Way Late

I did not post in June, as I usually do, comments from my students' end of year surveys, so... better late than never. As a side note, many students every year write on their surveys something about how "off topic" we get in Mr. Chaffee's English class. This always makes me chuckle... We discuss the topics raised by the literature, which is kind of the point of literature. And it is always fun when I can bring the "digression" back around to the work at hand; some of them get this look in their eyes: "Crap! We were on topic the whole time!" Besides, without digression, Byron would have been lost. Anyway, here is a sampling of the wit and wisdom of my English students, and as always my comments are in (     ).

What was your favorite work we read in this class and why?
- "The Masque of the Red Death;" it had a lot of imagery and was about death which I enjoy. (Then Poe is for you!)
- The Crucible, because it was the most interesting. Everyone fought with each other and 90% of the characters died. The survivors were psychos.
- I enjoyed Huckleberry Finn because of the anarchist sentiments.
- The Great Gatsby, because I liked hearing about rich people and their problems.

What was your least favorite work this year and why?
- The Crucible was my least favorite work because everyone took the word of a liar and people who didn't need to die, did. (Pretty realistic, no?)
- I did not like poetry because the poems made you really have to think about what the poet is trying to say. (It's no fair when you have to think.)
- Short stories and poetry are never that lit. (This student made a note that she would be looking for this on my blog. Well, here it is. Hope it's "lit.")
- A Separate Peace because the story was told by a horrible character.

What did you like most about English class?
- Your jokes or when you sniff markers while waiting for us to respond. (Sadly, the markers are nontoxic.)
- Mr. Chaffee's sarcasm. (It's always flowing.)
- I like how we were given more freedom in deciding what to write about.

What are one or two things you learned in this class?
- that Poe married his cousin which isn't apparently incest
- You need to work to pass.
- Mostly how books are better (than movies) and how to use swear words correctly. (Glad I could help.)
- There is more to novels than just the plot and the endings. There's lessons in between the lines that teach the reader universal ideas.
- When to be serious and when to not always be serious.
- That some books can be good you just have to sit down and read it.
- I really have no clue. I'm prolly gonna fail college.
- ... the importance of time management.
- Sometimes you have to suck it up and read really boring literature to get good grades.
- That writers have a very bad view on society generally and that they harness that view very artistically.
- Two and a half pages does not count as three. And no pictures for titles.
- Sparknotes = bad    Book = good
- What I learned in English 101 was (That was it. Glad I made an impact.)
- Taking pictures of pages in a textbook is way better and easier than taking the textbook home.
- I learned that teachers are allowed to swear to the students as long as they say "pardon my French" first. (I don't remember that lesson. Never happened.)

Did the teacher give you enough feedback on papers? Explain.
- I think you gave me the perfect amount of feedback; not enough to make me cry but enough to make me grow as a writer.
- Yes, there was plenty of green ink on my papers.

On a scale of one to ten, how hard was this class? Explain.
- 2; I just didn't bother to do my work. (I noticed.)

On a scale of one to ten, how much effort did you put into this class and why?
- 6; you've met me, I think you know why

Do you think you became a better writer this year? Explain.
- I certainly learned that I write better when I'm writing about topics that interest me.
- I definitely became a better writer because I was able to write about things I care about. (A pattern develops.)
- Yes, because each new paper's rough draft had less green ink and I didn't struggle as much.

(College English only) Which of the six papers was the hardest to write and why?
- The reflection paper was the hardest because we had to go back and pretend our essays had improved from the beginning of the year.

Is there anything else you would like to say about any topic whatsoever?
- No there is not, but I will say everything pretty much connects to Gatsby. (So, no, but yes.)
- Procrastination is a cruel, cruel mistress, and if you get in bed with her you will catch her disease and it will kill you. (Uh... Very vivid.)
- Keep using The Scarlet Letter. Those kids must suffer as we did. (Hey! I like that book.)

That is all for now. As papers start rolling in there will be more posts.

J

Excitement!

It has been a busy spring and I have not updated in a while. Two quick posts before summer. Here is the first. The other will be my favorite: comments from end of the year surveys. As always, these are from student work and my comments are in (   ).

