All boys. All boarding. Grades 9-12.
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Joint Class Explores English and Environmental Science
English teacher Ben Hale and environmental science teacher Lewis Affronti offer sixth formers a unique academic experience: a dual course that gives students both science and English credit.
The idea for the class came from a faculty development seminar last winter. Given the option to attend a special seminar in any other department, Lewis headed for English class.
“I was in the seminar that day realizing how much I enjoyed reading, writing poetry, and discussing English, Lewis said. “And as I was telling that to Ben and we were discussing how much we both appreciate the outdoors and Woodberry’s campus, the idea for the joint class was born.”
On some days Mr. Affronti and Mr. Hale meet with the class separately, conducting something akin to a traditional English or science class. But because the classes stretch across back-to-back periods on several days, Lewis and Ben sometimes have a three-hour block of time that lets them explore the campus and the surrounding natural landscape with boys.
Mr. Affronti said the class gets out onto the Woodberry grounds whenever possible for field observations, journaling, and reflection. The group has also visited White Oak Canyon and Montpelier’s forest during the double class period. “The novels we read are about nature and trees, and this fits perfectly into our science environmental science class,” one student said. “While reading Overstory, which is about the relationship between trees and humans, we were studying different species of trees on the Woodberry campus.”
Woodberry Forest School is an exceptional private school community for high school boys in grades nine through twelve. It is one of the top boarding schools in the United States and one of the only all-boys, all-boarding schools in the country.
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Woodberry Forest admits students of any race, color, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, and national or ethnic origin to all of the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic or other school-administered programs. The school is authorized under federal law to enroll nonimmigrant students.