One more set of sentences before summer 2014 officially begins. Most of these are from final papers and exams. Next week I'll have a final post with comments from this year's End-Of-Year Surveys. I love those. As always, these are from real student work and my comments are in ( ).
- He portrays how he resembles reality by having the knowledge to know that the "beast"... does not exist.
- ... a boy has been accused of killing his father with only circumstantial evidence. (How do you kill a man with circumstantial evidence?)
- Holmes ends up pacing back and forth in an excited manor.
- Dr. Roylott was a very aggressive character with a short, almost nonexistent fuss. (Fuse)
- The point of this essay was not just to summarize "The Red-Headed League." (Maybe, but that is the only thing the essay did.)
- (Love) caused both John (Proctor) and Jay (Gatsby) to end up dead and unhappy. (To end up dead is bad enough, but to be dead and unhappy? That's just rough.)
- ... in the begging of the story...
- In The Great Gatsby by Arthur Miller... (Nope, try again.)
- He gave her an altamatum.
- When Ophelia's ran over daisey Gatsby was worring about what would happen to Ophelia. (Apparently Gatsby was reading Hamlet in the car and got confused?)
- Love is a theme in everyday life. People love people, dogs love dogs, along with everything else in life.
- Gene was very loss and loss a part of him.
- He is a non-alcoholic... (Me too... but not for long.)
- "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles is brimming with themes.
- The death of Finny puts Gene in a depressional type situation. (Is that the same as being depressed?)
- All people die at some point in their lifetime. (Yes, and that point is called the end point.)
See you next week with comments from surveys. They love telling me how bad English was this year and how many movies I should show next year because that would make English class bearable.
J
6/24/14
6/9/14
Know Your Title Punctuation
I remember in high school learning the difference between literary titles that go in "quotation marks," and those that must be underlined or in italics. It wasn't hard. Is it a book or play? Underlined or italics. Is it a poem, short story, or essay? Then it goes in "quotation marks." For the most part, if the teacher assigned you to read the whole thing in one night, put it in quotation marks; if it was long enough that it has chapters or act breaks, underline or italics. Why do so many of my juniors and seniors still not "know this?" Anyway, a short group of sentences for today. I just wanted to post before final exams. As always, all sentences are from student work and my comments are in ( ), but not in italics, quotation marks, or underlined.
- She's an unusual character in the way she acts but really feels. (I... what... uh...)
- ...boys get to adventure the outside world.
- Seeing the first horse killed reflected the little girl into a young lady.
- ...her house stinked.
- Memories are a wonderful thing to remember.
- (He) could have been his friend if they could have meant in another place.
- ...these words allow us to feel an undercut type of violence for the speaker.
- The author of the poem uses personification to personify objects. (From the Department of Redundancy Department.)
- The soldier tells about how he imagined the man's life that he killed.
- This waiter had a deeper meaning of life. (I like to think most waiters do.)
- The poem is an example of Imagism because it focused on what the meaning of it is.
See you in a few weeks, I am sure, with a batch from final papers and exams!
J
- She's an unusual character in the way she acts but really feels. (I... what... uh...)
- ...boys get to adventure the outside world.
- Seeing the first horse killed reflected the little girl into a young lady.
- ...her house stinked.
- Memories are a wonderful thing to remember.
- (He) could have been his friend if they could have meant in another place.
- ...these words allow us to feel an undercut type of violence for the speaker.
- The author of the poem uses personification to personify objects. (From the Department of Redundancy Department.)
- The soldier tells about how he imagined the man's life that he killed.
- This waiter had a deeper meaning of life. (I like to think most waiters do.)
- The poem is an example of Imagism because it focused on what the meaning of it is.
See you in a few weeks, I am sure, with a batch from final papers and exams!
J
4/26/14
E-readers Rant!
Most of what I am about to write I posted as a comment on a friend's Facebook page. I thought I might recycle it here.
