Important Changes for 2009-2010

Dear Scholars,

This *SHOULD* be the final reading list update of the summer.  Fingers crossed!

As many of you may have heard, there will be several changes in our English department next year.

1. Julie Klein is taking a yearlong sabbatical to pursue her own writing.  Pauline Lakanen (plakanen@dadeschools.net) will be taking over for Scholars Academy Honors Freshman English.
2. David Shanoskie is moving on to teach at the Design and Architecture Senior High School.  Scholars Academy veteran Sam Brown (sambrown@dadeschools.net) will be teaching AP Art History and Scholars Academy Honors Sophomore English.  Our own Nina Duval (nduval@dadeschools.net) will now teach all sections of AP English Literature.

We will miss Ms Klein during her absence and wish Mr Shanoskie the best in his new position.  Both are amazing classroom teachers and will spread knowledge and compassion everywhere they go.

The English Department as a whole has developed a set of unified reading lists and assignments for Honors English I and II.  The information for English I is available for download in .doc format here: http://miamibeachhigh.schoolwires.com/miamibeachhigh/lib/miamibeachhigh/ENGLISH_I_HONORS_SUMMER_READING_ASSIGNMENT_2009.doc and the information for English II is available here: http://miamibeachhigh.schoolwires.com/miamibeachhigh/lib/miamibeachhigh/ENGLISH_II_HONORS_SUMMER_READING_ASSIGNMENT_2009.doc

We understand that many of you may have already purchased books from the original reading lists.  Ms Lakanen and Mr Brown have agreed to allow you to use any three books from the old lists or the new ones, so long as you complete the journaling assignment by September 4.

Mr Brown has reduced the number of entries from 60 to 30 for his classes, and will also allow you to use Don Quixote by Cervantes for the journaling assignment.  Since you will be reading this book anyway for AP European history, this should cut down on your reading load.

The AP English Literature reading list is unchanged.

An updated compendium of all the summer reading lists is available here: http://scholarsacademy.wordpress.com/2009/05/29/summer-reading-lists-2/

Please pass this information along to anyone who you know is difficult to reach over the summer.

As my grandmother used to say, “Make new friends, but keep the old.  One is silver and the other is gold!” I hope all of you are enjoying the summer and can’t wait to see you again in the fall.

Best Regards,

Andy Weiss