Whether students passed their ELA benchmark determined whether or not they had to attend the ELA OFYP day last week. Seniors and students who had a combination of excellent benchmark scores coupled with no ELA retests had a day off.

    Students attending rotated between classes on short answer writing, essay writing, and editing and revising, as well as an “activity period” where they spent some time in the gym and had brain teaser-solving contests.

    “We tried to arrange the day so that the students did have some down time, even though they spent the majority of their day working on specifics for their upcoming EOC tests,” teacher Melonie Menefee said. “The day is designed to give students a solid push to give them the best chance possible to pass that test later this spring.”

    Students enjoyed their down time, but teachers tried to make the classes interesting, as well.

    “My favorite part of OFYP day was when we did the essay in Mrs. Henson’s class because she made it fun,” sophomore Austin Johnson said. “Going to the gym was pretty fun too.”

    The teachers mixed it up a bit to keep students on their toes and keep things interesting. Instead of doing plain sitting and writing, teacher Jill Henson had her students complete a variety of activities.

    “They did more than write persuasive essays in my class,” Henson said. “I mixed up the paragraph orders of two persuasive essays and had them put them in the correct order, and determine which paragraphs went with which story.”