I hate e-readers. Whether people see it or want to admit it, there are HUGE differences between reading a book and reading anything on a screen: differences that I believe are deep and meaningful. Phones and ipads and kindles and such devices are "tools of distraction," to borrow a phrase from Nicholas Carr's book "The Shallows." Reading a book takes a certain amount of commitment and concentration, skills which are not encouraged, and may indeed be discouraged, by technological devices. And while I know you can underline and highlight on the new devices, it isn't the same as writing in a book with a pencil. Swiping a screen is not the same as turning a page. Books are real. The words on the screen are not; they disappear into the ether. The "books" on e-readers are as illusory as everything else in the digital world. Maybe this is just me, but books have solidity and a certain permanence (not eternal, of course, but relative,) which digital technology cannot replicate. And my fear is that the impermanence of digital media make the ideas presented therein seem also impermanent and illusory. When St. Thomas Aquinas rejoiced over finally finding the one book he had searched so long for, the book and its ideas mattered. When we can sweep away a whole book with our fingers, when we don't even have to sacrifice a small space on a shelf to its form, we come to disregard the ideas contained therein just as easily. That is my brief defense of books.
To the sentences. These are, as always, from student work, and my comments are in ( ).
- Lay Macbeth says "unsex me," meaning take away her feminism.
- He fleas... (flees)
- This is where the reasonability goes into the citizen.
- ... who told him never to never travel alone. (That wasn't not a double negative, wasn't it not?)
- Hamlet feels be trade.
- The death might bring more angry. (Something is missing here.)
- There were many soldiers disgusted as trees.
- Eventually Lady Macbeth can no longer be sane with herself.
- ... life, liberty, and perusing happiness. (I prefer to browse delight, but whatever.)
- One other note, I feel that Shakespear did terrible on this play (Hamlet). I dod not find it interesting. Shakespear made it blunt and I would not recommend it.
- Hamlet's choices and behavior... led to his fatal death. (Department of Redundancy Department.)
- Hamlet is an imagination thinker.
- The solution to this problem is to have a solution that is broken down into simpler terms so it explains the overall solution. (Problem solved!)
I know this last one was a typo, and it's a little off color, but I had to include it. I laughed outloud.
- The dong willingly disobeyed its owner. (He meant "dog.")
Until next time...
J
I hate e-readers. Whether people see it or want to admit it, there are HUGE differences between reading a book and reading anything on a screen: differences that I believe are deep and meaningful. Phones and ipads and kindles and such devices are "tools of distraction," to borrow a phrase from Nicholas Carr's book "The Shallows." Reading a book takes a certain amount of commitment and concentration, skills which are not encouraged, and may indeed be discouraged, by technological devices. And while I know you can underline and highlight on the new devices, it isn't the same as writing in a book with a pencil. Swiping a screen is not the same as turning a page. Books are real. The words on the screen are not; they disappear into the ether. The "books" on e-readers are as illusory as everything else in the digital world. Maybe this is just me, but books have solidity and a certain permanence (not eternal, of course, but relative,) which digital technology cannot replicate. And my fear is that the impermanence of digital media make the ideas presented therein seem also impermanent and illusory. When St. Thomas Aquinas rejoiced over finally finding the one book he had searched so long for, the book and its ideas mattered. When we can sweep away a whole book with our fingers, when we don't even have to sacrifice a small space on a shelf to its form, we come to disregard the ideas contained therein just as easily. That is my brief defense of books.
To the sentences. These are, as always, from student work, and my comments are in ( ).
- Lay Macbeth says "unsex me," meaning take away her feminism.
- He fleas... (flees)
- This is where the reasonability goes into the citizen.
- ... who told him never to never travel alone. (That wasn't not a double negative, wasn't it not?)
- Hamlet feels be trade.
- The death might bring more angry. (Something is missing here.)
- There were many soldiers disgusted as trees.
- Eventually Lady Macbeth can no longer be sane with herself.
- ... life, liberty, and perusing happiness. (I prefer to browse delight, but whatever.)
- One other note, I feel that Shakespear did terrible on this play (Hamlet). I dod not find it interesting. Shakespear made it blunt and I would not recommend it.
- Hamlet's choices and behavior... led to his fatal death. (Department of Redundancy Department.)
- Hamlet is an imagination thinker.
- The solution to this problem is to have a solution that is broken down into simpler terms so it explains the overall solution. (Problem solved!)
I know this last one was a typo, and it's a little off color, but I had to include it. I laughed outloud.
- The dong willingly disobeyed its owner. (He meant "dog.")
