will be completing a project.
The journalism students have been hard at work completing their student-run newsletter, Time with the Timberwolves. Students switch roles for this newsletter biweekly, as these roles range from writing articles, completing a “Meet the Student” column, updating the calendar for current events, and editing to make sure everything is up to expectations. On October 16, the journalism students attended the Class Intercom Content Generation Workshop where they were able to participate in Quick Hit Challenges and listen to great speakers in regards to content generation in a digital world. Something new the students have been working on this year is more videography. They started with introducing teachers since Exeter-Milligan was unable to host their annual Open House. Now they are in the process of creating a video encapsulating the history and memories around Exeter-Milligan which will be used at our External Visit in November and will be shared via social media.