FALL PLAY
NEW SWIMMERS
WINTER BREAK ATTRACTIONS
Students perform “The Odd Couple”to rave reviews
Over half of the swim team is new this season
Where should Ritenour students spend their break?
SPORTS, Page 8
SPOTLIGHT Page 7
OPINION Page 2
THE PEPPER BOX RITENOUR HIGH SCHOOL
ISSUE 4, VOLUME 96
9100 ST. CHARLES ROCK ROAD, ST. LOUIS, MO 63114
DECEMBER 2018
Pham accepts her teacher’s challenge Freshman Vickie Pham discovered a love of reading after going far beyond her assignment By: ALBERTO LINARES CERVANTEZ Pepper Box Staff Although English teachers have objectives that they must cover, one of their main focuses in class is to impart a love of reading onto their students. Freshman Vickie Pham took this and ran, as she has read and completed six novels from the beginning of school to now during her reading time in class. A few of the novels out of the six Pham has read are: “Graceling”, “Crimson Frost”, “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before”, and “Unspoken”. Pham said that she does have a specific taste when choosing her books, but was not necessarily an avid reader when the school year began. “I enjoy reading fantasy, action, romance, and mythical books. I’ll try anything that is not a nonfiction book” Pham said. One of the novels Pham has read the “Graceling”, was specifically recommended to her by her English 1 teacher, Chris Pearson. “The ‘Graceling’ is written by Kristin Cashore, it is about a woman named Katsa being independent. Katsa is not independent by choice, Katsa is an outcast and she goes on an adventure to discover who she truly is on the inside. Later through
the story Katsa meets a man who understands her. And throughout the story Katsa and the man get closer together as he joins Katsa on her adventure of discovering herself,” Pham said. Christopher Pearson, Pham’s English 1 teacher assigned the class a reading project over the period of first semester. “One of the things I do right in the beginning of the year is assign a novel reading project for my English 1 class filled with freshman. As new students to the high school I allow them to choose the novel they would like to read independently. I assign this project on the second day of school and tell my students it is due December,” Pearson said. Pearson was shocked that although there was so much work to be done with the one novel for the project, Pham did not just stop at one. She was so inspired by the first book that she kept reading more than she ever had before. “The students have a whole semester to read the book they have chosen; on top of the other work we do. They do three projects with it, write a book review, and two other projects of their choice; I like to be lenient and give them options,” Pearson said. “Around the end of the first
Martin Trujillo Carrazco Freshman Vickie Pham has gained a love of reading after being inspired by her English teacher.
month of school Vickie was on her third or fourth book.” Pearson uses this project to encourage his students to read, by allowing them to choose their own novel. He believes he can get them to be interested in reading first by allowing them to read a novel that interests the students. It will aid them to learn other English 1 objectives that he has planned for them to learn later on in the semester.
“The real joy in reading comes from being able to choose what novels you’re interested in. I think even though I, as a teacher, should push my students to read novels that they don’t necessarily like, allowing them to read stories they are interested in activates the high interest reading within them. This pushes them to sit down and read the book, even if they usually would
not,” Pearson said. Pearson’s strategy has worked with Pham, as she says that the class has pushed her to do more reading for fun than she had ever done before. “I did not enjoy reading at all before this year, until Mr. Pearson assigned us books to read. Then I began to love reading and read six novels in a row” said Pham.
Freshmen learn about Renaissance rewards 155 freshmen received “Right Track” rewards to start their high school careers
By DANIELA SAENZ Pepper Box Staff While Renaissance cards are widely acknowledged by returning students as rewards for positive gains in classes for each semester, the freshman class recently got their first set of cards and it has pushed the school to look at how more kids can qualify for these rewards. Denise Schindler is a Family and Consumer Science Instructor, CTE Department Chair, A+ Mentoring and Tutoring Director, and the Renaissance Director. She said the idea for the cards has existed for a decade. “The Renaissance cards are an incentive that started approximately 10 years ago when we came back from The Renaissance conference. This year, we handed out 155
IN THIS ISSUE
punch cards to the freshman,” Schindler said. The different GPAs have different number of punches. Students also need 90% attendance and no in-school or out-of-school suspensions. The cards are based on the previous semesters grades. “The purpose of Renaissance cards is to encourage the freshman to be successful in their classes,” Principal Jeff Marker said. Marker acknowledges that there can be a disconnect with some freshman as they transition to the high school, which could explain why only 155 cards were handed out to the freshman class. “Some of the problems that might have happened are: freshman have a hard time transitioning to high school from middle school, classes are way higher than they expected, we do not PLAY REVIEW PAGE 2
promote the idea of success as well as we could have, and they might not be ready for the rigors of a seven period day with all of the freedom that goes with it.” Marker said. “There might be other reasons. Too many times we work to come up with solutions, but never talk with the people who have the greatest ability to make the changes.” Renaissance handed out punch cards out in August to the sophomores, juniors, and seniors with 3.0 or higher from last year’s second semester, but they also wanted to give the freshman an opportunity to earn something early in their high school career A freshman doesn’t have high school grades until January, so handing out early cards was intended to give students with a certain GPA,
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privileges in the classroom as well as around the school; for example, free admission to some athletic events, $1 off library fines, fast passes for the lunch line the on the second Friday of the month, and hand outs at the Husky store the third Wednesday of the month. “To encourage them to get good grades, we do a “Right Track” hand out to encourage them to keep or get grades by semester,” Schindler said. At the end of the first grading period, which takes place after the second quarter, if a freshman had no D’s or F’s on their report card they were given a punch card and a ‘treat’. “I personally think that freshman do not understand that grades, homework, assignments really do count and that they need to do the work in classes. In middle
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school, there is limited homework and students get answers instead of them having to problem solve and justify their thinking as they do at the high school, and having to work at figuring things out and practice and apply what they are taught. It is a big transition,” Schindler said. Many freshman do not even know what the card is, or the steps that they will need to take to get one. Freshman Réne Nelson said she was happy to get the card, but didn’t really understand the benefits, or even what it was when she received it. “I think some of them didn’t receive them because of their grades.” “When I got the card, I thought ‘Oh cool! It comes with candy’, but I did not know how to use it,” Nelson said.
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MANAGERS’ ROLES PAGE 8