The Best Non-Fiction Writing: Hinsdale Central 2011

I just learned that the selection committee for The Best Non-Fiction Writing: Hinsdale Central 2011 has finished the very difficult job of selecting the very best non-fiction writing from the 165+ submissions they received. Teachers on the selection committee commented to me that they were very impressed with the improved quality of the entries, which made their job even harder this year. Senior Peter Bernardi is currently working on the design and layout of the manuscript. The book comes out in early fall. Each selected student will receive a complimentary book. Additionally, we send books to the HC library and local public libraries. Congratulations to all of the following students!

Freshmen

Paxton Gammie, “Imposter in Pink”

Alex Otto, “The Box”

Suhana Thakrar, “Taking Flight”

Caitlin Wong, “The Misery Melody”,

Luke Zhan, “A Not-So-Happy Meal”

Sophomores

Sagar Dommaraju, “Sickness”

Emma Harrison, “Nana’s Pringles”

Charlotte Kanzler, “Rosary”

Caroline Morant, “Finding Balance in Black and White”

Juwairyah Syed, “The Threads of Allah”

Juniors

Ryan Callen, “The Other N-Word”

Meredith Christian, “Purple Is Everywhere”

Andrea Cladek, “Different Strokes”

Laurel Johnson, “A Fight Worth Having”

Stephanie Lenchard-Warren, “Eyes Against a Black Canvas”

Ted Owens, “Who’s Your Daddy?”

Michelle Scarpino, “The Caffeine Addict”

Melissa Trofa, “All Tests and No Play Makes Johnny a Dull Boy”

Alexis Williams, “39 Reasons”

Steven Yeh, “Dear Japanese Soldier”

Seniors

Jennifer Bush, “The Unconscious Darkness”

Marianne Hardek, “Listen to the Voice”

Shirley Yarin, “Overcoming Your Destined Labyrinth”

These represent the winning essays. The book also contains the best essay from each of the seniors in the Honors Seminar in Writing.

18 Students Win "Best of Illinois" Writing Award

Earlier this week I learned that a whopping 18 (!) students won the Illinois of Teachers of English "Best of Illinois" awards for their writing. Not that I want to brag about our students too much, but this was the most of any high school in Illinois. All nine first place winners will have their essays published in the fall issue of the Illinois English Bulletin.

Senior winners:

Danielle Labotka "Dancers Don't Cry"

Claire Dunderman "Clause and Effect"

Jack Henry Kelly "The Boy Who Cried Dirt"

Mackenzie King "Adopting an Identity"

Jennifer Oetter "Untitled"

Julia Quintero "Dear Dragonfly, Love Meggers"

Grace Walsh "A Chance Conversation"

Junior winners:

Madeline Beja "Generation to Degeneration"

Laurel Johnson "A Fight Worth Having"

Jeffrey Yang "Quit"

Elizabeth Ann Shaw "Learning How to Talk"

Mahum Mirza "Facebook"

Riley O'Donnell "The Crash"

Claire Walker "First Fig, First Friend"

Divya Kirti "Don't Freak Out"

Audrey Glaser "Canta y une tu voz"

Meredith Christian "Purple is Everywhere"

Gemma Groch "The Evolution of My Father"

Congratulations to all of you!

"Best Student Nonfiction" book receives 175 entries

In our second year of publishing our "Best of Student Writing," we received a very large number (175) of entries. Last year we had about fifty fewer. Today one of my students who submitted an essay said, "The amazing thing is that I've never thought of myself as a writer before. I'm more math and science. But I've really come to think of myself as a writer, too. My parents are going to be so mad." At this point, I told this student about my current nonfiction writer, Atul Gawande, a renowned surgeon... and author of bestselling books. In his book Better (which I highly recommend), Gawande says that one of the things he learned while writing the book is that the best practitioners of every particular field that he studied (obstetricians in India, CF specialists in Minnesota, hospital administrators in Detroit, emergency room docs in Iraq, etc.) shared on trait: they wrote about their fields as a way to think through their own projects and to communicate their findings with others.

English Department Awarded Grant to Publish Student Work

I was excited to get a letter from The HCHS Foundation over break that said that we had been awarded the Jodie Harrison Teacher's Grant to publish our second book: Best Student Nonfiction Essays 2010-2011. We hope to build on the success of last year's book.

Here's a snapshot of the process of how essays are selected. Teachers nominate students in their courses who wrote remarkable papers this year, papers that teachers found compelling and thoughtful, papers that fulfilled assignments, but something more. We sent out letters of recognition to these students and their parents and asked them to consider sending in their favorite essay/s to be considered for the book. Often this leads to discussions between teacher and student about which writing was remarkable.

Next, the Honors Seminar in Writing students (with guidance from the Honors Seminar teachers, Alexis Colianni, Angelique Burrell, and Jared Friebel) serve as editors of the book, selecting the year's very best writing. Students also serve in designing the cover and layout and working as a liaison with the printer. Students who will be published are notified in May. The book, which comes out over the summer, is distributed to all the published students, the HC library, the Hinsdale library, the Clarendon Hills library, and a few others in the building. Students can also order extra books at a small extra cost.

I have nine extra books from last year if you are interested. Contact me if you're interested.

The goal of this project is that it will help students become young authors communicating valuable ideas.