Nearing the end of the year, and my honors students are still working hard. There are only eight days of school left, and they have two more writing assignments. One of them is a major assignment: the showcase letter to next year’s students.

“Don’t lie,” I tell them, “but scare them a little bit. And impress them.”

They’re also working on the end of Lord of the Flies. They have one short writing assignment for that: the last analytic writing assignment they’ll have for me.

They don’t know it yet, but it will be the only completion grade I give them for the whole year.