A number of readers pointed out to me that my King Lear Lesson Plans posted last Fall only included the first five lessons. I’ve finally got around to posting the remainder of the unit and all links in the earlier posts should be updated.
Reading Reflection: Herodotus' The Histories on the iPad
February 19, 2010 By 5 Comments
I am convinced, along with a number of other teachers, that I could benefit from owning an iPad. I didn’t read Herodotus’ The Histories on an iPad because, unfortunately, I do not yet own this wonderful new device from Apple. I did, however, just finish reading that classic, weighty tome – the first example of historical writing in Western civilization – lugging it around in my brief case, to and from work, and from class to class.
It was, at least, an absolutely beautiful copy: last year’s The Landmark Herodotus, edited by Robert B. Strassler, complete with pictures of artifacts and numerous maps. Probably the best book published on ancient Greece in recent history. I was quick to share it with my colleague in the History department who gushed over it… until he opened it. “Oh, too bad it isn’t in colour.”
No kidding. All that love and care, only to publish it in black and white.
Now, imagine The Landmark Herodotus on an iPad. Colour? Of course. Maps? You bet; and much more interactive, at that. And so much more. Hyperlinks. Video. My goodness. The iPad will change the way we read.
The illustrated edition of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code was wildly popular because of the many references to art, architecture, and history, brought alive through accompanying images. The same goes for Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes (published as Someone Knows My Name for our American neighbours). Well, as more and more of us pick up an iPad, we’ll expect every book to include, not just images, but hyperlinks and more. Our reading experience, for better or for worse, will be revolutionized.
Incidentally, Herodotus’ The Histories was interesting, but not a book that I will be quick to return to. His digressions were worth hearing – interesting (and degrading) stories about cultures to the east of his home – still, nothing against Strassler’s translation, but I’d like to read a completely re-written account of the history of the Greek-Persian wars. I don’t have the ability to read it in the original Greek, but I didn’t find the prose particularly uplifting. What would The Histories sound like under the pen of Tom Wolfe, or of Guy Vanderhaeghe?
Give it the wit that Herodotus avoided, and put it on the iPad, and we’ve got a story our students would love.
——
Image by bazylek100
100 Films to Watch Before University
February 1, 2010 By 3 Comments
In the past, I’ve offered my opinion on the novels and the poems that may be the most important to encounter before attending a university. Well, after Friday’s workshop, where I was treated with the following YouTube video, I got thinking…
… This far removed from the Eighties, are today’s students going to have a familiarity with the movies frequently alluded to by teachers and university professors? So, while this is not a list of the greatest movies ever made, nor is it a list of my favourites, here (with a focus on the 1980s) is a list of movies that students should watch in order to understand the cinematic allusions sure to grace any good university lecture. For the record, here are my Top 100 Movies to Watch Before University; what are yours?
- (1939) Gone With the Wind
- (1941) Citizen Kane
- (1942) Casablanca
- (1946) It’s a Wonderful Life
- (1959) Ben-Hur
- (1960) Psycho
- (1961) Breakfast at Tiffany’s
- (1962) To Kill a Mockingbird
- (1964) My Fair Lady
- (1964) Mary Poppins
- (1965) The Sound of Music
- (1967) The Graduate
- (1968) 2001: A Space Odyssey
- (1972) The Godfather
- (1974) Chinatown
- (1974) Blazing Saddles
- (1975) Jaws
- (1975) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- (1976) Rocky
- (1977) Slap Shot
- (1978) Grease
- (1978) Superman
- (1979) Apocalypse Now
- (1980) Blues Brothers
- (1981) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
- (1981) Chariots of Fire
- (1981) Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
- (1982) E.T.
- (1982) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
- (1982) The Man from Snowy River
- (1982) Blade Runner
- (1982) The Dark Crystal
- (1982) Tron
- (1983) Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi
- (1984) The Karate Kid
- (1984) Ghost Busters
- (1984) Police Academy
- (1985) The Goonies
- (1985) Ladyhawke
- (1985) The Jewel of the Nile
- (1985) Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
- (1985) St. Elmo’s Fire
- (1985) The Breakfast Club
- (1985) Back to the Future
- (1986) Ferris Beuller’s Day Off
- (1986) Pretty in Pink
- (1986) Stand by Me
- (1986) Top Gun
- (1986) Aliens
- (1986) Crocodile Dundee
- (1987) Wall Street
- (1987) Dirty Dancing
- (1987) Planes, Trains & Automobiles
- (1987) Spaceballs
- (1987) Some Kind of Wonderful
- (1987) James Bond: The Living Daylights
- (1987) The Princess Bride
- (1987) Robocop
- (1987) The Untouchables
- (1987) Good Morning Vietnam
- (1988) Bull Durham
- (1989) Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
- (1989) Dead Poet’s Society
- (1989) Batman
- (1989) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
- (1989) Steel Magnolias
- (1989) Major League
- (1989) Lethal Weapon 2
- (1989) When Harry Met Sally
- (1989) Field of Dreams
- (1990) Goodfellas
- (1990) Ghost
- (1990) Edward Scissorhands
- (1990) Pretty Woman
- (1990) Total Recall
- (1991) What About Bob?
