Over Christmas break, the 20 freshman students in Stephanie Anderson’s Honors English I class at Worland High School undertook a project for the Oneota Reading Journal. According to their website, “The Oneota Reading Journal is an electronic, refereed journal, published annually via the worldwide web. The purpose of the Oneota Reading Journal is to provide readers with book reviews of professional resources, children’s literature, young adult literature, and articles about books and the teaching of reading.”
Mrs. Anderson’s Honors class volunteered to read, think, and write critically about 55 novels. According to Mrs. Anderson, “One challenge for me as a teacher is to develop exercises in which my students write ‘authentic’ pieces for an audience beyond me. This opportunity, orchestrated by Mr. James Mims, was a new experience for my students. They were allowed to analyze young adult literature for their peers. Once their reviews go through the review process, they may even see their pieces in print.” According to Mr. Mims, “Teachers in training at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, may well be taking advice from the Honors class.”
One of the perks of this project was that once the students had finished reading and writing about the YA novels, they were donated to the Worland High School library. According to Mrs. Overcast, WHS librarian, “We are thrilled that Stephanie Anderson undertook this project and that not only do the students benefit from this, but our high school library has greatly profited as well! We figure with today’s book costs that we were given 55 books at around $20-$25 apiece which amounts to $1375.00 worth of awesome YA books! The other cool thing is that the students are doing a real life assignment and hopefully the kids will contemplate a career as a writer, editor or critical reviewer. Wouldn’t that be phenomenal?”
Names of students from picture:
Front row L to R: Hannah Vigil, Jalynn McClure, Riley Harman, Carmen Elliot, Jewel Haynes, Narisse Trippel, Taylor Warner, Glen Anderson, Emily Keller. Back row L to R: Mary Linneman, Saydria Russell, Bryanna Michelson, Kayla Anderson, Braedon Page, Callie Klinghagen, and Alex Mulhall. Not pictured: Josh Hart & Erin Taylor