<p>I really know nothing about the book, Shift, except what I read on Goodreads. </p>
<p>Each year a different department within my son’s school gets to choose a book for the entire school to read over the summer. Before freshman year, the PE department chose "Carlisle vs. Army, " which my son LOVED. Before sophomore year “Of Mice and Men” was chosen by the fine arts department. My son enjoyed that one, too. Last year, the foreign language department chose “The Alchemist,” which he HATED. (Although he and his buddies named their rec-league basketball team The Personal Legends because of the book). This year the library and counseling department chose “Shift” which appears to be a young-adult coming-of-age mystery - lighter reading than the past few years. </p>
<p>We will see what he (and I) think of it!</p>
<p>I do like the general one-book-for-the-school idea. In early fall, the NHS kids lead a small-group discussion on the book. The groups are randomly made up of kids and teachers from each level. Although my son hated last year’s book, he did research discussion questions and learned how to lead a discussion. I heard (from one of the faculty in his group) that he acquitted himself nicely.</p>
<p>Austinareadad - thanks for the recommendations! We’re looking forward to visit your neck of the woods! :)</p>
<p>As far as I know, DS doesn’t have any summer homework assignment. Last year, he did have APUSH, but he’s taking regular WH this year, so he doesn’t have that. </p>
<p>haha, ordinarylives! Do you think they will have a class discussion on your D’s summer reading? ;)</p>
<p>Ordinarylives - do realize this is mandatory reading for my guy. He certainly wouldn’t choose any of those books himself! He’s a non-fiction science reader gleaning most of what he likes from the internet.</p>
<p>Here they have to have the reading complete and questions/essays e-mailed in by the first week in August as the teacher likes to look them over/grade them before school starts. School starts Aug 21st this year, so he’ll need to get reading soon.</p>
<p>We aren’t likely to have any more standardized testing… no APs at our school and I’d never convince this guy to self-study for any.</p>
<p>We may be in the same boat with a high GPA/class standing, but SAT scores too low for much effective merit aid. Time will tell. We’re not sure what Plan B is if that happens. State schools in PA aren’t inexpensive, nor does my guy want to go to any of them (he wants southern or Hawaii). He might have a Plan B of gap/work year if the finances don’t work out at his favored schools. I don’t mind basic student loans, but we’re not high debt people.</p>
<p>I hope all ACT testers left with a good/hopeful feeling!</p>
<p>DS proclaimed the ACT “easy” so we will see if his confidence is borne out by his score. He said that the science section didn’t require any substantive knowledge, but just the ability to interpret graphs and data. And apparently they give you any equations you need in the math section, which was quite helpful when he couldn’t readily recall the law of sines.</p>
<p>His school also has a schoolwide reading assignment. The book is tied into “One Question” that students will discuss in seminars during the first weeks of school, and is also the basis for a semester long ethics elective. The Question is chosen from student submissions and comes with a study guide for students and parents (so we can continue the discussions at home).</p>
<p>This year’s book was This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women and the One Question was “How does one balance the pressures of achieving personal academic success with the necessity of recognizing the fleeting nature of life and acting accordingly.”</p>
<p>Next year’s book is Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink, tied to the question “How can we maintain a passion for learning in a school system where pronounced emphasis on achieving good grades has a tendency to reduce genuine interest in gaining a deeper understanding of subject material.”</p>
<p>Sophomore year the book was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (fantastic book, BTW) with the corresponding Question being “How can our school comunity take action to prepare students to confront difficult moral and ethical decisions, both now and in the future?”</p>
<p>And freshman year it was Brave New World with the Question “How can we maintain our individuality and creativity in an increasingly impersonal and technological world?”</p>
<p>School is not out for us until the 18th so I have not even looked at any summer reading requirements!</p>
<p>Ordinarylives - I could just imagine the book discussion that might occur following your daughter’s reading! Especially in my son’s all-boy school! I bet they would ALL do the reading, but the discussion might be a bit awkward with faculty present!</p>
<p>Last day of school yesterday for my D and is also taking the ACT today. She was emotional on Senior’s last day since a lot of them are her friends. She brought home the last edition of their school’s newspaper and had a partial listing of where the seniors are going to college. The list is impressive. Most of the Ivy league schools are represented as well as Stanford and MIT. Interesting that 4 seniors are accepted to MIT but only 1 will be attending (1 turned down for Harvard, 1 turned down for Stanford and the other turned down for one of the UCs). Her school is suburban/SoCal/middle to upper-middle class HS so a lot of the top tier kids are going to Stanford/UC Berkeley/UCLA/UCSD/USC/UC Irvine/UC Davies/UC Santa Barbara.</p>
