I haven't kept up with this blog even as much as I hope to, which isn't much. So I have a slightly longer than usual list of student sentences and fragments to share. This little project started one year when the English department was grading Regents exams and I copied down all the funny things they had written in their essays on that test. Now the rules forbid such note-taking, because as we all know, what the students write on standardized tests must be kept as closely guarded as state secrets. Even though we are making high stakes decisions based on these tests, we can't let anyone see the children's answers, or even the tests themselves. That would ruin the illusion that the tests are actually worthwhile! Anyway, these sentences come mostly from the last papers of the year and in-house final exams. At the end I will specially introduce one of my favorite student sentences of all time; I am not even sure I should post it. As always, my comments are in ( ).
- The choice of using a boy was carefully chosen.
- Using spring as the month... (Nope, you've got to narrow it down a little more.)
- As she got older the mirror would show her the aging she was doing.
- Robinson's poem "Richard Cory" is a modernist poem in which new techniques of idea conveyance are used.
- Among the children's first arrival...
- Ralph has decided that those on the island need order and semblance.
- (The book) was boring and didn't catch my interesting. (His interesting is hard to catch.)
- ... society is most ordeal.
- Through the novel, Gene and Finny's relationship doesn't change other than so much as Gene's perception of the relationship.
- ... they both climb up the tree and Gene's coincidence got to him. (I, too, have a nagging coincidence.)
- Gene and Finny became friends at the all-boys school called Devon school it's in New English.
- Gene began to think hostile toward Finny.
- Gene and Finny's friendship contains of many feelings and decisions for them to choose and be friends.
- Their friendship served to develop a theme of a novel by having the story written pretty much like if there is no Finny then there is not past, and if there is no past then there is no tree and if there is no tree then all of this was nothing. (That got quite confusingly existential.)
- ... he falls deeper into his conscience.
-... if the student is truggleing... (When reading this paper I was truggleing.)
- It's unique because theres many chooses to choose from. (Dr. Seuss? Is that you?)
- Gatsby is stuck living in the pass. (Which mountain range the student did not specify.)
- Jay Gatsby was in love with Daisy, who in which was married.
- In the play Hamlet by F. Scott Fitzgerald...
- The Aunt illusions herself...
- Phineas falls down some hard stairs, which leads to his deaths. (He had nine lives, like a cat.)
- Atticus told Scout to look at situations through someone else's skin. (I do not like the implications here.)
I have one final quote, but it comes with a warning. It is a simple and honest typo, but the results are, shall we say, off-color. Feel free to skip it, though now that I warned you I am sure you will press on. The student was writing about the idea that Zeena, the character in Ethan Frome, suffers from Munchausen's syndrome, and she included some symptoms of the disorder. Here it is in all its glory:
- Their methods for appearing sick can involve making up symptoms, purposely getting dick, or injuring themselves.
Sick. She meant sick... I hope.
I will post some comments from end-of-year surveys when I get around to it. Until then, don't injure yourselves while purposely getting... sick.
J
