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This handout gives students the choice of three different essays to write about (with regard to John Gardner's Grendel). The first asks students to describe how Gardner deconstructs the expectations that we have regarding the monster, Grendel - and how specifically the author accomplishes that change in the reader's perspective. The second prompt asks students to relate biographical details from Gardner's life to his writing and the final prompt asks students to connect the different views found in the novel to what happened on 9/11.
A lesson originally created by Natalie Leki-Albano. This assignment has students read a different tale than one that is covered in class. After they read the story, and go over that character's coverage in the general prologue -- they must create a three dimensional model (or puppet) of that character. The assignment uses specific criteria to have the student use as much of the text as possible in creating their "model." A chart also goes with this project to help keep track of who did what.
This Critical Thinking assignment contains elements of reading, research, movie watching, and ultimately writing. I usually give it as an extra-credit after students have completed Pride and Prejudice. The first part of the assignment has them read J.D. Salinger's short story, "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut." Then, they watch the movie based on that story, "Fool for Love." Finally, they read some quotes of Salinger's on what he thought of that movie -- and try to tie all of this together with what one of the character's in his short story thought of Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
LISTEN TO AUDIO.
Sometimes it is hard to determine whether the best of these Illuminated Texts belong in a Literature Class or an Art Class - and this presentation by Lila Chui and Sage Dukunue is that kind of project. There is a beautiful opening sequence -- and the fonts are chosen with care and perfectly reflect the action that the text is describing. The letters rearrange themselves to show that action as well. The wonderful thing about using Adobe Flash in these projects is that it forces the authors (of the presentation) to consider why and what they are doing very seriously.
This is, without a doubt, the most difficult of all of the concepts that the students will study during this week of Literary Criticism. In addition to their reading on an Deconstructionist's analysis of The Tempest - the students will also look at "Shooting an Elephant" from that same perspective. There are a some things that I have done to try to bring them to an understanding. The first is that I have given them two days to read and digest the ideas for todays collaborative exercise. I will usually go back to a straight examination of The Tempest - in the interim. The other thing that I have done is to try and give them practical explanations of Deconstructionism. 
This Illuminated Text by Cate Stanton and Lorena Salome has the ram, from the novel, falling and climbing over the letters from the text. Tears flow and fall into the presentations background pictures and snowflace fall that children then make into letters. The authors do a great job of recreating Gardner's ideas and text. As this is a Power Point Illuminated Text be sure to use Internet Explorer and choose open rather than save when you click on the link below.
This is a worksheet I set up for Ode to a Nightingale. It goes through it stanza by stanza, starting in the bottom left corner of the page. The only thing is that there's a reference to Ode to the West Wind, so you'll need to have completed that first. Or take that part out. The other thing is that the picture of the bird actually confused a bunch of kids so you might want to take it out.
This collaborative worksheet has groups of 3-4 students answering questions that call for a very close reading of the story, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Some of the things that I try to accomplish with this lesson is to have students tie the ideas in this tale with what we've studied so far, including The Canterbury Tales, Beowulf, and even the ghost stories that we tell on Halloween and the ballads that we've just sung Karaoke style a few days before. I have a newly revised version (2010) that includes a question about an excerpt from The House on Mango Street - after, Esperanza is accosted and she blames everything that she has read how love should be (according to books and magazines).
Day1 (50 minutes) I use this lesson as an introduction to the frame story. First, as a class, we view on the InFocus, images of the volcanic eruption and devastation in Colombia in 1985, followed by several images of Omayra Sanchez. (All images available on Google). Next, we read the BBC article "Picture Power: Tragedy of OmayraSanchez." (
This is really the second part of an assignment that would be done the day before. In the first part, students race the clock to summarize (and title) the reading that they did on Paradise Lost. In this second part they take those summaries and act them out - perform them - explicate the words. This always works well and one of the reasons is that the students have drawn the meaning out the day before and throught this performance are then given the chance to draw them out again - this time for the audience. The handout gives the students a number of useful parameters - including the fact that they must include in their performance six lines that are directly taken from Milton's text.
Fresh Ink - Most Recent Content
The six most recent lessons or stories.
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3 days 9 hours ago
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3 weeks 5 days ago
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4 weeks 3 days ago
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8 weeks 11 hours ago
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8 weeks 1 day ago
The most recent comments
- The Allure of Thomasina
- Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" a Cooperative Journey
- Should English Teachers spend time talking about what an author meant?
- Teaching Hamlet
- Teaching The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Earth
- Should English Teachers spend time talking about what an author meant?
- Should English Teachers spend time talking about what an author meant?
- Should students be routinely quizzed to determine if they have read the assigned text?
- Should students be routinely quizzed to determine if they have read the assigned text?
The 10 Most Recent Audio Files to be posted
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Tue, 2013-04-09 00:49
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Mon, 2013-04-08 21:01
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Mon, 2013-04-08 02:07
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Mon, 2013-04-08 00:57
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Thu, 2013-04-04 23:15
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Thu, 2013-04-04 16:14
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Mon, 2013-04-01 11:43
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Mon, 2013-04-01 08:19
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Most Recent Illuminated Text
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