Issue link: http://latinschool.uberflip.com/i/133180
Upper school student makes notes while reading text. ¸ • begins by asking: "How do you feel about this draft?" Teacher and student then talk about the focus of the piece, determine if the writing is purposeful, and check to ensure that everything relates to the thesis. English teacher David Marshall tells students that, "Writing is a function of your experience . . . Your capacity as a writer is a function of your experience as a writer. "Everything, including taking notes in class, is a part of your writing experience." Marshall himself writes daily, blogs and is known for writing a haiku a day. For one exercise in his Modern American Poetry elective, Marshall tells students to choose a key line of a poem and then to explain how it opens the door to the poem. Students ask questions that require thoughtful, complicated answers, initiating a discussion between teacher and student. Says Marshall: "Every assignment makes its own idiosyncratic demands." He often confers with students via e-mail as they are tackling an assignment. "Sometimes it is even better than a verbal conference, giving students the opportunity to express their thoughts, ask questions and work on a draft," he says. Upper school students write expository pieces, poetry, critical essays and character analysis, all of them creative in the broadest sense. "This broad exposure gives students greater facility as writers," explains Marshall. "With enough practice they will be up to the task." He underscores the importance of the mechanics of writing by reminding students that mechanical inaccuracies undermine their own authority as the writer. Pride comes from writing for an audience, and Marshall tells students: "Once you've been 'heard' you want to be heard again." For Latin's youngest to its oldest students, teachers nurture clarity, self-expression, creativity and grammatical accuracy in writing. Emerging writers experience a rich and diverse curriculum with teachers who cherish the written word, creating strong, talented and passionate writers now, through the college years, and beyond. 28 Latin Magazine "During his acceptance speech, Presidentelect Barack Obama "is telling the story of a woman born over a hundred years ago. He is talking of all she has seen in her lifetime, and the change that has come to America. His eyes are alive with fire, and he speaks brilliantly. One part of me wants to believe every word he says and agree with him completely, but the cynic in me keeps intruding. Nevertheless, for just a moment, on November 4, 2008, when my sister's eyes grew wide, when my Dad's eyes softened with tears, and when my mother made up her mind, my cynicism was repelled. And I believed." Seth Perlman, December 17, 2008.