~Ethan Pearson-Class of 2024

A Mostly True Sunday-night English Session

Concord, Massachusetts is the site of the Fenn School. And the 25 members of the ninth grade class are all chatting in a ninth grade group chat on a Sunday night, discussing they have not finished the homework and not sure if they will be able to finish it. As usual, they procrastinated on the English homework until the last minute. On that cold Sunday night in January, three of the ninth graders decide to begin working on the Power Phrasing exercises that Fitz, their English teacher assigned. 

After taking a quick look over the assignment, they realize that just the three of them won’t be able to get done in time for school tomorrow, so they call for some backup. In the group chat, other class members started yapping about this work and said they also have not done it and do not understand what to do. Bob, the smartest one in the class, eventually chimes in and says that he has just started the work and thinks that it would be a better idea to work together. 

The class began talking over how they were going to complete the assignment as a unit. After a long discussion, the classmates finally worked it out and commenced the typing. Bob & others decided to split up the work amongst the 5 people who were on Snapchat at the time. He decided that Jonas would work on the 5-sentence paragraphs at the beginning with Tom, while Bob, Andrew and Billy would finish the sentences at the bottom of the document with the independent clauses and semicolons, and many more types of grammar. 

While everybody thought that splitting up the work would make it go by in a flash, the assignment wouldn’t let them breeze through the work so easily. First, it was the independent clauses that attacked them. Then came the long dashes. 

Finally, the most feared group of words arrived, a phrase. It took them a solid 15 minutes to get past those. When all the energy was drained from the original five students, and almost all hope was lost, two new ninth graders stepped in to help. Those two go by the names of Miles and Joe. Miles and Joe may not be as smart as Bob, but they sure do have the grit and fortitude to put in the work needed. 

Those two brought just enough energy to get ready for the final boss. Many of the ninth graders wanted to quit, and just go play video games for the rest of the night. Joe, being the energetic person he is, rallied the class up and said, “We must keep going til’ all is done!” Those words alone got everybody hyped up and ready to take on the last few sentences, full of phrases, independent clauses, and more. 

After a lightning fast five minutes, the whole class exclaimed, “Hurrah! We’ve done it!” After completing the HW, the ninth grade class returns to the group chat to celebrate. They realize the huge feat that they’ve accomplished, something that they never thought they could do in one night. 

Now, they can’t wait to go to bed and show up tomorrow more ready than ever at English class. Every member of the class is ready when they walk through the door of B216 on Monday morning. 

The class settles in and is ready for the next assignment. Fitz announces that the next assignment is to write another heroic cycle essay, but this time without the help of the group chat… 

The class listens to instructions and gets right to work. Fitz is proud of everyone’s hard work and praises everyone for doing an amazing job. 

What seemed like a long and hard homework assignment turned out to be a success, as everyone in the class got an 100%, and their overall grades moved up by 5% thanks to Joe rallying the class and Bob coming in clutch with his natural smartness, organizing of the group, and and overall, helping every student along the way.