Until next time...
J
3/9/14
Come Spring
On the one hand, I am really looking forward to the warmth of spring. It has been an unusually cold winter, at least in my estimation, and a few buds on the trees and a daily high that didn't peak in the teens would be welcome. On the other hand, warmer weather often means less focused students. I have two classes of seniors and the higher temps in spring seem to cause a wide outbreak of the dreaded senior-itis virus.
"Why aren't you turning in your work?"
"It's ok, I already got accepted to college."
Anyway, on to the sentences. As always, these are from real students, and my comments are in ( ).
- In the short story "The Tell Tall Heart..."
"Why aren't you turning in your work?"
"It's ok, I already got accepted to college."
Anyway, on to the sentences. As always, these are from real students, and my comments are in ( ).
- In the short story "The Tell Tall Heart..."
- Once he kills him he takes to body and barriers the old man.
- Poe creates the feeling of anxiety by disrobing in such great detail. (Poe disrobing would certainly cause me some anxiety, among other things.)
- Edgar Allan Poe creates some type of effect in most of his short stories and narrative poems. (Vagary, they name is high school student.)
- (He) began to dink in great quantities. (Ah, yes, I remember when I used to go out dinking.)
- ...sceintifical practices...
- These (video) games can affect certain motor skills and one of them is social interaction.
- ... heir to the thrown... (He must be the son of an NFL quarterback.)
- Macbeth needs to kill Duncan in order to become King of Wales. (So close.)
- In other words, this means if one person had a better life to work hard to achieve it.
- The American dream, wealth and power, has been trying to be achieved since the industrial revolution. (That's some strong personification there.)
- He would throw nightly parties every Saturday.
- Many people believe the American Dream is the level of perfection in American society. (?)
- That is when he decided to make a decision to change his life.
- Oral reports and public specking...
- He couldn't accept his reality so he came to the conclusion of his own illusion. (Is this from a song?)
- During Edgar Allan Poe's time, he wrote hundreds of poems and short stories straight from his mind. (As opposed to your writing, which comes straight from your... what?)
Time for the long, slow march to April break.
J
Time for the long, slow march to April break.
J
1/27/14
Regents Fail
Today was the January English Regents exam. I plan a full post on my "Gradgrind's Grind" blog about that one, but just a note or two here. Lord in heaven, what a terrible test. We have enough trouble getting some kids excited about school, or even awake for it, without the state coming in with their boring and mundane "reading" selections, vapid and often confusing multiple choice questions, and formulaic writing assignment. I was the teacher elected to read the listening passage to the juniors assembled in the gymnasium; it was a yawner. I tell you true, the older I get the harder it is not to let my contempt for the standardized test show during the test. I already tell my students in class how much I hate these tests, and why. But today in the middle of reading the passage for the second time I felt an overwhelming urge to begin making sarcastic comments and jokes about the passage while reading it. I wanted to break into silly accents and make goofy faces. The tests are so humorless and we are made to take them so seriously. There's so much solemnity about the taking of a standardized tests; perhaps because we are at the funeral of real learning.
Anyway... on to the sentences. As always, these are real sentences from student work and my comments are in ( ).
- (In answer to the question, What color is the light?) Hope
- (In answer to the question, Who does Myrtle Wilson mistakenly believe is Tom's wife?) One student wrote "Nick," and another "Jay Gatsby." (Score two for marriage equality in the 1920s, I guess.)
- She had the money to ravish herself in gifts.
- A trust passer is about to get hung. (Trespasser)
- A person's car went into the ditch that was drinking. (Nothing worse than a ditch that's been drinking. Ditches be crazy, man.)
- Teenagers are the future tomorrow.
- I read only 5 chapters of Gatsby because that's all I felt like doing. (Nice to have you in school.)
- The building itself looked a banded. (Abandoned)
- The back story of this specific matter is never filled in so the reader can interoperate it into something for their selves.
- ... a man is remembering and thinking about his diseased wife. (She's dead, not sick.)
- I think what caused her initial death... (And her secondary death? Did she have nine lives?)
- (Said aloud in class:) "So wait, Macbeth killed Danforth?" (Yes. The character from Shakespeare's play invaded The Crucible to kill the judge.)
