JacketFlap connects you to the work of more than 200,000 authors, illustrators, publishers and other creators of books for Children and Young Adults. The site is updated daily with information about every book, author, illustrator, and publisher in the children's / young adult book industry. Members include published authors and illustrators, librarians, agents, editors, publicists, booksellers, publishers and fans. Join now (it's free).
Login or Register for free to create your own customized page of blog posts from your favorite blogs. You can also add blogs by clicking the "Add to MyJacketFlap" links next to the blog name in each post.
Blog Posts by Tag
In the past 7 days
Blog Posts by Date
Click days in this calendar to see posts by day or month
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: English Language Arts, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 25 of 62
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: English Language Arts in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
If I could’ve chosen my own name, what would it be?
Not Cynthia. It seems so formal, so tea and crumpets. Cindy is OK, though it sounds blond, and I’m a brunette. All the other Cindys I grew up with were blonds. But as adults, not all Cynthias are stuffed shirts.
In fiction, certain names conjure up stereotypical images. We expect Buffy to be a bubbly cheerleader and Rebel or Snake to be bikers. If we’re wrong, and Buffy winds up being the dental hygienist, we might feel tricked.
According to T.L. Cooper’s “Naming Characters in Fiction,” names create relationships between the characters and readers. Names show how the characters feel about themselves. And nicknames clue you in on how they feel about each other. In two of my own stories, minor characters named “Madman” and “Sorehead” told you these stories were set in a challenging, dysfunctional world.
Also in Cooper’s article was a list of Don’ts, to be aware of, when naming your characters. For one thing, you can’t use the same name for two different characters. It creates total confusion. (I mean, why would you even want to use the same name, unless they’re father and son? Then you could call them William and Billy.)
Also a no-no is using names that begin with the same letter (like Gary and Greg) or that are too similar, period (like Gary and Gerry). It’s also a hassle when your character has no name (“the big-nosed girl,” “the red-headed guy”). Trust me, it’s hard to keep up with that. If a character figures largely enough in my story, I come up with a name.
Amsco’s Florida Reading Grade 6, Florida Reading Grade 7, and Florida Reading Grade 8 will help students review the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for Grades 6–8 English Language Arts. The student books, by authors Dana Henricks (6-8), Amy Himes (8), and Virginia Pake (8), include eight chapters that cover all the benchmarks assessed on the Florida Reading test. There's also a Practice Test modeled on the Florida Reading test right in the book (with more to be found in the Teacher's Guide with Answer Key and Test Bank).
Special Features
Benchm
2 Comments on Florida Reading FLASH!, last added: 4/16/2011
Finally, a product that is aligned not only to the new standards, but to the rigor required for mastery. This is the best book on the marked for reinforcing the NG-SSS standards. Bravo!
Are you planning to take the ACT? The next test date is June 11, 2011. Whether you’re planning to take the exam on this date, or any other time in the future, Amsco’s Preparing for the ACT: English, Reading & Writing can help you prepare for and score well on this important exam.
This book will help you prepare for the English and Reading sections on the ACT, as well as for the optional Writing Test. All of the topics covered on the English Test are reviewed, and you are also given numerous strategies for successfully completing the Reading Test. Each review section includes practice exercises, as well as guided and independent practice questions formatted in the ACT style. Answer explanations are provided for all of the review sections. The writing section includes sample essays with score explanations. The book also includes detailed information about test registration, score reporting, and test-taking/test-preparation tips.
A Study Chart. This tells you exactly which topics you need to review and where you can find the appropriate instructional section in the book.
A thorough review of ACT English topics. These topics include sentence structure (e.g., run-ons, sentence fragments, modifiers), grammar and usage (e.g., verb tense, parallel form, comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs), punctuation (e.g., semicolons, apostrophe), and rhetorical skills (e.g., strategy, organization, style).
0 Comments on Prepare for the ACT with Amsco! as of 4/12/2011 1:42:00 PM
As a card-carrying member of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), I have the privilege of receiving teaching materials and research journals published by the organization. I also receive a weekly e-mail newsletter and daily updates to online member discussion boards. (Teachers, these are great resources, and they make membership well worth it!).
I am not trying to sell NCTE membership here, although that may be the way it sounds. I tell you this only to reference an interesting discussion thread I have been following. The thread began when a college-prep English teacher asked where she could find sample persuasive essays. What ensued was an intense debate over whether teaching persuasive writing is appropriate for students preparing to enter college.
The gist of the thread, by the time three weeks of discussion were over, was that students in college may learn to write expository and persuasive essays in their freshman composition classes, but most of the college-level instructors who weighed in said that this was doing students a disservice. They wrote that college students are rarely asked to write persuasive or expository essays in classes in disciplines other than English.
Instead, it seems that the argument-support essay would best prepare students for writing in all subject areas. I thought about this, mostly on my long commute in and out of Manhattan, and I think I agree. Here’s why.