- (1991) Silence of the Lambs
- (1991) Terminator 2: Judgment Day
- (1992) Wayne’s World
- (1992) A Few Good Men
- (1992) Reservoir Dogs
- (1993) Jurassic Park
- (1993) Groundhog Day
- (1993) Schindler’s List
- (1994) Forrest Gump
- (1994) Shawshank Redemption
- (1994) The Lion King
- (1994) Pulp Fiction
- (1995) Pride & Prejudice (A&E)
- (1995) Braveheart
- (1995) Toy Story
- (1995) The Usual Suspects
- (1995) Heat
- (1996) Jerry Mcguire
- (1997) Titanic
- (1997) Good Will Hunting
- (1998) Saving Private Ryan
- (1999) The Matrix
- (1999) The Sixth Sense
- (2001) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Blank Lesson Plan Template
November 12, 2009 By 4 Comments
Now, in my fifth year of teaching, I think that I’ve finally settled on a lesson plan template that I am happy with. Every year, based on what I’ve seen colleagues use, and based on my own comments in the notes column, I’ve made slight changes to the format of my lesson plans.
Kept in my course binders, I cover my lesson plans with hand-written notes by the end of each lesson and need to adjust plans accordingly the next time I have the opportunity to teach a similar unit.
This year, in order to keep straight all of the necessary curriculum, I needed a more detailed sidebar. I hadn’t, for example, tracked all of the reading strategies that I wanted to cover, nor had I tracked the topics that the school board was championing.
I’ll make available here a PDF download, and a Word document as well, for anyone interested.
If you would like to see an example of a developed lesson, see the lesson plans from my Grade 12 Media unit, or from my King Lear unit. Though, just between you and me, they’re always evolving. Should I get the opportunity to return to King Lear in 2010, I have little doubt that my lesson plans will look radically different.
Staggered Start and a Busy September
September 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment
I agree with Mr. B-G: as usual, the school year did start at 137 kmph again… and I even had the staggered start to enjoy. At our school, the staggered start brings only the Grade 9s on the first day, only the Grade 10s on the second, and only the 11s and 12s on the third day. For these first three days, parents are invited to attend, and a bbq lunch is provided. Finally, all grades attend Thursday and Friday. Then, we’re into the Labour Day weekend, already having one week under our belts. We celebrate the Labour Day weekend as a genuine holiday, fully enjoying the Argos/Ticats match up, rather than lamenting the end of summer. The icing on the cake is that we’ve also got the feeling of having earned our Fall Break in the first week of November.
I think that the last time our staff was polled, we were 59 in favour of continuing with the staggered start and 1 opposed. And, parents and students are almost as much in favour of this schedule as our staff. Critics point to the fact that they would rather enjoy a week of holidays at the end of August when Southern Ontario is at it’s best, than the beginning of November when the skies begin to drop sleet. They also like to mention that their children in elementary school, not enjoying the staggered start, no longer share the same holidays as secondary school siblings.
Nevertheless, the overwhelming support for this early startup in exchange for a Fall Break highlights the need that the students feel for a break from school by early November. Staff and students are re-energized, and the road to Christmas is much smoother as a result. In behaviour and in academic performance, students express their appreciation for the staggered start and the Fall Break.
Still, it is a busy September. On top of the Boys’ Soccer schedule, Student Council, and the EcoSchools committee, the addition of a Technology Committee has been something attracting my attention this month.
The Tech committee has been enlightening. Each department in the school was surveyed regarding current uses of technology and areas for possible expansion. Next, we’ll be looking at our Vision for technology at our school. Let me elaborate in another post… Perhaps I’ll come up for air in October.
