Week 2: Frankenstein Letters 1-4 and Chapters 1-4 Week 2: Frankenstein Letters 1-4 and Chapters 1-4 “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge After our unexpected break week before last, we kicked off our second class by discussing and analyzing the very strange, but very important poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel
Introducing Animal Farm to young writers Introducing Animal Farm to young writers I love sharing George Orwell’s Animal Farm with students. What follows is an outline of how I introduced the novella’s first four chapters to my class over a two-week period during a November 2016 writing lesson. Dystopian literature discussion We began with
Weeks #5-#6: Frankenstein Chapters 17-24 Weeks 5 and 6: Frankenstein, chapters 17-24 We are finished with Frankenstein…boo! One of my favorite book studies to date. Next week we move on to George Orwell’s classic dystopian tale…Animal Farm. What happens when a bunch of pigs launch a rebellion? Hmm…gee, I wouldn’t
Weeks 3 and 4: Frankenstein, chapters 5-16 Weeks 3 and 4: Frankenstein, chapters 5-16 Our second 90-minute make-up class was a success! I do believe we are caught up and where we need to be. Regular 60-minute class will resume this week at the scheduled time (11 am Eastern). The Poetry of Percy (Shelley) No discussion of
Week #1: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the Poets of the Romantic Period Welcome Back! Our first live class got off to a great start! It’s always fun to “see” everyone again after the summer break. Please remember to have a headset for next week so we can turn on the audio for about 10 minutes to discuss our novel. Also, BEFORE
Welcome to Interpreting Western Literature! Greetings Literature Families! Welcome to The Writer’s Community—a place for parents (and students) to read re-caps of our live classes and some of the things we’ll be working on during our time together. Students will find their Course Schedule and Syllabus on WizIQ, but since parents don’
Interpreting Literature: Session V To Kill a Mockingbird 2015-05-14 Student Sequels Pre-order from Amazon! We picked up where we left off last week with a discussion of the many different symbols found within To Kill a Mockingbird. Students have been working on an essay regarding the most obvious symbol of the mockingbird, but there are several others that are
Interpreting Literature: Session V To Kill a Mockingbird 2015-05-07 Analysis Chapters 17-24 Our discussion of last week’s reading led us into an examination of three of the trial witnesses…their testimonies and their demeanor on the stand and a discussion of the events in this section. We finish the reading this week! I then pulled up a map
Interpreting Literature: Session V To Kill a Mockingbird 2015-04-30 Analysis Chapters 9-16 This week’s focus was on courage and conflict (both internal and external). We talked about how the different characters are showing courage in ways that are unique to their current situations. Atticus showed courage when he had to shoot the mad dog, and must continue to
Interpreting Literature: Session V To Kill a Mockingbird 2015-04-23 Analysis Chapters 1-8 After our journaling prompt, and a quick review of the background reading from the Glencoe Guide, we dove right into character analyses of the main characters that we’ve met so far and talked about chapters 1-8. Please stay on track with the reading (we need to
Interpreting Literature: Session V To Kill a Mockingbird 2015-04-16 Intro: To Kill a Mockingbird After a journal/free-write on courage, we learned about our next author, Harper Lee, and how her famous manuscript almost became one with the slush-ridden New York City streets (it’s true!). As always, we spent time understanding the cultural and historical context of our
Interpreting Literature: Session IV My Antonia 4/2/15 A Last Look at Ántonia We started our last class on My Ántonia with a writing prompt that asked us to imagine that we are moving to a foreign country and we don’t speak the language. The only people we will know there are our immediate families. We don’
Interpreting Literature: Session IV My Antonia 2015-03-26 Analyzing Books Three – Five We finished up our discussion of our novel, My Ántonia, with a thorough review of the events and details of Books Three – Five. Make sure you are familiar with the novel before our final quiz by reviewing your active reading charts and short answer questions. Final
Interpreting Literature: Session IV My Antonia 2015-03-19 Analyzing Book Two Albert Rutherston, “Laundry Girls” 1906 We had a good discussion yesterday of Book Two of My Ántonia. We talked about the “hired girls” and how they were different from the townspeople in Black Hawk. They were always the daughters of immigrant farmers from the country and some
Interpreting Literature: Session IV My Antonia 2015-03-12 Characterization Exercise After analyzing the Introduction and Book One of My Ántonia, we moved into an exercise on characterization. We talked about how, in real life, we get to know what a person is all about. We came up with a list that included actions, clothing, family life, favorite foods,
Interpreting Literature: Session IV My Antonia 2015-03-05 Warming up with Willa Willa Cather After our three-minute free-write in our journals (we start every class this way; it gets us warmed up and underscores a topic or theme found in the novel we are reading/discussing at the moment), we conducted our usual ’round-the-table open notebook quiz on
Interpreting Literature: Session IV My Antonia 2015-02-26 Interpreting Literature: Session IV My Antonia 2015-02-26 We spent the bulk of our time yesterday reviewing theses with tension, crafting practice theses statements, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of leaving one’s home country for a new one, and sharing ideas about how to find points and particulars for an
Teen Short Story Writing Circle 5/19/14 Teen Short Story Writing Circle 2014-05-19 Last class! Final Critiques We wrapped up our six week session today by finishing the round of critiques that we started last week. By now, everyone should have received critique on at least one story, and depending on how many pieces you have given
Teen Short Story Writing Circle 5/12/14 Teen Short Story Writing Circle 2014-05-12 Sharing and Critique After a couple of students read their short stories this afternoon, I jumped right into sharing my feedback on three of the stories I received on Friday. My comments are highlighted in yellow and are suggestions for further developing each piece.
Teen Short Story Writing Circle 5/5/14 Teen Short Story Writing Circle 2014-05-05 Sharing and Critique I had the pleasure of hearing three very good short stories today — all were different, but each had great story lines and have the potential to be developed into even better pieces. Hopefully, I’ll be seeing these again, as I’
On success, failure, and finding your home Elizabeth Gilbert was once an “unpublished diner waitress,” devastated by rejection letters. And yet, in the wake of the success of ‘Eat, Pray, Love,’ she found herself identifying strongly with her former self. With beautiful insight, Gilbert reflects on why success can be as disorienting as failure and offers a
Teen Short Story Writing Circle 2014-04-28 Sharing and Critique We kicked-off class today by sharing three more short stories. First, I am very happy that the students are writing more than just the bare minimum. Everyone seems engaged, enthused, and hopefully — inspired! We will continue taking turns sharing our weekly at-home writing — some weeks we may
Teen Short Story Writing Circle 2014-04-21 Three Steps of Critique We started class today by going over our objectives when critiquing another writer’s work. I have no doubt this group will develop into a great circle of literary critics — they just need a little practice! Each week we will have three to four writers share
Teen Short Story Writing Circle 2014-04-14 Class Overview We spent a few minutes today discussing what each class will look like. Every Monday we will: * Share the stories we begin in class and finish at home during the week, receiving constructive feedback from our circle of writers * Learn additional element(s) of fiction writing (character development,
It's National Poetry Month! You see me write a lot about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) around here, but NaNoWriMo doesn’t start for another 211 days — what’s a writer to do? Enter National Poetry Month, and you guessed it — National Poetry Writing Month ( yes — NaPoWriMo)! In honor of this momentous occasion, I’
