Elmhurst High School - Anlibrum Yearbook (Fort Wayne, IN)

Page 32 text:

Miss Glassley, new at Elmhurst this year, collects papers in her first period sophomore English class. Seniors with ability in creative writing are enrolled in the ac- celerated English class taught by Mrs. Decker. Here, Patty Ball, Patsy Maxwell, Jane Black, Sue Hardwick, and Jane Grissom fol- low a discussion on seventeenth- century English literature. Change of literature program The English curriculum, keystone of scholastic work in high school, is undergoing many changes and experiments both in the Fort Wayne Community School system and at Elmhurst. Elmhurst is changing its English literature curriculum in fwo noticeable ways- This year, under a revised literature pro- gram, sophomores are studying American literature. Juniors and seniors are using the same textbook covering English litera- ture. Next year, at the completion of the transition to the new program, seniors will study Adventures in Modern Literature. The second change in our English curriculum is an increased emphasis on paragraph writing. The students use Better Para- graphs to help create a definite form in high school composi- tion. Besides the many standard English classes, taught on the sophomore, junior, and senior levels, Elmhurst has several special classes this year. Miss Falls and Mr. Kurtz teach, respectively, during the same period each day, one junior English class en- tirely of girls and another entirely of boys- The purpose of this experiment is to create more spontaneous discussion within the two separate groups. On certain days, the classes unite for dis- cussion. The other special class is a senior English class taught by Mrs. Decker. This class differs from others in that it reads Greek drama, studies Hamlet as well as Macbeth, and practices creative writing throughout the year. 28

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Academics The ' 64- ' 65 school term at EHS was by no means an ordinary or cut-and-dried one. Innovation was the word in the classes. Changes came about to make the courses better or to test the teaching idea at Elmhurst. Experiments such as team teaching, accelerated classes, and separation of boys and girls were tried. The results of these experiments will determine whether classes of the future will use the methods. Whereas the improvements and innova- tions this year were in the teaching methods and in special classes offered, the use of the new addition in the future will mean the advantages of the follow- ing classrooms; physics, chemistry, and general science laboratories; a science lecture room; six new English classrooms; modern home economics class- rooms for cooking and sewing; and a new choir room. Innovations in the new addition are a foreign language laboratory and a developmental reading room. The new library will enable students to do much research work at the school.

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and stress on composition highlight Trojan English classes The all-girl junior English class reads Wuthering Heights, one of the novels they studied in class. Students in Mrs. Oberlin ' s senior English class spend their time during the first semester studying English literature. Mr. Kurtz teaches the all-boy junior English class, which was one of several teaching experiments this year. Sophomores now read American literature. Here, students in Mrs. Bil- liard ' s class read the play Our Town. 29