I teach online writing courses to college freshmen, and the two primary courses I’ve taught focus on the expository and persuasive essay. By the time we’ve made it halfway through either course, however, I’m focusing on getting students to state an argument in their thesis statements, and then to support that idea throughout their essays. Sounds like argument-support writing, doesn’t it?
The key here is to realize that when students write expository essays, they support their primary idea (what they’re explaining) with details and examples, and when they write persuasive essays, they support their opinions with facts and statistics. Either way, there’s an idea that must be supported. It seems to me, then, that the best approach to teaching both these types of writing is simply to instruct students to support their main ideas.
0 Comments on Writing for College and Life as of 1/1/1900
While much is made of J.K. Rowling’s fictional hero, the youthful magician Harry Potter, and while the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Ifilm brought $330 million in ticket sales during its weekend opening, I have become fascinated with another writer of young readers’ fantasy. Rick Riordan has introduced me to the action-packed world of Percy Jackson, a half blood (part mortal and part god), living in contemporary New York. Percy, whose real name is Perseus, is the son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and a mortal woman. (Riordan provides no details about their romantic relationship prior to Percy’s birth). Percy is a good kid despite the fact that he has been expelled from a succession of middle schools. It is not his fault if strange things seem to happen when he is around, things that school authorities cannot understand and for which, therefore, they blame Percy. In Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, for example, when three adolescent bullies corner Percy in a chemistry lab and turn out to be half blood hating monsters, Percy has no choice but to draw Riptide, a ballpoint pen that turns into a sword with magical properties (a gift from his father, of course) in order to defend himself. Percy’s real strength is the special relationship he has with water, especially seawater. So, when the battle with the monsters causes an explosion that destroys the chemistry lab and blows a hole in the wall of the school, Percy must run. He is helped by Annabeth Chase, another half blood. She is the daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom. Together with Percy’s half brother, Tyson, a young Cyclops, they reach the safety of Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for the children of gods. Protected by magical boundaries that no mortal can cross, and presided over by a centuries-old centaur named Chiron, the camp is the place where young heroes are trained to fight and are prepared for periodic quests from which some do not return alive.
In case you are wondering why no one notices centaurs, Cyclops, satyrs (such as Percy’s friend, Grover), dryads, etc. it is because of the Mist, a magical veil through which mortals cannot see. Once at the camp, the young half bloods are claimed by their godly parents and are assigned to cabins where they live with their half brothers and sisters. The reader learns a great deal about mythology, such as the distinctions between the gods in their Greek manifestations as opposed to their Roman aspects. Riordan makes much of the war between gods and titans and how it has affected western civilization. Did you know, for example, that after World War II the gods decided to ce
2 Comments on Antiquity Corner: Magical and Fictional Antiquity, last added: 12/1/2010
Hi Cindy! Thanks for the informative post. It's nice to have an alternative to Harry, no slight intended to him or J. K. Rowling. Hope your Thanksgiving was awesome.
Anonymous said, on 12/1/2010 6:52:00 AM
Hi Cindy!
It IS nice to see someone give Rowling a run for her (substantial!) money! Hope all is well and good! Dana
Think the Dolphins will make it to the Super Bowl?Maybe. But if you're a Florida teen, right now your goal is to master the knowledge and skills that will be assessed on the Florida Reading test.
Amsco’sFlorida Reading, Grade 9and Florida Reading, Grade 10 will help students review the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for 9th and 10th Grade English Language Arts. Each book includes eight chapters, which correspond to the benchmark skills assessed on the Florida Reading test, as well as a Practice Test modeled on the new test.
Special features
0 Comments on Florida Reading Flash! as of 1/1/1900
Amsco’s English department has been quite busy lately—we have ten products coming out over the next few months!—and I’m happy to announce that the first of these books has just been published. Introducing A Quick Reference to the Research Paper.
A Quick Reference to the Research Paper by Sharon Sorenson is a handy, user-friendly guide to writing research papers. Research assignments can be overwhelming for students (I remember being in high school, sitting on my bedroom floor surrounded by various books and index cards, wondering where to begin …), so I like how Sorenson breaks down the process into twelve easy steps, including choosing a topic, finding reliable sources, gathering information, drafting the paper, and citing sources. Additionally, the book helps students with these common trouble spots:
Time management. Students might be able to crank out a five-paragraph character sketch of Hester Prynne the night before it’s due, but they’re going to run into trouble if they procrastinate on a research paper about Nathaniel Hawthorne’s vision of utopian societies. Thankfully, the book has a time-management chart that helps students pace themselves as they work through the research process.
Citing sources. Citing sources throughout an essay and listing them on a Works Cited page can be tricky. Different kinds of sources (books, Web sites, newspapers, interviews, etc.) are cited in different ways. Most schools follow Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines for citations, but these guidelines can be confusing for students if they’re left to flip through the 300-page MLA Handbook on their own. Our book takes the essential information from the MLA book and makes it clearer and easier for students to use.
