SENIOR ENGLISH: ADVICE FROM ALUMNI PART I

In preparing to teach this course, I sent out an e-mail to a ton of alumni. Many of my e-mail addresses were old and came back. However, about sixty alumni responded. I asked them a variety of questions. Here is a representative sample of their answers to the question, “What pieces of your high school Senior English experience were most useful to you in college?”

The most useful pieces of my high school Senior English class was definitely the senior project.  I had to come up with an idea, research, prepare, and follow it all the way through until the end under much of my own guidance.

My senior research paper was most useful. It was helpful to know what it meant to dive into a topic and spend a lot of time studying it.

The most useful pieces of Sr. English were the Sr. project, the discussions regarding prejudice, discrimination, and identity, and the writing topics that I could use for college essays.

I think that all of my English courses were amazing for teaching me to read closely, critically and analyze text. That proved to be a very valuable and useful skill.

…abilities to ask questions, engage in conversation, formulate sophisticated thesis; logic and argument (a high school senior can never be too prepared in these areas)

I appreciated having a heavy workload in high school.  When I got to college, some students were overwhelmed by the amount of work that there was while I was expecting slightly more. 

I tested out of both college semesters of English by scoring high enough on the placement exam and two written tests. That said, more writing = better grades.

… the experience of staying awake and attentive when I rarely felt stimulated or challenged was the most “useful.”

I would say that the existence of “paper” assignments where students must write thesis papers on books read in class help GREATLY for any sort of English or Literature course in college. The students that I know who struggle in college literature courses do so not because they can’t read, but rather because they have troubles writing thesis papers. I took a class my first semester in Comparative World Literature and the 3 papers in the course made up more than 80% of the course. So, if you don’t leave high school with a great ability to write, you may be SEVERELY penalized if you don’t seek help in college, since papers are often weighted greatly. All this said, I would say that the most beneficial part of MY Senior English experience, since I wasn’t too focused on improving my paper-writing skills, was the Senior Project.

Learning how to write literary critiques and how to incorporate other writers' work into ours. 

I learned to think less about the grade and more about the things that I am learning and the way that I can use my knowledge to impact the world around me.

I think the most difficult thing for a Deerfield student moving forward is the lack of structure in a collegiate setting.  I think a great thing to focus on during Senior English would be difficult deadlines met in an independent fashion. 

I think probably the most important thing that I took from Jr. & Sr. English was being able to link common themes from different works together

I think learning how to write a thesis was also really important when I came to college.  It was amazing how many people in my classes at Ohio State had no clue how to write a thesis

My senior English class was very discussion based, which has been helpful in helping me learn how to piggyback off of others comments for my discussion and seminar based classes. My senior project has also been extremely helpful for maintaining work on a long-term project while doing short-term work and seeking help for a project from outside of the class, or even the school.

..mastering critical thinking and writing a critical/analytical essay were by far the most helpful for me. I felt confident about writing thesis statements/assertions after leaving DHS. When I went to IU, I found that most college freshmen had no idea how to write a good a critical essay. They didn't know how to organize it, use transition sentences, write a thesis, or include evidence from novels we read to prove their point. I felt like I was 100% ahead of the game. That was a great feeling!

The first thing that was essential was simply being taught how to write a paper.  I know it sounds obvious, but so many people here have no clue how to write a thesis that is actually arguable or their logic is circular; plus, their papers aren't interesting, engaging or creative in the least.  Also, they were painful at the time, but the timed writings were a useful tool for every test and final I've ever taken that has a written component or is comprised entirely of essay questions.

I don't think that anything from my senior year of high school English was particularly useful to me in college. I can say that I did enjoy a lot of the books I had to read my senior year.

With regards to material I felt prepared on, Deerfield provided me with a great motivation and resolve when it comes to my education. I realized even more so in college that it is really up to the individual student to be responsible for his or her education. This means keeping up with assignment homework, completing all papers, always doing the reading for each week in the syllabus, and maintaining contact with professors. The professors will not be looking over you to ensure you are on top of your game. Each student is expected to look after themselves. This provides a transition into adulthood. If it is possible to convey to high school seniors how the teacher will not be there for them day-in-and-day-out in the future, then that would be awesome.   

This may seem very general, but the most useful thing a Senior English class can teach to prepare a student for college is how to write well.  Few college classes teach proper writing (style, grammar, etc.) for the majority of students (who are not English majors), so this makes high school teaching even more important in that area. 

I think that the variety of literature we read in Senior English was one of the most beneficial aspects.  Teachers were always impressed when I would mention a title I had read in high school that was very challenging.  After writing a 10 page paper in high school the college assigned papers didn't seem as daunting. 

Senior English helped me work on deeper analysis and understanding sophisticated literature. Digging deeper into texts and critical reading has really helped me in college.

Knowing how to locate and best utilize critical essays.

Becoming comfortable meeting with instructors outside of class to work on my writing (& knowing which questions to ask)

For the few non-science classes I've taken, the most helpful thing I took from Senior English is the development of an essay more sophisticated than the standard form.  Most of my professors wanted to see creative organization of ideas, while still maintaining a clear thesis.

I think learning how to read and analyze a piece of literature was very important.  Learning how to conduct research was also important, especially the use of citations because I think most institutions have strict policies on plagiarism.

I found it very useful to have conferences with my teacher.  He pushed me farther than I would have been able to go on my own.  The one-on-one interaction was very helpful because at the end of the year I could see how to find the complexity on my own.  This helped me in college especially when having to compare two pieces of literature.

I always had thesis in the back of my head, and that was from you and DHS. Go figure, that was useful then, and it will be again in law school

Click here for more advice from alumni.