Out of Her Mind -- Musings on Education and Life

I.   Email Cut-Up Poetry Assignment                                 Faulkner Directions:   Open up a Microsoft Word document.   Minimize that document. Open up an email account.   If you don’t have one, now’s your opportunity to create one.   They’re FREE!   But you all have an email account through the school system, so I expect you all to be able to complete this assignment. Look through your emails.   Cut the subject lines you like, find interesting or humorous, etc, and paste into your Word document.   The BULK mail folder is an excellent source of funny subject lines! Continue step three until you feel that you have enough words and phrases to craft a poem. Rearrange these subject lines to create a poem of your liking.   You MAY add punctuation, change word tenses, etc.   BE SURE TO TITLE YOUR POEM.   IT MUST BE A POEM OF AT LEAST 10 LINES! Type your name on your poem and print ONCE.

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, well, you get the

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, rhyme scheme, irony, personification, and so

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 sentence claim might read, "T

Lesson Introduction The following is an assignment I like to use in my English classes when watching clips from Freedom Writers   and teaching with the book.  I have successfully used this assignment with all manner of students in grades 9-12, and they all flourish from this type of focused reflection, while learning to be more articulate both orally and written, and while getting comfortable in front of a small live audience.  Not only do students love writing about themselves, they also enjoy the integration of media, and they learn how to write better essays as they transfer knowledge learned from their work writing effective speeches. Feel free to message me Common Core connections.  I know they exist, and I am quite admittedly being lazy with my alignment here.  But surely speaking is still an important skill?  I am only partly being tongue-in-cheek(y) here. Step 1.  Viewing.   Show all or part of Freedom Writers.   Be sure to at least show the part where the stud

Below is an assignment I have designed and implemented in many iterations.  I most recently adapted this assignment for use in my AP (Advanced Placement) English Literature and Composition course.  The primary difference for the AP is assignment is that students had to reveal the entire story and they had to include a Major Works Data sheet.  Students completed this project in groups based on the classic works of literary merit that they self-selected and read over the summer. This project is a favorite of mine because students learn to problem solve, to collaborate, to use a variety of tech tools, to follow copyright laws, and to summarize and depict a book all while being very engaged in the work itself. I presented this assignment in a workshop entitled: "Bringing the Boys In: Engaging Reluctant Readers." Please feel free to use and adapt this assignment.  If you use it, please provide attribution.  If you have any questions, feel free to email me at girlfaul