Language
Arts at Exeter-Milligan
by Brandi
Perez, E-M 9-12 Language Arts Instructor
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.
Jace Luzum, Tucker Svec and Logan Krupicka
