8: Talking in Whispers assignment

Here is the assignment.

12: personal statements

Here is a sample I wrote few years ago. Look at the style rather than the content.

If you want me to look at a draft of your statement, the date is Wednesday, October 7.

11: 'Mending Wall' essay

Write a 600-1000 word essay in which you identify the theme of the poem and analyze how the poet uses specific poetic techniques to develop that theme.

Due through Moodle Monday, 5 October. File name will be last name + wall.

Here the notes I gave on the assignment:



I wrote a short sample essay about 'Nothing Gold Can Stay.' Check it out.

And if you want to read the Catcher essay I wrote, it is here.

11: Frost slideshow

10: Henry V

10: Streetcar questions

short answer questions

Answer all of these, briefly.

8: Outsiders creative assignment

The assignment is here.

10: responding to a text assignment

Here's the information on how to respond to a text, plus a text with which we will practice together.

Here's an example of a response to a text.

Here are the success texts, to one of which you will write a response paragraph.

Bring an electronic copy to class on Wednesday.

8: Outsiders paragraphs assignment

Check out the paragraphs assignment. (T-shirt not included.)

Here is the sample we did together in class today:

Can children suffer because they are given everything?

8: 'Right or Wrong?' (1951)

Here's the movie.

12SL: commentary sample

Here is a bit of commentary I wrote on a single line from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, just to give you a flavor of what a commentary looks like.

There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her. They never meet but there's a skirmish of wit between them. (I, i)

Leonato provides exposition for the relationship between Benedick and Beatrice and one of the conflicts of the play, and sets the tone for that conflict. Leonato's use of war as a metaphor is apt since Benedick is a soldier, and foreshadows the contrast between being a soldier and a lover as discussed later in the play. The paradox of a 'merry war' sums up a view of love: that it is competitive, but at the same time light. This sets the context for the relationship between the two characters and lets the audience know that their respective jibes are not to be taken seriously. Beatrice has already made insulting comments regarding Benedick (contrasting the praise the messenger has heaped on him), and so the audience sees her as a shrew, but Leonato's explanation contextualizes her behaviour and makes it less threatening. Leonato follows this exposition with the further explanation that they engage in a 'skirmish of wit' when they meet, and Beatrice’s play on words on the lost wits of Benedick illustrate her use of wit. This is contrasted in the scene with Hero's lack of verbal interaction generally, encouraging the audience to see Hero and Beatrice as foils.

199 words

12: world literature 2 template

Download a template for WL2 and follow the instructions.

8: chapter 9-10 discussion

analysis notes

I gave this to 11s, but 10s and 12s might find it useful as well.

10: The Glass Menagerie essay

Here is the assignment information for the essay.

How to submit work via Moodle

To submit your work for my classes, you will upload a file rather than putting the content of the assignment in a Moodle message. Follow these directions.

1. Complete your assignment using a standard word processing program.

2. You need to use a file name so that both you and I can recognize what it is. Your file name will be your last name followed by a word or abbreviation of the assignment. For instance, if I wrote an essay about Macbeth, I would name my essay file 'kilmermacbeth.doc.' On each assignment, I will tell you how to name your assignment.

3. Log on to Moodle, using your user name and password.

4. From the *My courses' box on the left sidebar, choose your English class.

5. Find the essay assignment posted there and click the link.

6. Here you need to upload the essay document. Click 'Browse...' to allow Moodle to find the essay on your computer drive or a USB device, choose the properly named file, then click 'Upload this file.'

7. I will read your essay and sen

11: hero's journey

We talked about the journey as an archetype of literature we could use to understand aspects of Catcher. On the site where I got the handout, he goes through The Matrix as a hero's journey. Skim down a little to find it.

11: Hero's journey

8: 'Nothing Gold Can Stay'

Here's our notes on the poem. Sorry the right side got cut off.

8: The Outsiders movie

Someone has put the entire 1983 movie of The Outsiders on YouTube. I can't vouch for its quality or age appropriateness -- it was rated PG-13 in the USA, and K-16 in Finland.

