3H: It's time for those Shakespeare T-Shirts! Wear them Monday from 7:50-3:10 as you outermost garment. (I can hardly wait to see them!) Bring some goodies with you to class; we can celebrate! Also: I am available after testing both days for conferences (except for 11-1-ish on Thursday). And I'm here on Friday afternoon too. (As I said: I don't get one.)
2CP: Weekend reading: "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien (891). Come to class with a response essay about this story: what are your reactions to it? What parts interested you most? What parts confused you? What do you tihnk the author was trying to say?
Drama: Um...if you don't know by now...
Here's one of Tom Lehrer's Greatest Hits! The Elements!
It's DONA, DONA!
We so glad it's DONA!
We've all been waiting for this weekend, weekend
Eat some donuts
Celebrate the day off!
Everybody's waiting for the three-day weekend
(sorry...got carried away there)
anyway...
3H: OK, the t-shirts (see yesterday's link) are now due after the five-day weekend. But you need to finish Macbeth over this weekend.
2CP: Read "A Rose For Emily" by William Faulkner this weekend and write a reflection essay with the same rules as the one for "A Good Man."
Drama: I don't suppose that you're sick of my reminding you to get off book? Also, Honors kids: time to start figuring out your project.
Today's silliness:
and just because life would not be any good at all without a couple of rebecca black spoofs:
I woke up yesterday and there was snow on the ground. SNOW! This does not compute. Snow ought to be completely illegal after the vernal equinox. (I'd like to see it made illegal period, but that's another matter.) The thing is, when you are affronted by an outrageous Miscarriage of Weather, what are supposed
to do about it?
I tried calling my local weatherman to complain, but I was told that there was nothing he could do. It was an "act of God."
So I figured I needed to complain to God, so I went to find a priest. Father O'Mallohannitireillovan wasn't in--he had slipped on his walk--but I managed to speak with his assistant, Fr. O'Maraclearyryanmurphyodonnell, who was hanging around the church playing with his brand new 3DS.
He told me there was nothing to do. It was an act of God.
But he said it in an Irish accent, so that's something.
Then he went back to blowing up soldiers in 3D.
E3H: Finish Act Three tonight. We're discussing 2&3 free form the next two days, jumping around a lot.
E2CP: Due tomorrow: one page response paper on "A Good Man Is Hard To Find"; discuss grandmother and the Misfit. Plus: find one quote that interested you and, after the essay, tell why.
Drama: Broken record time: memorize.
More Tom Lehrer! (If you missed last week's great songs, go back and check them out!)
Well I am sure that at the bare minimum you were glad to get through a whole day without having to listen to me droning on and on about whatever I happen to get off on at the moment. :-)
Guess what? You'll get another chance on Monday! I'm taking a personal day to spend some time with my daughter who has been a bit overwhelmed by everything going on in our lives lately (her brother-in-law's cancer, etc.). She needs a day for just the two of us.
E3H: You need to start looking ahead now. May 18 is coming in one month! Time to move on those capstones!!! Macbeth Act Two for Tuesday, but keep reading into Act Three, as Act Two will not take us much time to work through and then we'll be into the next act.
E2CP: As noted today, our next short story is "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," a very strange short story by Flannery O'Connor. Read it, then read it again. Then see if you can figure out the grandmother's actions. I want you all coming to class on Tuesday with a reasonable hypothesis of why she does what she does.
Drama: Hey, folks, if you are not off book very soon, we're in huge trouble. I mean it.
This song seemed somehow appropriate for today...
