Josh McRae

English Composition 2089

James Pihakis
10/11/13
Homecoming: when high school students actually read things
Every community is defined by a set of principles, a variety of texts, and the practices
surrounding these other two pillars. Wyoming High School is no exception to this definition,
even if it is very removed from reality. Past experience attending this school really allows a
reflection on how different this bubble is from the real world. By passing through this town
and taking another few steps away from reality, someone might find themself in a utopia.
Shielded from the outside world, this community allows kids to grow up in an environment
where hunger, poverty, illiteracy, and crime do not exist. But even utopian communities have
principles, texts, and practices. Lets peer through the translucent, soapy exterior of this place
and find out how a few select members of Wyoming have developed practices around the texts
they use on a regular basis. Specific Facebook posts and the September issue of Horizon (the
school newspaper) reveal much about how this community functioned around the time of the
annual homecoming football game and spirit parade.
Facebook is to high-schoolers as a pack of cards is to a gambling addict: they cant get
enough. And as the digital age progresses, Facebook encompasses more and more aspects of
everyones lives. Naturally, this website is the place for Wyoming High School students to plan
out the festivities for the week culminating in the parade and football game. Various students
posted to the class of 2014s (my sisters grades) Facebook group to organize themselves for
homecoming week. The classmates that posted are generally the bolder ones, but they all have
the same purpose: to inform, organize, and raise support for their grades activities. Therefore
the audience is everyone in the Wyoming class of 2014 with a Facebook account who has joined
this group (it turns out to be the majority of the class). They belong to a larger group within the
Wyoming community, many of whom participated in the weeks festivities. As far as the posts
went, the readers were familiar with the purpose but were using the information included mostly
for clarification purposes. Any details that would not be inherently understood could be included
in these posts: floatbuilding location/time, materials needed to make posters, when and where to
meet for body painting, etc. Since the information is fairly brief and located on a website with
plenty of other distractions, members of this group probably quickly glanced at these posts to
glean any useful facts that they might need to know. This is the goal of whoever posted to the
groups wall, and any authors probably intended for the posts to be quick and brief sources for
anyone looking to participate in homecoming activities. Since the posts are made up of short
bursts of information, some confusion is bound to happen. Anyone who does not check
Facebook might miss out on important information for the week.
Each individual author included information that they thought would be helpful when
organizing their class for the week. They are quickly shown the effectiveness of their words, as
others can post questions about the material or express their approval with digital likes. Each
post is fairly professional (as professional as high school students can be) since the overall goal
of having a high-quality float and expressing the most school spirit is widely shared by the
members of this group (SENIORS!!!). Anything pertaining to meeting times or necessary
materials, and phrases rousing up school spirit are acceptable in these posts. Most students are
serious about achieving these goals and show it by being more cohesive and mature than in many
other of their personal Facebook posts. Anyone expressing doubt, lowering school spirit, or just
being a downer would receive a lot of negative feedback from the group. The concrete, shared
goals of this subset of the Wyoming community shape it into a very unified population. The
traditional clichs of high school cliques and social circles are hesitatingly lowered for this event
each year as each class comes together to compete in the float and spirit competitions. Separate
groups of friends join forces to complete a project that would otherwise be impossible: construct
a parade float in one week.
The Facebook posts in the class of 2014s internet group range from just a few sentences
to several paragraphs long depending mainly on their purpose, although the identity of the author
could be a variable in their length. Shorter posts are used for quick reminders about meetings
later that night. Longer posts are worded to encourage class spirit and induce group members to
feel a sense of pride in what they are trying to accomplish. Authors generally address the class
as a whole very briefly, followed by an announcement of whatever pertaining information is
necessary. This general address serves to show each group member that they are each a desired
recipient of the information being shared, and allows the author to disseminate his or her
message to the largest number of group members possible. Since joining the classs Facebook
group basically expresses an individuals interest in the classs activities, anyone checking their
Facebook account will be able to receive news that is of interest to them.
Since its a fairly informal online group thrown together by a few classmates, the posts
are informal themselves. There is no socially accepted or mandated way in which they need to
be formatted; authors simply include the information they want to in whatever format they
desire, and then post it to share with all other group members. Therefore, punctuation,
capitalization, perfectly correct grammar, or any other form of standard English is neither
completely necessary nor evident in these posts. Particularly noticeable language features are the
inclusions of exclamations and happy or optimistic wording. The pervasive use of exclamation
marks hints at the excitement of the author about whatever message that is being shared by each
posts author.
Another text central to this community had both more defined boundaries and number of
authors. Horizon, the school paper (issued every month), featured a full front page story in the
September issue about homecoming week. It covered everything from floatbuilding to spirit
week, the football game to the halftime homecoming King and Queen announcements, and
even the annual high school dance. The audience of the paper is intended to be a little bit wider
than that of the class of 2014s Facebook posts. Every student of the school, all the teachers and