8: important stuff from chapters 2-3

11: intro. to The Catcher in the Rye

12: No Fear Shakespeare: Hamlet

Here is the side-by-side text of Hamlet I showed off in class Monday.

12: Hamlet introduction

10: expressionism

Here's an article about expressionism in visual arts.

And one about abstract expressionism.

10: drama with a narrator

The Glass Menagerie starts with a character acting as the narrator, speaking directly to the audience. A well-known example is Ferris Beuller's Day Off, from 1987. Here's a clip, but be warned that there is some mild swearing about halfway through.

10: images of The Glass Menagerie set

Click on the images to see their sources.



Here you can see the fire escape, the living room in front and the dining room in the back.

8: groups of friends

Here's our notes from today:

8: what to think about when creating a text

Here are the principles of writing we talked about in class today after writing about apples.

9: 100 word short stories

Write a short story with 100 words or fewer. It should have as many features of an interesting story as possible, and it must be written in standard, readable English.

When you are done, format it so it fills a landscape A4 page and print. Mr. Kilmer will show an example.

If you don't have time to format it, post as a comment to this entry.

Royal National Theatre live broadcast at Finnkino

Phédre (by Jean Racine in a version by Ted Hughes) starring Helen Mirren broadcast live from the Royal National Theatre in London. Shown at the Maxim theatre in Helsinki Monday 25 May at 20:30.

More information: from Finnkino and from National Theatre.

11: World Literature assignment template

Download the MS Word document here.

9 self assessment

Put your self assessment in a comment. Make sure you include your name.

reading lists part 2

So here are some interesting lists I found. Click on the image to go to the site.

I strongly recommend this well-designed site from The British Council. It has recommended lists for different age levels with specific categories, and the blurbs are interesting and useful. I went in for a quick skim and came out with five new titles I want to read.

This seemed to be a pretty standard list of young reader classics from the American perspective. The same site has other reading lists.

This is a lively list of new stuff to read from New York Public Libraries. NYPL also has the ALA Top Ten Young Adult Books list, with short reviews.

Users can register and vote on books, and those books are assembled into various lists. It's a bit of a mess, but has lots of reviews of lots of books. I linked the teen section but there are many other lists as well.

A review site for 10-15 year olds written by 190-15 year olds. The newest reviews are of books from 2005, so it's not too up to date, but the categories seem useful, and it is well designed and easy to read.

For something more serious, check out a list of 101 Great Books recommended for college applicants.

The Big Read is a American National Endowment for the Arts literacy program, and they have assembled a nicew list of classics of American literature. Of course, it has the same name as the BBC Big Read, a 2003 competiton throught the UK to choose the nation's most popular books. They have ranked them up to 100.

Any other lists to recommend?

reading list part 1

I am often asked about recommended books for different aged students. I have some thoughts about how to choose books to read generally.

• My first recommendation is to go to a library and just start pulling stuff off the shelf. Does the cover look attractive? Is the blurb interesting? Read the first page. Browsing and sampling is what most readers do.


• Choose a genre and start working your way through it. I recommend mysteries, or spy novels, or westerns ... whatever you are interested in.


• Ask friends what they've read, and try out those books.


• I find the Amazon sites useful for finding new books. If you enter a book you like, look at the 'Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought'  listings for more ideas. Also, Listmania! allows Amazon users to make lists of books they like or that fit some category in which they are interested. For instance, I like Boy by Roald Dahl, and I found a list called 'Children's Books I could read forever' put together by a teacher in Norway.

In part 2, I have some links for some interesting and useful online reading lists.

10: Pride and Prejudice commentary assignment

Here's the pdf.

draft due: Monday 11 May
published due: Friday 15 May

9: Network clip

We were talking in class about how a System can be accepted and then opposed. I was reminded of this clip:

11: world lit intro slideshows

Antigone:


Three Sisters:


Mother Courage:

11: Room with a View introduction slideshow

11: Bible help

Literature often has references to the Bible with which you may not be very familiar. The Brick Testament is fun to read and accurate.