Finding information online.Students might be tempted to just Google their topic and use the first source that comes up, but that’s not going to give them the real information they need. Our book teaches students helpful Internet search techniques so they can refine their searches as necessary. Once students find sources, they have to decide which ones are valid and reliable to use. Our book shows them how to assess the validity of a Web site.
Brainstorm, for one. I’d always enjoyed “exercising my brain,” until I found an online article about real brainstorming. With rules, yet. Also time and idea limits.
The “Step by Step Guide to Brainstorming” says you need to “define your problem as a creative challenge” before doing anything else. This challenge should be brief, and to the point, and focus only on information relating to the challenge itself.
With writing, I think that means focusing on a specific topic, like “Lost Love” (one of my favorites!). Think of somebody you once loved who totally broke your heart. How did this person make you feel? Like there was a foot stuck in your stomach? Like everything you ate got lodged in your throat?
And the pain stayed with you, didn’t it? Was there a special song you associated with that person? When you heard it months after the breakup, did you still cry, or cringe? Was there a smell that made you think of your lost love? Christmas trees, or how about Starbucks coffee?
3 Comments on Brainstorming, Inc., last added: 6/16/2010
Thanks for sending the link. This is my first visit here but it definitely won't be my last. I've only read 3 posts so far but I like what I'm reading. Very nice blog.
Thanks again, JW
Anonymous said, on 6/16/2010 12:19:00 PM
Hi Cindy! This was so helpful. Sometimes I just can't figure out where to start, and I know writers who feel the same way. Thanks for a timely topic. Elaine Ash
In an interview with the NCTE's Voices from the Middle, Maguire shares some captivating facts gathered during the research for his book. For starters, he talked about why the contest is called a spelling bee. It seems the word bee represents a type of social activity in America, a coming together of a group to achieve a purpose. Maguire talks about barn-raising bees and quilting bees as American traditions, and he says that the annual spelling bee falls into this category of gathering. The gathering for the contest is among young experts in language arts and word meanings.
Aspirants to the national contest begin competing at the local level with a list called the Paideia, which is published by the Scripps-Howard Foundation, the organizers of the National Spelling Bee. The Paideia contains about 3,800 words. If students get past the local level and are entered as contestants in the national bee, they are given a list called the Consolidated Word List--23,000 words long! The lists are available for download, free of charge.
Once students arrive in D.C., students take a 25-word written test, which eliminates about two-thirds of them from the contest. The written test is combined with a session in which each student has to spell at least one word on stage. The Scripps-Howard Foundation does this so that each student can feel as if he or she participated in the celebrity of the National Spelling Bee, even if he or she is eliminated in the first round.
0 Comments on In It to Win It: The National Spelling Bee as of 1/1/1900
As with other fun holidays, people feel that birthdays should be celebrated. Friends and coworkers take you out to lunch, or at least give you cards (that hopefully don’t insult you, poke fun at your age, or both). Families reminisce about the good ol’ days. Well, those days might’ve been good for them, but usually not me. It’s amazing how bad some of my past birthdays turned out to be.
In one large, glossy photo, I had just turned one. Trapped in a ruffled dress, I looked like a miserable doll. My mom and aunts all mugged for the camera, but the birthday girl would not smile. In the foreground, was a huge cake with pink roses I bet they wouldn’t let me eat because I was too young. Who wants to be one?
Other birthdays stick out in my head—like my seventeenth, when my mother made me cry in an
Happy Birthday Sweetest Cindy. If I were there, Sweetest Cindy, We'd dance a polka and the lindy, And both of us would be in heaven, And you would still be just eleven. Your life will always be exciting As long as you just keep on writing.
The end of the schoolyearis fast approaching, and students across the country are turning in their final papers. Many teachers will require students to submit essays through plagiarism-checking Web sites like Turnitin, to ensure that students' words are their own and weren't lifted from the Internet.
It's great that there's technology to catch plagiarism. However, the problem is that not all cheaters intend to plagiarize. They just don't understand how to use their sources. Students often have trouble deciding when to cite, paraphrase, or summarize a text. And when they do paraphrase, they don't always do it well. When I was a middle school English teacher, I had students who knew what paraphrasing means--putting something in your own words--but when they actually had to do it, they thought they could simply replace a word or two with synonyms and leave the rest alone.
I suggest that teachers set aside one or two days for lessons on plagiarism, paraphrasing, and citing sources. It's not enough to tell students to paraphrase; we need to show them how. Here are some great, classroom-ready lessons teachers can use. 1.Amsco's Strategy Central for the Active Reader, Information features an engaging lesson on incorporating information from outside sources. Students are taught how to decide among quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing, and they're given examples of each.
2.NCTE's ReadWriteThink offers the lesson "Exploring Plagiarism, Copyright, and Paraphrasing." This lesson has students examine passages and determine whether they think the text was plagiarized. Then students learn about copyright and fair-use laws, and they're given practice paraphrasing passages from a textbook.
