Hello guys and gals, welcome to Ten Minutes Or Less. This week we have a very special guest on the show, English teacher Anne Martin. We give her a test about literature, talk about a little indie game called Divekick, and discuss Thunder Over Louisville. We hope you enjoy the soothing sounds of our voices.
Click below to listen to JT and Patrick’s very fifth podcast.
By Peter Hyle
This past week at FC, English teacher Anne Martin’s sophomore English honors classes held debates over various subjects. These arguments covered topics such as gun laws, government spending, and technology. Devoting well over a month to this assignment, students perfected their speaking skills and learned new ways to form argumentative claims.
This assignment served many purposes in each of the classes.
“It had them practice skills of argument, which is a standard,” said Martin. “It also required them to speak in a proper, elegant manner and tested their collaboration skills.”
Students realized the immediate challenges, and even some that were unexpected.
“My partner and I both had differing views about our topic, so it was hard to decide what should be our final debate. In the end, we compromised and it turned out great,” said sophomore Jordyn Boling.
Despite the problems, each student was given both instructions and time to prepare.
“It took about a month to go through the process of writing their argumentative essays. We took a break after they were turned in so I could grade, and we spent that break watching student debaters online and practicing speaking skills,” said Martin. “After getting their papers back, I talked to my students about revising their work and we went over the time requirements, presentation order, and topics.”
During the preparations, many of the students felt at ease with the time and instructions given by their teacher.
“Mrs. Martin helped us prepare for the presentations by giving us a helpful rubric and strict, yet easy to follow ways to organize our debates. It was a lot of help and without it I think our presentation would have looked sloppy and disorganized,” said Boling.
Martin took her students opinion into consideration, making sure that the assignment didn’t come across as too intimidating or complicated.
“I talked to my first period class and had them help me edit the guidelines on my rubric,” said Martin.
Without all the instructions, the students might not have completed this assignment as smoothly.
“She didn’t hold our hand, but she made it clear what we needed to do,” said sophomore Brett Yeaton. “She gave us a great rubric and easy guidelines.”
Not only were the directions concise, but other components of this assignment made the whole project easier.
“I think that Mrs. Martin’s assistance was the only thing keeping me from looking like an idiot in front of my class,” said sophomore Caitlin Fien.
Overall, Martin’s sophomore English Honors classes impressed their teacher with their debates.
“I was very pleased to see my students rising to the expectations I set. Even though they were nervous, each one made it through the presentations. I hope now that they are more comfortable with public speaking, which is a big part of high school life,” said Martin.
By Sidney Reynolds
On Oct. 16, sophomore English honor students started their first session of the New Voice Playwriting program. This is the first time at FC that English classes have gotten to take part in this program. The New Voice project is a program helps develop students’ creative writing ability.
“I think it helped me become a better creative writer,” said sophomore Jacob Huntles.
Actors Theatre of Louisville sends trained instructors to teach students about play writing and help them write their own 10-minute play. At the end of the program some students will get the honor of having actors from Actors Theatre of Louisville to come and perform their play in front of the class.
“It was awesome. I feel so honored to be one of the first students at FC to be able to take part in this,” said sophomore Sylvia Donovan.
The two New Voice instructors that taught the classes were Keith McGill and Liz Fentress.
“It’s been a wonderful experience for me. I love that I helped create a play from nothing and got to watch it develop,” said Fentress.
The students started the first session with the discussion of every element that goes into a play.
“I really love how it was taught step by step so no one gets confused or lost,” said sophomore Harleigh Lang.
The students also wrote two monologues to help understand more about the purpose of monologues. The first monologue was about an object to help them learn how to write a monologue. The second monologue was a character monologue and to help them get more in depth.
“It was fun to be creative and have people read mine,” said sophomore Caleb Combs.
At the third session students started to write the draft of their play.
“I had to write down a couple of ideas before I could really pick one,” said Donovan.
In the fifth session, students did a plot diagram of their play and then they started to write the first two pages of their ten page play.
“At first, I was overwhelmed because I’m not a very creative person so it was kind of scary for me at first,” said sophomore Kelsey Lengel.
On Oct. 30 students went over their first draft. They had the instructors, teachers, and peers edit their drafts.
Lang thought was really helpful to get feedback on my play from McGill, her english teacher Anne Martin, and her peers.
“It told me what was strong about my play and what I needed to change. I am also glad they were there to help me with formatting my play,” said Lang.
On Nov. 2 actors from Actors Theatre of Louisville came to perform the students’ plays.
“It was interesting to see professional actors perform plays that my peers wrote,” said Huntles.
Many students enjoyed watching the plays be performed, however when student’s own plays were performed, it made them nervous.
“It was kind of interesting but kind of awkward,” said sophomore Kayla Popson.
Sophomore honors English teacher Anne Martin enjoyed working with this program.
“It’s nice to have new voices in the room and many of the activities in the curriculums that allow students to see what good writers they are,” said Martin.
They also are hoping that next year actors from Louisville’s Actors Theatre will come and do the program again next year only for all sophomore English classes.
“There has been talk that they will try and get the same grant to be able to do all sophomore English classes next year,” said Martin.
Many students believe New Voices was a good program to participate in.
“I’m glad that I got to do it. It was so much fun and I think it helped my writing skills too.” said Lang.