- The only thing this woman hatted was her husband's art.
- If there is more foreign adoptions then the gender balance will maintain normal. (Maintain Normal would be a cool name for a band. Or self help book.)
- It loses significance when the green light doesn't mean anything to Gatsby anymore. (It lost significance when it lost significance? Got it.)
- I like Daisy (Buchanan) because she wasn't a typical mother. (Did you read The Great Gatsby, or some other story about a Daisy Buchanan?)
- (On the deep meaning of The Great Gatsby:) be yourself!
- The Great Gatsby is upbeat. (I think he meant fast paced. I mean, I hope he meant fast paced.)
- The actions that Montresor possessed...
I have two more for you, but I present them not for their potential humor. I guess I'll let you come to your own conclusions about my motives for tacking them on.
- I found it difficult to find time and actually sit down and read (The Great Gatsby) with working 2 jobs and having other homework to do, but when I did find a chance to read it, it was engaging and I found it hard to put down.
- (The Great Gatsby) made me want to live my life differently from how I've been living.
J
12/13/13
Newsflash!
This just in: Yours truly, the high school English teacher who keeps this blog, is boring! You heard it here first, and I give it to you straight from the mouths of about five horses who have to sit in my class every day and be bored, bored, bored! I mean seriously, Pre-Trig is more interesting than this class! Can't you just tell us what we need to know? Why do we have to talk about everything? And why do we have to write so much in English class? For real, time literally slows down in this room...
Ouch. You have to have thick skin to teach high school; not every student thinks your subject area is just fascinating. But what really saddens me is not that some students are rude, or that they don't enjoy reading and discussing literature. What saddens me is that their real objection is not to literature per se, but to anything that requires them to think a little. It's not that they are bored; it's that they are boring and apathetic, and they like it that way.
On to the sentences. As always, these are from student work, and my comments are in ( ).
- During the colonial times during the 1850s...
- China is very family oriented.
- A serpent often symbolizes a snake in Western Culture. (Gonna have to teach symbol again.)
- Men view piercings on a woman as "sexy" and "available." (Nice nose ring; is it seeing anyone?)
- Private prisons are not too happen when their prisoners become ill.
- Paraphrasing without siting is another form of plagarism. (If you're standing, you're ok.)
- Both men are criminals who obviously don't have an issue with lying huge lies.
(The following two are both responses to: Explain how Peyton Farquar is to be hung.)
- because he was a slave
- Being a North dressed up as a South soldier.
- This is the meaning that probes thought and discussion.
- He is left for death by his friend. (Ouch; to be left for another is one thing, but being left for death? That's gotta sting.)
- But nothing can be done unless something is done about it.
- It's not like they sit in Boston and ponder their sins for 7 years, that would make a boring story. (This advanced 11 student is subtly hinting that he didn't like The Scarlet Letter.)
- Note to self: insert fact on boring machine later. (Note to student: see your note to self before turning in essay. Also, he was using "boring" as in "to drill a hole into," not as in "tedious and dull." But if you ask me, either sense would work.)
That's it for now. Enjoy whatever holidays you celebrate!
J
Ouch. You have to have thick skin to teach high school; not every student thinks your subject area is just fascinating. But what really saddens me is not that some students are rude, or that they don't enjoy reading and discussing literature. What saddens me is that their real objection is not to literature per se, but to anything that requires them to think a little. It's not that they are bored; it's that they are boring and apathetic, and they like it that way.
On to the sentences. As always, these are from student work, and my comments are in ( ).
- During the colonial times during the 1850s...
- China is very family oriented.
- A serpent often symbolizes a snake in Western Culture. (Gonna have to teach symbol again.)
- Men view piercings on a woman as "sexy" and "available." (Nice nose ring; is it seeing anyone?)
- Private prisons are not too happen when their prisoners become ill.
- Paraphrasing without siting is another form of plagarism. (If you're standing, you're ok.)
- Both men are criminals who obviously don't have an issue with lying huge lies.
(The following two are both responses to: Explain how Peyton Farquar is to be hung.)
- because he was a slave
- Being a North dressed up as a South soldier.
- This is the meaning that probes thought and discussion.
