HS2C | Senior Program

HS2C does not set out to teach you to write. You already know quite a bit about that and have been writing quizzes, tests, papers, and essays for a while. Instead, this course is an opportunity to examine your present writing ability, to think about your past assignments, and to try out some of the techniques and skills you will need for writing at the next level.

HS2C meets every weekday, Monday - Friday. Each class period runs 9:10 - 12:00, with a break in the middle. For the morning academic block, students have the option of either applying to HS2C or enrolling in two enrichment courses. There is an additional fee of $450 for HS2C.

High school language arts classes should, and usually are, a reasonable way to prepare to write in college. But while youth league and playground sports may introduce you to soccer or baseball, organized practices, conditioning, and drilling are needed when you move onto competitive teams. Writing is like that—athlete or writer, you need to enhance your ability as the level of the challenge increases. College writing builds on good high school preparation but your skills must proliferate and your thinking needs to mature.

HS2C offers writers who can demonstrate command of the skills of organization, argument, and expression the chance to begin thinking like college writers. What does this mean? In high school, you were often asked to write in order to demonstrate knowledge of a topic: What were the terms of this treaty? How does the author reveal the personality of the main character? What did the average plant growth show about the different photoperiods? In college, however, knowledge of the topic will be assumed. Your writing will be evaluated by the originality and cogency of your thinking and by the strength of the support you can provide for that thinking. HS2C will launch your writing in this direction.

Through short exercises, conversations, drafts, and writing assignments, you will evaluate your own writing, think about what kind of assignments you are good at and which ones can overwhelm you, and write a prescription for your writing future. You will consider how writing about history, science, and literature vary. You will practice the skills of self-editing so you can see if a paper is “good” before you submit it to a teacher. You will read a play and several articles, watch video, interview classmates, discuss the role of sources in writing, practice close reading, write short and long responses, and work harder than some of your peers at Explo. The experience of HS2C will, in the short term, make your school assignments easier to complete and stronger in concept and execution; in the long term, it will prepare you for both the application process and the educational transition from high school to college.

Admission to this class is competitive and requires the submission of a letter describing your interest in HS2C and why you believe you are a strong candidate for the course. The letter should be addressed to the HS2C Admission Committee and provide an explanation of your interest in this course (please restrict yourself to 500 words).