Out of Her Mind -- Musings on Education and Life

What Is Comprehensible Input? Comprehensible Input Is… Communication made clear --it’s all about comprehension-- & Can be achieved by: --enunciating --speaking more s-l-o-w-l-y --reducing the complexity of speech with simple sentence structures (subject-verb-object)   “You circle the answer” NOT “Circle the correct answer.   Only choose one.   Eliminate some answer choices” –at least not for beginners OR CONFUSION ensues! --avoiding idioms --paraphrasing (say it another way) --repetition --oral and written directions (crystal clear expectations) modeled, step-by-step --teaching homographs & homophones, synonyms & cognates --using multimedia, gestures, body language, pictures,  & objects --previewing material --providing graphic organizers, taped texts, & sentence strips Comprehensible input is --repeated exposure --in a variety of ways --in a variety of contexts Comprehensible I

Word Cloud of Poetic (re)Presentation of Plath made by B. Faulkner using Tagul "Plath's Last Supper": A Villanelle Exploration I grew fascinated with Sylvia Plath, always a favorite poet of mine, and read as much of her work as I could find, including The Bell Jar, followed by the reading of several biographies and books of literary criticism. I also love writing poetry that adheres to forms, as much as free verse is my natural voice and style, so it follows that I wrote my musings on Plath's life in this style, a rigid French form consisting of five tercets and a quatrain in which "t he first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem’s two concluding lines. Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as:  A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2 " ( Poets.o

You're Not Sick--You're Nadia We walk so that you may dance a wild young rhythm on ballerina feet. We walk so that you may sing lustily, off-key, about princesses & love so that you can ask, "Do I get to go to Hollywood?" so that you can say, "Tell me no, mom, so I can practice crying." We walk so that your crying will remain just practice. Girl, you demand life like you demand food like you command your daddy to rub your feet like you sass me & say, "I know that" & roll your eyes. We're here to roll our eyes at cystic fibrosis, hands on hip, giving it full sass so that you can continue your strange way of calling people humans, your hourly costume changes-- We walk to spread your attitude--like you told Gavin, "I'm not sick! I'm Nadia!" My daytime Cinderella, we walk for you. B. Faulkner 4-26-2010   Come visit our team web page, Team Nadia Denise , for Great Strides.

"Original exploration of the craft alone expresses a poet's individual soul and conscience" (p. 178, from Ginsberg's Journals: Mid-Fifties 1954-1958). I agree, Ginsberg!  I've spent all of my time until recently exploring poetry alone and have stumbled into my "style" without realizing my cosmic influences, or who it was that paved the way for my eccentricities.  However, I feel that because I chose to leave my official English studies after my B.S. that I know nothing of styles, movements, criticisms, all the nuances the literary types pride themselves on (see, here I go, ending sentences with preopositions).  But I have always read like reading was a drug, and I learn well on my own.  The problem is making the time.  I've loved you, A.G., since my college boyfriend allowed that I could have your book of collected poems after the breakup because I loved it more.  And from you--stylistically--I stole the & and your habit of time, date, and pl