Winter...Break...Gasp...

Just a few days until February break. I am very looking forward to it. The halls of the old high school are wearing me out these days. Oddly I think that the lack of snow this winter here in our area has made the students more stir crazy than usual. We have only had one snow day. The skiers and snowboarders haven't been able to hit the slopes as much, and there hasn't been any good sledding or snow ball fight weather. And it just isn't as fun to do doughnuts in the parking lot when there is no ice or snow. Thus I think the upstate New York kids have too much pent up energy this winter. Anyway, on to the fun. As always, these are from student papers and my comments are in (   ).

These first two are from vocabulary quizzes on which the students were to define words as they were used in a poem.
- heaves = throws / pukes (Nope, wrong usage; but good to see you're thinking.)
- debauchee = can't get enough (I think I gave this one partial credit.)

- ...the Salem which trials. (Witch ones?)
- Society judges people on a set of criteria on which to judge people based on what is socially acceptable. (I'll keep that in mind.)
- I have a good morale conscience.
- Some things so beautiful should not be anilized.
- She saw these girls doing witchcraft and witchy like things. (Yeah, they really stepped over the line when they stooped to witchy like things.)
- These two stories have struggles between the color of who they are and where they are at.
- Nearly half of the 19 million new STDs each year are created upon people aged 15 - 24 years old.
- ...a sailor named Jim that happened to be an impalsive alcoholic.
- ...lived a seldom life.
- Banquo gets supuisus that Macbeth killed the king.
- There are more job opportunities if you have fluency in multiple languages, especially Spanish, English, and France. (And which are you fluent in?)
- One of the most famous detective fiction writers was Edger Allen Po. (Come on, his name is right there on the cover of the book!)
- He was at the begging of his manhood. (I think we've all been there, right guys?)

Until next time,

J

January Blahs

I understand that for some people homophones are confusing; you know: two, to, and too, or their, there, and they're. I have made those errors myself at times. But I have never understood people confusing "since" and "sense." They aren't homophones unless you mispronounce one of the two words. Anybody know what regional accent pronounces "since" as "sense?" Must be around here, because my students make this mistake on occasion. Anyway... as always, these are from actual student work and my comments are in (   ).

- Huck humbles himself up and apologizes.

- ... teen behavior is different upon good and bad aspects of teen life. (I'll take your word for it.)

- Sense the economy is so bad inflammation has gone up. (You got that right!)

- Google began the project by searching for world renounced engineers. (They wanted the best of the worst?)

- Jim's character is developed majorly through the novel. (I can't believe spell-check had nothing to say about that one.)

- The crime or problem that Holmes is trying to solve is which they don't yet know that the true crime that has been committed. (I am teaching a detective fiction class; I need one to figure out this sentence.)

- She sleep through the hole night.

- The RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company was band from TV advertising.

- Huck makes the ultimate decision on wither to save Jim.

- Huck learns that Jim has feelings that can be hurt when he realizes that his feelings can be hurt.

- As the novel progressives...

- As their friendship strengtheneds...

- TIG welding requires good hand I coordination.

- Today Americans have extremely busy and up pace lives.

- From begging to end...

- Back up cameras on cars can be very helpful for drivers that have a hard time parrell parking.

- Today has grown...

- People feel that women in college are being taken advantage of because of their financial venerability.

- Say you are with a person that bananas are usually yellow. (I'll say it, but it still won't make sense.)

- Sanity is the state of being sane. (Redundancy is the state of being redundant.)

Good times!

J

Sigh

Overheard in my classroom this week: "Those shoes, they make my life!" What a sad little life. Anyway, on to the sentences. As always these are from student papers and my comments are in (   ).

