<p>For English DS had to read Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder and How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. For AP World History they had a number of online articles from different books they had to read.
In both cases they had a test over the material on the second day of school. They were told that they would have the tests at the beginning of the summer.</p>
<p>Good news: No required summer reading here. Just some reading for fun. (DS did have to read some Chemistry, but only because he requested permission from the teacher to skip the college prep class.)</p>
<p>Bad news: No required reading because they reserve the right to mess up schedules until just before classes start. We’ll find out tomorrow… During the summer parents get various calls about which requested classes conflict. Probably the history APs and English APs would be OK, because there are several sections of each, but they don’t want to make any guarantees until school starts. So far, our only notification was that DS either has to take math at 7 am (zero period) or take a different class. He chose 7 am.</p>
<p>@MichiganGeorgia “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” look interesting. I sent a sample to DS’s Kindle.</p>
<p>@ericd1112 I’m just guessing that here they will make all the sophomores take the ACT Aspire on the same day the juniors take the PSAT, because they did that last year with the ACT Plan. But, if ACT raised the price the school may not have figured that into their budget. ACT isn’t that big around here, so I don’t know. Not many dots for it on Naviance. If ACT Aspire isn’t a good indicator for ACT scores, it would be nice if DS could just take the PSAT with the juniors that day, rather than me driving him over the hills to the only school nearby that offers the PSAT on the Saturday date.</p>
<p>Our sophomores take the PSAT with the juniors. I hadn’t hear of the PLAN/Aspire until coming to CC. The SAT is much more prevalent than the ACT.</p>
<p>Our sophomores also take the PSAT when the juniors take it. It’s pretty helpful to get a general idea of how the student tests before taking the PSAT when it counts for national merit consideration. </p>
<p>Yay, a good surprise–he got into the 2nd period math class, so no 0th period! (Though the schedule says it is unofficial and they will get “official” schedules in 1st period of the first day, so still room for him to get bumped.)</p>
<p>Good for your S Ynotgo. My S gets his schedule tomorrow, although he has a good idea of what it will be. Both my kids (S17 and D15) are excited to go to their orientation tomorrow and see their friends. School starts on Monday for them.</p>
<p>My S also had to read How to Read Literature Like a Professor. He also had to read The Road. He said the first book was fine and the second was so boring. He was able to get all of his first choice classes but he goes to a huge school so they have lots of sections of the same class each day. I can’t believe he goes back to school next week. </p>
<p>^lol. DS usually loves reading. He reads all the time and always checking books out of the library. However it took him forever to get through Sophie’s World. It was extremely boring for him and he could only read it in small doses. Sometimes I wonder about the books they chose to have the kids read. </p>
<p>I agree MichiganGeorgia. Some of the books and primary sources S had to read last year were a great aid for insomnia.</p>
<p>Spykid has summer reading and a math packet due for Honors Pre-Calculus. This year’s books are Ready Player One & Brave New World. RPO was a quick read. BNW is a bit slower. He’s my non-fiction kid so neither book thrilled him. He did like one of his freshman summer titles, The White Tiger, but hated The Fault in our Stars. :)</p>
<p>He received his schedule about a month ago, and so far there have been no emails from his counselor, so fingers crossed it’s the final schedule.</p>
<p>First day of school here for S (and D15). I am happy that they are now back to a “routine”. S’s summer routine was staying up until almost midnight playing computer games and sleeping late and getting up well after H and I went off to work. That was broken up by a few trips and camps. It made me crazy, but he sweetly told me that is what kids are supposed to do.</p>
<p>I found Ready Player One to be a laugh-out-loud book, but so much of it is in jokes from when I was in high school. My son loves dystopian novels and video games, but I didn’t know if kids these days would get all the stuff about 80s movies and video games.</p>
