Over the course of the third nine weeks, students in Pre-AP English II will be focusing on the topic of, “What motivates us to forgive?” 

They will be responsible for choosing a novel pertaining to wrongdoings and forgiveness, and conduct independent reading in preparation for the argumentative essay at the end of the grading period.

“I think it’s important that students be exposed to it because in high school, students have to learn how to navigate through difficult interpersonal relationships, so learning how to process issues like forgiveness is very essential,” PAP English 2 teacher Chad Doty said. “One of our goals as English teachers is to help students develop the discipline of reading, so additional things such as independent reading novels will help build reading stamina. If they have a novel that’s fresh in their minds, they are able to respond to a prompt with specific evidence and thorough commentary.”

Sophomore Nikitha Senthilkumar also believes that learning about forgiveness is an important part of life, the unit is something that she’s looking forward to.

“I hope to learn about why forgiveness is really important,” Senthilkumar said. “It could definitely be of use to me because forgiveness is an act of kindness and goodness that will help me dealing with times where I could get emotionally/physically harmed. Having to choose a novel to read alongside what we learn in class is a good way to connect the novel to forgiveness in real life.”

The same goes for sophomore Louis Staton who appreciates learning about forgiveness and how it can be used in the everyday world.

“I feel like a lot of people have issues with forgiving other people, so being able to learn about this subject along with the three others that we learn about in PAP English II really shines a light on what we need to be doing as human beings to make sure that we are all mindful of our actions,” Staton said. “I like how we bring all the knowledge that we’ve learned over the 7-8 weeks into a project that combines English writing elements along with it. I hope that I can learn not only the psychology of what forgiveness is, but also how we can fit into our literary assignments.”