- Responsibility is slowly beat into a person at first by their parents. (Nice childhood?)
- By witnessing situations, the appropriate emotions towards it can be achieved.
- ...aliveness...
- ...running umuck...
- Huck Finn is fighting his conscious.
- (In answer to a question: What do you make of...?) My make is...
- The answer to this was a unaimoyous yes.
- Is procrastination really so bad that a "cure" must be found with great haste? (Nah. We can put it off.)
- Everyone knows that not every everyone...
- Volunteers acquire the benefits of feeling good about helping.
- Higher unemployment rates contribute to weekend infrastructures.
- Throughout the United States, child behavior is varied upon good and bad aspects of teen life.
- Before welding was invented people could not bond two pieces of mettle together.
- I would like to know why it is suck a growing problem.
- Some men travel to foreign countries, such as Africa. (Not a country, dear.)
- She said that Angles came down and talked to her.

Merry Holidays

J

No Joke

I have nothing but the sentences today.  If I start a rant, I may never stop.  To the funny.  As always, my comments are in (   ).

- This can be done by doing various thinks.
- Things are becoming harder to be around.  (I agree, most "things" are.)
- Mr. Tregennis is a farfetched man.
- Starting off in the begging...
- At first the mother was heard of striking the oldest boy who is from Mr. Ferguson's first marriage with a stick.  (He married a stick... and had a son?)
- The child has a severe back impediment.
- ...they feel unconfident.
- He taked a fake one.
- When a person talks another person down to a person's low...
- Ligeia like takes over her, kinda, sorta thing.
- A girl dies. It's Poe.
- She received two human ears in the mail and that is strange because she rarely gets mail.  (Yeah, that's what is strange.)
- A little mystery is beneficial for a detective story.  (One might say even necessary?)
- ...they were facing face to face.
- ...he does not overlook or underlook anything.
- Summarizing is a summary of a paragraph.  (Yup, true.)
- Youth has traditionally been referred to as a point in time when one is young, or youthful.  (Thanks for clearing that up.)

That's all folks.

J

On "Remediation"

A brief note about "remediation."  I teach a class called AIS; it is strictly for students who (a) failed the Regents exam, or (b) are at risk to fail it.  It is supposed to be a sort of remedial class so they can all pass the state test.  Anyway, long story short, I was having them practice a skill they will need for the test - the ability to interpret a one sentence quasi-philosophical quote - by having them look at about ten or twelve quotes from my favorite writer, G.K. Chesterton.  In one period we only really discussed two quotes; but we did also discuss the mathematical term "tangent;" the metaphorical phrase "going off on a tangent;" some of the moral prohibitions of Islam, Christianity, Mormonism, and Judaism; the idea that humans have a body, a mind, and a soul; and we were apparently (some of us) surprised to have found out that Mormons are nice people.  How's that for remediation?
To the sentences.  As always, these are from student papers and my comments are in (   ).

- John Proctor continually downgrades Abigail.  (Yup; now she's flying coach.)
- Sometimes I get a little off track with my message sometimes.
- At times I feel that if I am confused about what to write.  (Like right now?)
- The (hiking) trails are hard to wonder off of.
- Elizabeth also doesn't want to be the blame that he'll look down upon.
- This will increase ones chances of getting bake to the car by dark.
- Once observation I have looking at the picture in more detail...
- People were dyeing...
- Western saddles provide realisticness to these movies.  (Really, spell check didn't say anything about that one?)
- The fighting was hand to hand to hand combat.  (Sounds confusing.)
- Throughout Henry's journey of running away he met a lot of new faces, even some he already knew.
- He say Mary and her lover in a cab some where so he fallowed then.  (That should be saw, followed, and them; just so we're clear.)
- While fishing the worst that could happen is the fisherman drowns.  (Is that all?  I should take up fishing!)
- Once my father was supposed to be watching me and he fell asleep, and I went out to the front lawn and relieved myself because I had seen him do it and thought it was acceptable behavior.  (I bet you don't ask your dad to read your papers, do you?)