- Macbeth started to hallucentant about Banquo.
- The blizzard snows in the group of Outcasts and leaves them… a more difficult ability to produce a fire.
- The fight… made a sense of his own manhood.
- …the man laughs because his pride is too high to conquer.
- Realism is a style of writing based off of realism. (That is a tight circle of logic you have there.)
- The man does not take warning to the old man.
- She starts buying thighs that make herself happy. (I can relate?)
- Towards the being of the book…
- Illegal immigrates is an issue that the country faces by them taking jobs and making prices of taxes higher for making them have to protect the border and wall.
- The woman… begins to go crazy in her own head. (As opposed to?)
- …a soldier never are always struggles…
- The beginning of every stanza begins the same way.
- In the second stanza of this poem the author makes imagery relations to the reader. (I am a little uncomfortable.)
- Very often the detective is not the crime maker.
- Jack has gone rouge. (And a little mascara as well.)
- This story is made to make the reader think it someone else who committed the murder when in reality it’s someone totally different. (Someone different from someone else. Got it.)
- …a young woman has come up dead.
- …which riots up all the people.
- Finny was never hatred toward anyone.
- Finny still confines in Gene.
- Zeena was always watching over them in disapprovement.
- …nor does he have the money to buy or rent a house someone where else.
- The animosity Gene felts toward Phineas…
- …in exchange for food and board. (No room, though, just double the food.)
- The trees represent her excitement to happy again.

Summer represents my excitement to happy again!

J

Midterms Are Over...

Last week was midterms, and we gave the English Regents to our juniors; however, I am forbidden from sharing sentences from student responses on state standardized tests. It's a shame, because when you force students to write an essay and give them very little time to do it, they can quite accidentally come up with some great unintentional comedy. Anyway, I do have a least small collection of fun to share from papers and such. All of these sentences are from student work, and as always, my comments are in (   ).

In the category of life after death:
- (Desdemona said) she loved Othello, even after he killed her.
- Even when Othello kills her, she says that it is her fault.

- Evidence to support my claim is...
- ... the best solution is looked... (This made no more sense in context.)
- Yes, I enjoyed the play because It was Enjoyable.
- The play was VERY dramatic. (A dramatic play? Get out!)
- This means that video games should be more acceptive of video games.
- People should start trying out video games for themselves as there is mainly positive that people get out of it. (They don't help you write good, I see.)
- When he was trialed...
- He is helps Jim escape slavery.
- Jim is a black man who cares for and has feeling towards each other. (Somebody is missing here.)
- My best grades were on a paper about my life, something I'm very interested in.
- On the first day of school walking into English 101 I remember thinking by the end of this semester I'll be able to write good. (And now it is the end of the semester, and...)
- Other writing skills have fallen quality. (I'll say.)
- ... not found naturally in nature.
- His insanity is just just is worse as the story goes on. (And how is your insanity coming?)
- Fatherhood was not a strong suit in Pap's lifestyle.
- Huck develops an understanding for the personage of Jim.
- Huck is more human than he thought Jim was. (And I'm not as think as you drunk I am.)
- The improvements in my writing have been immensely. (Not immensely enough.)

Three Paper Titles
- Video Games are Awesome and Chaffeedawg Is A God (My ego is big enough, thank you.)
- A Summary of My Lack of Motivation To Write Essays (You're motivated to write titles though.)
- mR. Café Teached Me how 2 Writ Goodly (I did indeed. So proud.)

That is it for now. Enjoy the long winter!

J

Thanksgiving? Already?

Well, time has flown this school year, and I haven't added a post. It's not for want of material. In any event, let's get right to it. As always, these are real sentences from student work, and my comments are in (    ).

