These Lincoln Prep high school authors’ literary ambitions will dazzle Kansas City

“This year’s English final is going to be like an ice cream shop,” I explained to a sea of confused faces. “Choose your own final. You get to decide the length, genre, and topic; or the amount of scoops, flavor and toppings — to continue my ice cream analogy.”

My students leaned back in surprise. Some of their eyes glowed with inspiration, while others clutched their desks, searching for structure. One lamented that she was lactose intolerant.

At the start of this school year at Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, as an English 10 team, we understood that we needed to rethink our instructional approach in order to adapt to the unique obstacles of this post-virtual school year. I think the most important thing I’ve learned in my years of teaching is that if a student’s motivation isn’t sparked by the relevance or value of a subject, then authentic learning doesn’t occur. Something has to matter for someone to invest in it.

So we decided to make English 10 Advanced “worth our students’ time,” in the sense that what they were working toward each quarter would have intrinsic value apart from the baseline merit of mastering English language arts. If a student wants to write scholarship essays, awesome. Let’s make those essays better and use them as the final. If a student has to write a lab report for chemistry and wants to polish it up for English, great. I’ll grade it. If they want to independently publish a collection of poetry, design a graphic novel or host a blog based on their interests, fantastic — let’s use that. Our International Baccalaureate objectives and Missouri learning standards can be applied in any of those contexts.

As teachers, what we have seen as we near the end of first quarter is that students desperately want to be heard, and I am blown away daily at the profundity of the ideas they have to offer. Although the buses stopped last year, students’ minds didn’t, and they are itching to add their voices to the published community. Diamonds are produced under extreme pressure and gold is refined through fire. As an English teacher and an author myself, I couldn’t be more excited to see the treasures these students will produce, gleaned from the solitude of the pandemic.

Last week, I announced the release of my new novel to my students as both an encouragement and a challenge for those who have chosen the long and arduous path of authorship to see it through to the end. Their response was overwhelming, and the drive for authorship at Lincoln Prep has transcended our sophomore classes.

Aron Boehle, now a senior at Lincoln, approached me about publishing a collection of short stories he has been working on. He shared: “In the sophomore year at Lincoln, I experienced a blossom of creative output. This blossom of mine was fostered by two teachers, Mr. Snider and Ms. Cooper. The learning environment presented in both classes gave me the freedom and push to write my own stories and ideas. The fact that Mr. Snider had published before gave me the further realization that publication is feasible. It feels good to know I have a source of information that I can’t get anywhere else, which makes me even more determined.”

As a sophomore, Aron received an award from the Kansas City Public Schools district for his creative writing. Hearing that he has continued to pursue this passion was super-encouraging for me and his classmates. In my estimation, we’ve got a productive and promising year ahead of us. Keep an eye out in May: Perhaps you will see the announcement of “The Poppy Adieu,” Aron’s anthology of short stories. Or maybe you’ll find Madison’s identity-based poetry collection, John’s cardiothoracic textbook, J’s psychological sci-fi novella, Jaelyn’s personal interest blog or Russell’s political commentary essay collection.

All I can say is: Stay tuned.