—–
Image by shinealight
Field Trip to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival
June 2, 2009 By 2 Comments
Though our English department had considerable debate this year about what the second show should be for the annual trip to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, we were unanimously excited about seeing Colm Feore in Macbeth and figured that it would best ‘sell’ the trip to the students. Perhaps it was our anticipation that led to our great disappointment.
The 3-hour drive to Stratford allowed us just enough time to check into the hotel and grab a quick bite before taking in our first show at the Avon Theatre, The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Brian Bedford. He has a consistently great presence on stage and, having enjoyed him as Lear two years ago, I expected him to be the highlight of the performance. However, it was easily Ben Carlson and Sara Topham that stole our attention. All told, this year’s Earnest is an excellent play all of us enjoyed it immensely. Oscar Wilde was a perfect way to spend an afternoon in Stratford … and we still had Macbeth to look forward to.
Little did we know that the Macbeth script had been inserted into a bad production of ‘Apocalypse Now-meets-The Ring’ and that the Weird Sisters had been replaced by a few intense granola-girl, humanitarian reactionaries!
Okay, William Shakespeare’s stories are timeless and universal. But, perhaps the multi-cultural, period-pieces are being a little overdone. The students often enjoy the Clare Danes/DiCaprio film in Grade 10, but by twelfth grade they’re complaining about Ethan Hawkes’ Hamlet effort and are begging for classic theatre.
Having said that, the mid-twentieth century, African setting is not my complaint about Stratford’s Macbeth production. Believe it or not, in the hands of another director, I think I’d like to give the African setting another opportunity. However, I would only sit through it if they got rid of at least half of the lighting, half of the bangs, buzzers and other noises, and all of the TV screens. With the amount of media used in this production, I might as well have stayed home and watched a webcast, or spent my money on a large rock concert. The words of Shakespeare were drowned amidst all of the noise and light, and the character of Macbeth wasn’t noticed at all.
Of course, it didn’t help that Colm Feore — this great actor from Trudeau, from Slings & Arrows, and perhaps the greatest Mercutio ever on a Stratford stage — was unfortunately completely wooden. Was he distracted? Or even angry at someone? Other than the ‘dagger’ speech, he didn’t seem human and used no inflection at all.
Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, was really good. After finding her stride, she gave perhaps the best performance of the night. The students wondered if the Michelle Obama resemblance was intentional. I like to think so.
All-in-all, this year’s Macbeth is a production with an identity crisis. On the bright side, perhaps it is such a bad production it will become infamous; years from now, people will say, “Oh! You saw the 2009 Macbeth! Wasn’t that something…?!”
A Student Approach to Song Lyrics: The Exact Feeling
May 26, 2009 By 3 Comments
In honour of The Tragically Hip’s latest album, We Are The Same, released April 7th, here’s a brief series that demonstrates the manner in which I expect my students to approach poetry — without any research, and without any input from those who may know Gord Downie’s purposes for each song. I will analyse and speculate on each song’s possible meanings. For me, the poetry of TTH’s music is great literature; among the best.
Track #7: The Exact Feeling
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Title
- the ex-act feeling: My favourite theme of theirs is reflecting on songwriting, singing, and performing… I find myself looking for it in every song
Interesting Words
- “I got no more innarest”
- “The perimeter, the ceiling / Just to dribble somewhere new”
Images
- Performing — in a circus ring, as a busker, at a concert
Favourite Quote
Not the singularity
Of a thousand million dreams
Not a prosperity that means
I never have to say a thing
Possible Paraphrase
“Here comes that feeling that I always get when I’m here in front of a crowd. But, do I still want it? Yes! It’s all I’ve ever wanted. I remember when I had to try so hard to please a crowd. Now, I’m here. I’m drunk on the very idea of singing. And I want this to continue. I don’t want to go anywhere. Let’s make this tour last forever… because it feels great.”
SUMMARY
I like to hear about where The Tragically Hip gets their inspiration and perhaps I spend time looking too hard for that… Perhaps this is a stretch to suggest that the feeling they get from performing live is their motivation to write, sing, and tour?
A Student Approach to Song Lyrics: The Depression Suite
May 23, 2009 By 2 Comments
In honour of The Tragically Hip’s latest album, We Are The Same, released April 7th, here’s a brief series that demonstrates the manner in which I expect my students to approach poetry — without any research, and without any input from those who may know Gord Downie’s purposes for each song. I will analyse and speculate on each song’s possible meanings. For me, the poetry of TTH’s music is great literature; among the best.