- Since pre-school teachers have implemented reading into students' everyday lives.
- The vision of the touchdown area in a football player's eyes. (End zone; it's called the end zone.)
- He wore the veil during his preaches.
- Thoreau was an abolishener...
- Abby is still convinced that Proctor lovers her.
- The narrator is thirsting himself with self-torture. (Redundancy much?)
- ... performers who perform acts of disgusting acts... (Wow; double the redundancy.)
- Many people are familiar with the word based off of what they most generally use it in terms of or how they generally hear it as in terms of usage. (Sure. I follow.)
- ... a disrupter of the piece.
- Abby wanted to be in relations with John Proctor.
- John's husband Elizabeth...
- I can't thesis. (That may be the least of your worries.)
- Poe uses the frazes... (phrases)
- it means imagine in archaic. (This student thought "archaic" was a foreign language.)
- This makes it so Elizabeth because john said he was with other people when he was alone with her.
- Rev. Hale lost complete self-confidence in himself. (As opposed to self-confidence in...?)
- I have always been an Advocated reader.

And finally...
- Home is the place where someone feels themselves the most.

That's your business, I think.

J

Rate and Review

Every June I give my students surveys about the year... and then share here some of my favorite responses. Before I get to them, two quick notes. First, I told one class that I hated it in college when someone in a literature class would gush about how something we had read "worked on so many levels!" It always seemed to me to be a meaningless, pseudo-intellectual comment. Can you pick one of those levels and offer us some actual insight? A bunch of the students in that class then wrote on their surveys that they liked a particular work we read this year because it "works on so many levels!" I hate them. 

Second note: though I will not be copying any of these comments below, many of my students wrote that they like how often we get "off topic" in English class. This always amuses me. I don't think we really go off topic often. Rather, we (or I) discuss ideas and issues raised by the literature, and some students perceive this as "going off topic." But if we are reading The Great Gatsby, and we discuss materialism, are we really off topic? (Besides, I often try to connect those "off topic" conversations back to the literature at hand, which I hope helps them understand the literature "on another level!") Anyway...

I will list the (generic) questions and under each some responses, which may come from any of my five classes. My students were all juniors and seniors. As always, my comments are in (    ).

What was your favorite work we read this year and why?

- "The Tell-Tale Heart:" it was the most interesting work I actually read. 

- The Crucible because it was in class and easy.

- Ethan Frome because of the cat, and his purpose in the book. He... is an evil hench-cat. (I wish my dog was a hench-dog.)

- I really enjoyed The Great Gatsby because I liked T. S. Eliot's writing style. (I like Eliot as well, but...)

- Lord of the Flies because I actually read every page, and am proud of myself.

What was your least favorite work we read this year and why?

- Othello, I didn't like the morals.

- most of them

- Othello. I do not like plays at all. (Interesting, since your favorite work was The Crucible... a play.)

- A Separate Peace because all of the characters were high school idiots. (That might have been the original title.)

- Lord of the Flies: it jumped the fence very early. (The fence? It jumped the fence?)

Which of the papers did you enjoy writing the most? (College English only)

- The reflection paper, because it was about me!

What did you like most about English this year?

- I liked how we joked around most of the time but somehow still learned. (I strive to entertain.)

- Doing this end of year survey. (At least you went out on a high note?)

- Mr. Chaffee's sass. (Didn't know I had any.)

- I could knit. (Yes, I let her knit. But then under what she didn't like she wrote, "You're mean." Hey, I let you knit!)

What did you like least about English this year?

- The stories I didn't like.

- Having the class first period was a little rough because I was not fully ready to start the school day. (Have you tried "sleeping at night?")

What are one or two things you have learned in English this year?

- Nothing because I was barely here. (At least you have identified the problem.)

- don't bring / use your cell phone

- Standardized tests are bad. (Yeah, I get on my soapbox about that a lot.)

- "based off of" is wrong, it is "based on" (Now go teach the world!)

- Mr. Chaffee is the HARDEST grader. (I have a reputation to uphold.)

- It was somewhat nice getting into reading again. I missed reading.

- I learned that it is important to read what is assigned to you as homework. (Considering this came from a senior, it took long enough to learn.)

- I learned that every part of a work has meaning and significance. You can't just examine a plot summary and say you understand a work. (Preach!)

On a scale of one to ten, how hard was this class?

- 7.5, the regularity of papers is hard for a lazy person to get used to.

