Former Student Required Reading Q&A: Serena Thiede

Name: Serena Thiede

Grade: 10

Former English Class: Honors English 9

1. How do you feel about being required to read books for school?

“I think it’s really good to be required to read books for school. I feel like most kids otherwise, unless they’re an Honors [English] kid, don’t really like reading, and reading is really important. So, I feel like to have that kind of mid-ground [of] ‘you don’t have to read, but we want to read these things because they have good messages’ is a really good thing in our school right now.”

2. What book from Honors English 9 taught you the most?

“The good old Book Thief. I feel like all those books said a lot, but I feel like that one spoke to me the most.”

3. How do you feel about the amount of reading in Honors English 9?

“It wasn’t too much for me; I read a lot on my own anyway. I would get my reading done super fast, and it was never a problem for me, and I enjoyed it.”

4. What reading-related advice would you give to a student currently enrolled in Honors English 9?

“Never put it off. That’ll always get you in the butt, and I know better than that. It happened once and never again.” 

5. How did your experience in Honors English 9 impact the class you chose to take this year?

“I thought the class was really fun; I just liked the people a lot and the environment that the class created. And I think, [for] me, just hearing all the good things about Honors 10 [made me think] ‘Okay, this is a good path for me to take,’ and with the things I like, I think it really worked well.”