Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in englishteachers' LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Saturday, November 21st, 2009
5:27 pm [paradox_dragon]	Young adult novels with themes of persuasion and propaganda? I am trying to brainstorm a list of texts that explore themes of persuasion, propaganda, media influence, etc. They don't have to be classics; finding books that students actually enjoy is my priority in this case. Suggestions for nonfiction works, documentaries, and other material on the topic are also welcome. I teach high school, but I have some kids who read at a much lower level and some who read at a college level, so all suggestions are appreciated. Thanks! (24 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
9:55 am [henrys_creek]	Teaching Bob Dylan's lyrics... I'm about to teach Literature for the very first time for five transition classes and I've got the scope to do whatever I want. I've decided to interpret Bob Dylan lyrics since it's a good quick introduction to Literature and poetry analysis... Because there are a tonne of fantastic Dylan songs and lyrics, I'm having a bit of trouble deciding what to choose. Some advice would be great. What three-to-five Bob Dylan songs should I choose to analyse and why? Thanks so much in advance. Cross-posted. ~Paul~ Current Music: A.R. Rahman - Jai Ho | Powered by Last.fm (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
10:52 am [theseboots]	8th grade classroom library recommendations? For a variety of reasons, my school has had reading and writing taught as two separate classes for the last two and a half years. Well, we're going to be recombining them and teaching them as a block (definitely for next year, possibly in January....eek), and as I've been teaching writing, I need to up my reading skillz. To start, I want to build my classroom library; I have one, and it's okay to start, but I want to add more. So I'm looking for recommendations. I teach 8th grade. What are some high-interest, varied-reading-levels books that have been successes in your classrooms? I'm particularly interested in nonfiction recs - I've kept up with fiction okay, but I struggle more with non. Thanks! xposted (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
9:48 am [megasus4]	Help? Can anyone point me to some fun upper-level Passive Voice lessons/activities? I need this to be at a pretty high level, because it's for my SAT Prep class. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
7:36 pm [heatherbird]	Point of View Does anyone have any tricks for teaching Point of View (1st, 3rd limited, 3rd omniscient)? My eighth graders this year are still struggling with the concept... and I started teaching P.O.V. the first week of school! I've been trying to figure out a kinesthetic way to teach the concept but I'm not sure how to go about it. Current Mood: curious (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 1st, 2009
2:09 pm [gemfinder]	New English library ( What would you write at the top? ) I'm looking for suggestions for what to replace ??? with. ALSO, what do you decorate your classroom spaces with (for the purposes of developing English language skills and an interest in reading)? My school already has a library, this new one is going to be in English and it will double as a classroom. I'm helping them fill up the empty spaces and I'm looking for a few more ideas. I was thinking about photos of local libraries and their hours, but the decision-maker is against a row of pictures and if any of the libraries change to a new building, the graphics will be fused onto the surface like a lexan sign, so it can be covered up with a paper banner later but changing it after it's made will probably mean replacing it. On the left board they have some behavioral reminders and the last board on the right I will have a list of reference works and what to use them for. I think we will have space elsewhere for sq3r and PQRST types of posters. So what would you put there? I was also thinking about authors and books that have changed the world, but that idea might get used somewhere else. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
10:23 pm [caithness]	conferences/seminars hi everyone, i teach high school english. i'm looking for places online to search for professional development conferences and seminars. how do you all find out about conferences? i already checked out the ncte's website, and my state's department of education website (massachusetts, fyi). and maybe i'm tired and didn't do a thorough job of searching. but anyway, any of you have places you check out for conferences? i'm not looking for anything specific, but i do teach american and brit lit, and i'm also special ed certified. thanks! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
8:21 pm [kaccii]	parts of speech I'm at a new school, teaching sophomores.  My team wants to teach parts of speech by diagramming sentences.  I utterly abhor diagramming.  The last time I diagrammed a sentence (the old-fashioned way - I learned the "tree" method in a college English class) was in 1989. Do you have any better, more entertaining ways, to teach parts of speech?  I'd appreciate anything!  I've never been one to teach much grammar and stuff like that, but it's the "law," ya know?! (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 3rd, 2009
3:48 pm [moonstrucky]	I want to encourage my students to read longer novels this year (they're 8th graders) so they'll be ready for novels in high school, but I don't want to resort to the dreaded reading log.  I hate them, parents hate them, and I don't think they encourage students to enjoy reading.  However, I would like them to be comfortable picking up at 300 page book and thinking that it won't kill them, but they might actually enjoy it. I know that the love of reading is something that happens much earlier than 8th grade, but what can I do to encourage novel reading without resorting to those horrible logs? (14 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 17th, 2009
