Young Writers Society

So uhh... I need to ask questions about the American school system and others associated with it

Since I don't live or have studied in any school that has the same system as those you people have in the US, it's kinda hard for me to write about the story that I'm coming up.

1. Grade systems? What grade are you and how old are you when you're in the "Seniors"
2. Schedule system? Do you have the choice to pick your schedules or do the school pick the schedules for you?
3. Class transfers? After a class, do you stay in your class and wait for the teacher to come in or do you transfer to a different classroom and come to a teacher?
4. Do you have breaks between your schedules?
5. Do you have two eating breaks? Recess and Lunch Break?
6. What time is usually your dismissal time?
7. Do you have the choice to join clubs or do they choose you?
8. "Popular kids"? Who are they?
9. What are the different trends in the American teen community? (Trends like emos, etc...)

Those are all the questions that I can think of now, I'm not sure if there's more but...
Thank you for helping

* I just realized that I posted this on the wrong forum. Could someone move it for me please? Thanks *

*Moved to Research*

Alainna
xxxxx

1. Grade systems? What grade are you and how old are you when you're in the "Seniors"
In my high school, the grades went from 9th(14 yrs. old) to 12th(17-18 yrs.) There's some variation, but that's pretty standard. Senior year is 12th grade.
2. Schedule system? Do you have the choice to pick your schedules or do the school pick the schedules for you? Both, to an extent. There's certain requirements (these vary by state and district), but there are opportunities to take electives. You might also take required classes at different levels, e.g. Biology or Honors Biology.
3. Class transfers? After a class, do you stay in your class and wait for the teacher to come in or do you transfer to a different classroom and come to a teacher? We moved from classroom to classroom.
4. Do you have breaks between your schedules? We had 10 minutes between classes (since our campus was so large). Usually it would be more like 5-7 min. "passing time"
5. Do you have two eating breaks? Recess and Lunch Break? We had one lunch break, split into two times. "A Lunch" ate first while "B Lunch" had 4th hour. Then "B Lunch" would eat while "A Lunch" had 4th hour.
6. What time is usually your dismissal time? My school went from 7:15 am-2:10 pm. There's variation in this, too.
7. Do you have the choice to join clubs or do they choose you? My school had a ton of clubs, and you were allowed to join whatever ones you wanted. The only example I can think of where you were chosen was National Honors Society. You're only invited to join if you have at or above a certain GPA and you have to apply to become a member. In order to maintain membership, you have to do so many hours of community service and maintain your GPA.
8. "Popular kids"? Who are they? I'm afraid I don't have a good answer to this. My high school was incredibly large, so there weren't really traditional "cliques". However, going by who won homecoming king/queen, I would have to go with traditional jocks(not just football)/cheerleaders. Exception was my senior year, when the star of all the school plays won.
9. What are the different trends in the American teen community? (Trends like emos, etc...) I really can't answer this. Once again, giant school, hated it, was a nerd who didn't interact much with the other groups.

1. Grade systems? What grade are you and how old are you when you're in the "Seniors"
elementry school-Kindergarten-5th grade
middle school-6th-8th grade
high school-9th-12th grade
you become a senior when you're in 12th grade, you are most likely 17 when you begin 12th grade, then become 18 later on

2. Schedule system? Do you have the choice to pick your schedules or do the school pick the schedules for you?
we HAVE to do math, english, history, science, and for the first two years of high school we have to do gym, and we pick our electives

3. Class transfers? After a class, do you stay in your class and wait for the teacher to come in or do you transfer to a different classroom and come to a teacher?
we come to the teacher

4. Do you have breaks between your schedules?
no, only about 4 minutes to get to and from class

5. Do you have two eating breaks? Recess and Lunch Break?
in middle school and high school, we no longer have recess, and our lunch is about 25 minutes long

6. What time is usually your dismissal time?
elementary- 2:45pm
middle - 2:00pm
high - 1:45pm

7. Do you have the choice to join clubs or do they choose you?
we have a choice

8. "Popular kids"? Who are they?
mainly the cheerleaders and the girl who can afford Hollister (but not all of the girls)

9. What are the different trends in the American teen community? (Trends like emos, etc...)
the most popular trends in my school so far is punk/rock and emo (and cheerleaders if you can count that as a trend)

Hope I Helped!

