The article series I wrote focuses on summer reading and summer work assignments for BHS students. While one of the articles focuses on the school wide assignment, I also put a specific focus on the AP classes that require work as well. Throughout the three articles I wrote I reached out for 7 different interviews, two of which were teachers. The other 5 were interviews with students ranging from freshmen becoming sophomores next year to juniors becoming seniors. I got a wide range of opinions, shown throughout the series, which has people who read constantly outside of school, to people who only ever read for school assignments.
Over the year I have improved my skills in writing and working and pushing through hurdles. Something about journalism that is not often mentioned is how sometimes plans change at the last minute. Even when working on this final project, getting interviews can sometimes be a struggle with organizing a set time or even hearing back from the interviewee. Working around these changes is something that has helped build my perseverance and patience. I plan to continue to write for and help work with the school newspaper and plan to take all these skills I have learned in this class with me to the future.
The countdown till summer is on for students and teachers alike, and with the last day of school less than a month away teachers are wrapping up the year and getting students their summer assignments handed out.
The first of these assignments to get passed out is the school mandatory summer reading book assignment. Students are required to pick three books off of a school issued list and then are given one of those books to read.
“We have a committee, this year it was Mrs. Whittcomb, Mrs. Graham, Mr. Pustizzi, Mrs. Netishen, and myself, and we look at reviews, we look at the school library journal, anything that’s getting awards, and we spend a year reading,” Mrs. Janovitz, the head of the English department, said.
This extensive work that goes into curating a pool for students to choose from helps students pick a book that they’re interested in, making them feel not as forced to read something they dislike.
“We make choices we feel like students will be interested in, but also books we want to get into students' hands. Essentially it’s a lot of reading, a lot of looking into reviews, awards, and having students in mind,” Janovitz said.
Still though, with all this thought and consideration some people just are not readers.
“I usually find reading to be a chore, especially when it’s not my own,” says Emerson Waisnor, a BHS sophomore, “I do sometimes get bored and have to force myself to stay awake in order to keep reading.”
Even for avid readers, not being able to have the freedom of choosing what book to read can negatively impact their reading experience.
“I don’t find reading a chore. Sometimes, I feel unmotivated to read books if they are school-issued, since there are assignments that go along with these books. However, I find reading fun, as it is another form of entertainment for me,” Shreya Iyer, a BHS sophomore, said.
Reading for school and reading for pleasure are two vastly different things. Sometimes school reading even puts students off of reading outside of an educational setting.
When asked about reading outside of school, Julia Shvartsman, a BHS freshman, simply replied with, “No.”
Sometimes it’s not even the book that puts students off, it is the work that goes along with it. Turning something that is usually done for pleasure into a chore and time consuming work for a simple grade.
That is never the goal of the teachers formulating this list, but not everything is perfect all of the time.
“I am a reader. Reading has just brought so much to my life and so on a personal level I want students to have a similar experience,” says Janovitz, “In terms of skills, I think that it is essential that student read, I know that students aren’t reading, they certainly aren’t reading as much as they used to. And they are not reading a lot of long texts, so the school wide summer reading book is less about text complexity and more about just finding something you want, maybe you’ll actually start to like reading. Our goal is definitely to get books into students' minds and hearts. and also the idea is to have all faculty involved so we can promote the joy of reading”
So even if you are not a reader, it doesn’t hurt to give it a try, and maybe fall in love when you find the right book for you.
With the end of the year coming to a close, students have started receiving their summer assignments for next year’s classes and the school mandated free choice reading. Burlington High School requires students to read one book they’ve chosen along with whatever other books select classes require.
The most notable class that assigns summer reading work are the AP English courses, AP Language & Composition and AP Literature.
But what is the required work and do students find it manageable?
“I am taking AP Language & Composition which requires us to read The Shining by Stephen King and along with the book I have to write an argumentative essay, a rhetorical analysis essay, and annotate a couple pages of the book,” Shreya Iyer, a BHS sophomore, said.
Stephen King's The Shining is known for its darker tones and themes and has been used as the AP Language summer reading book since the beginning of the class at BHS.
“Essentially that book, though super dark, it’s amazing and very helpful in terms of setting up students for thoughtful close reading, looking at different critical frames, plus the film adaptation they do a lot with visual literacy and it sets a strong tone for the year,” Mrs. Janovitz, the English department head, stated.
The intensive summer work for this class has a lot of students groaning in response, afraid that they will have to give up their summer in order to complete all of the work on time.
“I think [the work] is manageable, but not without significant sacrifices of my summer. I don’t read outside of school. It’s not because I don’t like to read, but rather I don’t have enough time to enjoy it. I feel like I have barely enough time in the day as it is,” Emerson Waisnor, a BHS sophomore, said.
This thought is common among a handful of students taking the course next year.
“I don’t think the work is easy by any means, but given that we have the whole summer to complete it, I think it is manageable,” Iyer stated.
The second AP English class that is offered to students has seen major changes in the summer course work this year.
“[For AP Literature & Composition] we made total changes this year, they used to read The Handmaid's Tale and 1984. This year we gave them a very different assignment. We took 1984 out, The Handmaid's Tale we’re going to read over the year, and we gave them a lot of choice. They have to pick two poems they want to read, a book off the national book award list or the Pulitzer Prize list, and a piece of art they like,” Janovitz said.
The AP Literature & Composition class is offered to seniors, and with the changes in curriculum and summer work it shows how school grows and adapts with the students sometimes. Contrasting to the AP Lang class that has been reading The Shining from the start.
Students taking the class are offered a lot of freedom in their choices, hopefully guaranteeing they don’t find the work as monotonous a task as it could be.
“It’s the note taking and analyzing that goes along with these readings that makes it so demanding and feel like a chore. I read a lot outside of school, so I think the work required is manageable, but it’s all different for all my classes that gave out summer work,” Caroline Sciarratta, a BHS junior, said.
Luckily, most students going into the next year of school understand the work that goes along with the class that they are taking.