<p>My kids also had to read The Fault in our Stars…neither enjoyed it. DS14 is my non-fiction kid and it was always a struggle to get him through the required readings. </p>
<p>Since it looks like there are non-fiction readers here, what books would you recommend to coincide with World History? My S has to do a book report related to World History every nine weeks. They can chose their own book so any recommendations would be helpful. Thanks!</p>
<p>@jedwards70 Diary of Anne Frank was the first that came to mind, but he may have already read that in an earlier grade. My husband really liked “Unbroken” – which is also WWII. My mother-in-law recommends “Salt: A World History”, but my husband found it repetitive about 1/2 way through. I like books by Jared Diamond (“Guns, Germs, and Steel” and “Collapse”), but some of his conclusions are controversial, so it helps to also read the critiques of “Collapse” in particular. I enjoyed “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong”, so his more recent “Lies My Teacher Told Me About Christopher Columbus: What Your History Books Got Wrong” might be more appropriate to World History.</p>
<p>GoodReads generally has good reviews:
<a href=“Nonfiction Worldhistory Books”>Nonfiction Worldhistory Lt A Gt Books;
<a href=“Nonfiction History Books”>Nonfiction History Lt A Gt Lt P Gt Books;
<p>DH and DS17 both read Fault in our Stars a few months ago and liked it lots. I resisted their encouragement to read it until recently (too many friends who’ve dealt with cancer lately). I enjoyed it, but I don’t think I’ll see the film. I don’t like watching tear-jerkers in a crowd; embarrassing to come out with red eyes and smudged makeup.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this would work (The fourth World of the Hopis by Harold Courlander )because it is mostly about their stories about their culture so maybe it’s considered fiction but DS thought it was interesting.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.amazon.com/The-Fourth-World-Hopis-Traditions/dp/0826310117#cm_cr_dpwidget”>http://www.amazon.com/The-Fourth-World-Hopis-Traditions/dp/0826310117#cm_cr_dpwidget</a></p>
<p>I highly recommend Unbroken for students who like non fiction. It is laid out like a novel but it is the true story of Louis Zamperini and it is riveting.</p>
<p>How’s the school year going for you and your 2017 kids? About 2 weeks of school done here.</p>
<p>The past two evenings I was at Back-to-School nights (aka Meet the Teachers) for S17 and D21 (my last elementary BtSN 
). I still have one BtSN left next week for the engineering program S17 is in.</p>
<p>S17s school has a new “modified block” schedule this year. They have all 6 classes on Mon, Tues, Friday. On Wed and Thurs, they start late and have 3 90-minutes classes (odds vs. evens) and a 40-minute “seminar” that will be used for study hall, remedial work, volunteer tutoring, and some other things. So, the students and teachers are still getting used to what that means for homework and test schedules. Still some kinks to work out, I think.</p>
<p>His teachers all seem good from the 10 minutes tonight and what he has said. None of them plan to pile on tons of homework just for the sake of homework, so that bodes well I think. I saw plenty of familiar parents in English, chemistry, engineering, and PE, so I know that he has plenty of friends in those classes. </p>
<p>S17 is 3 weeks into his sophomore year and so far so good. He actually has matured and is, for the most part, turning his work in on time. He had “challenges” remembering to actually turn in the work he had done. He likes his classes and his teachers. The school has a 3 week diagnostic period where they see if kids are appropriately placed, and if not they move them. Now that that is coming to an end, the class may get a bit more intense. His schedule is 4 days of core classes (M-Th) and 3 2-hr blocks for electives on Friday. The kids LOVE going to school on Friday :)</p>
<p>On another note, he will be taking the PSAT in October for practice, even though the test will change for our kids next year. I want him to get some standardized tests under his belt. I think I’ll also sign him up for an SAT in January or March. I have told him this and he said OK, but this is the child who “listens but didn’t hear”, so he may not remember that he agreed!</p>
<p>Those are some interesting schedules. My son is on a block schedule where he has four 90 minute classes each day but the classes alternate every other day so half his classes are on an “a” day and the other half on a “b” day. He has a total of 8 classes. He already has tons of homework. </p>
<p>@mtrosemom That is great that they have a diagnostic period. I bet that helps a lot of kids. </p>