May Flowers

Ah, spring. The birds are singing, the flowers blooming, and the seniors all need some kind of pill to cure senioritis. Here are some more fun sentences from my students from various papers on various works. As always, these are unedited and my comments are in ( ).

- Finally the narrator rips off the wallpaper, but only showing that she has lost reality. (Hope she finds it.)

- Gatsby was ok when we talked about it. (We? I have no idea who we are.)

- The Great Gatsby, a novel by Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel full of repetition. (Like this sentence.)

- When the illusion fades away their life is left.

- He lets too many other things get in the way of stuff. (I hate when things get in the way of stuff.)

- Jay Gatsby faces reality and he faces his own reality which is known as an illusion.

- ...to keep up with appearances...

- Jay Gatsby was creating this fack imige about himself. ("fake image," I think.)

- ...his realization of reality kicked in... (For some reason my students love it when things "kick in.")

- Literary elements are the frosting of a story. (I hate it when they come up with meaningless metaphors in their intros.)

- Characterization brings about the fascination people have with each other. (Huh?)

- Dummy was so protective of the fish that he erected a fence around the pond where he and his wife lived. (Now, the character's name was Dummy, but it was the FISH who lived in the pond!)

- Words in short stories are very significant. (Shocker.)

- ...she had gone crazy in the mind.

- Symbolism means to represent a certain thing by symbols or coming up with things that show symbols or represent them. (No, that is not what symbolism means.)

- The house seems hunted to her.

- Dummy is characterized as a preservative person.

- Being young and vulnerable, knowing the specificities from a male to female was unknown to the narrator. (Your guess is as good as mine.)

Until next time...

J

This Is a Blog

If the title of this post sounds obvious, welcome to my world. I can't tell you how many students open their essays with painfully mundane statements of the blatantly obvious, many of which boil down to: "Writers write!" Often this takes the form of a sentence like, "Authors use imagery in their stories." Others congratulate the author in a manner similar to this: "Without the minor characters the many intricacies that make Shakespeare so widely popular would be lost." Well, it's a good thing he thought to include those characters then! Now to the quotes. As always, these sentences are taken from student work, and my comments are in ( ).

- He could be mental challenged.

- Peyton Farquar allows his psychological plane to take over. (Never let your psychological plane have the upper hand!)

- Him miss one and fell through the ice.

- Words in short stories are significant. (Almost as significant as the pretty pictures.)

- Lady Macbeth shows that guilt is not a priority of hers yet. (Guilt is always my priority; that and self-loathing.)

- The reactions and actions from Macbeth are different from one another.

- Macbeth is a sole character that violence is involved in.

- Lady Macbeth does a speech about violence. (Hmmm....)

- Macbeth will not be able to be king without being able to not worry about people finding out that he killed Duncan.

- In Macbeth Shakespeare makes a valiant effort to create a theme. (Unfortunately, he fell short.)

- Macbeth will not be able to sleep no more because of the tremendous guilt that invaded his body. (That's a bad infection.)

There is a line in Macbeth in which Macbeth is told that he cannot be killed by a "man born of woman." The following two quotes come from that line. The first demonstrates a frequent error of my students (not knowing the difference between "woman" and "women").

- Macbeth thinks that Macduff was born of women. (And then stitched together by Dr. Frankenstein?)

- Macbeth would not be harmed by anyone born a woman. (So he should only fear the transgendered, I suppose.)

Back to class.

Jeremiah

Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing

The title of this post is a quote from Macbeth. I choose it because it is appropriate to some of the student sentences contained here, and because most of these sentences come from Macbeth tests. And they think Shakespeare is hard to decipher. As always, these are sentences taken from student work, unedited, with my comments in ( ).

- As he fell, his mind detached itself from his body.

- He is without the idea or romanticizing. (This sounds like a bad translation.)

- Duncan gave Macbeth a higher roll. (I think he laced that roll with something.)

- There are many reasons not to kill the kind.

- William Shake spheres...

- (From the Department of Redundancy Department) ..the desire to want something...

- (Also from the DRD) He does not let it lead to self inflicted suicide.

- Macduff was born by sea section. (It was quite the delivery.)

- The witches told Macbeth what he wanted to hear but not the hole truth.

