Ms. Hill explains the challenge

In this class – English 9 Honors

English 9 Honors continues to be very busy and productive, while still having fun! Though we can’t get together to make small group (or whale class) videos, we are finding ways to use technology to deepen our skills base and connect with each other.

At the beginning of the year, we studied rhetorical appeals and how to persuade people to unique opinions and points of view. We studied speeches and commercials, and a few other things, preparing us for essay writing and persuasive Public Service Announcements.

We then moved into the Short Story and saw how authors use these same appeals to bring us into fictional writing before writing our own stories. Each writer “pitched” their story in a FlipGrid. While the plan was to choose a story to film, COVID made that kind of activity too unsafe. So onward! We are just finishing our Tim Burton style-analysis essays.

Currently, we’re continuing with our independent reading projects: each student keeps a reading log and when the book is complete, submits a project for all of the class members to see. So far we have slideshows, blogs, and even a video production in the works.

Once the style analysis essays are completed, we’ll analyze Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, seeing how he set the standard for American non-violent resistance during the Civil Rights Movement. We will complete some research on a variety of subjects, all in preparation for our reading of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, a book I have taught easily 30 times, yet still continues to educate and inspire me, mostly because of the original points of view brought by students. I just love it when my students become my teachers.

The beginning of each full class period begins with a poem (students are submitting poems for the classes to read. So cool!), and a 10 -15 minute stream of consciousness writing. Hmmmm… I wonder what my plan is for this skill-building activity (former students, DO NOT TELL!).

Of course, we’re also looking forward to our study of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

I have to say, the amount of additional work everyone is doing as a result of distance learning, students and teachers alike, seems so overwhelming at any moment in time. However, as I reflect on the work completed, the skills learned, and the connections made, I could not be prouder of my students. They really make my day every day, and I do believe I am learning so much from each and every member of my classes than I could possibly bring to them.

I am grateful every day for each and every one of you.

With love,

Ms. Hill