3.The New York Times Learning Network has a great lesson called "Please No Posers." This lesson has students summarize a New York Times ar
0 Comments on Teaching Students to Paraphrase as of 1/1/1900
This week Australian physicist Dr. Stephen Hughes of the Queensland University of Technology found an error in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), and he is having it corrected. The definition in question is for the word “siphon.” The definition, which has been followed by most other dictionaries, has been in error for the last 99 years. The following is the OED definition:
A pipe or tube of glass, metal or other material, bent so that one leg is longer than the other, and used for drawing off liquids by means of atmospheric pressure, which forces the liquid up the shorter leg and over the bend in the pipe.
Margot Charlton of the OED’s staff explained, “The OED entry for siphon dates from 1911 and was written by editors who were not scientists.” She was surprised that nobody had queried the definition in those 99 years. The definition of siphon will be corrected in the next edition of the OED.
Atmospheric pressure is involved to start the process of moving the liquid up the shorter leg of the siphon. However, once the fluid is over the bend in the tube, it is gravity, the weight of the liquid, that pulls the it down the longer leg.
Dr. Hughes reported, “An extensive check of online and offline dictionaries did not reveal a single dictionary that correctly referred to gravity being the operative force in a siphon.” I guess he did not check Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary, which provides the following definition:
1 a : a tube bent to form two legs of unequal length by which a liquid can be transferred to a lower level over an intermediate elevation by the pressure of the atmosphere in forcing the liquid up the shorter branch of the tube immersed in it while the excess of weight of the liquid in the longer branch when once filled causes a continuous flow
Amsco has editors who are scientists, but we are human and sometimes make a mistake. Like the OED, once we become aware of it, we correct it in the next reprint.
I got the idea for this post from my son, Don, who sent me a link to an article in The Register, an Information Technology journal from the United Kingdom. I enjoyed the article so much that I subscribed. On Tuesday, I saw the following headline in the science section of The Register: “Siphon Wars: Pressurist Weighs into Gravitite Boffin. This could be trouble, I thought, and it was. Rather than try to paraphrase (see tomorrow’s post by Lauren), I decided to quote from The Register.
0 Comments on Oops--Siphon Definition Defied Law of Gravity as of 1/1/1900
Today's guest blogger is veteran Amsco author Henry I. Christ, who enlightens us about one of his favorite American poets.
Emily Dickinson, one of the English language’s greatest poets, continues to baffle and delight readers. Her life was simple. She was born in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1830 and spent most of her adult life in her father’s house. She is sometimes affectionately called “The Belle of Amherst.” The label suggests rounds of parties, adoring beaus, and a busy social life.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
In college, however, Dickinson gradually withdrew from any social life. Her poems were her life. A complete anthology of all 1,575 poems finally appeared in 1955, almost 70 years after her death (in 1886). During her lifetime, merely seven of these poems were published, each anonymously. Her poems were her private world, which she guarded zealously. She wrote on whatever scraps of paper were handy.
In 1862, Dickinson wrote to Thomas Wentworth Higginson for guidance. As a scholar, he recognized the quality of her work and became her mentor. He became her friend and sympathetic critic. Romantics have fantasized over their relationship, but he was a married man.
Dickinson’s nature poems are sunny, characterized by incredibly apt images. Dickinson’s mind was bathed in metaphor. Images poured forth in torrents, with butterflies that“waltzed above a stream”and she writes of the tide, “I felt his silver heel upon my ankles.”
0 Comments on The Challenge of Emily Dickinson as of 1/1/1900
April is National Poetry Month. A couple years ago, I blogged about this event and posted my “Top Five Reasons You Should Be Teaching Poetry.” This year, I’d like to honor National Poetry Month by spreading the word about some fun, new ways you can use technology to enjoy poetry.
1.Install PoemFlow, a new, free app for iPhones, brought to you by Poets.org and Textflows. Each day, a new poem floooowwws across your screen in an animated, artistic design.
6.Subscribe to Poetcast, poetry podcasts from the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Academy of American Poets.
7.Don’t just read the poetry of professional writers; see what teens are writing, too! Go to Teen Ink to read some great poems from teens across the country.
Enjoy!
--Lauren
1 Comments on There’s an App for That… Even for Poetry!, last added: 4/7/2010
In celebration of National Poetry Month in April, New York City is hosting the 8th annual Poem In Your Pocket day (PIYP) on Thursday, April 29, 2010. Join in the excitement by carrying a poem in your pocket. You can write your own poem or borrow one from your favorite poet; just make sure to share it with your friends, family, and colleagues.
Poem in Your Pocket day will offer a series of poetry-inspired events throughout the city, including a full day of open-mic sessions for NYC public school students in Bryant Park. All month long, there will be a series of poetry-inspired events throughout the city. To learn more, visit the Events Calendar. www.nyc.gov/nyculture or www.nyc.gov/poem.
All my life, I’ve lived up North. You need a pizza cutter to slice through my Jersey accent (à la West Side Story). New York City is just across the river. My one trip south was to Florida, where I got the worst sunburn of my life. Though I love Southern cooking (my famous fried chicken recipe was borrowed from a Georgia friend), I’m perfectly happy up here.
