OpenLetterToFutureHonorsEnglishStudents

Letter to Fall 2010 Honors English

"I wish that I knew what I know now... when I was younger."

What do you wish you had known about English 11 on the first day of the course this fall?

This is a collaborative letter between all fall English Honors 11 students to the future 67 Honors students next semester.

Add some sentences, revise some sentences, work together.

Purpose: Introduce/Preview/Review the English 11 Honors Student Experience

Audience: Ms. Shubert and Future Honors English 11 students

Dear Honors English Student:

Introduce the Group/Authors of this letter

Establish Your Purpose

Some Suggested Topics for letter (feel free to reorganize/reorder topics or add/delete):

What happens in the Honors English 11 Classroom?

How is this different than College Prep English 11?

What types of assignments are given? What do you read? What do you write? How do you learn?

What did you learn in English 11? Knowledge? Skills?

What do they have to look forward to this semester?

How can they do to ensure they will be successful? What should they do if they are not successful?

How will class impact them in the present and future?

Sincerely,

Honors English Students (Fall 2010)

Still confused? Here is a basic version of a similar assignment given to ninth graders: Click on the "history tab" to see the participants.

http://english9in1045.wikispaces.com/4.5+Block+Invitation+Letter

Dear Honors English 11 Students:

As former students of Ms. Shubert and former English 11 Honors students we would like to tell you what to expect and be prepared for in this class.

I am sure most students have heard that LBA's are the devil... or seen status' about how much LBA's take away our lives and keep us up all night. Well yes, a lot of that is true, but there are some good things about LBA's. First things first, what is an LBA? LBA stands fore Literary Book Analysis. Basically what you do is you read about the author and background information on a story and take notes on that. Then you look at key terms and define them as well as give examples. Then when you are finally done all of that you actually get to read the story! But don't worry you will be stopped usually once every page sometimes more because you have to answer the margin questions! When you are finally done the story that took you 5x longer than normal to read because of margin questions you get a present! Now you get to answer the questions at the end of the story! LBA's are very tedious and take forever, not to mention the fact that they are worth about 5 process points but do them anyway. Those 5 process points add up quickly if you skip LBA's and not only that but when you take unit tests your LBA's make great study tools. Even if you don't study the fact that you did the LBA's will make the test much easier and give you some of the answers. Many times you come into class and go over the LBA's but don't be fooled you go over them AFTER you turn them in or right before and believe me there is not enough time to do it then. (Plus Ms. Shubert will collect all of them as soon as she sees someone doing it while going over it). When you get to your final project at the end of the year you will wish you didn't skip any LBA's because they have all the answers to everything you want in them. The questions the book makes you answer for each story **really** help for your final project. Overviews: You will recieve overviews at the beginning of each unit. Save not only your LBA's till the end of the course but save your overviews! Also, class discussions are usually formated around the overview and it acts as almost an outline. There will be about 3 questions on the back of each overview, (sometimes more) those questions will be answered in class discussion it will do you good to write the answers down. And keep it until you finish the course. You will thank me when you go to do your final course project. Another thing, overviews tell you what you will be reading that unit and sometimes even tell you when the LBA's for each piece of literature are due. If you are an athlete, are involved in musical, have a job, or any other after school activity and you have a free night get ahead. It is no fun trying to do an LBA on a noisy bus full of smelly athletes when it is dark outside and you have to use your phone to light up what you are reading. Binder: If you can get a whole bunch of dividers and a big binder to leave at home once you are done each unit put the unit overview and all of the work in that binder. Keep the overviews chronological and each unit gets a divider. You do not have to keep every single unit paper in your school binder but make sure if you empty out your school binder to put the papers in the binder you leave at home. Novels: Read the novels Ms. Shubert loves to throw questions in the tests that make sure you actually read and didn't just use sparknotes. I know that you may hate to read but all of the books can be found online and be read to you if you look and "The Scarlett Letter" is free on iTunes. Yes, free! that means that you can listen to it! All of Edgar Allan Poe is free on iTunes and just a heads up if we read "Beouwolf" next year that is free as well. Ms. Shubert gives a lot of work but she is not crazy there is a method to her madness so take it from me and actually do the work. It helps. If you do your work everyone should be able to get an A in this class. It is just a matter of being lazy vs. having the drive to do all the work you are given. one more thing for my part of this letter.... READ THE DIRECTIONS!