staff, and any parents who have access to the paper will be able to read the column and learn
about every aspect of how homecoming week affects the community. This audience makes up a
very large portion of the complete community of Wyoming, as most people living within the city
limits are there for the high quality schooling available. Most community members are
interested in whatever is happening at the high school because they most likely have a strong
connection to the Wyoming school system. These members range from current students to their
parents, and can include any past students who are still involved in this community. Depending
on the connection of each community member to the high school, the level of information they
already know changes. People who are more recently connected can probably identify their
experiences with information included in the homecoming article.
The festivities have most likely changed over the years and are becoming more and more
complex. The dependence on texts like the newspaper article or Facebook posts is growing;
people cannot remember everything that is happening during this week. For instance, each day
of the week preceding the football game has a theme for which students are encouraged to dress
in odd theme-appropriate clothes. Ugly sweater day, nerd day, spirit day, they all require some
strange outfit to express Wyoming school spirit. The authors include this information so that
students will know what day of the week corresponds to each theme. Anyone vaguely connected
to or unfamiliar with this community can glean useful knowledge from the article as well. The
authors include these descriptions to highlight all important events for the upcoming week, and
to inform community members how they can participate in the annual homecoming events.
Examples include parents finding details about chaperoning, families planning to attend the
parade. Appropriate information to be included in this article includes anything about the week
of homecoming. Its a broad and all-encompassing subject matter, but thats the point of this
article; it is one of the longest articles each year. The majority of the front page is filled with the
column, and this is acceptable since homecoming is one of the big events of the school year. The
authors make sure not to digress from pertinent information, and do not include an excess of
information so that many different topics can be mentioned and addressed.
Since the paper is presented to a larger portion of the community and extends beyond
high school class boundaries and friend groups, the level of formality is certainly higher than that
of the Facebook posts. All matter of lingo related to homecoming week finds its way into the
writing, like Ugly Sweater Thursday, Wyoming Cowboys, spirited, homecoming,
students, etc. These focal points allow the authors to illustrate the characteristics of the
relationship between the community and the homecoming events. The style is designed like that
of a traditional newspaper piece: declarative, factual, descriptive, and a little cheesy. Its a
newspaper article that follows newspaper article guidelines to share the information.
The differences between these two texts are interesting to look at. One is a dynamic,
fluid resource that can be altered and allows for interaction between community members. The
other is a concrete source that is what it is. Students can pose questions about the online posts,
digitally like something they approve of, and communicate with each other about events that
will either happen in the near future or have already happened. There was some reflection about
homecoming events that had already happened, but most was planning for upcoming festivities.
Students shared pictures and wrote about their experiences for many other classmates to see.
They also created online discussions on Facebook about what they were thinking about doing
after or before various homecoming events. The newspaper, on the other hand, cannot be
commented on. People cannot publicly express their opinion of this text in the same way. The
interactions around this text are more conversational. Students might bring home a copy of
Horizon for their parents to read and find out about what is happening at the school during the
monumentally important week of homecoming. The Facebook posts are also more private (they
block the parents and school staff from online student interaction) and are strictly a source for the
students. Both texts are used to inform the community about how to prepare and take part in the
upcoming homecoming week, but the online posts allow for more interaction and group planning
among larger groups of students. Since the paper only has two authors, its viewpoint is far
narrower than the online student discussions. Multiple perspectives could result in a resounding
agreement between students, or it could be a breeding ground for argument. Horizon is from the
viewpoint of two students, so whatever they write goes into the article. However, the paper is
edited before its distribution and the posts are not. This is part of the level of formality (the posts
are less formal), and allows for more spelling errors in the posts and more professionalism in the
news column.
The week of homecoming is very different from the rest of the year and initiates a
morphing of the everyday Wyoming community into a united group with a shared goal. Other,
smaller goals are strewn about in subsets of the entire community, but they all have the
overarching purpose of coming together by using texts like these to celebrate Wyoming. Alumni
and current students can come together to keep the community of Wyoming together. The high
school churns out students every year, but each class shapes the way their town grows. Both
Horizon and Facebook interactions are integral in organizing and bringing together this diverse
community for the annual homecoming week in Wyoming, Ohio.


























Homecoming
Parade/Game
Facebook
Posts
School
Newspape
Question?
Comment
like
Pictures
#wyo, #2014
like, comment
Interview
Quote
Prediction
Description
Organizing,
Planning
(Before event)
Describing,
Sharing
(After event)
Predict,
Explain
(Before event)

Horizon, the student-run Wyoming High School newspaper (printed each month)





Class of 2014 Facebook posts (pertaining to the 2013 homecoming game, floatbuilding, and
parade)

Works Cited
Brown, John, Koesterman, Ellen, and Weiss, Joel. WHS Class of 2014 (2012-2013). 22
September 2013. Web.
Domka, Marcella and Carter, Rachel. Homecoming 2013: A Celebration of Wyomings Past.
Horizon 20 September, 2013. Print.