Wellesley High School Summer Reading

Hi everyone,

While browsing through the Massachusetts Summer Reading (High School) List the other day, I noticed Wellesley High School is doing a similar thing as us with poetry! They are requiring students to "read any ten poems and the narratives that accompany them from the collection Americans' Favorite Poems, by Robert Pinsky."

The summer reading committee has accepted the Favorite Poem theme. We've decided that students will use the Poetry 180 web site or book - Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry by Billy Collins - to locate, read and select poems.

Students will also read, in addition to poems, selections from the grade level list. Each grade level list includes 6-8 selections that are connected to a language arts curriculum theme. They are as follows:

Grade 9: Tolerance
Grade 10: Self-Discovery
Grade 11: Conformity/Non-conformity
Grade 12: Memoir

The summer reading committee has developed the list of titles.

We anticipate assigning students the task of performing their favorite poem when they return in September. They will also do some reflective writing in addition to the performance. We will kick-off summer reading with a poetry performance for all High School students by Poetry Alive on June 9, 2009.

Welcome to the DHS summer reading blog 2008/9. Here committee members and other interested persons can keep track of our progress and recommendations for the new list of book titles.

Use this link to the Favorite Poem Project to learn more about this Robert Pinsky project at Boston University. Listen to Bostonians reading poems that matter to them.