Still, one of my favorite writers was a bona fide Southerner.
Flannery O’Connor was born on March 25, 1925 in Savannah, Georgia. And talk about accents. In a 1971 letter to Robert Giroux, Paul Engle (O’Connor’s teacher) claimed O’Connor’s accent was so thick, that on meeting her, he couldn’t understand a word she said. She had to write stuff down: “My name is Flannery O’Connor. . . . Can I come to the Writer’s Workshop?”
She meant the famous University of Iowa Workshop, which could make or break you as a writer. Engle compared her to Keats, “who spoke Cockney but wrote the purest sounds in English.” Engle said, “Flannery spoke a dialect beyond instant comprehension but on the page her prose was imaginative, tough, alive. . . .”
Southern Gothic, people called her style. O’Connor lived a somewhat isolated life and wrote about the types of people she knew, on her own turf. Many were eccentric, many hilarious, some grotesque, in true Southern Gothic style. She would pit child against parent, liberal against “old school.” She wrote about racism, poverty, and the Holocaust.
O’Connor was a Roman Catholic, who spent most of her life in the midst of the Protestant Bible Belt. Many of her stories deal with religious hypocrisy, or unbelievers who eventually—and reluctantly—see the light.
In “The Enduring Chill,” failed writer Asbury, convinced he’s dying, returns to his family home. Like many of O’Connor’s washouts, he blames his mother for his shortcomings.
While still in his freezing flat in New York, he wrote a letter to his mother that filled two notebooks. It was to be read after his death. “It was,” O’Connor wr
5 Comments on Southern Fried Writer, last added: 3/26/2010
Cindy, I confess, I never knew Flannery. But your piece was written with such love and respect, I will make it my business to read her. Thanks for the introduction to an American treasure. Warmest and best, Elaine Ash
One of the best American writers of the 20th century for sure.
Anonymous said, on 3/26/2010 3:40:00 AM
Hi, Cindy,
As usual, you made me smile with your wonderful descriptions ("You need a pizza cutter to slice through my Jersey accent")!
Another great blog!
Dana
Anonymous said, on 3/26/2010 5:02:00 AM
I was in a McDonald's in Kingsport, TN and asked for a black coffee and Egg McMuffin. The cashier looked at me and said "Ah din't understand a word you sayed" so I know how Flannery felt.
Today is National Grammar Day, brought to you by the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG). Their goal is to get people thinking about language and the importance of clear communication.
I support their mission. Grammar is important—a misplaced modifier or improperly placed punctuation mark can muddle your meaning! But how do we get texting, IM-ing students to care about grammar? I think we need to make a greater effort to show students why it matters. We can’t just teach the rules; we have to teach the why behind these rules.
Amsco’s workbook series Grammar in Practice is particularly good at helping students understand why and how proper grammar is useful. The three books—A Foundation, Usage, Sentences and Paragraphs—contain special features such as Writing Applications and Composition Hints, to teach students how the rules they’re learning can be applied to writing. There’s also a section called Real-World Applications, with activities designed to show students how grammar affects their lives outside of school. For example, one activity has students examine how advertisers use modifiers and superlatives to get people to buy their products. This is a great activity because it allows students to connect what they’re learning in the classroom to what they see in the world around them. When students can make this sort of connection, they become more motivated to learn.
For additional engaging grammar activities, check out the full Grammar in Practice series. Click the book covers above or go to our main site at amscopub.com.
Have fun!
Lauren
Homophone riddle: What's the only day of the year that's also a command?
Answer: Today, March 4th = Marc
0 Comments on Engaging Grammar Instruction as of 3/4/2010 8:51:00 AM
Today's guest blogger is Amsco author, Henry I. Christ, who shares invaluable experiences he's had with fellow teachers.
In a previous blog, I told what I had learned from my students. That experience was not limited to my own classroom. Over a 25-year period as chairperson of the English and Speech Department at Andrew Jackson High School in Queens, New York, I learned at least three important things from my colleagues.
1. It’s important to teach in an environment where each feels committed to other group members. Professional athletes bond with each other in ways that go beyond their differences. "We're all in this together" suggests the common aspirations and frustrations faced by both teachers and athletes.
2. Observations of other teachers are important for morale.
In the old days (September 1946), a department chairperson was required to set up a schedule of classroom observations: once a year for experienced teachers, twice for teachers who weren’t yet tenured, and three times a semester for substitute teachers. Each observation required a conference and a written report that was put into the teacher's file. These conferences provided excellent opportunities to exchange ideas on a level playing field, with shared experiences. But the written reports were taken seriously and had a life of their own. If they were positive, and emphasized the conclusions we came to at their conference, they were not awaited with dread.
