Welcome to AwaytoTeach
Welcome back to AwaytoTeach - We seem to have fixed the problem with file attachments - if you are still having a problem, try clearing the cache on your browser (usually found on options - it might be described as deleting history or cookies - don't do this unless you know what you're doing). I want to remind all users that don't have 5 points yet (that's only 3 postings!) - the computer will automatically delete your account after 4 weeks. AwaytoTeach is on a very small server and I need to keep our file size down - so it has always made sense to me to reserve the site for those who are the most active.
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An Introduction to Illuminated Texts - A Screencast
This is the first in what I hope to be a long series of screencasts to help teachers and their students with the creation of Illuminated Texts. This video introduces the concepts of Illuminated Texts - shows and describes two of them - and gives an explanation of The Illuminated Text Learning Center. If you've ever wanted to know just what an Illuminated Text is - or if you want to hear a little history behind their inception, this would be a good video to watch. The presentation last about 10 minutes. Read more »
Marriage is a Private Affair
This lesson demonstrates how to use a "Daily Guide" to keep lower level students engaged in a close reading. The guide can be adapted for any reading, however this one was specifically created for the short story, "Marriage is a Private Affair," by Chinua Achebe. Each of the sections of the guide has a scoring tool, and the sections range from journal entries to vocabulary to critical analysis to personal respon
A Meeting of Minds - The Romantic and Victorian Writers - A Performance
This assignment was inspired by the old Steve Allen PBS show - A Meeting of Minds - where Allen would interview and interact with actors playing famous men and women across the ages. This assignment divides the class into two sections - Victorians and Romantics - and the handout details the research that they are to do, so that they can then act out (and video tape) interaction between the two.
Macbeth Act 2: group, partner or solo work
I have always liked the layout of Joe Scotese's group work for Macbeth 1.7, found here www.awaytoteach.net/ . Here is a similar handout for Act 2, all scenes, in both .doc and .pdf formats (a few of the questions are based on some from his other Macbeth group work). For my particular group of students, it seems more successful to have the text in one column and questions in the facing column, rather than a separate sheet of questions.
Kipling - Imperialist, Racist, or Something Else - A Group Work
For this group work I have students look at some of Kipling's famous and not so famous poems - as well as a short story - and have them weigh the evidence as to whether or not he was a racist and/or colonialist. So many impressions of this author come from quotes taken out of context from his work (including "The White Man's Burden") that I want the students to see perhaps that things are not quite that simple when those quotes are put back into their larger works. Like most of my group works this one is designed to be finished in 40-50 minutes by 3 to 4 students.
"Indian Camp" - A class discussion of Ernest Hemingway's story - 2009 - 4th Period
We begin by writing down on slips of paper the emotions that we believe that Nick is feeling when he discovers the fate of the Native American woman's husband. Then we form circles and the person in the center says the word - and the next circle is quieter, than quieter, etc. We then discuss the entire story and end with the incredible touching ending.
27:17 minutes (12.5 MB)
Women's Tales - A Lesson in Why there are so few Women Writer's from the Middle Ages
This lesson grew out of a comment that a student made when I first started teaching. I asked the class why there were so few women writers during the Middle Ages, and one male student replied that it was obvious that women just aren't as talented of writers as men (and he was serious). So - for this lesson the boys in the class must "take care" of a paper baby, use their wrong hand, work by themselves and still try to get the same work done that the girls are doing. The attached handouts give all of the details - oh yes, they are given a quiz that is impossible to answer.
Leaving: An Illuminated Text of All Quiet on the Western Front
This is an illuminated text on All Quiet on the Western Front, a novel about a young man, named Paul Baumer, who finds his world shattering into pieces out on the battlefield in the trenches. We based our illuminated text on the discomfort that Paul experiences at the front, as well as at home on leave. In the end, however, Paul chooses the front as his true "home" rather than his actual home. We hope you enjoy it. [Another great Illuminated Text that concentrates on the "words" and uses the text to draw its "images" JRS]
"Song" & "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning"
A class lecture and discussion on these two poems by John Donne. The class begins by talking about "Song" - as misogynistic a poem as has ever been written. We comment and talk about it - then we go to to "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning." How can two lovers be apart and yet not be separated - I use Silly Putty to demonstrate, a prop that shows the two points of the compass as one -- and finally play "I Melt with You."
33:22 minutes (15.28 MB)
Learning PowerPoint 2007 for Illuminated Texts: Outline and lesson plans
This is a set of lessons for teaching students (and interested teachers) how to use Power Point 2007 to create illuminated texts. Downloads include a course outline and five detailed handouts. The first three lessons cover the skills needed to create a presentation and the last two provide instructions on including music. A similar set of lessons for Power Point 2003 can be found here: www.awaytoteach.net/ .
Of Mice and Men Group Work
I borrowed and modified Mr. Scotese's Group Work for The House on Mango Street for use with my students, and it worked so well that I decided to do something similar for our study of Of Mice and Men. There are two Group Work assignments - one for Chapter 2, and another for Chapter 4. Each assignment is broken down so seven groups each look at a different issue in that section of the text, and the assignment also includes guidance for assigning group roles and a rubric for assessing the presentation.
An Illuminted Text of Clenched Soul: A Poem by Pablo Neruda
I chose to create an illuminated text on Pablo Neruda's poem, Clenched Soul. After watching the movie, The Postman, I was really interested in Neruda's works. This poem is written especially beautifully in my opinion and describes vivid images, two aspects that create an interesting illuminated text. I tried to enable viewers to understand the poem through pictures I drew as well as focusing on certain words. Hope you enjoy! [The vivid images that this presenter talks about are recreated in her wonderful Illuminated Text - especially the blue sky dropping on the poets world and later becoming a sunset. JRS]
Irreconcilable Differences- An Illuminated Text of Shakespeare's Macbeth
For our Illuminated text we pulled from 2 soliloquies: one by Lady Macbeth (Act 1 Scene 5) and one from Macbeth (Act 1 Scene 7). They were meant to contrast each other by showing how desperately Lady Macbeth craved to do the deed of killing Duncan and Macbeth is voicing his apprehension to the action. For being husband and wife they could not have two more different opinions (hence our title). [They did a great job here - and that starts with their concentration on the actual text - the choice of font - and the animations that they use that explicate Shakespeare's words. JRS]
An Introduction to English Sonnets
An introduction to English Sonnets. The background, rhythms, rhymes and form of sonnets.
Shakespearean sonnet: an 18 line stanza written in iambic pentameter, that employs the rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef,gg, and can be divided into three quatrains and a couplet.
Iambic Pentameter: lines of poetry that can be divided into 5 metric feet with alternately unstressed and stressed syllables. Aims/Outcomes: Illustrate iambic pentameter and tetrameter, discuss rhyme scheme, explain the definition/form of a sonnet, explain how to paraphrase to make things easier to understand, prepare students to begin reading Shakespeare's sonnets and writing their own
Putting on the Beowulf - An In-Class Performance.
Students perform the final part of Beowulf in a setting of their choice (ie Star Wars), though they must remain faithful to the translated words. This assignment has a two-fold goal: 1) To have students show that they understand the text of Beowulf by performing it. 2) To prepare students for later Shakespeare performances by allowing them to see that many settings are possible for a given text -- not just the one that it was originally created in (though it takes more than a bit of critical thinking to come up with an appropriate setting).
