Brunswick Academy - Viking Yearbook (Lawrenceville, VA)

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Teachers Turn More Focus on Literature ■ ■ ■ ENGLISH Right: Even with many dif- ferent levels of English to teach from so many differ- ent books, Mrs. Moseley still finds room to work at her desk. Below: One of the special treats that Mrs. Grigg planned for her En- glish 1 1 students was a book report from Mrs. Barbara Barker, whom Mrs. Grigg invited to school to give the report. Before fifth period begins, they discuss some current best- sellers over lunch.

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With access to the lab, Science 9 students are able to use the knowledge they aquire from the book, and get a head start in working with the chemicals they will later use in chemistry. ' The highlight of each year in biology is dissection of frogs and other specimens. Mrs. Gill makes it a point to include this in the students’ studies. One of the specimens from last year was the sea lamprey, which this year’s students delighted in examining. Above: After every day in the lab, the priceless glassware must be stored away for another night. Mrs. Jones likes to get an early start by sectioning off glass tub- ing for chemistry experiments.

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Y W ith teaching assignments varying widely, it wasn’t surprising to find that five different teachers were teaching English, often having more than one grade level. Mrs. Harrell, the choral group sponsor, is teaching an eighth grade class. Mr. Don Martin, the guidance coun- selor, teaches Advanced English. Mrs. Betsy Clarke teaches twelfth grade, Mrs. Frances Mosely teaches ninth, tenth, and twelfth, and Mrs. Bette Grigg teaches tenth and eleventh. One could almost go through high school with the same teach- er, or almost all different ones. What has come out of the English i classes recently has been a turn toward literature, and subsequent de-emphasis of the English language. When grammar is studied, teachers have tried to emphasize sentence construction rather than the basics that students have been taught since grammar school. Some famous literary works have be- come labels for each level of English. The ninth grade generally studies Dickens’ Great Expectations. The tenth grade goes through the short novella Silas Marner, and most students go through one major book a year, as well as shorter stories and plays in the general literature texts. Students have also had the benefit of a new manual with their English texts, on sentence and paragraph construction and composition. Learning the elements of writing becomes a great aid to students, as is proven in English 12 and Advanced English classes. Unlike science, English remains the same, so once students have grasped the fundamentals and the intricacies, the ability to use their knowledge falls into place with practice. Another part of English classes has been plays. “All the world’s a stage,” and that includes the English classroom. Mrs. Grigg still enjoys watching her students perform skits, or just assigning pa rts in a play from the book and having them read aloud. To finish out the rounding process in the English department there is vocabu- lary. Some teachers give it through sto- ries, and others give it directly for stu- dents to learn, but either way, a student’s span of words continues to grow all through his five years. It is not unusual for a passer-by, or for a group in a neigh- boring room to hear a distinquished voice from a record player reciting vocabulary words and defining them with use in a sentence. Peeking into the room, one can see pens moving furiously to catch the meaning on paper before the next word. The standard finished product after five years is a model that can define lots of words, write a theme, make an outline Before a Friday English 1 1 class begins, Michael Thomas gives Michael Joyner a last minute tip on the definition of a vocabulary word. for a story, compose an original short story, or make a character sketch. Some come with added features such as poetry writing, writing plays, writing a synopsis for a book or play, being able to spell astoundingly, and reciting memorable passages from just about anything. So it appears that English classes aren’t so blase after all, and there can be lots of variation in the usual basic linguistics. And there are plenty of changes to look forward to in the future as well. The English student may not be as strict a user of words as his grandparents or even his parents, but he is doing a good job of keeping up with a new generation of slang and colloquial expressions. English - 21