(This is an art installation, not a real assignment)
Discourse on creativity, reality, and interpersonal responsibility, in a paper comparing and contrasting Eleanor Estes' The Hundred Dresses and Joseph Mitchell's Joe Gould's Secret.
Touch also on the following questions:
1. Is Joe Gould a charlatan?
2. Is Wanda a charlatan?
3. What can we do to help students through writer's block?
For extra credit, include the following quotation from Rav Freifeld: "Everyone wants to be a rosh yeshiva, but no one wants to take two shvache bachurim and learn with them." Suppose Joe Gould and Wanda were chevrusos. Discuss.
Showing posts with label English. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English. Show all posts
Online Learning Programs
If you search online for virtual ed programs, the results are overwhelming: there are a huge number of programs out there.
Here's a place to start.
All virtual ed programs have their frustrations, but these are the ones that people I know (or correspond with) have used and either still use or recommend to others as strong candidates for consideration.
Programs I heard about from school administrators:
Connections Academy
FLVS (Florida Virtual) - merged with Connections
Edgenuity (I proctored students using this one -- let me know if you want details)
ALEKS (a math program)
Fuel
Someone told me she wants to try Bonim b'Yachad; at this writing I don't know of anyone who has used it.
The following three are the programs that come recommended by parents homeschooling their kids on sailboats:
Laurel Springs
Calvert Academy
Oak Meadow
There are a couple of other programs out there that people I know have tried and cautioned me against using. They aren't mentioned in this post.
Here's a place to start.
All virtual ed programs have their frustrations, but these are the ones that people I know (or correspond with) have used and either still use or recommend to others as strong candidates for consideration.
Programs I heard about from school administrators:
Connections Academy
FLVS (Florida Virtual) - merged with Connections
Edgenuity (I proctored students using this one -- let me know if you want details)
ALEKS (a math program)
Fuel
Someone told me she wants to try Bonim b'Yachad; at this writing I don't know of anyone who has used it.
The following three are the programs that come recommended by parents homeschooling their kids on sailboats:
Laurel Springs
Calvert Academy
Oak Meadow
There are a couple of other programs out there that people I know have tried and cautioned me against using. They aren't mentioned in this post.
Finding Books for Boys: a Growing List
One of my challenges as an English teacher is finding books that meet the school standards for appropriate content and that appeal to adolescent boys.
I went to the public library and said, "My students want to read about war and sports; what can you recommend?" and not ONE book that the librarian recommended met our school standards -- including Endurance and Hatchet.
I did find a great adventure memoir called In the Land of White Death, by Valerian Albanov, about a failed 1912 expedition in the Arctic.
The collection in the school book closet includes
Tom Sawyer
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Around the World in 80 Days
Animal Farm
Profiles in Courage
Johnny Tremain
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
The Phantom Tollbooth
To these I would add The Twenty-One Balloons, The Golden Goblet, and My Side of the Mountain.
Lord of the Flies is an ugly, violent story about the triumph of evil; but there is no romance in it. (The afterword published in the edition I see everywhere is not up to school standards.)
The Invisible Man is another ugly, violent one with no romance or profanity in it.
I have one student who has been very happy with Moby Dick but I haven't been through it recently to check for content.
A lot of kids are enjoying Sherlock Holmes -- same caveat.
Short stories:
There are a lot of good short stories (and very short stories) by Kafka. I gave the class My Neighbor and we got interested in whether the narrator is paranoid or reasonable -- that was fun.
I also gave out a few chapters of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. Much of the book is not appropriate; but each chapter can stand alone. These are slightly dystopian prose poems about imaginary cities: very boy-friendly.
Nabokov's Pnin consists of several chapters, each of which can stand alone as a piece of literature; some of these are appropriate.
There are a few appropriate short stories by Hemingway -- e.g., The Old Man at the Bridge, The Good Lion, A Day's Wait; I have one or two more here but I have to find them.
I went to the public library and said, "My students want to read about war and sports; what can you recommend?" and not ONE book that the librarian recommended met our school standards -- including Endurance and Hatchet.
I did find a great adventure memoir called In the Land of White Death, by Valerian Albanov, about a failed 1912 expedition in the Arctic.
The collection in the school book closet includes
Tom Sawyer
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Around the World in 80 Days
Animal Farm
Profiles in Courage
Johnny Tremain
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
The Phantom Tollbooth
To these I would add The Twenty-One Balloons, The Golden Goblet, and My Side of the Mountain.
Lord of the Flies is an ugly, violent story about the triumph of evil; but there is no romance in it. (The afterword published in the edition I see everywhere is not up to school standards.)
The Invisible Man is another ugly, violent one with no romance or profanity in it.
I have one student who has been very happy with Moby Dick but I haven't been through it recently to check for content.
A lot of kids are enjoying Sherlock Holmes -- same caveat.
Short stories:
There are a lot of good short stories (and very short stories) by Kafka. I gave the class My Neighbor and we got interested in whether the narrator is paranoid or reasonable -- that was fun.
I also gave out a few chapters of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. Much of the book is not appropriate; but each chapter can stand alone. These are slightly dystopian prose poems about imaginary cities: very boy-friendly.
Nabokov's Pnin consists of several chapters, each of which can stand alone as a piece of literature; some of these are appropriate.
There are a few appropriate short stories by Hemingway -- e.g., The Old Man at the Bridge, The Good Lion, A Day's Wait; I have one or two more here but I have to find them.
Toward a Qualitative Reading Incentive
I had this discussion with my high school students recently.
Every reading incentive we've seen is based on the idea that children should be encouraged to read - a lot. -- e.g., the local elementary school awards prizes based on number of pages, and per book completed; and the local library does something similar.
We haven't seen any incentive programs that seek to direct children toward reading good books, only toward reading lots of books.
In fact, when I look at the lists of what the kids are reading, the worst possible writing seems to predominate.
We agreed that there is a difference between books and good books; and that it's worth encouraging children to choose the latter.
"What do you think?" I asked. "Is it possible to make an incentive program for children to read good books, or is the definition of a good book too subjective?"
Hm.
They suggested that you could give students a list of books to choose from.
Keep thinking about it.
Every reading incentive we've seen is based on the idea that children should be encouraged to read - a lot. -- e.g., the local elementary school awards prizes based on number of pages, and per book completed; and the local library does something similar.
We haven't seen any incentive programs that seek to direct children toward reading good books, only toward reading lots of books.
In fact, when I look at the lists of what the kids are reading, the worst possible writing seems to predominate.
We agreed that there is a difference between books and good books; and that it's worth encouraging children to choose the latter.
"What do you think?" I asked. "Is it possible to make an incentive program for children to read good books, or is the definition of a good book too subjective?"
Hm.
They suggested that you could give students a list of books to choose from.
Keep thinking about it.
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