3. Teachers’ strengths overrride methodology. I learned that teachers can be good teachers in many ways. For example, a major tenet for successful teaching is interaction between teacher and students. Some teachers' classrooms were lively interchanges, bouncing questions and ideas back and forth. Still, one of the best-liked teachers I observed had relatively little interaction, but the students were enthralled by his charisma. He taught Eugene Field's sentimental "Little Boy Blue" as an absurd and ludicrous way to handle grief. Years later, students would come back and mention his name. There were teachers with unusual lessons. Music major and teacher Sylvia Ponemon taught the ballad "Bonny Barbara Allen" by singing the verses. Another old-time teacher taught “paragraphing” by making her students count six sentences and then begin a new paragraph. And students loved it. (But that was a challenge for me!)
So, in the end, I learned that teamwork, positive motivation, and colleagues’ commitment to teaching (in all ways and means) turned one of New York City’s English departments into a well-remembered learning
0 Comments on What I Learned from My Colleagues as of 2/22/2010 6:12:00 AM
Today, February 11, 2010, is a day of great celebration in South Africa, my home country. It marks the twentieth anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison. The past two decades have seen major changes in this newly democratic nation. In honor of that democratic beginning, I have prepared this slide show. Teachers can use it as part of a unit or even just a lesson on South African history or literature. Other resources, should teachers choose to pursue this topic, are listed below the slide show.
When I taught middle and high school English, one of my favorite writers to introduce to students was Langston Hughes. His works are beautiful and powerful but also accessible; students are able to find meaning in his words and relate to many of the themes and ideas. In addition, his works really lend themselves to lessons on figurative language and other literary devices, as well as to interdisciplinary lessons on the Harlem Renaissance and other historical events.
In honor of Hughes's birthday (this past Monday, February 1st) and African American History Month, I'd like to share some of my favorite Langston Hughes teaching ideas. These ideas are from a variety of sources—Amsco’s excellent ELA materials, my own teaching days, and the wealth of lesson plan sites online.
Lessons on Hughes’s Poetry
1. Analyzing the Metaphors in “Dreams" In this lesson from the NCTE’s ReadWriteThink, students identify and explore the metaphors in Hughes’s poem “Dreams” and then use new metaphors to compose their own poems. I'm a big fan of this lesson because "Dreams" is probably my favorite Hughes poems. (In a close second is “Mother to Son.") “Dreams” is great for teaching metaphors and also for read-aloud practice, since it’s short and easy to memorize and recite—and it’s quite powerful when read out loud. I still remember it from my high school days.
3. Exploring American Themes in Hughes’s Poetry Amsco’s Poems: American Themescontains three poems of Hughes (“Dream Variation,” “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” and “Too Blue”), along with study questions, writing activities, and music connections. Have students read the three poems and compare and contrast the themes and ideas in each one, in a discussion and then in writing.
Today's guest blogger is veteran Amsco author Henry I. Christ, who describes the customizing of Shakespeare's works throughout the years.
Shakespeare's stature has been growing for centuries, but this respect hasn't stopped actors, directors, playwrights, producers, and editors from tampering with his works. Some unanswered questions are the legitimate concern of honest scholarship, but the foolish arrogance of others distorts Shakespeare’s plays.
There are three ways of “improving” Shakespeare:
Finding the best text to use for your production or new printed edition of the play
Using stage settings completely different from those used in the Elizabethan productions
Making radical changes in characters, plot, theme and endings
The first challenge has no perfect solution. There are just too many alternative readings to guarantee a definitive edition of Shakespeare’s plays. Even the First Folio, published by Shakespeare’s peers and colleagues, is not the final word. Some disputed lines printed in small quartos during Shakespeare’s lifetime seem preferable. Shakespeare wasn’t producing masterpieces for the ages; he was just making a living. So, if an actor came up with a slight improvement to his lines, why not? Variorum editions of the plays list the disputed lines and the scholars with their arguments.
Hamletis the longest Shakespearean play. In 1937, Maurice Evans provided an uncut Hamlet, with an intermission. More recently, Kenneth Branagh provided a complete Hamlet.
If you were the director, what would you do? Cut one of the soliloquies? If so, which one? Die-hard Shakespeare purists consider every cut to Hamlet a mortal wound.
The second challenge is to encourage a new look at a familiar play by providing an exotic setting. Hopefully, this will disturb the audience and give new meanings to familiar lines.
There are degrees of such strangeness. Modern-dress versions, with Shakespeare’s lines kept intact, often do well. Some versions are quite extreme. In August 2009, the Performing Arts Playhouse in Tampa, Florida, produced Pericles: A New Rock Musical, a version of Pericles,Prince of Tyre, in contemporary dress and with a mafia plot.
1 Comments on Let's "Improve" Shakespeare, last added: 1/13/2010
If Anne Frank, the most famous victim of the concentration camps of the Holocaust, had survived, she would now be 80 years old. But if she had survived, her book The Diary of a Young Girl might not have been published. She probably would not be as well-known as she is today.
