Lovers, madmen and poets - Midsummer posting #5

This is the 5th and final posting for A Midsummer Night's Dream and is due before the end of the day on Friday, April 10.

This will be a longer, more formal answer so make sure it's written with minimal errors and you fully answer all parts of the prompt.

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare presents us with an unusual and fantastic series of events as fairies and mortals mix in the mysterious woods just outside Athens. The four lovers and Nick Bottom each undergo their own experience with the fairy world. However, different characters provide varying takes on the night's strange happenings. Consider the following three reactions/explanations by different characters:

• Nick Bottom awakes from his dream, his "most rare vision," and offers one explanation at the end of Act IV, scene 1.
• At the beginning Act V, Duke Theseus explains to Hippolyta what he thinks of the situation in the woods.
• And finally, Puck re-appears with his own suggestion for the audience in the closing lines of Act V.

Of the three reactions/explanations, choose one that you believe the most significant or closest to how you might try to explain what happened in the woods. Whom do you believe the most? Bottom, Theseus, or Puck? What is it about their explanation that makes sense to you? Why? Point to specific lines from the play to help make your point.

The power of love - Midsummer post #4

This is the fourth Midsummer post and is due before class starts on Tuesday, April 7.

In the middle of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the four Athenian lovers have found themselves all mixed up due to the love spell two of them are under. As a result, they bicker, beg, fight, plead for love, and do many seemingly "crazy" things all in the name of their love. During the mayhem, Puck shouts "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" The lovers don't notice it, but for any outside observer - like the fairies who take on the role of an audience in this scene - the foolishness is readily apparent.

So far in the play, what do you think has been the most "foolish" thing one of the lovers has said or done? Now think about people you know in your life: is the Midsummer lover's "foolish" action realistic for someone under the spell of love? How is the lover's action like or not like people you know? What does Shakespeare seem to be saying about the power of love?

Reminder: Your responses need to be in complete sentences and relatively free of mechanical and spelling mistakes. Many of you have gotten pretty sloppy with your responses.

What's so funny? - Midsummer post #3

This is the third Midsummer blog response and is due before class starts Friday, April 3.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy, which is something that today's television viewers should know a little something about. According to Scholastic Scope magazine, Shakespeare included three kinds of classic mix-ups to help generate some comedy: 1) mistaken identity, 2) love triangles, and 3) strange coincidences. Each of these classic mix-ups are staples on 21st Century comedy shows, or sitcoms. The next time you watch your favorite sitcom or re-run, look for one of those classic mix-ups involving the characters.

Assignment: Select one (1) of the classic mix-ups from above and find an example of it from a popular sitcom you watch. First, describe the mix-up from the sitcom, and then explain how the humor of the mixed-up situation helps increase your enjoyment and appreciation of the show. What makes it so funny?

As with all of these assignments, it is a good practice to write your response in a word processing program so you can better edit and proofread your entry before submitting it. Take heed, this is formal writing and should be treated as such. Don't spurn the capital letter or ignore the necessary punctuation. Be thoughtful of your friend the complete sentence.

Good luck and enjoy!

Finally, if you complete this assignment using something besides a desktop or laptop computer, (say an Itouch or other handheld device) let me know! Announce it at the end of your entry.

Figuring out the characters - Midsummer posting #2

This is the second Midsummer blog response and is due before class starts on April 1.

There are many memorable and interesting characters in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. From the love-crazed antics of the young Athenians to the meddling of the magical fairies, Shakespeare has created a fascinating cast of characters.

Who is the one character that interests you the most? What makes him or her interesting? If you had the opportunity to talk to the character, what would you talk about and why? Your blog response should answer these questions in a well-crafted paragraph that makes direct references to events and quotes from the play.

Like with all our blog responses, your response should be of published quality work with minimal errors and all the conventions of formal English. Use full sentences. Capitalize the beginnings of sentences. Avoid the informal language you might use in e-mail, on IM or Facebook.

Lord What Fools These Mortals Be! - Midsummer Posting #1

This is the first Midsummer blog response assignment. It is due before class starts on Thursday, March 26.

We are starting A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is a complex, fanciful play that lays bare the humor and foibles of young love.