And of course here's more, as we've been doing all week long, from the greatest musical satirist of the 20th Century, Tom Lehrer:
And it's Friday, so what the heck...why not another one?
and here we are again, meeting online for yet another of these little chats we've all come to love so very much. i hope that you get as much from our little moments as i do. or if not, that you can at least forgive me for my occasional self-indulgence, or that you can at least enjoy the videos. :-)
e3h: we continue to discuss act one of the scottish play
e2cp: we discussed the crazy lady and her over-protective husband in "the yellow wallpaper" today; tonight you are to read "a cask of amontillado" and wonder if montressor is crazy or not...
drama: we finished blocking the play today; tomorrow we will honor day of silence with some non-verbal improvs
this is actually my favorite song from Mulan, sung here in a full length version by the woman who sang it in the film:
here is the original from the film, complete with the best makeup remover in the world from 1:10 to 1:15...
and, of course, today's bit of tomfoolery by tom lehrer:
I'd love to say that it is going to be in the upper 70's for the next few weeks, but I'd be lying.
Ah, well.
That gives us time to enjoy the things we are currently doing in class!
Like...
E3H: We are discussing Act One of Macbeth.
E2CP: We'll be discussing the story "The Yellow Wallpaper" tomorrow (so read it tonight).
Drama: You need to begin getting truly off book. Far too many of you are far too dependent on the book. I am going to be grading you beginning this week on how off book you are.
Today's Tom Lehrer classic takes us back to a time when the educators of this country had just changed the way they taught mathematics to school children, giving America something everyone was calling "the New Math" and no one could figure out:
Tuesday afternoon.
I'm just beginning to see...now I'm on my way.
It doesn't matter to me, chasing the clouds away...
oh. sorry. my head was stuck in moody bluesland.
E3H: If you missed the test today, you need to make it up in the Testing Center during a free period tomorrow. You will need the whole period. Tomorrow we begin Macbeth. You should have read Act One.
E2CP: We re-watched the end of Memento today. You are to re-read "Memento Mori" tonight and bring it with you tomorrow for discussion.
Drama: Memorize!!!!
Ladies and gentlemen, more from that genius of witty lyrics, Tom Lehrer, with a happy spring song:
I hope you all enjoyed the taste of summer. The real thing will be here before we know it, but right now we need to get through with the school year, so let's deal with homework!
--an exclamation on homework? is she kidding? --i think she's just trying to fire us up for the week ahead --i think she smoked something funny while she was lying out on her deck yesterday --whatever! let's just see what it is so we can blow it off.
E3H: There is a test tomorrow! You may use your texts, but I am not sure they will be a great advantage.
E2CP: Check Friday's blog for the links to the four books you need to look at before tomorrow's class.
Drama: As always: memorize and score scripts!
After all of those "Friday" thingies, maybe it's about time we saw how KIDS respond to it?
And now, I take great pleasure in introducing you to one of the great minds and the great comic geniuses of the 20th Century. This is Tom Lehrer, a math professor from Harvard who made a name for himself several decades ago by penning some sharply satirical songs. I'm going to introduce you to some of them on the blog. As an added benefit, juniors, this one might even help you study!
Have a great weekend! (It's supposed to be in the 70's on Sunday!)
E3H: Workshop Monday; essay test Tuesday; Act One of Macbeth Wednesday.
E2CP: WW Monday; continuing movie on Tuesday. Over the weekend: Take a look at the following books by clicking on their titles. Monday or Tuesday I am going to ask you to select one of them as the next book that we read as a class. (Yes, you get to choose! But if you don't do your homework, you won't make an informed choice...) Here are the books:Kindred, Black Boy, Of Mice and Men, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents.
Drama: Memorize, memorize, memorize! Also: start scoring the scripts!!!
Stephen Colbert singing Friday:
and if you're a hockey fan, you might appreciate this (even if they are the Canucks):
E3H: Today we had a brief history of monarchs of England leading to Liz and Jimmy, which takes us to Shakespeare and Macbeth. Read Act One for Wednesday. RW tomorrow.
E2CP: Continuing Memento; decided not to write anything until it is finished. RW tomorrow.
Drama: Did a couple of concentration games and them discussed Super-Objective and Through Line. Script Scoring is tomorrow!
