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Sage Hill School's English Portfolio Evening
No final exams in Sage Hill English classes—not this year, not ever. Instead, our students create a unique visual presentation and write an accompanying essay reflecting on their body of work from the year. In this week’s blog post, Head of School Gordon McNeill gives us a preview of tonight’s English Portfolio Evening.
When I think back to most of the English classes I took as a student, my interest in a book began with the first paragraph and ended with the last sentence of my paper. I would have been hard pressed to remember the book by the end of the year, much less reflect on how it fit into the bigger picture of my life. But here at Sage Hill, we inspire our students to do just that, and the results are amazing. To find out just how amazing, come to tonight’s Portfolio Evening.
This year’s theme, Limit(less), is meant to imply the boundless potential for achievement through imagination, creativity and personal growth. The use of parentheses in the title, and the postcard sent to our families showing an endless horizon and open road, together symbolize how what might seem to be constraining can, in reality, be liberating and break through creative and personal boundaries.
How fitting is that for Sage Hill School! Here, in every subject, we find all sorts of ways to break through boundaries and enrich the meaning of our students’ lessons. Nowhere is this more evident than in our English department, where the literary works read and papers written throughout the year don’t stand solely on their own. At the end of the year, our students are challenged to reflect on a core question, weaving together the literature, their writing, and their personal thoughts in an essay and a visual element to be presented tonight, Portfolio Evening, here at school.
If you haven’t been to Portfolio Evening in years past, you are in for a treat. The Ueberroth Gymnasium is transformed into a visual museum, with creative works representing our students’ reflections on their core question. Accompanying the visual displays will be the essays, and students will be on hand to answer your questions about what they produced and why.
In ninth grade, students study several genres throughout the year, which share a core theme of “Coming of Age.” Now, as part of their own coming of age, they are asked to consider who they are becoming as readers, writers and individuals. In past years, we’ve seen students create displays about aspects of their identity that define them, such as “My Life as a Rock Band.” We’ve also had one student invent a “time machine,” and another set up a simple microscope through which a tiny picture of himself could be viewed. I can hardly wait to see what the students created this year.
Our sophomores read core texts that enable them to look beyond themselves and consider who they are in the broader community. Their work over the course of the year links to their service learning, in which they taught language arts to students in local schools. Juniors read American literature, inspiring a reflection on who they are as citizens of America. Among the memorable displays have been an edible selection of mini apple pies by a junior and a scientific display of balance by a sophomore.
Seniors, as their crowning achievement in English at Sage Hill, are asked to purposefully and reflectively explore how one text from this year and another from a previous year have impacted them and their thinking as they graduate. Seniors’ work is displayed in the Humanities classroom and is more interactive in nature. Underclassmen and visitors interview the seniors about their projects.
In challenging our students to think broadly and personally about their work for the year, our English department is instilling far deeper meaning to the lessons learned. Our students are gaining an ability to think critically on a very high level, one that will serve them well as they enter college and go through life. The visual representations you will see tonight are impressive and important, but the entire process the students go through to develop the essay and visual element are even more so. It is that process that is truly Limit(less). Unconstrained by expectations or assumptions, by right or wrong answers, our students have boundless opportunities to extract from their English classes insights that can last throughout their lives.
See you this evening!
Sage Hill School
A college preparatory independent day school for grades 7-12.
20402 Newport Coast Drive, Newport Coast, CA 92657
Phone: 949.219.0100 | Fax: 949.219.1399
20402 Newport Coast Drive, Newport Coast, CA 92657
Phone: 949.219.0100 | Fax: 949.219.1399
Sage Hill School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. The School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship programs, and athletic and other School administered programs.