When the anticipated senior year finally begins, a typical student at Laurel High School enjoys a brief honeymoon of peer dominance and the illusion that the finish line is in sight. Then, reality sets in. College and scholarship applications burden an already hefty load of work so that by December, much like poor little Max the dog in Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch, seniors feel they are dragging forty times their weight up a steep, snowy mountain. I saw an opportunity several years ago to take advantage of their misery by assigning a document I knew most would need to write anyway, the dreaded personal essay. It makes perfect sense: it fits the Common Core standards, and they need the help. To do a proper job, they needed more than just the one assignment, so I built a unit around it. …show more content…
“Unprotected” by Simon Rich was a big hit this year, a story told from the point of view of a condom in a teenager’s wallet. We explore the nuances of mood and tone, the effects of figurative language, the importance of structure, and the need for a compelling theme. Along with these daily exercises, each student chooses a memoir that he or she is expected to reference in class discussion. We have copies of A River Runs Through It and The Glass Castle, which most picked and enjoyed, but others were free to find a title of their own, an attractive option for less traditional