7:37 am [henrys_creek]	American History X Hello all, I'm about to teach the film text 'American History X' to my Year 11 students (here in Australia). While I think this is an outstanding film, I'm trying to find relevant resources for the text... so I was wondering if there was anyone out there who would send me a link to some resources on American race relations and other relevant links related to the movie. Thanks all in advance! :) ~Paul~ (x-posted to teaching and englishteachers) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
8:04 pm [moonstrucky]	National Board Certification Has anyone here completed the process for National Board Certification in English/Language Arts?  I'm thinking of doing it either this year or in the 2010-2011 school year, and would like some ideas on what to expect.  I am looking at the HUGE pdf of the portfolio requirements, and was wondering if anyone could share experiences/distill this information into something more easily digestible for someone who's just thinking about it. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 19th, 2009
10:31 pm [rorym87]	Assistance Hello! i was just wondering if anyone could give me an example teaching philosophy? i haven't the slightest idea of what it should consist of. thanks & sorry if that is too personal.  (2 Comments |Comment on this)
12:17 am [a_short_fuse]	A High School Teacher Opens Up About Abortion I read an article recently in a women’s magazine claiming that 1 in every 3 women will have had an abortion by the age of 45. That is a huge number. The article stressed how the women and girls undergoing this procedure are not talking about it. This article strikes a personal chord with me as a high school teacher, because at the age of 17, I became pregnant and had an abortion.   I have been teaching high school for 10 years, and have had many pregnant students and students with children. But I had never had a student admit to me that they were thinking of having or have had an abortion. In addition, I only know one other adult woman, a friend of mine, who has admitted to me that she had an abortion. 1 of out 3 women is astonishing. If so many women are having abortions, why aren’t people talking about it?   The article I read states that 54% of women who have an abortion were using contraception at the time, so shows that ‘safe sex’ is not necessarily safe at all. I know that there are girls out there that are pregnant and unaware of the facts about having an abortion, so I have decided to share my story.   In high school, I was involved in a lot of sports and activities and had a lot of friends. I also enjoyed school and got good grades. At the age of 16, I met Max and we fell in love and started having sex, but always with a condom. After my 17th birthday, I noticed my period was late and I started keeping track of how long it had been since my last period. When I was around 55 days late, I went to the supermarket after school, and bought a home pregnancy test and peed on the little stick. The results were positive.   I ditched school the next day, a Tuesday, and went by myself to Planned Parenthood. I found the phone number and address in the phone book, but in this day and age, it would be easier to go online or ask the school nurse. I had to wait for a long time, in a waiting room, and when they finally called me in, I had to pay $8 to take a blood test which confirmed that I was indeed 8 weeks pregnant.   Before I took the pregnancy test, I completed a questionnaire that asked what I wanted to do if I turned out to be pregnant, and I wrote ‘abortion’. I was going college in the fall and immediately knew that I was not ready to properly raise a child. So I when I got my results, they booked me fore a First Trimester Abortion for that Friday. They gave me a pamphlet detailing the facts about the simple surgical procedure.   After I left the clinic that day I went to school to pick up my best friend, and I told her that I was pregnant. I waited two days to tell my boyfriend because the next day was Valentine’s Day, and I didn’t want to ruin it. When I told him, he was shocked, as I expected, but very supportive and even offered to pay for it.   I didn’t go to school for the rest of the week because I didn’t know how to deal with my friends at school. I just stayed at my boyfriend’s house during the day, and acted like everything was normal the rest of the day at home. To this day the only people that I have told are my best friend and my boyfriend. I was too embarrassed to tell anyone else, not even my parents. It is a secret that I have been keeping since Saved By The Bell went off the air.   On the day of the abortion, I went to the bank to withdraw $260 from my savings account (it costs about $350 these days). Thank goodness I saved my allowance. My best friend and my boyfriend accompanied me to the clinic where we waited, and waited, and waited. There were women in there of all ages, colors, and creeds. I gave the receptionist a fake name, and told her I was 18, even though it was perfectly legal to for a minor to have an abortion without parental consent. (It still currently is in California)   The procedure itself was really quick and relatively painless. It was the same slight discomfort you feel during a routine pelvic exam which at that age, I had not yet experienced. They did not knock me out (that costs about $100 more), they used local anesthesia which numbs the area, and they used a vaccum the size of a pen to suck the fetus out of me.   