Part of Your Curriculum? Anne Frank’s diary can be studied in both social studies and language arts classes. For social studies, the document can be part of a unit on the Holocaust. But, of course, students will need to learn more about the Holocaust than what is presented in Anne’s book. For the language arts curriculum, The Diary of a Young Girl can be presented as a piece of literature. It is not just the day-to-day jottings of an adolescent girl. Anne Frank had ambitions to be a published writer. Her work shows sophistication for a teenager. Francine Prose, in Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife, argues that students who want to write better would do well to study The Diary of a Young Girl. I suggest that teachers who want to assign the Diary to their students should first read Prose’s new book. Various Versions As Francine Prose points out, Anne’s diary has existed in various versions. Her first attempt was rather rough. That is why in early 1944, Anne decided to revise her diary with the express purpose of getting it published sometime in the future. She went back to the beginning (the entries for 1942 and 1943) and rewrote them to improve the language and to give the work a perspective of a slightly older Anne Frank. In doing so, she downplayed her infatuation with fellow resident Peter Van Pels, who was older than she. While the original diary has been called the “A” version, Anne’s revision is known as the “B” version.
After World War II, Anne’ father (Otto Frank survived the concentration camps) returned to Amsterdam and found Anne’s diary (both versions). He decided to publish it, combining elements from A and B. But he also edited it somewhat, so that the published book is referred to as the “C” version. That is the version you might have read. Otto restored some of Anne’s thoughts about Peter. Yet he took out some of Anne’s biting criticism of her mother. In 1989, the English language Critical Edition of the Diary of Anne Frank was published. At some 800 pa
0 Comments on Frankly, Anne, You Were a Good Writer as of 1/1/1900
In this age of Twitter, Facebook, texting, and blogs, many educators are wondering if Shakespeare still has a place in the classroom. Teaching young adult literature seems like a better way to improve student literacy, since these books are current, relevant, and more engaging; Shakespeare, on the other hand, can be difficult and intimidating.
I agree that YA lit should be used in schools. (See my post on Twilight lesson ideas!) If teachers are literature snobs and approve only of classics, students might not be motivated to become life-long readers.
However, I think there’s room for Shakespeare, too. In fact, I think we need to make room for him.
Why?
I think we should teach Shakespeare because his works are timeless and universal. The themes of love in Romeo and Juliet and power in Macbeth can be felt and understood by people of all races, ethnicities, religions, nations, and time periods. When I student-taught at the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan, my 11th graders made a lot of connections to the characters and predicaments in Macbeth.
It is also important to understand Shakespeare for cultural literacy, since his works are so widely referenced. In addition, being familiar with Shakespeare gives you a better understanding of much of today’s pop culture, since so many movies, books, and plays are based on his work. Students are interested to learn how 10 Things I Hate About You is based on TheTaming of the Shrew, or how Romeo and Juliet can be compared to New Moon.
I am not alone in wanting to keep Shakespeare alive in schools. English teacher Mary Ellen Dakin has an excellent book on why it is still valuable to teach his works. (She also presented on this topic at the 2009 NCTE convention.) In Reading Shakespeare with Young Adults, she explains how his works transcend the "barriers... that divide us" (Dakin, xv). She goes on to say that he is “the great equalizer”; his “language challenges us all to think twice, to look again, to doubt our eyes, and this perhaps gives our English language learners a small advantage since this is what they must do with every text they read” (Dakin, xv). Her point is a good one—when teaching Shakespeare, teachers and students have to make meaning together, and no one has all the answers. Everyone is in the same boat, figuring out unusual words and sentence constructions. This is a nice change of pace for many students.
Yet another reason to teach Shakespeare is that his works can be read out loud, acted out, listened to, and viewed. There are tons of resources available and many great productions of his works that you can bring into the classroom, view, hear, discuss, and compare. And students gain a lot from reading his lines out loud and/or
0 Comments on Does Shakespeare Still Have a Place in the Classroom? as of 1/1/1900
This past weekend, Philadelphia hosted the 99th annual National Council of Teachers of English convention. Amsco attends this conference every year, and this weekend was no exception. I went down to this founding city, along with our chief editor Lori O’Dea.
The theme for this year’s convention was “Once and Future Classics: Reading Between the Lines.” The focus was to discover new ways of engaging students in classic literary texts that seem to be losing their traditional place in K–12 education as more current works are taking precedence. That’s not to say that teachers should discourage students from reading YA books, but that educators should try to keep the classics just as interesting.
It seemed appropriate, while in Philadelphia, for Amsco to break the mold and present a session. Lori, English Director Lauren Davis, and I crafted an assignment for teachers to use with students reading a particularly challenging American literature classic, The Scarlet Letter. The idea was to have students create a blog using text from the novel. Students would then hyperlink specific words or phrases in the text to illuminate their understanding of the historical context, themes, setting, and other literary conventions in the book. Students would also create vocabulary links for challenging words in their blog posts.
Aside from the blog itself, students would fill out a table explaining why they chose the links they did. This would serve to engage them in metacognitive analysis, and it would mean that students would have to justify their choices. They would have to explain why sites they chose were reliable information sources, which is an entry point for the teaching of information literacy. Students would also need to conduct a reflective interview (which could be adapted to a full-length essay) to help them see how using outside sources can help them to understand a challenging text.