- My favorite part was when Lady Macbeth died. This is because I don't like her.

- There is overpowering and manipulants. (Have you ever taken manipulants? That's some good stuff.)

- Lady Macbeth's evilness shines through.

- Lady Macbeth did not act lady-like during the play.

- My least favorite part was when Lady Macbeth killed herself because she deserved to be murdered by the Scotlands. (And maybe the Englands too.)

- (One student's reason for not wanting to see the play on stage) I have my own visions of what this play would look like and I don't need some terrible director to ruin my images.

- Macbeth was told to be aware of Macduff. (Don't beware, just be aware.)

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow... I grade more papers.

Regents Funnies

Every year in New York state high school juniors take the English Regents exam, a four essay test. The following sentences come from this year's (January) test. These quotes come from essays about public parks, about two pieces of literature that were on the test, and the critical lens essay for which they have to write about things they have read. As always, my comments are in ( ).

- With obesity and such being so popular within the United States... (For some reason students insist on using the word "popular" to mean "common" or "widespread.")
- That is very full of trueness. (If this student was a Stephen Colbert fan he/she would know that the word is "truthiness.")
- Epidemics like heart disease, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes are arousing.
- In urban areas, such as cities... (Department of Redundancy Department strikes again.)
- As long as the earth has been alive...
- Nature is a essential part in a healthy, daily portion of life.
- A park would be vital for all living lives. (To the dead lives parks are not so vital.)
- Public parks should be developed because they do good for people as individuals and they also do good for people as wholes.
- The natural world has fostered the human race since humans were created.
- Public parks make people less likely to sit around all day.
- New York has Grand Central Park. (I've heard it's amazing.)
- ... the boy and the elderly man are not on the same page of understandment. (Neither are the teacher and the student.)
- This passage shows the setting of the boy.
- Imagery is a literary term that is tangible with the senses.
- The speaker is a boy who visits Whales. (The boy in the story was Italian and he took a vacation in Wales.)
- As a married man, John Proctor should not have committed treason. (But it's ok if you're single.)
- The little boy has a very big imagery. (Or else he is just happy to see you.)
- Lenny (from Of Mice and Men) likes girls so he likes to rip their clothes and kind of get with them.
- Once oneself suggests to complicate life, then oneself must be prepared to complicate oneself. (Sounds complicated.)

Next week is winter break for us and I have stacks of papers to grade. Stay tuned.

Jeremiah

Been a While!

I have been so busy I have not had time to post anything recently, but I have been keeping notes none the less. And boy do I have some gems. These are from multiple sources, senior papers, junior papers and tests, etc. As always, these are actual student sentences, unedited, and my comments are in ( ).

- Over time parents are going to have a harder time in controling there childs.
- Some similarities about the passages are that passage one and passage two is the characterization that the parents cared about the child.
- Passage two uses the literary element imagery to show the importance of imagery.
- The father is very admiration to his daughter.
- This leads to a fall sense of security. (As opposed to a winter sense, I guess.)
- ...it became a costume to share a cigarette.
- They asked themselves if it was worth healthy.
- A triangle can also be used to solve for what the area of a triangle is.
- A best friend is someone who universally is awesome. (Agreed!)
- Society told Huck to be "whatever" about slaves. (Ok, whatever.)
- Huck finally catches back up to Jim and hops on his raft while asleep. (I have never been able to hop in my sleep.)
- Pap hearts Huck.
- Pap is also a many head. (This was in a paper, and she actually meant "meany-head.")
- The raciest comets in this book... (The "most racist comments" is what was meant, but I wonder what that comet looks like.)
- Huck must foe-fill his priority.
- Marriage is the last step in a couple's marriage. (You have no idea how many of my students work for the Department of Redundancy Department.)
- There are thirty five states that still participate in death penalty.
- Sex education will provide more information to the students so they will be more aware of the causes of sex. (There is more than one cause of sex?)
- About forty years ago people would look at strip clubs as profound places to go. (Deep?)
- Melanoma can be just as deadly as skin cancer. (I think that's because it IS skin cancer...)
- Alcohol can cause death which is a more serious symptom of drinking.
- Lowering the drinking age might help stop the amount of underage dreaming. (What is the legal dreaming age?)
- Huck has been taught that helping runaway slaves is stealing, which is theft. (And akin to robbery, which is like larceny.)
- Condoms can help teens be successful. (Yes, that was the whole sentence. And I say, much success to you, condom-wearing teens.)
- It's like the saying two right make a wrong.
- Same sex marriage should be aloud. (I disagree. I think same sex marriage should be very quiet.)

