AC English Handbook - 5

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Notebooks:

Notebooks will be collected periodically during the semester as it has become a department policy to maintain a record of work accomplished in all the English classes. The notebooks also serve to promote individual organization and can be used to enhance student portfolios. Notebooks will be graded for neatness, organization, completeness and presentation. Parents are encouraged to review the work completed, although this is not a requirement.

Writing for Competition and For Publication:

Each year junior English students are invited to compete nationally in the NCTE writing competition (National Council of Teachers of English). In the recent past Huron students have received national recognition for their writing skills--maybe this will be your year to receive national attention in the field. Students are asked to submit samples of their writing in a portfolio to the English Department in January or early February. From the students who elect to compete, three candidates are selected by a group of English teachers to represent the school. These three students are then given an impromptu essay to write sometime in February which must be submitted with one clean copy of an essay of the student's choice to NCTE. Winners are usually announced in the fall with commensurate fanfare all around. It is an honor and a privilege to be chosen. Please consider submitting your portfolio when the contest is announced.

Other writing contests, from the Ann Arbor Library to the NAACP, crop up during the course of the year featuring a wide variety of topics. Students are urged to be more active writers and to participate where the topics or organizations seem appealing.

Also, AC students are encouraged to write for publication, especially in the school newspaper, the Emery. Extra-credit points may be earned for this effort. Make the most of your high school experience.

Research has also become an important part of the AC curriculum. Students will be asked to complete various personal and group research reports which will be include important hours in the library, either ours or local city or university libraries.

Projects undertaken by students in the past have included some of the following:

1. In-depth study of one author's works--including the reading of 1000 pages of a particular author.
2. Period Analysis of poets and their works. This might include one period

Prepared and distributed by B. Spencer and M. Thompson.