Out of Her Mind -- Musings on Education and Life

A student climbs a tree on Earth Day Today was Earth Day!  A joyous reason for me to act like a hippie and for that to be socially acceptable, and so I took full advantage of the situation.  Oh, and it is nearing the end of National Poetry Month, and it is Hump Day and the kids have been working hard, so what better reason to celebrate? I teach high school, three periods a day of English.  English is one of those classes that every one has to take (and pass) four years in a row in order to graduate.  I feel that it is my duty to make my classes as applicable to my students' lives as possible, to help them, through reading and writing, learn to think and communicate.  I also feel that the nature of my class gives me the leeway to get to know my students in ways that other teachers may not be able to--after all, through our writing and sharing as we connect to literature, we learn a lot about one another. And so yesterday, I realized that my students an...

Success! Where will you take life?  We take life beyond “normal” limits, sky high, sky life.  The sky is NOT our limit for we have NO limit.  You have NO limits, except for those that you allow to exist.  Remove your mental obstacles.  Train your mind and your body.  Push to be your best you —one more lap, one more mile, one more rep.  Through the doubts and fear, we train.              We are all capable of what we can imagine—what we can imagine, we can do.  We let our imaginations soar .  Where will yours take you?  It’s true, life happens.  Don’t let it happen to you.  Stop saying, “I can’t imagine,” and start saying, “I can.”  Or better yet, visualize.  Visualize success.  We do before each and every jump.  Stop visualizing defeat.              We train to ...

Chapter 8 of Perfetti's (1985) Reading Ability: "The Development of Reading Ability." Read and respond.  What do you learn about reading from this article?  How can you apply this knowledge to the literacy instruction (and instruction in general) in your classroom?

View Finder Haiku Today, in celebration of National Poetry Month, I challenged my AP (Advanced Placement) Literature and Composition students to the 'ku challenge, described in detail on my poetry blog  here . For this activity, I briefly introduced the haiku genre using the material linked above, asking students to share what they already know about this poetic form, activating background knowledge and also effectively helping other students catch up on their poetry knowledge. Then, I had students choose a viewfinder from the front table.  A viewfinder is useful in art because it helps to focus a student's perspective.  I have collected a ton of paint samples with little squares cut out, and I finally found a use for these items.  They worked perfectly as viewfinders! We were originally going to walk outside, but it started raining.  So, like all teachers will have to do, I had to think quickly of a plan b, which evolved into plan c and d and, w...

Nature Poems Today, go outside and get your hands and feet dirty!  Look beneath a rock, examine the roots of a tree, or dig through soil and write about whatever you find lurking there: maybe you see ants working, perhaps you are alarmed by the coating of pollen, maybe you are enchanted by the juxtaposition of nature and man's creations.  Feel the sun on your face, the air on your skin.  Rejoice, and write about nature. Your Assignment:   Go outside and write a nature poem.  There are no word limits.  You will have 15 minutes outside for this writing activity. Remember to engage all of your senses.   This poem does not have to rhyme.   Be creative!  Try a concrete poem (written in the shape of your subject). Also, remember to write using figurative language--you know, all of those elements you normally have to analyze literature and poetry for: alliteration, metaphor, simile, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, rhythm, ...

Claim/Data/Commentary Mini-Lesson--Writing a Strong Argumentative Paragraph Claim What is a claim?  A claim  is the point you are trying to prove.  When you are writing an essay, you make several claims.  The first claim is the major one that you will make in your essay, and this claim appears in the introduction in the form of your thesis statement.   In an essay on characterization and Heller's book, Catch-22 , the thesis statement might read, "Heller uses both direct and indirect characterization to develop the character of Yossarian, a character who is a lazy coward."  You should be very familiar with this type of claim, the thesis statement that appears in your introduction.   However, you are probably less familiar with the notion that each of your body paragraphs should ALSO start with a claim.   This type of claim is more commonly known as a topic sentence.   If you were continuing to write the same essay above, a topic...

Catch-22 Mini Essay Topic #1: Characterization DIRECT and INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION Direct Characterization Two techniques that writers use to create character are "direct" and "indirect" characterization. Direct characterization TELLS the reader about the character. For example, an  omniscient  narrator may tell the reader that Jacob was a patient and kind man. Indirect Characterization In contrast to "direct" characterization, "indirect" characterization SHOWS the reader who a character is through speech, thoughts, and actions, either the speech, thoughts, and actions of the characters themselves or of other characters in reaction to/about that other person.  An example of indirect characterization may read:  Jacob did not yell at Sally for taking two more hours to get ready when she had promised "Five more minutes!" over two and a half hours earlier.  Instead, he patiently waited, taking the time to finish up r...