Track #6: The Depression Suite
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Title
- Depression — very sad, or The Great Depression, or an indentation?
- Suite — obviously the songs grouped together in the same manner of Downie’s poem “The Michigan Suite (for W.)” from Coke Machine Glow, but it could also be a pun on the hotel room suite, or on a sweet candy
- “The Rock” — the past? or the planet? or Newfoundland? or a guy trying to be a steady, solitary, lone, tough cowboy?
- “NewOrleansWorld” — the present (NOW)? or climate change reality? or a guy wanting a second chance?
- “Don’t You Wanna See How It Ends?” — the future? or possibly the speaker saying, ‘You’re two-thirds of the way through this song, stick around for the finale.’ (And, incidentally, I don’t want it to end… I want it to keep going.)
Interesting Words
- “the requisite strangeness”
- “perfect fifths low skids and Arctic howls”
- “honey” — there’s that word again! (see Honey, Please and Now The Struggle Has A Name)
- “Don’t you wanna see how it ends?” // “Doncha wanna see how it ends?”
- Place names: Chicago (unless it’s either the band or the musical), New Orleans without the Gulf of Mexico, Florida without the ocean, and Athabasca
Images
- head under the pillow
- “the early morning light’s a pale cranberry”
Literary Devices
- onomatopoeia: the sound of the siren, “Aaa-aah-aah not now-wow-wow”, sounds like someone saying, “Ah, not now.” (is it the tempting and deathly Sirens from mythology, or simply an emergency vehicle?); also “howls” and “boom”
- repetition: “I-I-I-II”, and “gimme-gimme”, and “a little weird a little weird”; also, the last three stanzas (and therefore the last two minutes) of the song are identical — I wonder if this will allow for a lot of improvisation in concert?
- assonance with “o” in The Rock: pillow, Chicago, whole, low, going, closing, morning; out, sounds, howls, now-wow-wow; you, through, too
Connections
- “lost in the Barrens” — a Farley Mowat title
- “you left me born on the stairs” — a shocking image, or is this a reference to a baby left on a doorstep?
- “What if this song does nothing?” — as in many other Hip songs, it seems that Downie might be questioning his own inspiration, or the potential impact the song may (or may not) have
Favourite Quote
There’s new work in the Day Room
I can’t lounge on-line
Don’t you laugh
I’d sell a giraffe and I’d give you half
Just to occupy my mind
Possible Paraphrase
“Attempting to drown out every sound, I put my head under a pillow. However, I can still hear you asking me if everything is okay. What I need is another chance; I’ll try really hard and I’ll succeed this time. I’ll win. But, perhaps you don’t believe me? Maybe you don’t want to stick with me? Maybe you simply want me to settle down here? I can’t. I need to move on. Are you coming with me?”
SUMMARY
This song is probably among my all-time favourite Hip songs (along with The Last Recluse, and Gus: The Polar Bear from Central Park, and Escape Is At Hand For The Travellin’ Man, and The Dark Canuck, and on and on…), and I don’t know if this song is about substance abuse, about Farley Mowat, about climate-change, or about The Hip reflecting on their successful career and on their future. So, I’ll assume the latter and be quite content to be proven wrong.
To include in our lesson plans
May 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment
At a recent staff meeting we were asked to brainstorm some of the elements that we are expected to embed in our lesson plans. We came up with the following:
Equity- Diversity
- Environmentalism
- Anti-homophobia
- Differentiated Instruction
- Multiple Intelligences
- Emotional Intelligences
- Critical-thinking / Metacognition
- Literacy
- Numeracy
- Problem-solving
- Pathways / Careers
- Character Education
- Bullying Prevention
Though “curriculum expectations” wasn’t actually listed, I’m sure that it was implied that all of this is to be on top of our usual expectations. Obviously we’re not going to cover all of these points in every single 75-minute period, but I am thinking of expanding my lessons even more than I’ve already been practicing.
My units are usually 3-5 weeks in length and, on top of the curriculum expectations, I try to cover as much as possible from the above list. Currently, a “lesson” usually takes me two or three periods to complete. I’m considering expanding it to looking at each week as one “lesson”, to embed more of the above. Or, perhaps, my “lesson” plan could become synonymous with my “unit” plan.
