The root of obligation is ligare, “to bind,” and it helps to keep in mind that this can be positive or negative.
Repeated: What Our Makerspace Does
Core English courses that are not affiliated with the College Board nor a state or local college enjoy a bit of freedom from the traditional superstructure of high school. The foundation is the same — that’s why the district’s SCP looks just like our set of universal skills and traits — but what we build on it can be practical in a different way.
For the most part, this will mean dividing our year into skill-based units, like this one on self-control and assiduousness, and units based on essential questions and authentic problems. Read the explanatory post on the Humanities makerspace, and pay attention to this section:
The problems students face are the problems all of us face, and they are exactly the problems that the Humanities exist to solve:
What does it mean to be a human being?
What does it mean to coexist in a society?
What are my beliefs?
How do I want to live my life?An English classroom is also the home of soft skills, including self-awareness and self-efficacy, which raises a few more questions for the makerspace:
What does it mean to be educated?
What is the purpose of school?
How does each of us learn best?
What are the most important skills and traits for our futures?Like any makerspace, we experiment to find solutions to these problems and answer these questions. We collaborate, ask experts, do research. We try to think outside the box. We sometimes try to dismantle the box to build a better one.
The tools and components we pour out on the table are a set of universal skills and traits, our connections to other human beings, and the literature and nonfiction that best teaches us how to be human.
We might study whether video games can be art, whether obscenity has an objective definition, whether schools take care of mental health effectively, or any of a dozen other authentic issues.
Outstanding Obligations
It’s all part of training for the real world. Fortunately or unfortunately, there will always be obligations outside of the space, some of which are more authentically derived than others. That is the way it is.
For seniors, there are two immediate and pressing obligations to consider: the college essay and summer reading. There is also a third obligation that comes due in the last month of school.
① The College Essay
If you were a junior at this high school last year, you have already written a college essay. You will need to share a copy of that through the appropriate Google Classroom assignment, and you will probably want to edit and revise to some extent.
If you were not a junior here in Brewster, or if you simply would like to take another crack at the college essay, you will need to go through the writing process. Either way, you will benefit from reading the following:
This is adapted from a universal writing process that we will use throughout the year to inform essays, short stories, poetry, and any other written work1.
Your are obligated to take care of this if and only if you plan to go to college next year. An alternative assignment is available.
② Summer Reading
Your other obligation is to the summer reading assignment outlined here:
Click on the embedded page or this link to revisit the summer assignment. An assignment will be given related to this reading during Q1B. You can always see the course grading calendar for information about what that means.
③ Senior Talk
At the end of your senior year, you will present a “senior talk,” which is a requirement for graduation. It is most like a TED Talk, although there is a lot of customization and personalization possible.
You can read coverage of some of last year’s talks here. In our class, these talks are likely to be built on a long-term project you’ll begin almost immediately:
During Q1A, you will design a passion project through that guide. You’ll have the option to retool, reboot, etc., as the year progresses, and you’ll always know that the senior talk fits a passion project perfectly — which is by design.
Use the space below to ask questions about this, and watch Google Classroom for formal deadlines, assignment specifics, and the like.
You can read the history of that writing process here, in a post contextualizing the most recent version. ↩