Tonight's Homework: September 20

English 11     

• Read True Diary through page 81, and be ready to talk about it in class.
• Make sure goals are on your website.
• Revise your paragraph about "Reservation Mathematics" and be ready to share it in class.

Honors English 12

• Make sure your goals are on your website.
• Complete the Reflection handout for today's discussion.
• Read chapters 8 & 9 in "The Body"

Creative Writing

• Complete "Animal Perspective" writing assignment...click here for more information.

Seniors: Thinking metaphorically...

Here's your assignment, seniors!

First, remember that video about the little duckies? If not, re-watch it here:

If you can't see it, it's probably because it's filtered by the SonicWall in school...sorry. You can check it out at home. 

 Next, write for about 5 minutes on this topic: How is the experience of the ducks a metaphor for coming of age? Think about all of the things that happen, the things the ducks face, and the way they deal with challenges. 

 Then, make up three metaphors about your own life. Try not to go the Forrest Gump route (yes, it's true that "life is like a box of chocolates," but try to be more original!). You could think about how your high school soccer career was like a boxing match. Think about some interesting and unique comparisons. 

After you've come up with three, pick one and freewrite for 5-10 minutes. 

 If you didn't get a chance to finish your goals, which you likely didn't, work on those over the next couple of days, too.

Bennington College Young Writers Competition

Check out the Bennington College Young Writers Competition. You can read the work of past winners, and consider entering yourself. You might win some money! The deadline is November 1.

Creative Writing: Who's Telling the Story?

In class, we're reading a pretty ridiculous story by Woody Allen, written from the perspective of a very intelligent cow. You'll play with perspective this week with a weekly write that tells an animal's side of the story.

Here are a few different animal stories you might use to inspire your own animal-voiced story:

A coyote is pulled from the Charles River, after initially eluding capture: read it here!

A turkey attacks a mailtruck on Cape Cod...does it belong to the Kennedy family? Ethel Kennedy says yes; a farmer says no. Click here!

A snake slithers away from her owner on a Red Line T train in Boston, and hides in the train for over a month. She was eventually discovered and returned to her owner. Check it out!

Last year, you may have watched the Super Bowl, but did you catch any of the Puppy Bowl? Complete with a kitten half-time show, a blimp "manned" by hamsters, and chicken cheerleaders...and no, I'm not making this up. Read about it here!

Do you have another idea for an animal story? Check in with me! It must be based on an original article or event.

As a reminder, your job for your weekly write is to tell a story from the perspective of one of the animal protagonists. Was the coyote purposefully avoiding capture? What's that turkey really up to? What did the snake do for a month on the train? Does that chicken really like being a cheerleader?

In your weekly write, tell the animal's perspective, by creating a narrative voice and a storyline. Think of "Udder Madness"--the story of the diabolical, know-it-all, clumsy-but-clever cow who plotted murder. Your coyote, turkey, snake or puppy/kitten/hamster/chicken won't have the same voice or story as that cow...what will its story be?

Seniors: Some questions for Pleasantville

Click this link for some questions to think about as you consider and write about the film Pleasantville. You don't need to answer them, but they might help you think about different aspects of the film.

Your question, to which you should write a page-long response: How is Pleasantville a coming-of-age story? Talk about story and production elements.

Some resources for you college-bound seniors, and an assignment

The college-search process can be overwhelming; here are some resources that might just help make it a little more manageable.

The New York Times has a blog called "The Choice." It's all about the college admissions and financial aid process. There are eight high school seniors who are blogging about their college searches...you can check it out here.

The University of California, Berkeley has a website that gives some guidelines for writing the personal statement, or college essay. The ideas they share are relevant for all personal essays, I think. They even have an example essay that they've broken down in structure...explore the links!

Lastly, for now, the online and print magazine Teen Ink has a College Guide section. Teen Ink publishes the writing of teenagers from all over the country. Check out this link, to see a whole lot of example college essays. Honors seniors, please read a few of them, and choose one that you think is especially strong. We'll talk about it in class; for now, go ahead and post a link to it below, with a reason why you've chosen it.

La Maison en Petits Cubes

We're using this fantastic, Oscar-winning short film to study and analyze film elements.

La Maison en Petits Cubes from istever on Vimeo.

Writing college essays

Hello, high school seniors!

I'm sure you're thinking a lot about writing your college essay (or, you're thinking a lot about how you're nervous about, concerned about, or trying to avoid writing your college essay). We'll talk a lot more in class about writing this personal essay, but for those of you who are looking to get started, here's a great resource. It's a list that someone compiled of over one hundred essay prompts. Since the Common App allows you to choose any topic you'd like, these prompts might help you develop an essay idea. Happy writing!

Coming of Age books--Honors English 12

A cool image and quotation...it came from here.