——
Image by Striatic
100 Poems to Read Before University
May 20, 2009 By 4 Comments
As I’ve mentioned before, students considering an English Literature program at university should at least be familiar with Homer’s The Odyssey, several great Shakespeare plays, and The Bible. Of course, professors will assume a far greater familiarity with English literature so I recommend to my students that they at least read the following poems before departing high school. Some are childhood favourites, others are much more challenging. Nevertheless, it is from this list that my Grade 12 class selects a work for their upcoming poetry seminars.
I’m sure I’ve overlooked many. What would you cut? What would you add?
- Dover Beach, Matthew Arnold
- This is a Photograph of Me, Margaret Atwood
- David, Earle Birney
- The Chimney Sweep, William Blake
- The Lamb, William Blake
- The Shepherd, William Blake
- The Tyger, William Blake
- The Swing, George Bowering
- Five Ways to Kill a Man, Edwin Brock
- We Real Cool, Gwendolyn Brooks
- How Do I Love Thee, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- My Last Duchess, Robert Browning
- Pippa’s Song, Robert Browning
- Porphyria’s Lover, Robert Browning
- My Heart’s in the Highlands, Robert Burns
- O My Luve’s Like a Red, Red Rose, Robert Burns
- To a Mouse, Robert Burns
- She Walks in Beauty, George Gordon, Lord Byron
- So, we’ll go no more a roving, George Gordon, Lord Byron
- Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll
- The Walrus and the Carpenter, Lewis Carroll
- A Kite is a Victim, Leonard Cohen
- Kubla Khan, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Lilacs, Michael Crummey
- If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking, Emily Dickinson
- No Man Is an Island, John Donne
- maggie and milly and molly and may, e.e. cummings
- next to of course god america i, e.e. cummings
- The Hollow Men, T.S. Eliot
- The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot
- The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerald
- Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Robert Frost
- The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost
- The Fairies, Rose Fyleman
- Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Thomas Gray
- The Darkling Thrush, Thomas Hardy
- God’s Grandeur, Gerald Manley Hopkins
- Summer Night, Langston Hughes
- The Song My Paddle Sings, E. Pauline Johnson
- La Belle Dame Sans Merci, John Keats
- Ode on a Grecian Urn, John Keats
- Ode to a Nightingale, John Keats
- On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer, John Keats
- If — , Rudyard Kipling
- Temagami, Archibald Lampman
- Piano, D.H. Lawrence
- The Jumblies, Edward Lear
- The Owl and the Pussy-Cat, Edward Lear
- Shooting the Sun, Amy Lowell
- A Day in June, James Russell Lowell
- High Flight, John Gillespie Magee
- To His Coy Mistress, Andrew Marvell
- Sea-Fever, John Masefield
- In Flanders Fields, John McCrae
- When Dawn Comes to the City, Claude McKay
- On His Blindness, John Milton
- The Highwayman, Alfred Noyes
- Anthem for Doomed Youth, Wilfred Owen
- Dulce Et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen
- Crossing the Water, Sylvia Plath
- Annabel Lee, Edgar Allan Poe
- The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe
- Ode on Solitude, Alexander Pope
- Towards the Last Spike, E.J. Pratt
- The Shark, E.J. Pratt
- Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers, Adrienne Rich
- The Clearing, Sir Charles G.D. Roberts
- The Solitary Woodsman, Sir Charles G.D. Roberts
- Song, Christina Rossetti
- Who Has Seen the Wind?, Christina Rossetti
- Fog, Carl Sandburg
- Laurentian Shield, F.R. Scott
- W.L.M.K., F.R. Scott
- The Cremation of Sam McGee, Robert Service
- The Shooting of Dan McGrew, Robert Service
- Shall I Compare Thee (Sonnet 18), William Shakespeare
- Ode to the West Wind, Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Crossing the Bar, Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- The Charge of the Light Brigade, Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- The Eagle, Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- The Lady of Shalott, Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Ulysses, Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night, Dylan Thomas
- Fern Hill, Dylan Thomas
- Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun, Walt Whitman
- I Hear America Singing, Walt Whitman
- O Captain! My Captain!, Walt Whitman
- When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer, Walt Whitman
- The Red Wheelbarrow, William Carlos Williams
- Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, William Wordsworth
- Composed upon Westminster Bridge, William Wordsworth
- She dwelt among the untrodden ways, William Wordsworth
- The Daffodils, William Wordsworth
- The Solitary Reaper, William Wordsworth
- Sailing to Byzantium, William Butler Yeats
- Song of the Wandering Aengus, William Butler Yeats
- The Lake Isle of Innisfree, William Butler Yeats
- Fear of the Landscape, Ian Young