<p>Her summer activities:
Saturday internship/volunteer at a local hospital
Spanish Online class</p>
<p>Her school is semi year round, so summer break is short (but with fall break and longer Thanksgiving break). They’re going back last week of July.</p>
<p>PS. Good luck to all the ACT takers today. May your points increase by 2 or 3 or better.</p>
<p>Picked DS up from his first ACT. He said the last part of math was difficult and by the time he got to the Science section he couldn’t concentrate anymore (I didn’t give him enough peppermints and gum!!) When he practiced at home originally, the Science section was his best score so I am somewhat concerned. As he despises writing, he did not practice any essay writing at home, but we did review what process to take to write an effective essay. I just hope he gets the scores he needs for the schools he is interested in. I asked him if I should sign him up for the ACT for September, but he’s not sure. Can’t blame him after 5 1/2 hours of testing!! He was spent!! Unfortunately, he still has a lot of school work to do in the next couple of days followed by FINALS over the next two weeks!</p>
<p>Does anyone know of a site that lists colleges that superscore the ACT, not the SAT?</p>
<p>My son said the last ten problems of the math section were difficult. His smartest friend concurs, as did many of the other kids leaving the test, so maybe the curve will help.</p>
<p>DD14 took the ACT today … signed her up earlier this week for standby on a whim. She got in - no problems. </p>
<p>Said it went pretty well - though the science was “weird” … whatever that means! She did say that she thought it was easier than the SAT … but then again, she’s had 6 more months of school under her belt since she took that in Dec.</p>
<p>She’ll retake the ACT in Sept and the SAT in Oct and then she’s done. </p>
<p>Tons of Open Houses today … hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of summer - or the last week of school depending on where you are!</p>
<p>To clarify, DS says they didn’t give you ALL the equations you needed, but just some of the less obvious ones. For example, apparently there was a math question that required the use of the reverse pythagorean theorem, but the pythagorean theorem was not provided. </p>
<p>DS concurred that the last ten problems were more difficult than the rest but thought they were still fairly easy. But he is a STEM kid so that is to be expected.</p>
<p>I remember almost 18 years ago, I joined a forum for parents of babies with due dates for January 1996. It was on AOL or Yahoo or one of those forums. Is it possible that some of those same parents are now on this forum and we’re preparing to watch our kids enjoy senior year? That would be a story to tell.
Well, I have 5 kids. My DS is now a senior in the IB programme. Another DS is a sophomore in the IB programme. Another DS is a seventh grader in his middle school IB Middle years program. And the two DD are in elementary school. It’s a busy household, but lots of fun! DH and I both have computer science degrees and thus we have a household of techies. I’m looking forward to a great year.</p>
<p>K2 is on the way to hang out at friends and then go out for dinner/movie.</p>
<p>Also proclaimed the ACT easier than the SAT though I am not so sure. If that happens, then fine. K2 did only about 4-5 hrs prep for the ACT…over the last 2 days.
Like the pacing of it more than the SAT.
K1 had done better on the ACT–though had fare more in the way of school yr prep with more honors and AP courses. Since ACT is so content heavy/achievement oriented I wonder how its going to roll. Would be nice.</p>
<p>Techplay, I was on a similar list but for February 1996 babies. We were on Usenet at first, then moved to a self hosted listserv. We kept that list going for many years, at least through the kids were 10 or 11 if I recall correctly. I dropped off after then so for all I know it could still be going!</p>
<p>Hope ACT went well for everyone who took it this morning and all kiddos are now able to celebrate the end of testing!!</p>
<p>Interesting to see everyone’s reading lists for the summer. For AP Lit, D and S have to read The Namesake, How to Read Lit like a Professor (boy, doesn’t that sound like a fun summer read?!), and then choose any Booker prize winning book. Do all AP Lit students have to read the same books, or is it up to teachers’ discretion? Ordinarylives, I have no doubt my D would much prefer the Shades trilogy, but I blush every time I think about her reading it!!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, both did not list my DS’s college choices so I’m starting to look through each college’s website to investigate. I’m 1 for 2 so far!!</p>
<p>Novamom, I’m still on such a “babies” list for both my 1993 and 1996 babies!</p>
<p>My DS is “dropping down” from AP to honors English next year, so he gets to choose 2 books off a fairly extensive list, and also choose the writing project he wants to do. Seems like most kids in our HS take AP in 11th and then honors in 12th for any number of reasons.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that the AP lit curriculum doesn’t prescribe the books to be read, and that it’s up to the teacher. </p>
<p>Hope all the ACT takers will get happy results when the scores come in :)</p>
I’m looking forward to a great year.</p>