On a scale of one to ten, how much effort did you put into school this year? Explain.

- 3, i don't like doing work

Do you have any suggestions about how to make English class better?

- Give better grades. (Earn them.)

"Bonus:" Is there anything else you'd like to say on any topic whatsoever?

- Yes, i'd like to get through class without a certain someone interrupting. (Since you wrote this on the last day, it may be too late.)

Well, that is all for this year. See you in the fall.

J

No More Teachers! No More Books!

I meant to get to this last week, but time got away from me. This is the last post for this school year of student mishaps. There will be one more post of comments from the "End of Year" surveys I ask my students to complete. As always, my comments are in (    ).

- ...who won a lot of money from the people on the secrete committee. (How do you get on the secrete committee? I assume sweat and tears?)

- The family gets into an unexpected car accident. (As opposed to the planned accidents.)

- Robert Frost uses the use of someone traveling...

- Whenever he'd talk, It's almost as if he's swooning someone. 

- He fist punched her. (Did he then foot kick her as well?)

- More often than not there are multiple different interprets of one piece of work.

- The poem "The Unknown Citizen," by W. H. Auden, is a moderate poem. (He did write some extremist poems, though.)

- He starts to acquire an alcohol problem. 

- He begins to hear a low, dull quick sound that begins to paranoe him. (Spellcheck didn't catch that?)

- The conch no longer ceased to exist. (I'm so confused.)

- Ralph's characterization is pushed and questioned.

- Kino doesn't think about the consonquensizes of his actions. (Wow, spellchecker missed that, too?)

- After a few in counters... (You mean "encounters;" unless there are also out counters, I guess.)

- John Steinbeck wrote many book. (He write book good. He uses words.)

- ... the villagers gain up on Kino.

- Ethan and Mattie are sitting by the ire together. (My grandma and your grandma, sitting by the ire!)

- Students who may want to take a science or technology can also study even deeper into that field by apprenticizing a job. (I remember when I was a new apprenticizer...)

- During 11th grade there were many works of literature that showed the class everything. (Well, looks like 12th grade is a little unnecessary, no?)

- The protagonist makes many choice decisions.

- In many works of literature, topics and themes play hand-in-hand.

I leave you on a bit of a down note. This final pearl of wisdom comes from a final exam:

- Hopes and dreams ruin lives.

That's right, kids. Beware those hopes and dreams.

J

Truthly

Yup, truthly. That is a word a student of mine used in a paper. I assume it is somehow related to "truthiness," the word Stephen Colbert coined which eventually made it into Webster's. Well, truthly it has been too long since I have posted, so let's get to the rest of the fun. As always, these sentences are from student work, and my comments are in (    ).

- As teenagers self a steam is always tricky. (Sure it is; you don't want to get burned.)
- When he is on the merge of dying...
- (Macbeth) worried that Banquo would get suspension of his reign.
- Macbeth hires three murders to kill Banquo.
- The only reason to kill Duncan is Macbeth's ambition for the throne due to ambition. (Department of Redundancy Department.)
- Macbeth murdered King Duncan in a cowardly was.
- Lady Macbeth is a women.
- Lady Macbeth becomes more physical and involved with her plans of becoming queen. (I am not sure how to take that.)
- Lady Macbeth wants to get rid of her feminine weakness because she believes it is weak. (Department of Redundancy Department.)
- Iago is... giving Othello the oppression that he cares for him.
- Desdemona and Emilia are similar and different in different ways. (That's deep?)
- ... a woman moving, trying to get out of the confinds of the wallpaper.
- Iago calls his wife names such as foolish and wrench. (I think you mean wench. I think.)
- Social media: killer of social stills. (And writing skills, apparently.)
- People are more judged mental to others over social media.
- ... the freedmen enjoys all of lives offerings.
- This shows how cowardice Peyton Farquhar is.
- She found console in writing.
- He portrays (the rich) as vacant and carless.
- (She) milks cows and sows. (No, she sews. She does not milk pigs.)
- So really if everyone started being reasonable human beings this could all be avoided. (But then the stories would be boring.)

Happy spring!

J