On Friday, we checked out the movie trailer for the film The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It's based on Stephen Chbosky's novel of the same name, and it's a coming-of-age story about a freshman who's trying to find his way in the world and is befriended by a couple of seniors at his school.

As we discussed in class, there are MANY books and movies that fit the definition of a coming-of-age story, or a bildungsroman (a novel about coming-of-age), partly because this genre is so relevant to so many of us and our own experiences.

In Honors English 12, in addition to our in-class novels and texts ("The Body," Catcher in the Rye, Hamlet, Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein), students will read an independent book in class and outside of class. Students should choose a book that has a coming-of-age story as its basis...it may be a novel or a memoir. We'll talk in class about some choices; additionally, please post recommendations below! One cool website that has some suggestions is this one.

Purple Heart radio story

We talked in English 11 class today about the role of awards in our lives. We discussed the significance of earning awards, and how sometimes awards help us recognize our achievements. In connection with the book Purple Heart, we listened to a report that was part of an investigation into the awarding of Purple Hearts to soldiers with Traumatic Brain Injury. You can find the article by clicking here. In class tomorrow, we'll talk about the impact that this report had on these awards for soldiers.

Here, you can find our notes from the discussion about the report. I'm sure your notes are more complete than mine!

Purple Heart and our summer reading discussion

In this interview, Patricia McCormick talks about the events that inspired her to write the story Purple Heart.



She writes about a character named Matt, who is suffering from a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), a common challenge for soldiers and veterans. In class discussions and writing, we'll discuss how effective McCormick was at creating the character of Matt and helping readers understand the experience of a soldier. We'll also talk about the issue of TBI more broadly, looking at current news.

Welcome back!

It's the first day of school--hooray! I hope you're all looking forward to a great year...I know I am.

Here's a photo that I took this summer in my summer camp job. I include it here for two reasons:

1. I think it's hilarious.
2. There are at least two different ways to read it, both of which we can probably relate to. You could say that the guy in the front is doing all the work while the other guy goofs around and gets a free ride. That could be what's going on, but I hope not. I prefer to look at it this way: the guy in the back is super encouraging, providing the guy in the front his own personal musical inspiration. As you head into this new school year, maybe you'll find yourself in the position of the guy in front--working hard, doing your best to get somewhere. Remember you have people to cheer you on and support you, just like the guy with the bugle is doing. And with that, I end my slightly cheesy opening day thought.

Bring on the school year!

NBA readers

I've never been a fan of LeBron James--boo!--but I am a fan of his habit of reading before games, and his apparent obsession with The Hunger Games trilogy. Seems he does have something in common with my students and me.

 But if we're going to talk about readers in the NBA, we have to come back to Ray Allen, of course. Check out this article about his voracious reading habits and his attempts (sadly, often unsuccessful) to turn his teammates into readers. Keep trying, Ray Ray.

Oops...looks like I haven't posted here in a long time!

I've been updating class blogs, but realized I've totally ignored this one. Eesh. Here's a video that's inspiring:

Welcome back to school!

I'm excited to be starting the 2011-12 school year!

Check out this link for the American Studies website. Here, you'll find information about handouts and homework assignments.

Summer reading--Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Here you'll find information and links for the Honors American Studies summer reading book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I'll update this post soon!

A great article

Our school newspaper, The Big Red, wrote a great article about the Civil Rights Movement plays that students in the Honors American Studies classes completed earlier this term.

Check it out!

Check out....

Laura Hydro wrote a review of the film Big Fish that was so fantastic, I wanted others to read it, too.

You can find it at our online writing site, here.

Please consider leaving a comment for her!

Congratulations...

...to Hudson High's online newspaper, The Big Red. The paper was honored with the best online newspaper award at the Greater Boston High School Newspaper Competition at Suffolk University.


Check out The Big Red here.

English 12: It's the FINAL countdown...

Hey everyone! Today's the day! This is it...try not to tear up as you finish your portfolio--you'll short out the computers...

Here's what you need to complete today:
* Make sure your Catcher in the Rye essay and your "Stranger in the Photo" essay are both completed, and posted on the correct pages of your portfolio (not as attachments, like the other pieces of writing you're including in the portfolio). The easiest way to post your essays on your portfolio pages is by embedding the Google docs version. I'll show you how to do this. Scan the photo you used for your "Stranger in the Photo" essay and include it with your essay, if you haven't already.

* Complete and post your final essay on the Final Essay page.

* Write your reflections to go on your Analytical Writing and Personal Writing pages. In these reflections, please talk about how you've grown as a writer. Discuss some of your challenges and successes. How does this final piece of writing, the one posted on the page, represent you as a writer?

* Create a portfolio "cover page" on your website. Put a picture on the English Portfolio page, and include your name, the course title, and the year.

* Please complete this course evaluation. I'd really appreciate your thoughtful and honest feedback.

* Make sure that your website, and any documents included in it, are shared with me through Google Docs.

* Breathe a sigh of relief--you're done!