Welcome to Caroline Howard Elston's website for Yearbook, AP Language and Composition, and Honors English 11. I am excited about all of the instruction and projects this year, and about learning alongside my classes. I expect all of my students to wholeheartedly embrace reading, writing, and thinking. So often, I hear, "Well, I like to read about things I'm interested in." That's fine, but building memory, honing critical thinking skills, challenging difficult texts, formulating opinions, and communicating our thoughts takes hard work. The brain is a muscle; use it or lose it! In fact, research shows us that if we are not tackling texts that are "harder" than we like, we will lose ground. This self-sifting happens most often in the leap to junior year. Juniors, especially, must build mental muscle so that you won't slip through the sieve. We are in this together, so let's have fun while we moan and groan!