Ever since 2015, the English department has been giving sophomore honors students an interesting and “out-of-the-box” reading assignment. The students are broken up into groups and given a book to read that is not included in the regular curriculum, and they can choose whether or not they feel that that book should be implemented for the next year’s English classes. The students then prepare a presentation to express their ideas, and they put on this presentation this past Wednesday, January 10th.

The goal of this project is to give students more control over the English curriculum, as well as to diversify the reading that is done. As sophomore English is focused on American Literature, the majority of authors are Caucasian and have passed away, and this is not representative of today’s American classroom, nor today’s America as a whole. This project allows the students to explore thoughts on and interpretations of the United States through different lenses, which is a very important skill in a world that is continuously becoming more accepting of diversity.

Cristina Scofield, a sophomore who read the novel In the Time of Butterflies by author Julia Alvarez, felt that the project certainly lived up to its purpose. She spoke about her group independently setting up meetings, creating deadlines, and analyzing their novel, as well as deciding for themselves whether or not the book should be implemented. Aside from taking control of their own learning experience, Cristina mentioned that the project also allowed her group to be exposed to a more diverse curriculum. “All of the books were written by female minorities, and that took care of [the idea of] diversified learning right off the bat.” The students were also able to recognize important cultural themes that “need to be discussed, but [they] don’t know about.”

It is clear that the project was a great success, and greatly added to the students’ learning experiences. Hopefully, the assignment will continue to use literature to expose sophomores to the ever-changing world around them.