Sep

18

Speech!

September 18, 2007 | Leave a Comment

One speech down, three to go. Speeches are one of the biggest obstacles students face in high school – they and research papers tend to be the demise of most who do not make it through English, and particularly English 10.
So how do you feel about speeches in general, and how do you feel about [...]

Sep

11

Notable Quotables

September 11, 2007 | 1 Comment

We can’t say everything perfectly, but some people seem to have said some things perfectly – sometimes. And that, I think, is a confusing way of explaining why people love quotes. They’re like our modern proverbs – the sayings and quips of wisdom and humor that we collect, treasure, and repeat.
To introduce ourselves further to [...]

Sep

7

Blogs? What’s a blog?

September 7, 2007 | Leave a Comment

We begin the year with blogs (using Learnerblogs), and we’ll use them throughout the year. But here I’ve started you on a blog in the first days of school, and I haven’t even explained what they are!
So I want you to begin by telling me what you think about all this – before I even [...]

Sep

4

Obstacles

September 4, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Give me a landscape made of obstacles
These are the words of Dana Gioia, from his poem, “Rough Country,” which is our poem of the week and the way we will begin our year. We will take a tiny bit of liberty with his poem and pull aside that line and make it our own, [...]