As the year ends and classes along with it, students are looking forward to seeing what next year holds for them. Whether they are attending college, trade school, joining the military, or working a job, there are several different classes required for seniors to graduate, English 4 being one of them. While students are able to choose between honors and CP, the English 4 course is required for graduation.
Honors English 4 is an English class that aims to prepare students “to really hone those skills in reading, writing, listening, viewing, and speaking, to sharpen them… developing an independent voice, getting your communication down, being a more confident presenter in front of people, being able to read more sophisticated pieces and juggle more complex themes,” says English teacher Mr. Coletti. Students learn crucial skills that they are going to need to utilize in life beyond high school.
Freshman-year students read Romeo and Juliet in English 1 and in English 4, seniors close off their high school English career with another Shakespearean play. In Mr. Coletti’s class seniors delve deep into Shakespeare’s piece Macbeth. Coletti is passionate about Shakespeare’s piece Macbeth because he feels that despite any path you may choose in life you will always “meet a Macbeth” and it gives insight into life beyond school. In this class, students delve deep into the values of the play and make real-life connections.
Coletti has a large passion for what he does for his career. Although he wasn’t always sure that he wanted to become a teacher, “when [he] entered grad school, it was the spring of 2002, so it was right after 9/11 had happened. The job market wasn’t great, and education was something that was always in the back of my mind. When 9/11 happened, I had a friend who was a teacher in an elementary school, and he was really enjoying what he was doing, and after that happened I realized I needed to have a purpose in life. I had dealt with quite a bit of trauma as an adolescent and teenager, so I felt like going into education would be a great opportunity to share my love of literature, and try to help the next generations be prepared for the challenges they are going to see afterward, and just to give back,” Coletti says. For Coletti, teaching is more than just a job and he ultimately aims to “give back in some way, [he] hopes [to] empower generations to realize that they are ages of change, and the world will be a better place because of them.”
Students would be lucky to have Mr. Coletti as their English teacher. English 4 student Lauren Philbin has Mr. Coletti as her teacher and says, “Mr. Coletti is an excellent teacher. I feel that he has not only prepared me for attending college next year but also for the future in general. He focuses on hearing all of our independent voices and thoughts on all of the topics we cover. He is one of the only teachers I know who really seems to care about his classes, and takes class time to make sure everybody’s voice is heard.” Coletti fulfills his goal to ignite change in the generations to come by leaving a lasting impression on his students.
There are key elements that students need in Coletti’s class to be successful that range from time management to being able to talk openly in the class. When asking Coletti what the shift is in English 4 compared to other years of English, he says that incoming seniors need to “be prepared for more independent work, challenging reads, British literature, the transition from the middle ages to 2020.” Regardless of any knowledge students need walking into Mr. Coletti’s English 4 class, what they need the most is the will to work and actively interact with their peers.