1. Grade systems? What grade are you and how old are you when you're in the "Seniors"
Seniors are twelfth grade and they're usually 17 or 18 year old people. ^_^

2. Schedule system? Do you have the choice to pick your schedules or do the school pick the schedules for you?
Usually for seniors, they've gotta get in the last of their requirements if they have required classes and though you might have a say in the classes you WANT, some options, the administrators set up the schedules so they work right. C:

3. Class transfers? After a class, do you stay in your class and wait for the teacher to come in or do you transfer to a different classroom and come to a teacher?
:O In highschool, it's mostly going to a different room. C: Like, unless you have two classes of the same subject with the same teacher, then yeah. xD

4. Do you have breaks between your schedules?
Only breaks to get to the next class!

5. Do you have two eating breaks? Recess and Lunch Break?
Nope, usually just one lunch break, and in high school, there's usually not recess. <_< Are we still talking about high school seniors?

6. What time is usually your dismissal time?
Around three, I think. C:

7. Do you have the choice to join clubs or do they choose you?
Clubs, like academic clubs and stuff? You get to choose if you're a member, but there might be some you'd have to have certain requirements for? I dunno. ^_^

8. "Popular kids"? Who are they?
They are... in stereotypical high schools they are the kids everyone secretly hates because they usually have great clothes, rich parents, and they just think they're better than everyone else. But sometimes, in other schools, they're just kids who are most involved in making friends with everyone and kind of like leaders! ^_^

9. What are the different trends in the American teen community? (Trends like emos, etc...)
Umm, actually, I don't really have experience with cliques, so I will leave this to everyone else. <_<

1. Grade systems? What grade are you and how old are you when you're in the "Seniors"
12th grade = seniors (17-18 years old)
11th grade (my grade ) = juniors (16-17 years old)
10th grade = sophomores (15-16 years old)
9th grade = freshman (14-15 years old)
6th-8th is middle school (11-14)
1st-5th is elementary school (6-11)

2. Schedule system? Do you have the choice to pick your schedules or do the school pick the schedules for you?
At my high school you pick all of your own classes. There are some requirements, like you have to take four years of language arts (english), three years of math, three of social studies, and two foreign language. But if you take four years of all of those you get an award at graduation.

3. Class transfers? After a class, do you stay in your class and wait for the teacher to come in or do you transfer to a different classroom and come to a teacher?
At my school the kids switch and the students stay.
In elementary school you pretty much just stay in the same room all day except for music, art, or gym.
In middle school we switched classes but they were all really close together.
In high school it's not uncommon to have back to back classes literally on opposite ends of the school.

4. Do you have breaks between your schedules?
Some people do, but most have full schedules. Most people at my school go from 8 am - 2:45 pm. If you want to take an extra class you can have an early bird from 7-8.
If you're going to have a free period most do it in the 8:00 hour so they can sleep in, around lunch so you can have a really long lunch, or for the last hour of the day so you can go home early.

5. Do you have two eating breaks? Recess and Lunch Break?
At my school there are two half hour lunch periods. Depending on your schedule you'll have first lunch or second lunch.
We had recess in elementary school but after that you don't.

6. What time is usually your dismissal time?
2:45 pm

7. Do you have the choice to join clubs or do they choose you?
All of the clubs at my school are very open and inviting. If you want to join you just show up and you're in it.

8. "Popular kids"? Who are they?
At my school they tend to be slightly more wealthy (I live in Iowa so it's not like we have gazillionares or anything ) and they buy the more 'hip/trendy' clothes. They are very outgoing, most of them are really smart and get good grades.
Actually, now that I think about it, there are kind of two types of popular kids at my school. The really flirty ones that go to parties and drink and hook up with people and then there are the ones in choir together and are just a big pack of people.

9. What are the different trends in the American teen community? (Trends like emos, etc...)
the ones I can think of right off the bat are, emo, gothic, white trash, ghetto, preppy, jocks, sluts/party folk, band geeks, choir people, nerds, drama people


pm me if you have any questions/want to know more!

