The English department also emphasizes creative thinking. No matter what the ability level of our students, we give them opportunities to do creative projects that combine language skills with various social, artistic, and technological skills.
Juniors and seniors end their years in English class by creating projects which combine all of these skills. Each of these projects combines research and presentation skills. The Junior Career Fair is an activity in which the juniors showcase their abilities by presenting a project on a chosen career to underclassmen. They research a career, create a visual with a display board, and devise clever ways to interact with other students in a fair-like atmosphere. The Senior English Festival has the same research, display, and interactive components. These projects combine a student’s interests or curiosities with some aspect of a piece of literature they’ve read. Coming right before graduation, the festival is a kind of celebration in many ways. Each of these projects counts for half of students’ final exam grade, and most agree it is a nice way to end the academic year.
This year students will have the oppurtunity to work on these projects with new laptops as part of Drury's ASUS eeePC pilot program. There will be more information about this program added to the website as it unfolds.