11: Frost on Modern American Poetry

Here's the entry for Robert Frost on the Modern American Poetry site.

10: Pride and Prejudice discussion questions, ch. 35-38

Pride and Prejudice discussion questions, ch. 35-38

What to discuss as a class or in small groups and put into your notes:

11: sample planning for 3 Sisters essay

This is the practice we did in class, developing a thesis for a Three Sisters essay.

10: Pride and Prejudice links

Sparknotes summaries

etext of the novel

a hypertext of the novel, with loads of other ways of accessing the novel

For those who want a little more action in the novel, check out this new book:

11: lecture notes for Mother Courage intro.

1. Bertolt Brecht (1898-1955); German political playwright, exiled in 1933

2. Brecht: ‘How can theatre be entertaining and at the same time instructive? How can it be taken out of the traffic in intellectual drugs and transformed from a place of illusion to a place of insight?’

3.Epic, non-Aristotelian or dialectic theatre

4. alienation effects :

• titles


• fragmentation of scenes


• music


• staging: minimalist, but with the texture of reality


• language


• acting style

5. Brecht: ‘What is a performance of Mother Courage & Her Children primarily meant to show?
That in wartime big profits are not made by little people. That war, which is a continuation of business by other means, makes the human virtues fatal even to their possessors. That no sacrifice is too great for the struggle against war.’ (xvii)

6. The Thirty Years War (1618-1648):
Imperial Catholic Germanic states
vs.
Protestant Germanic / Scandinavian states

7. Philosophical position of communism

• dialectic


• minimalism of individuality


• need for action

11A1: The Three Sisters reviews

When studying a play, it can be useful to read reviews of productions of that play. Here are a few I found:

• a NYT review of a 2001 production.


• a nytheatre.com review of a 2009 production

9: Caged Bird map

Here is a map of the locations of the book around the United States. Click the link below to zoom in and see street-level views.

View Larger Map

11: Three Sisters act I movie on YouTube

11: 10 things to know before studying The Three Sisters

12 standard: paper 2 planning

Here's the question we worked with on Wed. 11.3.09:

“What happens in fiction is what distinguishes it…” Using at least two works, show how far your interest in novels and short stories has been based on the events and how much of your interest has been in other aspects?

Here are the notes preparing a thesis statement:

See the great London race!

10: reader response essay

The goal of this essay is to explain how you experienced reading the play relative to specific techniques and elements of the play. In a reader response essay, you may refer to yourself as a reader, (using ‘I’ or ‘we’), explaining how specific elements of the play affected your emotional and intellectual response. You should not express your attitude about the quality of the play: it should analyze the way the author uses the text to have an effect on a specific reader, namely yourself or a reader just like you.

Basically, you are linking technique to the impact it has on the reader, instead of theme. Your thesis statement will identify the specific effect the identified techniques or features have on your reading of the play.

Choose one of the following prompts below: I have listed them in order of increasing difficulty. Again, please choose wisely.

Uploading London photos

I've created a Picasaweb site for our London pictures. Here's the link to see photos.

Here's how to upload photos:

Let's celebrate!

For the week of 23 February - 1 March.

Let's celebrate!

For the week of February 9-15.

London trip

I've created a Google map for the grade 10 London trip. Check it out!

Here is also a pdf of the trip information.

Map for London trip

View Larger Map

Much Ado About Nothing act III quotations

For 2 (TWO) of the quotations below, explain the significance of each passage. Relate it to a theme, the development of character or the development of conflict.

For each passage, you must cover the needed analysis in less than 200 words.

10A: Due Tuesday10 February.

10B: Due Wednesday 11 February.

"Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps." (III, i)

"If I see anything tonight why I should not marry her tomorrow, in the congregation where I should wed, there will I shame her." (III, ii)

"Yet Benedick was such another, and now is he become a man. He swore he would never marry; and yet now in despite of his heart he eats his meat without grudging. And how you may be converted I know not; but methinks you look with your eyes as other women do." (III, v)

Let's celebrate!

For the week of February 2-8.