-Carly

Omg thank you all so much for your replies. Now I can be at ease with the story I'm writing :O

1. You start senior year when you're seventeen and either during the year or during the summer after the year, you turn eighteen. It's the year before college.
2. The school picks the schedule for you, although usually you choose the elective yourself.
3. You transfer to the classroom that the teacher of the class uses.
4. You have a few minutes to get to your next class (for my school it's three). But every other periods (with the exception of third; you go to your locker directly before and after) you have more time to go to your locker (two extra minutes for my school).
5. Just a lunch break, for twenty minutes.
6. It depends on the school system. For most schools it's 3:00, but for my middle and high school it's 2:35.
7. You join a club voluntarily. However, for certain clubs like the National Honor Society, you have to qualify academically.
8. Oh, the stereotype is either an overly-feminine, attractive girl or a masculine, attractive boy that plays sports. Both care little about their grades and are more caught up in social lives.
9. Emo is a very big one, along with jocks (who are unintelligent and focus on sports), nerds, preps (girls who wear very girly "twee" clothes), and so on. A quick search on Myspace should reveal them all. :]

1. I'm in Grade 9 and Seniors are age seventeen.
2. I got to choose what classes I wanted but they modified it to fit my grades and room available in the class.
3. I transfer to different classes.
4. I have six minutes in between each class. If I walk fast, I can make it across campus in two to three minutes.
5. Just lunch. At my school, we have four different lunches. All of them occur in third period and they range from 23 to 28 minutes long. We then have three minutes to get back to class before being considered tardy.
6. 3:27.
7. You choose, for the most part.
8. Over here, we're somewhat separated by race. Without a doubt, the Puerto Ricans are the most popular--I don't know a Puerto Rican over here that's not. The African Americans come after them, but not nearly as many are popular. After that comes everyone else--the emos, the preps, the wanna-be gangsters...
9. As for the cliques, we have what someone else listed, although I do want to add scene in there. I don't even know who the "scene" people are; I just heard the people behind me on the bus say it.

I hope I helped!

-always

A lot of things, particularly scheduling, are school-specific. For example, at my school, there is no such thing as a scheduled lunch. Rather, we have eight period of equal length; whether or not a student has a "free period" during which to eat lunch or do homework is up to the student in question.

Same with who the "popular kids" are--it depends on where you live. The US is huge and it is diverse; the in-crowd changes depending on where you go.

1. Grade systems? What grade are you and how old are you when you're in the "Seniors"\
Been answered already.

2. Schedule system? Do you have the choice to pick your schedules or do the school pick the schedules for you?

School picks up to high school for us. Then its where you go and what you want to study. Many people take a general program in College Prep, but they do have specific study programs.

3. Class transfers? After a class, do you stay in your class and wait for the teacher to come in or do you transfer to a different classroom and come to a teacher?

Class transfer every 2 hours in high school. Homeroom is 15 minutes long and mostly for announcements at around 10:45.

4. Do you have breaks between your schedules?

5 minutes to get to next class. So no.

5. Do you have two eating breaks? Recess and Lunch Break?

No recess. They stopped that after Elementary. 1 lunch break 40 minutes long. One for A group class and B group class and those classes are based on what 'day' it is.

6. What time is usually your dismissal time?

2:45 pm

7. Do you have the choice to join clubs or do they choose you?

You join clubs or rot in Homeroom during club time.

8. "Popular kids"? Who are they?

We had none. Wrestlers were pretty close... but something about having two guys doing that on the floor leaves you pretty far from popularity. Over 90% of the school was independent and didn't have a group. Hated groups were the druggies, goths and drama kids.

9. What are the different trends in the American teen community? (Trends like emos, etc...)

We were largely independent, but I know we had skaters, posers, goths, druggies, band, drama, techies (me), jocks, preps, and well... gangs.

Not really trends, but you have to be well aware of gangs in school. It gets far worse in the city district schools as well. You learn to avoid those groups because senseless violence they create caused the greater half of issues at school.

America is all mixed up with schools, but the one thing that is universal, they are not getting enough money and problem students are not being whipped, beaten or locked away for a lot of crimes which would land adults in prison.


