As a member of the Enumclaw High School English Department, I want to thank the Enumclaw Schools Foundation and this community for the grant we received this fall. Recently, the department has worked to increase the rigor specifically in the sophomore classes. The proposal asked for money to fund a new novel for sophomores to support this increased rigor.

One way we hoped to encourage student interest was by allowing the students to help to choose the novel. As a department, we sifted through novels appropriate for sophomores that would also challenge their reading and critical thinking skills. When that list was pared to three, excerpts from those three novels were given out, students completed a survey, and the results were tabulated. Overwhelmingly, the students chose “When the Emperor Was Divine” by Julie Otsuka. That novel was ordered last week and we are all looking forward to this new challenge.

I encourage our community to support the Enumclaw Schools Foundation so they can continue to offer grants such as these to teachers. You can do this by visiting the website at: www.enumclawschoolsfoundation.org. Also, if you make purchases on Amazon.com, there is a link to click which will automatically donate a portion of your purchases to the foundation.

Ann Freiberger

EHS English Department