Lori and I had a wonderful time presenting the session, and it seemed that the 35 or so teachers who attended found the presentation interesting. In bringing the assignment back to their classrooms, the objective is to use the (relatively) new medium of blogging to enliven the reading of the (relatively) old medium: classic literature. Ideally, blogging will engage students with the text enough to begin to relate to it and understand it.
If you would like to use this idea in your own classroom, or if you just want to find out more about our presentation, click here for an overview and a copy of all the assignme
0 Comments on Amsco's Session at NCTE 2009 as of 1/1/1900
For 35 years I taught, the last 25 as chairman of English at Andrew Jackson High School in Queens, New York. The later segment brought many challenges: overcrowding of students, teacher shortages, triple sessions, and stress brought on by bussing from other areas.
The classroom was a refuge. I taught thousands of students and worked with hundreds of colleagues. I met occasional negativity and cynicism, but mostly, my experience was positive and satisfying.
There are five things I learned from my students that made me a better teacher.
1.A normal tone of voice is more effective than an angry tirade.One successful teacher I observed had a voice just strong enough to reach the students in the back rows. Students actually leaned forward to hear him.
2.Learning is hard. In teaching, we often take too much for granted. My colleague, Ethel Gerstin, wrote an article on this subject. At one time, New York City teachers had to take an “alertness course” to qualify for the next salary increment. Ethel chose a sewing class and found herself with many of the girls from her “slow” class. Sewing was new to Ethel, and for a while, she was lost. Some of her students helped her through the hard spots. In her article, Ethel wrote that she understood the frustrations students feel when they just don’t get it.
Teachers are sometimes deluded by the COIK fallacy: “clear only if known.” Complicated directions for technological products show how true that is. To the expert, the problem is “kid stuff.” Today, kids raised on computers have left many of us behind.
3.Names are important. We identify with our names and appreciate those who remember them. Learning the names of all our students is more important than our favorite lesson plan. “Fred” is more effective than “that boy in the chair nearest the window.”
4.Check your assumptions. Teachers who assume that the students in their “nonacademic” class are unteachable need to think again. 5.Learn humility. I had taught Robert Frost’s poe
0 Comments on What I Learned from My Students as of 1/1/1900
Exciting news: Amsco’s English language arts team has been selected to lead a presentation at the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Annual Convention in Philadelphia next weekend. I wrote and submitted the proposal in January 2009, and I received the official acceptance e-mail in March. (Ours was accepted from over 1,200 proposals!) It’s now two weeks before showtime, so we’re busy ironing out our presentation details and getting ready for the big day.
The theme of this year’s convention is “Once and Future Classics: Reading Between the Lines.” The aim is to inspire a discussion about the value of teaching classic literature and about ways to bring classic texts alive in 21st-century classrooms. Our presentation fits right in with this theme and is titled “Understanding the Language of Literature: Using Context Clues and Hypertexts to Help Students Tackle Tough Language and References in Classic and World Literature.” We’ll be focusing on how to help students get past the difficult references and vocabulary of classic literature so they can get more meaning and enjoyment out of it. Amsco’s English editor Lea Borenstein and Chief Editor Lori O’Dea will lead the session. Lea will show teachers how to do lessons using hypertexts, where students link words and phrases with definitions or resources, merging technology and text to get meaning out of difficult passages. Lea and Lori will also demonstrate how to do lessons on using context clues, so students learn to become independent readers who can figure out some meanings as they read. Teachers will come away from the session with useful, engaging lessons they can bring back to their classrooms.
Here are some details on when and where to find us.
Session: G.37--9:30 am to 10:45 am 11/21/2009
Room: Convention Center, Room 204B, Level 2
Format: Panel
Topic: Adolescent/Young Adult Literacy
Levels: Middle (6–8), Secondary (9–12)
Title: Reading as Discovering: Understanding the Language of Literature In these presentations, participants will learn new strategies for helping students move past issues such as vocabulary and previous expectations to transactional literacy experiences and the engagement of literature from different times and places.
Chair: Wayne Brinda, University of Pittsburgh-Bradford, Pennsylvania
Presenters: Lea Borenstein, Amsco School Publications, Inc., New York, New York , "Understanding the Language of Literature: Using Context Clues and Hypertexts to Help Students Tackle Tough Language and References in Classic and World Literature" Wayne Brinda, University of Pittsburgh-Bradford, Pennsylvania , "Reading as Discovering Not Just Decoding"
English educators, we hope to see you there!
Lauren
0 Comments on Come See Us Live in Philly! as of 11/9/2009 4:10:00 PM
Good Grammar (SPOGG). Their goal is to get people thinking about language and the importance of clear communication.
Finally, a product that is aligned not only to the new standards, but to the rigor required for mastery. This is the best book on the marked for reinforcing the NG-SSS standards. Bravo!
*market