Lauren Katz, Emma Hocj and Ethan Missner, all rising juniors at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, meet in Potomac Village. The students went back to school on Tuesday. Photo by Peggy McEwan/The Almanac
With school beginning on Tuesday for most students, it’s time to check in with summer reading assignments. A quick survey of students in Potomac Village Friday afternoon showed that they were on task with their reading.
Most were finished with their reading assignments or close enough to know they would finish in plenty of time for that first bell to ring.
Dominic Provenzano and Isshin Kurokawa will be sophomores at The Heights School and, along with other rising 10th graders at the school, had to read “American Cicero: The Life of Charles Carroll” by Bradley J. Birzer.
They also had a list of six books from which to choose two others to read.
Dominic selected “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles as one of his books but has not started a third; he’s not worried.
“I have another two weeks to read them” he said.
Isshin chose “Voyage to Alpha Centauri” by Michael O’Brien and “The Last of the Mohicans” by James Fenimore Cooper.
He is finished with his reading and said “Voyage” was his favorite.
“It had a good story and was easiest to understand,” he said.
Now they have to write about the books with a focus on “kairos,” the point at which the book’s action leads the character to success or failure, according to Isshin.
Summer reading and the required essay are “a big chunk” of the students’ first quarter grade, Dominic said.
Setare Aliakbar and Melissa Marks said they were discussing their summer reading while catching up over lunch Friday.
Both are rising juniors at Winston Churchill High School and will be in the Advanced Placement English class, AP Language and Composition.
For the class, they had to read four essays and take notes.
“We are following SOAPSTONE,” Melissa said. “It’s an acronym for how to annotate a narrative.”
“It’s a big jump from regular [reading],” Setare said.
Finally, Lauren Katz, Emma Hoch and Ethan Missner, all rising juniors at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, all reported they have finished their summer reading.
They were required to read “The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger, an easy read according to Lauren.
“There’s a lot to it,” Emma said.
And then their conversation turned to what they did during summer vacation … another back to school topic.