English I students began a few days' work on Shakespeare as we bring our poetry unit to a conclusion. We started today looking at how we could create an incredibly long sentence out of a relatively...
Archive
What our classroom did in previous days, weeks, months, even years…
PSAT and Socratic Magic
English 8 students conducted their first real Socratic Seminar today, discussing a couple of events from Nightjohn, the novel we're about to finish. Students were engaged, focused, and professional...
Extended Metaphor and Socratic Seminar
English 8 students had their first practice Socratic Seminar today. We'll be having a real one tomorrow on a more academic topic: today we went over the rules and discussed -- heavy topic here --...
Figurative Language and Major Assessment
English I students worked on figurative language today, focusing on the difference between tenor and vehicle. We did some work identifying them before turning our attention to the poems we'd already...
Tonal Shift and Effective Readers’ Skills
English I Students in English I finished looking at Billy Collins's poem "The Lanyard" and the shift in tone that occurs in the poem. After watching Collins reading the poem,...
Tone and Chapter 3 Skills
English I Students in third and fourth periods worked on tone in poetry, looking at a lovely poem by Billy Collins called "The Lanyard." We didn't quite get to the tonal question as we were working...
Tone and Analysis Completion
English I English I students worked on tone in the poetry we've read thus far. We began with "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," noting the tone of defiance at the beginning of the poem and how...
Ian Virtual Day
Today, students were at home due to the possible effects of hurricane Ian. English 8 students worked on their Nightjohn paragraphs after a quick Kahoot session for fragments. English I students had...
Gentle Nights and Writing
English I students worked on "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by presenting their analysis and summaries (see notes below). We also set the date for the parts of speech test (next Thursday)...
Gentle Nights and Planning
English I students began working on the next poem, Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." We spent the day making our way through the very challenging poem, with each group focusing...
Planning
English I students took the common assessment that most other students took last Friday before spending some time comparing "My Papa's Waltz" and "Those Winter Sundays." We came up with a number of...
Connotations and Fragments Applied
On Friday, all students worked with relatively new material; today, we worked on applying it. English I students (fourth and fifth periods) worked on analyzing a poem in terms of the connotations of...