June 12, 1999

Dear English Teacher of the Next Year,

Hello, this is of course, Paul Dolzall of Mr. Luizzi’s 1998-1999 period 7 English class. I am writing this letter to you for several reasons. First to state my opinion on weather or not we should do digital portfolios next year, and second to state the expectations I have of your class next year. Finally, it is also to tell you what I am going to do to "prepare" for class over the summer.

On the issue of the digital portfolio vs. paper portfolio, I would certainly not mind doing a digital portfolio rather than a normal one next year. There are several properties I like better about the digital version. First, it means you don’t have to carry around/save your paper all year and worry about losing it. Second, and this is the part I like, one can be much more creative, interactive and "grand" with a digital portfolio. It is more permanent than a normal one, it is not thrown away at the end of the year. Also, anyone can view a digital portfolio, anywhere, anytime, assuming a computer with a modem is hooked up. There are really no limits to it. I also don’t find the digital portfolios to be much more time consuming than the normal ones, and in short, they are more rewarding. However, I realize this might not work for all students, as many sophomore classes did not do digital portfolio’s this year, and thus some students would be far behind others if it was done that way. Because of this, and other smaller problems, it seems it would be a good idea to let each student choose which they were going to do.

As for what I expect of your class next year, I’m not quite sure. Luizzi is a hard teacher, it would be difficult to give more work than him, but I’m sure it could be done, and unfortunately for us students it probably will be done by some teacher or you. Since I really have no idea what to expect, I’ll just say what I’d like. In writing, I would definitely like lots of creative type things, (stories etc.) a end to the "Persuasive Essay" would be nice. I’m not saying I don’t want to write anything persuasive, or with a message, but the CAPT type of thing will drive me insane if I do it many more times. I’ve never had a real strict, tense, type of classroom environment in an English class, and I guess I’d like to keep it that way. The semi-militaristic attitude is more of a math class type of thing, English should be a bit more "free." Another thing I enjoy in English classes is if we read a variety of books, rather than one or two types all year long. It spices things up a bit, for if all the books are the same, English starts to seem like "Poetry Class" or "First Person Class." One final "recommendation" if one wishes to call it that, is of course to make class fun, , I’m not quite sure how to word it, as different people have different definitions of "fun."

As for what I’m going to do over the summer to prepare for class, I don’t have anything in particular planned out for this class at least. For the history part which goes along with the English I shall find myself figuring out the answers and sources of the answers for a 100 question test, but I don’t think that counts. So over the summer I’ll probably relax for the most part, but I’ll read some books along the way probably, and perhaps I’ll write a story or something, which I occasionally do. I find them hard to start, but once I get going I like to write them.

So that’s about all I really have to say, other than I’m looking forward to your class next year, (although at the moment I’m looking forward to summer break more.) and hopefully it will be a good one.

Sincerely ,

Paul Dolzall