I always hear such gross and violent images of what happens during an abortion, but most people don’t know that during the first trimester of a pregnancy, the fetus is only the size of a corn kernel. No hands, no feet, no eyes, no internal organs. Afterward I cried, I think from relief that it was all over.   The pamphlet said it would be a relatively safe procedure. I was a little drowsy from the anesthesia and the muscle relaxer that they gave me afterward, but I was feeling okay and had no complications. I let my boyfriend drive us home in my car, because I was not in a state to drive. I went back two weeks later for a post-op exam, and I decided to go on the pill.   I skipped the whole next week of school-without my parents knowing-because I wasn’t ready to go back. When I returned to school, I had problems with my grades, and was told I wasn’t allowed to graduate on stage because I violated the senior attendance policy, but I successfully appealed that decision citing ‘medical reasons’ (I kept all of my clinic paperwork) and eventually I got my grades up and was able to graduate with honors.   I have since attended and completed college, become a teacher, got married, bought a house, and had a daughter. I have not lived with any guilt or regret because I know that what I did was the right decision for me. I would never encourage anyone else to go out and have an abortion unless they have fully considered all of their options, but I find that a lot information about abortion (especially on the internet) usually distorts the truth and leads to a sense of secrecy and shame that causes young women like me not to talk about it. When people are not given all the facts, they cannot make the right choices.   I thought at the time that I was the only one going through it. But I have realized, that a lot of people have gone through it, are going through it, and will go through it, and I no longer wish to stay silent.  I am not saying that abortion is right or wrong, but that it is happening, and staying silent is not going to make the problem disappear. In this country, we have come a long way from dangerous, illegal, ‘back-alley’ abortions, but  is important that the information gets out there for those in need. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
11:42 pm [megasus4]	summer school I just accepted a position teaching 8th grade summer school. I've taught nothing but 11th or 12th grade Brit Lit for 9 years (after my first year teaching 9th). I have been told there is a "Language Arts Kit" from which to teach the course, but there's two problems. One is that I don't like just teaching everything out of a program that's handed to me--I like to make my own lessons, mix and match, tweak, etc. to fit my style. The other is that the school has been unable to find the kit. I've got the state standards and a copy of the textbook (Holt's Elements of Lit, 2nd course), and I've roughly mapped out the skills and terms and such I intend to teach. But I haven't picked the actual literature! That's where I need help--what do 8th graders enjoy reading???? I don't think I have time for a novel; I'm looking for short stories and poems, mostly. And am I crazy to consider teaching Midsummer Night's Dream to them? (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
4:41 pm [chris4short]	9-11 Summer School - Resources? I was hired to teach English 1-3 for Highs School Summer School. I am very exciting since this is my first ELA course, I am kind of at a loss on what to really do. The principal is getting the top English teachers to gather some resources for me, but I am also trying to gather some on my own, in case they can't get resources to me in time for Monday. I am teaching in Texas, and have been subbing for the last year. I don't know what kind of things they may have studied, have to email the teachers, so I am not sure what to cover for summer school. Any help is more than appreciated! x-posted (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
10:53 am [heatherbird]	Fun end of year things to do? My students (eighth grade English) have turned in their final essays for the year and taken their Unit Test and state standardized tests. The grading period is already pretty much over except for collecting make-up work. They've been asking me, "what do we do after the tests? Are we going to have fun?" but honestly I am short on ideas. I have a Cottonwood Press reader's theater play that I can do and I am going to have them write a letter to next year's class, but these things will only take a few class periods b/c ours are 85 minutes. What are some fun, but still semi-educational, things that you do at the end of the year? ETA: We have 5 days left of actual instructional time. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
6:29 pm [laurabob]	Help the kids. Help students from a low income area. Please? They just want books! Click here to help! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
12:51 pm [whyintellectual]	Exams Are Around The Bend (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
6:06 pm [popkorn321]	DOL? Anyone use DOL in middle school?   My students are so awful at grammar I kind of want to  incorporate a DOL type warm-up once a week. Any good books? Ideas? Thanks! (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
10:32 am [kaccii]	Shakespeare, Movie My students (10th grade) will be finishing up Julius Caesar next week, but it's too late in the year to really start anything new. I'd like to show a movie of a Shakespeare play. Preferably one that is fairly recent (i.e. most of the actors are still alive). Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Hamlet are out of the question since they read R&J in 9th and will read the others in 12th. Any recommendations? Has anyone seen the 1995 version of Othello with Laurence Fishburne? (I'd love students to "get" the allusion to Iago in Aladdin) (21 Comments |Comment on this)