HS LITERACY

Looking for something to read? Here are some resources:

• Recommendations from the ISB HS Book Cult 
• Book List from How to Read Literature Like a Professor 
• 101 Great Books Recommended for College-Bound Readers  
• 32 Books That Will Actually Change Your Life 
• 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels 
• My Ultimate Book Recommendations List 
• The Greatest Books of All Time, As Voted by 125 Famous Authors 
• Learn more about how to read and analyze literature in Tomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor   
• Take a CrashCourse in literature with John Green 
• Take a free literature course through edX or Coursera 
• Use your school-provided New York Times account and follow the news    

A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit. Richard Bach, author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Here are some resources to help you further develop your writing skills:  

• Maintain a journal - either in hard copy or digitally, using Penzu 
• Continue posting to your school-provided WordPress blog or create a new blog devoted to topics that interest you 
• Create a Twitter account and start microblogging - here are some tips for getting started
• Need inspiration?  Try out some of these writing prompts
• Contribute to Teen Ink
• Join Write the World
• Join Camp NanNoWriMo and write a novel during the month of July!  
• Join a conversation at Youth Voices
• Consider entering one of these writing contests or publishing your writing in one of these places. 
• Take a free How to Write a Winning Personal Statement course
• Take a free creative writing or writing course through edX or Coursera
• Further develop your grammar skills with either Quill, the Khan Academy Grammar Course or Daily Grammar 

Podcasts are music for the mind. Anonymous

Many of us in the High School English Department are absolutely obsessed with podcasts. Here are a few of our top recommendations:   

• TED Radio Hour 
• The Moth 
• Revisionist History 
• How I Built This 
• Dear Hank and John 
• The Anthropocene Reviewed 
• This American Life 
• Stuff You Should Know 
• The Happiness Lab 
• Radiolab 
• Serial 
• Stuff you Missed in History Class 
• Or, instead of listening, further develop your public speaking skills by  
  • Creating your own podcast using this free tool 
  • Taking a free online course through edX 

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do. Benjamin Spock, author of Baby and Child Care

Here are some resources to help you prepare for the reading and writings of the SAT:

• SAT Reading and Writing - Khan Academy 
• Free SAT Practice from the College Board  
• Develop your vocabulary with Freerice, Vocabador, or SAT Vocab by MindSnacks  

Have a wonderful summer, everyone!  If you are returning to ISB in August, we look forward to seeing you then. If you are moving on, we wish you well. Please keep in touch. The members of the HS English Department at ISB.