Middle of the week, gettin' done with my classes goin' online, gotta do my blog drinkin' from my cup now i gotta step up gotta tell em all what homework's comin' Lack of info here, no one knows the homework Gotta write it down on the front page Gotta ease their minds, I see their pain...
Students from my one class Students from my other class Everybody's wondering, Which page do we read?
It's homework, homework, Topham gave us homework Glad she didn't save it for the weekend, weekend Homework, homework, Topham gave us homework Glad she didn't save it for the weekend
2-pager, 3-pager! Crap! Essay test, Read this play! Damn! No fun at all...looking forward to the weekend.
Students from my one class
Students from my other class
Everybody's wondering,
Which page do we read?
It's homework, homework, Topham gave us homework
Glad she didn't save it for the weekend, weekend
Homework, homework, Topham gave us homework
Glad she didn't save it for the weekend
Don't forget: you guys brought this girl to my attention in the first place...
E3H: We have finished Anhouilh's Antigone. There will be an essay test covering all three of our recent plays next Tuesday. Meanwhile, we will introduce Shakespeare tomorrow, and there is a RW on Friday.
E2CP: Find those books!!!! We are watching Memento. Over this weekend, you will be writing an essay comparing the movie to the short story that begot it. I will provide the specific question tomorrow. Friday is the second Friday. You have an RW. I cannot move it, as I told you at the start of the year. Only you can, if you choose to finish the film before the weekend. Your call.
Drama: Today's work was good. Tomorrow we get deeper into the System, focusing on Super-Objective and other system steps. Bring your scripts as well as your books.
Hi, everyone, and welcome back to another (or your first) year at LFHS.
What you have heard is true. The English teacher has lost her ever-loving mind and is not going to be giving any grades at all in her classes this year. Not. One.
There will be no percentages, no numbers, no scores, no letters, no anything that will count toward anything that will end up being averaged for a final grade. But before you call in the men with the white coats, let me explain:
As I hope you have read in the doc your son or daughter (I have always hated the phrase "your student" when addressed to a parent) should have showed you, there is a wealth of research that indicates that grades--or the need to achieve them--are the single greatest thing that stand in the way of a great education. Studies show that the most influential thing a teacher can do to help a student grow academically is to allow him or her to self-grade. Most teachers would rather climb Mt. Everest dressed only in a swimsuit.
But the thing is: our academic system is severely broken. We say that our goal is to get our students to master Common Core Standards, and that is all well and good. But if that is truly the goal, then why do we care how long it takes them to master them? I'm serious. Think about it this way:
Try to remember back to when you were learning how to ride a bike. Oh, it was scary. You needed all kinds of support at first, lots of help from Daddy or Mommy. Then they let go and you were very, very wobbly. Probably you fell off, maybe several times. It took quite a while before you completely mastered the skill. But when you had...you had it down perfectly for the rest of your life.
Now imagine if you were being graded on that learning experience the way schools grade you. We would not score those first scaffolding attempts with Mommy and Daddy, but then...oh, you failed those quizzes when you fell off. And those wobbly rides? C's at best. Then a bunch of B's probably before you finally settled into 100% forever. But if we graded you right at that point, you'd probably average, oh, 83% or so. Why?You've mastered the skill perfectly. So why do you not get 100% if that is what we say we care about? Why on earth do we care about all those earlier times when you didn't have it down yet?
That will be what we go for here. Students will know what the goals are. They will understand what an "A" student looks like. And they will know when they have mastered an objective. Those who do so earlier than others will become tutors to those who have not yet done it: everyone gains from this and the newly learned skills, instead of being quickly forgotten as things studied for a test usually are, will continue being applied as masters tutor their classmates.
That is an awful lot to imagine will happen because I don't give grades this year, but what the heck: if you don't dream big, you never win big, right? The research is behind this, as is the school administration. I'm happy--well, actually I am excited--to pilot this concept at LFHS. As always, I'm glad to discuss this or anything else with you.
