With the changing times, everyone must learn to adapt in certain ways. In very similar fashion, with the Language Arts Department investing in new books, the teachers and students must adapt to a new curriculum – including different literature, genres, stories, etc. 

     For the Language Arts Department, change is not an event, it is a process. Going with the adage, “out with the old, in with the new,” doesn’t necessarily work in education. Change is usually very gradual. In this gradual process the English 4 Classes are reading a British Literature classic – The Hound of Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle’s main characters, of course, are Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Watson. 

     A somewhat difficult read, due to its highly formal language, seniors are using context clues in sentences  to determine the meaning of words they usually don’t use or see in everyday life. Every two or three chapters, the class – using small group activities – decipher the meaning of difficult words in ten selected sentences. 

    Just like Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Watson, the seniors are using clues and deductive reasoning to determine definitions. To have a detective’s mindset, the class also had a guest speaker come into the class. Detective Beau Baker of the Lexington Police Department gave a presentation and the class asked him various questions.