To get us started, we tackled the twisted, complex plot. You have been given a basic summary of the storyline of the play, (titled "Lord, what fools these mortals be!"), which covers the play up to the end of Act III. For your reference, there is a version of the summary here.Your assignment now is to take this mixed-up love mess and bring it to a conclusion with a happy ending. As it stands right now, everything is messed up and needs resolution. Assume the role of a narrator and finish the story. This is your chance to control how this all turns out before we see Shakespeare's version in the play.

A couple things to remember before completing your posting: 1) your story must have a happy ending, just like a Shakespearean comedy would. 2) you must come up with a way to solve the problems of a majority of the characters. 3) your creative ending must be in the form of a story, continuing the storyline you've been given. Try to be creative and come up with an original, even outrageous, way to wrap up this storyline. As with all entries, you might consider writing on a word processing program first so you can proofread, edit, and continuously save before your final posting. Saving it in a word processing program will also cover you in case there's a problem posting.

Warnings from 1984 and Fahrenheit 451

The response to this blog posting is due before class starts on Friday, Jan. 16

Both 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 are dystopian novels set in the future. However, one purpose of a dystopian novel is to warn readers about a flaw or problem in today's society today. Based on the first few pages of each novel, what flaw or problem do you think the author is trying to warn us about?

Select an example from one of the excerpts - either 1984 or Fahrenheit 451 - and use it to predict what you think the author is trying to warn us about. What is the problem in the futuristic society and how can it be connected to real problems that exist in our own world today? In your answer, you must use a specific passage or quote from the novel.

If it helps, think about the discussions we've had leading up to the novel about technology.

Linking your Google docs essay to the wiki page

This assignment is due before class starts on Tuesday, Jan. 13

This assignment should be done after you have completed your Privacy Issues Mini-essay on Google documents. For this assignment, I am asking that you do the following to share your essay with the class and with others. Here is what you need to do:

1. Publish your document
2. Add a link to your document on the class wiki page.

Here are the directions for doing each of the tasks above.

To publish your document, open your essay on Google docs and click the share button in the upper right hand corner. There will be an option there to "Publish as web page." Click it.

To add the link, you need to get the html address of your published document. With your document still open, click share again and select "View as webpage." Once you see it as a web page, highlight the address. Your address should look something like this: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgqgx5g5_122c59mntfm

Next, go to the class wiki page and find the page called - Student Privacy Essays. You can access it directly here. It did a sample entry to show you how it should look.

Log in to the wiki (using your username and password with the animals, numbers, and fruit). Write your name and underneath it, paste your essay address. Save the changes and you are done.

Gamma Rays Response #5 - What's going to happen to this family?

This is the 5th - and final - homework blog response for the Gamma Rays unit... Have you completed them all to earn full credit? The calendar says Monday, but it is due before the end of the school day on Tuesday, Dec. 23.

Now that we've gotten to see the Hunsdorfer family in action, it's time to look back and analyze their behavior as a dysfunctional family.

You have an option of which of the following to which to respond:

Option A

Based on the family upbringing, what do you think will be the effect one Tillie or Ruth. Look at this article about the effect of maltreating families on children. Using information from the article, predict how you think Tillie or Ruth will turn out. What challenges or issues might they face in the future? Explain your reasoning by pointing to specific examples from the play.

Option B
How would you categorize Mrs. Beatrice Hunsdorfer as a mother? Go back and re-read the article on dysfunctional families that we studied in an earlier post. Using information from the article, decide what type of parent category Beatrice fits into. In what way will her parenting style affect her children, either now or in the future? Explain your reasoning by pointing to specific examples from the play.

Gamma Rays response #4 - Completing your Google documents

This is the fourth blog response for The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds and is due before class starts Thursday, Dec. 18.

This response is going to be a little different than the previous three. Instead of putting your response in the comments on this entry, I am asking that you edit your Gamma Rays character conflict chart that you have set up on Google documents. This will also help you complete the character chart, which is due Friday.

Remember, you access the chart by signing into Google Apps from the front of the district website. Or you can access it by clicking this link.

Once you sign in, go to "documents." You should see the document you created with your partner in class last week. Click on it and add to it according to the directions - put in a quote from Act I for a character, or start writing the paragraph connected to the characters.

To get credit for this assignment, you must make an edit or add to your document.