Just to clarify Always... Puerto ricans are on annihilation orders from the blacks and mexicans in our school district. They are also probably the least popular and worse group next to those chinese that are flooding in now and collapsing an already stressed budget. You know things are bad when your school has police officers and security guards stationed at every hallway just to keep them from fighting. Even still dozens of outbreaks cause hospitalizations or bad wounds. Race based gangs... got to love the senseless violence for this non-existent 'street cred' which means nothing in relative farmland.

Just saying like it is. Non-white students take to gangs and beat one another up regularly, most of them probably don't even want to be a part of it, but its not much of a choice when the hatred is so deep.

1. Grade systems? What grade are you and how old are you when you're in the "Seniors"
In the area that I was in (Souther Kentucky) it depended on the month you were born in...
Jan-Sept would have been 17 turning 18 (depending on when enrolled in elementry school) Started at 5 to 6.
Sept-December would have been 18 turning 19 (like me) Started when you were 6.

2. Schedule system? Do you have the choice to pick your schedules or do the school pick the schedules for you?
Elementry School No.

Middle School Yes and No.
NO: You always had to take your "core classes", science, english, history and math and another that I can't think of at the moment.
YES: You had 2 electives that you got to choose--like Technology Education, Home Economics 'Cooking Class', Public Speaking, Study Hall, or Art)

For Highschool we got to pick our own classes, though we had certain requirements we had to meet by graduation date depending on the diploma we chose to pursue (which we picked at the end of the 8th grade)
You picked in spring of each year, before the start of the new semester in the fall. If classes were filled the school usually gave us a choice of two other classes, a class that would be an academic requirement for your chosen diploma or gave you the option of study hall.

3. Class transfers? After a class, do you stay in your class and wait for the teacher to come in or do you transfer to a different classroom and come to a teacher?
We were only in one classroom all day with a single teacher in elementry school.
Middle School we had 7 different classes.
High school we had 4 and they changed each semester.

4. Do you have breaks between your schedules?
Yes, in Middle School and High School. A bell would ring giving us 10 minutes to get to our next class, and that changed to 5 minutes while I was mid way through high school. (It was thought it would help reduce teen pregnancy in our school...)


5. Do you have two eating breaks? Recess and Lunch Break?
Elementary School:
We had recess for 1 hour in until 3rd grade. 2 times in kindergarten.
From 4th to 6th grade we had 30minute recess.
We had 45minute lunches that varied on who your teacher was.
You had 30 minutes of library where you would either read in the library or hang out with friends and you had to check out at least one book.

Middle School (7th-8th Grade):
We had a 40 minute lunch that depended on you teacher as well, although your teachers were decided by the first letter of your last name and you were grouped with your own grade.

High School (9th-12th Grade):
We had 40 minute lunches that depended on your teachers last name.
Lunch period all grades were present, it was wholly dependent upon the teachers last name.

6. What time is usually your dismissal time?
School started at 7:00am and ran until 3:00pm

7. Do you have the choice to join clubs or do they choose you?
You had to join any club, although for academic clubs you were often asked to join if you were considered talented.

8. "Popular kids"? Who were they?
Um, attractive people and socialites.

9. What are the different trends in the American teen community? (Trends like emos, etc...)
Can't say now...

I go to a half Spanish Immersion school (I'm in the Spanish program), so this might be a little different from normal schools.

1. Grade systems? What grade are you and how old are you when you're in the "Seniors"
Elementary School: Grades Pre-kindergarden to fifth grade.
Middle School: Grade Six through Eight
High School: Grade Nine through Twelve (seniors)

2. Schedule system? Do you have the choice to pick your schedules or do the school pick the schedules for you?
You can choose your electives, and you take tests to see what level of reading and math you are in. But the school chooses what order all the classes are in.

3. Class transfers? After a class, do you stay in your class and wait for the teacher to come in or do you transfer to a different classroom and come to a teacher?
I go to a different class, a different teacher.

4. Do you have breaks between your schedules?
I have four minutes to get to my next class.

5. Do you have two eating breaks? Recess and Lunch Break?
No, but our lunch is pretty long, and you're allowed to go to the library, eat in a classroom, or go outside when you're done eating.