- He is left for death by his friend. (Ouch; to be left for another is one thing, but being left for death? That's gotta sting.)
- But nothing can be done unless something is done about it.
- It's not like they sit in Boston and ponder their sins for 7 years, that would make a boring story. (This advanced 11 student is subtly hinting that he didn't like The Scarlet Letter.)
- Note to self: insert fact on boring machine later. (Note to student: see your note to self before turning in essay. Also, he was using "boring" as in "to drill a hole into," not as in "tedious and dull." But if you ask me, either sense would work.)
That's it for now. Enjoy whatever holidays you celebrate!
J
11/16/13
Thankfulness
A quick note before we get to the sentences. For whatever reason, and who can say what the reason is as the nature of memory is such a mystery, I recalled today the first time I took a book of essays by G. K. Chesterton out of the library at SUNY Cortland. It was a little red hardcover book, and I might have been the first person to take it out in years. Before then I had only known Chesterton as the author of the Father Brown mystery stories which I had read when I went through my "mystery" phase in junior high and high school. I do not even exactly remember what led me to look him up in the library catalogue, but in this season of thanks I am thankful that the library at the State University of New York College at Cortland had in its collection that book; by my estimation I now own 40 or more of his books, including 10 volumes of his collected works. Thanks state college librarian who ordered that book, probably years before I was born: you unknowingly started me on a path of reading enjoyment from which I shall probably never stray.
Also, I am thankful for students who write funny things. To the student work. As always, my comments are ( ).
- The truth is the decision to pay the dish bill is one decision that one makes for a matter of a number of channels that one may or may not ever watch. (The truth is confusing.)
- Many words have different meanings both connotative and denotative. (We have now heard from Captain Obvious.)
- Numerous words have numerous meanings. (Captain Obvious strikes again!)
- People are getting blamed for innocent reasons.
- (Nature) is understood under a closer level.
- Poe is filled with sorrow and deep lost.
- Mythology from history allows stories to tell to lead to the speculation of beliefs of what really happened with the time.
- So the community as a whole integrity would go down.
- Abigail had an affair with john proctor in the wood with a bunch of other girls. (What play did you read?)
- Abigail runs away from Salem and more people are getting hanged and slathered. (Slathered with...?)
- Both authors... demonstrate two totally different settings that have similar morals within the characters.
- The quote depends on how individuals are based on the moral actions of the individual.
- A copy of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye was found in his night stand where he was reading it. (Must be a big night stand.)
- Nigerian Migration to America Through the 20st Century
- And over % of immigrants can speak English. (I sense something is missing here.)
- "What Redburn Saw," by Melville, is also a dark romantics tail.
- This is to anyone who is ill with an illness. (As opposed to ill with... what else?)
If I don't post again before Thanksgiving, may your final Thursday of November be a delicious and hearty one!
J
Also, I am thankful for students who write funny things. To the student work. As always, my comments are ( ).
- The truth is the decision to pay the dish bill is one decision that one makes for a matter of a number of channels that one may or may not ever watch. (The truth is confusing.)
- Many words have different meanings both connotative and denotative. (We have now heard from Captain Obvious.)
- Numerous words have numerous meanings. (Captain Obvious strikes again!)
- People are getting blamed for innocent reasons.
- (Nature) is understood under a closer level.
- Poe is filled with sorrow and deep lost.
- Mythology from history allows stories to tell to lead to the speculation of beliefs of what really happened with the time.
- So the community as a whole integrity would go down.
- Abigail had an affair with john proctor in the wood with a bunch of other girls. (What play did you read?)
- Abigail runs away from Salem and more people are getting hanged and slathered. (Slathered with...?)
- Both authors... demonstrate two totally different settings that have similar morals within the characters.
- The quote depends on how individuals are based on the moral actions of the individual.
- A copy of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye was found in his night stand where he was reading it. (Must be a big night stand.)
- Nigerian Migration to America Through the 20st Century
- And over % of immigrants can speak English. (I sense something is missing here.)
- "What Redburn Saw," by Melville, is also a dark romantics tail.
- This is to anyone who is ill with an illness. (As opposed to ill with... what else?)
If I don't post again before Thanksgiving, may your final Thursday of November be a delicious and hearty one!
J
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