It is for my benefit and yours to look back at the year and think what we could have done better. Some will respond by asking for less work: less reading, fewer quizzes, fewer papers. These comments don’t really help me become a better teacher. Remember that your goal is to learn, so what would make you learn more effectively? What should freshman English include next year?
Ballad: Take 2
Read the following stanza, the beginnings of a ballad, and any following comments that continue the story. Add your own stanza. It’s just four lines but it needs to make sense. Consider the number of comments and how many students are in your class. If you’re the last one, be sure to finish the story off.
Walking home from school one day
10 years since his birth
A clever young boy looked down at his feet
Something shiny was there in the earth
A Universal Sentiment
Go to the Favorite Poem Project and look at the video for “Minstrel Man” by Langston Hughes. http://www.favoritepoem.org/videos.html Consider for a moment what Langston Hughes was expressing his poem and compare it to the perspective of Pov Chin. Does it change the poem to know her story?
Telephone Conversation
Having read “Telephone Conversation” by Soyinka, consider the issues that he raises about racial prejudice. What did you think? Would the incident have the same effect if it was simply reported to us? Is there anything to be gained by discussing topics like this in poetry as opposed to another format?
Find online the poem “Siren Song” by Margaret Atwood. If you’re unfamiliar with the myth of Odysseus and the Sirens look that up as well so that you’ll understand the allusion being made. What trick is Atwood suggesting the Siren uses to tempt men? What does this say about men and women in general?
After reading “The Gate” explain all the possible meanings behind the word gate. Consider the different kinds of imagery the author uses to convey her idea. How does she use sound to convey her idea? What is this idea?
“Song” was written in the thirties to respond with urban reality to a pastoral fantasy. What response would you give today, either as shepherd or nymph? Compose two stanzas at least using the same line length and rhyme scheme as the other poems. You can even start with the line “Come live with me and be my love” if you want. Don’t worry about iambs; it’ll flow well enough.
I’ve heard you don’t like your blog’s name
here’s your chance: what would you change it to? No whining after this one, folks.
What is on trial exactly?
Many critics of the play have insisted that evolution isn’t even the real issue of the play. It was largely in response to McCarthy’s witch hunt of Communists. So what is the overall issue? And what controversial theory today could be inserted in place of evolution or communism?
The age-old debate
In Act II Drummond in his interrogation of Brady says that because of new advances in science and “knowledge, we must abandon our fiath in the pleasant poetry of Genesis” (93). Is this true? Are science and Judeo-Christian beliefs mutually exclusive?
