This assignment is for incoming juniors. Scroll down to see the assignment for incoming seniors.
How much did you read in the last year? The last month? Challenge yourself to read more.
If you're not much of a reader, decide to read for at least 15 minutes a day, every day, no matter what. Choose to ignore social media, your friends, your parents, your pets, your troubles, and your worries for 15 minutes a day, every day, no matter what. Read Lifehack's "7 Steps to Becoming an Avid Reader" for more help.
Already a big reader? Treat yourself to new genres and/or some of the classics.
Read novels, plays, poetry, memoirs, biographies, histories, humor, collections of essays and/or anything else that interests you. Read about relationships, sports, politics, religion, music, technology, war, peace, and/or about the past, the present, and the future. Challenge yourself to try new genres, new time periods, new ideas.
You should get in the habit of reading at least one major, national newspaper regularly: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and/or The Washington Post.
Then supplement that reading with The New Yorker, National Review, Wired, The Weekly Standard, Vox, The Christian Science Monitor, Slate, fivethirtyeight, etc. Include non-American sources, too, like The Economist or The Guardian. Read sources that support your political views and sources that challenge them.
You might start by sampling some great journalism. Here are some good place to start:
You can read many articles online for free. If you use Facebook, "like" a wide range of newspapers and magazines so you can sample. Google News and Apple News are good digests. Or do something original: go to a library. Public libraries subscribe to a wide variety of newspapers and magazines. You can read them for free at the library. Or visit the library online through the Newport Beach Public Library's e-branch
Nothing. We hope you'll read over the summer anyway. You'll be glad you did.
This assignment is for incoming seniors. Scroll up to see the assignment for incoming juniors.
To make the fall application season easier, spend time on your college application essay(s). At the very least, draft:
and/or
and/or
For advice about college essays and for some models, see Ms. Barnebey's website about college application essays. NOTE: you will need to login to Google with your student ID before you can access this site. Also, Kahn Academy and College Board have partnered to provide you with free essay help: College Admissions.
Because why wouldn't you?
"For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on Earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and how to die. They are full of things you don’t get in real life—wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. And quality of attention: we may notice amazing details during the course of the day but we rarely let ourselves stop and pay attention. An author makes you notice, makes you pay attention, and this is a great gift. My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I’m grateful for it the way I’m grateful for the ocean. Aren’t you?" — Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book." ― Groucho Marx