Make sure you save your work and remember your completed document is due Friday, Dec. 19.

Gamma Rays response #3 - Dreams and the Hunsdofers

This is the third homework blog posting... Did you already complete the post on Marigolds? Have you added to the Google document to gather quotes for each character?

It is due before class starts on Wednesday, Dec. 17

So far in The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds we’ve been introduced to the Hunsdorfer family – Beatrice, Ruth, and Tillie.

The Poet Langston Hughes wrote two poems about dreams which may relate to what we’re reading. Read both of the following poems – "Dreams" and "A Dream Deferred." Select the poem you think most speaks to the situation in the play. What is Hughes saying about dreams that can be applied to the larger ideas in The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds? Explain your connections with direct references from the play. Remember, to earn full credit, each post must be between 150-200 words, written in standard conventional English, and satisfy the requirements of each prompt.

Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

- by Langston Hughes

A Dream Deferred*
What happens to a dream deferred*?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

- by Langston Hughes

*to put off action, delay

Gamma Rays response #2 - Marigolds again? Why?

This is the second homework blog posting... Did you already complete the post on Gamma Rays and Dysfunctional Families?

It is due before class starts on Monday, Dec. 15

In The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Tillie conducts an unusual science project. She subjects three different batches of marigolds to the potentially damaging effects of gamma rays - a topic we addressed in a previous blog post. But why did the play's author, Paul Zindel, choose marigolds as the flower to use in the science experiment? Click on the following links and please read the information on marigolds at wikipedia and this information on growing marigolds.

Do not concern yourself with the all the Latin terms or varieties, but focus on the specific characteristics of the flower... Then post your ideas about the use of marigolds as a symbol in the story. What makes marigolds unique? What do they need to survive? When do marigolds bloom? How might the characteristics or qualities of this particular flower be a symbol that connects to important ideas in the play? Why might have Zindel used marigolds as the flower?

Gamma Rays response #1 - How do these two things go together

This response is due before class starts Friday, Dec. 12

To prepare us for our reading of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, we spent some time talking about gamma rays and radiation and the different types of dysfunctional families. For your reference, the information brief on gamma rays can be found here and the information on dysfunctional families is here. Based on what you know of both and from what you've gleaned from the play so far, I'd like you to consider the following question: In what ways are the two seemingly unrelated topics - gamma rays & dysfunctional families - related? Where are there similarities that might help us better understand some of the significant ideas from the play? In what ways, might the author use these two ideas in his play to help explore a deeper understanding of a truth about life?

Remember, to earn full credit, your response must be between 150 and 200 words and conform to standard written English. Use full sentences, spell out your words correctly and include proper punctuation. By the way, this posting is 187 words.

Using Google Documents

This blog response is due before class starts on Monday, Dec. 8

For the last two days, we've utilized Google documents in class to put together a working definition of good literature. Occasionally, we struggled with the technology and the best way to use it.

The assignment was simple enough - brainstorm some criteria for what makes good literature and then write a more coherent paragraph definition. However, you had to complete the assignment as a group and you had to use Google documents to collaborate and work together. Educational experts have identified collaboration as a vital skill in today's society.

For our purposes in class, I'd like to know your reactions to the activity and the use of the technology. In your answer, consider the following guiding questions: What was difficult about using Google documents? In what ways (if any) did the technology help make the process easier? How did it challenge you? How could collaborative tools like this one could be used in our English class? Give some specific examples. How do you imagine that Google docs tools will be used in your future as a college student or as a member of the work force? What do we need to know and understand to be able to effectively use digital tools like this in the future?

Examining your classmates' short story wiki pages

This response is due before class starts Thursday, Oct. 2

We've all had a chance to work on our short story pages on the classroom wiki. If you haven't done so, you should have information about three short stories on your page.

For this assignment, you are required to look at several of the pages compiled by your classmates, either in your class or a different period. You can view them all by clicking this link. View several of them and then decide who has posted the best symbolic picture on their page. In the comment section on THIS page, answer the following:

Who posted the picture that provided the best symbolic image from a short story? What made the picture so interesting and appropriate for the story? How does it help us understand important ideas from the story? Paste the address of the student wiki page you examined.

Who made a tougher decision?

