Curriculum Shift hits English 12
Senior students have focused options for second semester English class
January 24, 2018
This year in the English department there has been the addition of genre classes that have replaced traditional English 12.
Many students are excited about this, like Brian Hendrickson (’18).
“It is nice to choose an English class that is relevant to my life,” Hendrickson said.
Non-AP English students have a choice between Mythology, Sports fiction and modern fiction, which opens up a variety of options, allowing everyone to find something that they can enjoy.
This can relieve some of the pressure on students as they can do something they enjoy instead of feeling forced to take a class.
It also allows the progression of skills towards a more specific topic, which is nice as students who will go into a specific field for writing, like sports for example, can have a good background in it before going into college and their careers.
This is the first year that RV has given these genre options, so this will be a test run for how everything will work out and what teachers feel comfortable with.
The head of the English Department, Mrs. Jennifer Hoefer, said that it was inspired because “
Kids seem more enthusiastic when they are able to pick, and it captures the enthusiasm they can have.
— Mrs. Jennifer Hoefer
To be able to decide what classes to offer, to get this enthusiasm, these students, as juniors, were polled and 10 class ideas were picked from the list, eventually being narrowed down to three.
The three classes all have similar structures involving the workload and writing (like research papers) they may have; the thing that makes them different is the reading involved.
The students are able to have a say in the reading that happens in the class and can control their learning in a sense. For example, in the sports fiction class, students decided on reading and writing about the NFL protests and other controversies.
The idea of these senior classes is that they have more choices and can have more of a say, so that they will be fully involved during class.
Without having choices, students tend to not have the needed enthusiasm, causing sub-par interest.
These classes won’t fully apply to everyone, as nothing truly can, but it is a good step in being able to provide choices and broaden the topics available.
The outlook seems to have only good news for the English department.