Until next time...
J

Reading Stuff Good

            I just ran across something as I was cleaning out my flash drive.  It is a list generated from an education textbook of “Strategies Used by Proficient Readers.”  They include the following: Asking Questions, Visualizing, Determining Importance, Making Inferences, Making Connections, Synthesizing Information, and Using Fix-Up Strategies.  I made a handout for my students listing these and including descriptions of each.  At the time, I thought it might be helpful.

            As I looked at it again I began to wonder.  The truth is “good readers” do these things, and the more they do them the more they will get out of reading.  Yet to call them “strategies” now seems to me a bit off.  The word strategy implies a conscious effort is being made, like implementing a specific strategy in an athletic competition, and I don’t think that applies to “good readers.”  And giving pupils like my high school students a list of strategies to implement may not be the best way to encourage their use.  I’ll try to explain.

            Take, just as an example, Visualizing.  Any time I read a novel I am visualizing the setting, the characters, the events, etc.  But I am not doing this “consciously.”  I do not sit down with a book and tell myself, “Remember to visualize what you are reading.”  If you have ever gotten lost in a book you know what it is like to become so involved in the process of reading that the world around you melts away, and all you see are the words on the page and the images in your head; often it may even seem you are not reading at all but simply existing in the world of the book.  If someone or something distracts you it might take a minute to reacquaint yourself with reality.  That’s a great book.

            But if I tell students to Visualize, if I make it, in a way, an assignment or a task, I am making it conscious, I am focusing their effort on it.  My hope is that the “required task” will eventually become habit, but I am not sure that it will.  Unfortunately the psychology of the modern student, well trained by our educational system, is to do that which is required and then forget about it.  Visualizing becomes a task you must complete to earn a grade or points, not something that becomes habitual and valued.

            The question, which I have no answer to at the moment, is how do we get our students to read organically?  How do we get them to “use” these strategies without having to consciously think about the strategy they are employing?  How do we teach them to read well in a culture that is saturated with images so that they never need to imagine anything in everyday life?  I am not sure that presenting them with a list of strategies is the way to do it.

Ah, Technology

A few years back I started keeping my grades in a spreadsheet instead of by hand in the old fashioned gradebook of yore.  I saved the files on two different flash drives just in case.  This year we are required by the district to use the district's program to keep our grades (so that parents can have access to their children's grades on a continuing basis.)  So I figured out how to make that program calculate my grades the way I want it done and started entering grades into that web-based program; since also using a spreadsheet would be redundant, I only entered the grades in the one program.  Then there were all kinds of vague problems this week with the school's program (called Schoolmaster) and we couldn't get into the system, blah blah.  I got worried that the grades I entered would disappear and that was the only place I recorded them.  So now I am back to using the old fashioned gradebook as a back-up and double-entering grades just in case.  Ain't technology grand?

To the sentences!  As always these are from student work, and my comments are in (   ).

- His body was based on putting revenge onto others.
- The Scarlet Letter portrays symbolism through many different concepts.
- The relationship my parents harbored...
- ... he owned no propriety to live on.
- Things can change in a minuet.  (I wouldn't know, having never danced one myself.)
- He must have always been in his late 20s.  (Lucky guy.)
... self preparing yourself...
- Dimmesdale''s gilt...  (It must have hurt.)
- ...the Black Man, Satin.  (Satan was what she meant, but Satin would be a pretty cool name.)
- During the time Dimmesdale simultaneously self-inflicted pain within himself.
- ... trying to coup with the excruciating pain.
- While I was eating my cake with Morgan's help...  (She ate some cake, or she was feeding the cake to you?  Think about it; this might be important.)
- While writing it where accidental ideas or topics come to mind which makes your writing special and good.  (Much about this "sentence" is "accidental.")
- ...the sperm downer that had helped to conceive me.
- Americans do not recycle their electronics and this is leading to massive increases in dumps.  (Every time I... you know, take a... I think about recycling my electronics?)

Hope all the students and teachers out there are happy to be back at it!

J