That is it for now, but I have another list that came entirely from grading the Regents exams last week, so stay tuned...

Jeremiah

Pre-Holiday Post

So many papers, so little time. Here is a quick post before the holiday season kicks off. As always, all sentences are from student work with no editing by yours truly. My comments are in ( ).

- Mr. Proctor does not like that Mr. Parris preaches bloody damnation which leads him to plow on Sunday which is a sin.

- Sometimes patience is hard to control.

- A crucible is a severe test or a trail.

- Elizabeth Proctor questions John for cheating on her, which testes his patience.

- In order to ski one must have a slop to go down. (I love whooshing down that slop.)

- After one ahs their boots... (I have no idea.)

- Now that I a senior... (You don't write like one.)

- Being a senior is just like a self a steam booster. (Getting this paper back probably took care of that boost.)

- The day to day expectance of women was challenged and became successful.

- In many part of the world...

- The goalie must have a mouth peace. (I hate a goalie without a peaceful mouth.)

- This means doing things such as splits should seem simple over time. (Why would anyone do a split over time?)

- Poe is one of the most badass anti-transcendentalist writers of his age. (No argument here.)

- This is the most truthful truth that many would not admit to being true.

- (Said about Poe.) Life isn't always losing pretty girls.

- Without history there would be no present. (Truer words...)

- For the moist part... ( I wish the rest of this sentence had lived up to its opening.)

- ...the World Trait Centers were bombed.

- Sexism was first created in the mid 1960s. (Wow, it took longer than I thought.)

- Knowledge is what a person makes wants to make it.

- Scientific knowledge needs reasoning and proven.

I have one more. Now, this was on the rough draft of a senior paper. I conference with each student about his or her rough draft. The student who wrote the following sentence was a senior girl. Uncomfortable...

- This means that instead of penetrating the ball the team should pull out and waste time.

Mayday! Mayday!

Fall Fun

Sorry this has taken so long. I have 45 juniors and 45 seniors this year, and the seniors are in a college writing class. So, lots of fun! These are from different sources, from junior Regents review essays and essays on The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter, to senior Personal Narratives and Compare/Contrast essays. As always, all samples taken directly from student work with no significant teacher editing; my comments in ( ).

- Beauty has been around since as far back as the early Greek philosophers. (But no further.)
- I defiantly will work out tomorrow. (I dare you to oppose my work out plan!)
- Computers and their technology keep rising.
- When a person here's the crack of the bat...
- Abby causes the most blame.
- John Proctor had an adultery with Abby.
- He also ended up die from Abby.
- Elizabeth was ferious. (That would be furious.)
- After John continued to fight Abby was just all "Oh you don't mean that" and "I love you" type of attitude.
- Abby envies Elizabeth for being the goody to John Proctor.
- Abby pushes him to replenish the relationship.
- John Proctor upholds a very strong presence in the play.
- Hester was outcasted.
- Dimmesdale should have acted more religious instead of having sex with Hester.
- Now we are able to talk to people face to face, using a computer.
- Her seven children dye at birth. (I wonder what color?)
- ...so they will not die from a painful death.
- I need to work more on the writing having the words flow together better. (You're not kidding.)
- Writing can help reading by you should proof read everything to see if it makes sense or not.
- While my dad packed the can... (She meant "car." I hope.)
- My dad sounded like a broken recorder.
- ...in the comer of my eye...
- They got heaving into alcohol and marijuana.
- We knew they couldn't fallow that.
- Al of a sudden...
- A dynamic character is one who changes their actions or ways of going about events.
- ...who else see saw with the devil. (I have always loved see-sawing with the devil.)

That is it for now. But I will be collecting more than a lot of papers this year, so I hope to have more frequent posts. Hope no one is heaving into alcohol!

Jeremiah