Student Showcase

I would like to start this post by saying a huge THANK YOU to the members of my class so far this summer. Adam, Jimena, Ellie, Minori & Greta: I think that you are not only amazing students, but also extraordinary people. In the past week and a half, I have already seen great efforts from you, to communicate your ideas in a meaningful & clear way, to think deeply & examine topics from different perspectives, and to take risks. I appreciate all of your hard work, as well as the energy & humor that you bring to class on a daily basis. You are all wonderfully talented individuals. On that note, I'd really like to begin sharing pieces of your hard work with the rest of the blogosphere. This way, people besides me (other teachers or members of the NHS community or your parents & friends) can begin to appreciate the beauty of your writing the same way that I do.

To blog readers from outside of our classroom, let me set up the background that you need in order to contextualize Greta's writing. Students in my class were given a poem by Linda Rief, author of a book entitled 100 Quickwrites. (Please keep in mind that the link I've attached here is simply a sample, not the full text.) The poem is called "A Day in July," and students had to read it, make notes and decode new phrases or unfamiliar words. Then, we had a group discussion of their interpretations of the piece. "A Day" is full of symbolism & figurative language, such as nature-based similes, and fit in perfectly with our outdoor theme this week. For homework, I asked each student to take the opening two lines from Rief's poem ("Do you remember? I do.") and write a blog post about what these words bring to mind for them. Greta chose to write her own passage following Rief's style, writing with a particular audience (perhaps her family?) in mind. Don't forget that this is her original work--I didn't change a thing! Please feel free to comment after you read it.

Do You Remember? I Do.

by Greta

Do you remember? I do.  It was the hottest summer ever. We were in the south of France, the best place  for our vacations. We used to spend our days outside to enjoy that wonderful location, I loved that happy atmosphere made by the crowd, the smell of the sea and the sound of the street markets. But when the sun was about to go down, everything used to change. We went to the beach and everything looked incredibly different. Groups of young people, friends I guess, were everywhere sitting or lying on the little rocks the beach was made from, they were watching the sunset. Some of them whispered but most of them were quiet. They were all enjoying that memorable moment in silence while the last sunshine made the sea surface sparkle. Do you remember?