This response is due before class starts Friday, Sept. 26

We've read about Jerry's swim through the tunnel, Millicent's personal initiation, and Michael's moustache.

The question for today is this: Which of the three characters do you respect the most for what they did? Select one of the characters and explain your decision using references to specific events in the short story.

Blog assignment: Update your wiki page

The assignment described below is due before class starts on Tuesday, Sept. 23

We have begun creating short story resource pages on the class wiki site, which is at http://millersenglish.pbwiki.com.

So far, you've begun posting information about the story "Through the Tunnel." To satisfy the homework requirements for this blog posting, you must complete your entry on "Through the Tunnel." That means you must have the following on your individual page:

• Title and author of the story
• An insightful passage from the story
• A several sentence response written by you about why you chose the passage you did
• A picture or image related to a theme or idea in the story
• A several sentence response written by you about why you chose the picture you did

Reminder: Go the main wiki page here. Once at the main page, find your individual page in the folder titled 'short story pages.' The folders are listed to the right on the main page. Open the folder and find your page. Remember, you need your username and password to edit the page.

Jerry, his swim through the tunnel, and us...

This response is due before class starts on Sept. 17, 2008

In the short story "Through the Tunnel," Jerry makes a treacherous swim through an underwater tunnel. It was not an easy accomplishment, but at the end of the story, Jerry is changed by his experiences. Although he is 11 years old in the story, we all can share in his ordeal.

In what way can you relate to Jerry? How are his experiences like some that you've had? What is it that makes Jerry similar to you or to typical teenagers?

Look to go beyond the purely literal in your answer. Don't just view his swim through the tunnel on a literal level. Think about what it can represent as a part of his growing up process.

photo credit: boy swimming in the big blue ocean by NanakofiAcquah on Flickr

Using participles to write descriptive sentences

In class, we've begun studying the use of participles and participle phrases to help us write more descriptive, evocative sentences. You will also need to do this as part of the Vivid Vignette assignment.

As a way to practice, I'd like you to share an example of a sentence that includes a participle or participle phrase in it. Post your sentence in the comment section. I have posted the first one in the comments as a model ...

Here are the definitions to remind you:

Participle: An -ing word tagged onto the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence

Participle phrase: An -ing phrase tagged onto the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence

If you need help writing a grammatically correct sentence, refer to the following resource page to review the notes and definitions that we have used in class. And remember, if it is a participle or participle phrase, you will need commas to set it off from the base sentence.

What do we need to learn about using computers?

Hello English 10 students.

Throughout the school year, you will be using this site to review information, share ideas, and complete assignments. To help make that work in class, we also will be regularly using a class set of laptops. It is my hope that by using these computers, the educational experience in English 10 will be broadened.

However, not everyone has shared the same positive experiences when it comes to using laptops. We've read about one school, in Liverpool, N.Y., which has decided to scrap its initiative to issue laptops to all students. The plan, the school officials say, did not lead to improved learning. Here is the link to that article for your reference. The publicity about what happend in Liverpool also prompted many people in education to think harder about the best way to use laptops in the classroom. In response to Liverpool's decision, one educator criticized schools for giving up on technology so easily.

I want you to think about the issue and help us craft a set of classroom guidelines for the use of the laptops and computers in class. As a writing assignment, make suggestions about what we can do in F14 to get the best use out of the laptops. How should we use them in class? What should we be using them to learn? What guidelines do we need? What would you suggest the teacher do to make the most out of the laptops? Post your response in the comment section of the blog. Write your answer in a few paragraphs, using complete sentences and proper grammar. Sign your first name (no last names) and class period after your posting.

photo credit: NY Times, published May 4, 2007

Welcome back for another school year

Welcome back to Branford High for a new year in English 10.

This year promises many exciting opportunities for learning. A big part of our classwork and learning will include the use of this blog. Here you will find regular assignments, important links, and opportunities to contribute ideas. In many instances this site will also serve as an extension of the reading, writing, and thinking we do in class. Using a blog like this allows us unique opportunity to publish our writing and maintain a record of our thinking and learning through the year.

You'll also notice that there is a calendar on the right of this page which lists upcoming due dates and other important announcements. Right below the calendar is a list of important links for this class. As the year goes on, I plan to add even more materials and information to help you learn in this class.

Good luck and enjoy the year.