Class Topic : “Writing on Partition”
Class schedule : 12 weeks, January – April, 75 minutes, Wednesdays and Saturdays
Readings : Nisid Hajari, Midnight’s Furies ; “The Great Divide,” The New Yorker ; Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children ; Shobha Rao, An Unrestored Woman
Assignments : biweekly reading journal, weekly essay responses, 3,300-word final essay
PARTH’S GOALS
As a 10th grader at a large public high school, Parth was eager to strengthen his essay writing skills and feel better prepared for AP English and AP Research.
Parth was really into history and historical fiction, and he had a deep personal interest in Partition, the 1947 division of India and Pakistan that displaced between 15 to 20 million people virtually overnight. Parth’s grandparents were Partition survivors, and he wanted to study it in depth — but his school curriculum gave it no attention at all.
Drawing on his passion for history and fiction, Parth and I designed a 12-week writing class focused on Partition. Our curriculum covered fiction and nonfiction, including Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and Shobha Rao’s award-winning story collection, An Unrestored Woman. Every week, Parth practiced close reading and annotation and prepared for our discussion challenges (e.g. “Who is the most sympathetic character?” and “What was the right decision?”). He learned to support his opinions with textual evidence in short weekly analytical essays.
FINAL ESSAY PROJECT
For his final project, Parth insisted he wanted to write “something that people would willingly read, not like essays from a formula.” (Yes! He was ready to write a college-level essay!)
I gave Parth several open-ended prompts, and we worked on developing a powerful, arguable thesis. After making his own grading rubric, he drafted and revised his essay until he felt it satisfied his high standards — because this really mattered. His final 3,300-word essay, combining historical facts and analysis with anecdotes of his family’s experience, was moving and powerful. He was proud to share it with his grandparents — and got it published it in his school magazine.
In our 12-week class, Parth mastered an impressive set of skills necessary for college: annotating, writing descriptively and concisely, MLA citation, and drafting an essay from scratch.
Best of all, Parth became enthusiastic about his work. “Researching and writing this essay was the most satisfying thing I’ve done. I’m actually excited for AP Research next fall!”