6. What time is usually your dismissal time?
At 2:34, but we have early release(11:55) three times a year.

7. Do you have the choice to join clubs or do they choose you?
You have the choice, but people might recommend you, where, of course, you can decline.

8 and 9. "Popular kids"? Who are they?
In my school there are two main groups with different 'popular kids' in each:

The Don't Carers who Think They're all that and Friends: People who don't care about grades and behavior and their friends. Most of these people live in sort of poor neighborhoods and have parents that don't care. Basically, the only thing on their mind is looks and the other gender. Not to be racist, but most of these people aren't white, but I'm certainly not racist, half of my friends' parents or grandparents are immigrants. Including mine, sort of. The people who really don't care are the most popular . Their friends are similar, but way less of the 'not caring.' I get a long with a few of the friends. These people make up a little more that half the population of our school. I despise practically all of them.

The Loud Proudly Weird Happy Bunch: I belong to this group. The worst grade we get is an occasional C. I put 'loud' in this title because the most popular kids in this group, are the most talkative. The most popular are also way wild and funny. Since I'm sort of shy, I fit in with these people, but I'm more in the outer circle. Hobbies and Styles range from artistic and very book loving (me), to the sport loving (total opposite of me.) About forty percent of the school population is part of this group.

Then there's the outcasts. Nuff said.

Hope I helped!

Well, I personally don't go to a school, but I do know that dissmissal time varies from place to place. (Like say, in New York people might get out at 2:15, but in L.A people might get out at 4:00). I don't really know much else.

1. Grade systems? What grade are you and how old are you when you're in the "Seniors"
Elementary School includes grades 1-5, and sometimes Kindergarden. Middle School or Junior high are grades 6-8, and sometimes go up to 9. High School has grades 9-12, 12 being seniors. In 9th grade you "should" be 14 as the minimum, depending on your birthday. In each state they have a cut off date of when you can go to school. So, for example, in California if you're turning 6 years old in December, you can only start school if it's before December 3 or something like that. I think you get like 4 tries to pass a grade, and that's it. Seniors are usually 17-18. If a student skipped grades they can be a lot younger.


2. Schedule system? Do you have the choice to pick your schedules or do the school pick the schedules for you?
You get to pick classes on your own, but you can only make it into certain classes if the instructor allows you to or if the counselor says you can survive in that class. You always have core classes which include some sort of english, math, science, and social science (history/geography). On top of that you need to take p.e, health, and you choose your own electives which are extra classes like Art, Band, Orchestra, wood shop, auto-tech, and so on.

3. Class transfers? After a class, do you stay in your class and wait for the teacher to come in or do you transfer to a different classroom and come to a teacher?
At the end of class, the bell will ring and you have around 5 minutes passing period to get to your next class. If you're longer than 5 minutes you're marked tardy, or late.

4. Do you have breaks between your schedules?
Some schools have "recess" but it's usually gone by the time you get to middle school or high school. You get passing periods between class that are around 5 minutes. You also get lunch which is around 30 mins and if you're a HS senior you get free period, or a part of your schedule where you don't have a class so you can do just about anything. Some schools have study hall, a period where you study.

5. Do you have two eating breaks? Recess and Lunch Break?
High School students only get one, lunch. It's around 11:40 when it starts. Usually 30 mins depending on the school you go to.

6. What time is usually your dismissal time?
High school students get out the earlier here, so anywhere from 1:25 to 2:25

7. Do you have the choice to join clubs or do they choose you?
You choose the clubs you go into because you can pick your electives. There's sports like football, wrestling, cheerleading. There's orchestra and band. The theater kids, the student council, the poetry club, the debate club and so on.

8. "Popular kids"? Who are they?
They tend to be the ones who talk the most and get noticed in class. The "good-looking" ones who assert themselves and are overconfident. Some cheerleaders are popular. Football players are popular (some of them).

9. What are the different trends in the American teen community? (Trends like emos, etc...)
Rockers, emos, jocks, cheerleaders, preps, latinos, asians, nerds, geeks, thespians, etc.