You are nearing the end of a full year of study in Sophomore CT English. It has been the explicit goal of this course to encourage and assist you to develop clear, precise, logical ways of thinking about what you read, what you write, and what you see in the world around you. To that end, you have been asked to read a number of challenging works of literature, to write in a variety of forms on a variety of topics, to share ideas with one another, and to monitor and attempt to refine your own thinking.

Your final and most significant assignment for the year is to hand in on May 18 a paper or project of your own design - on a subject which you care about - which will serve as a convincing demonstration of what you believe you have learned to do particularly well this year. These projects will not be returned to you. They will be kept here at school and used to demonstrate to teachers, parents, and other students, now and in future years, the kind of thinking and writing of which the sophomores at Punahou School are capable when they put their minds to it. The projects will have your names on them. My challenge to you is to hand in something that ten years from now students entering this class as sophomores will look to as an example and an inspiration.

Along with the project, plan to hand in - you guessed it - a reflection paper in which you show me - and anyone else who might read your paper - what you see in your project that makes you think it represents quality work. Your reflection should be clear, accurate, specific, relevant, logical, plausible, and as broad and deep as you can make it.

There are thus two tasks at hand: to come up with a quality project and then to offer an articulate commentary which shows what makes it a quality project in your eyes.

I am telling you about this project five weeks in advance so that you can begin thinking about what you might want to do and how you will go about doing it. I will be happy to meet with you, now or at any time before the project is due, to offer you feedback or suggestions if you wish.

A final word of caution and advice: if you’re not enjoying the work you are doing on this project, you’re either doing the wrong project, or your doing the project wrong. In either case, come to see me, and sooner rather than later.