Hey kids,
I'm grading your Wife of Bath essays and I'm noticing that many of you are making the same error - instead of explaining HOW the story reveals who is in control, you are just making a simple statement and then retelling the story.
One of the problems, in my opinion, of studying classic literature in a contemporary classroom is that because the teacher knows the story inside and out, he or she can't help but reveal that knowledge during class discussion. Therefore, instead of teacher and students unlocking new meaning together, teachers pass on canned meaning to students for future regurgitation.
I don't want that to be the basis of our classroom discovery - instead, I want you to determine your own meaning and to then tell me how you came upon that meaning through your reading.
Take a look at this article from The Onion - pay attention to Lucy Swain's comment toward the end and in this class, try NOT to do what she thinks teachers want you to do!
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30988
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!
Hey kids -
I hope you're enjoying your break from school; for those of you who are 18, don't forget to vote today!
Don't forget to read Act I of Macbeth. Every human fault, foible, value, and virtue can be found within this play's five acts - it's all of humanity rolled into one play!
If you haven't started reading Macbeth yet or if you have started but are having difficulties, take a moment to refresh your mind and remember the reading skills we have been practicing this year:
1. Choose a moderate amount of material to begin with - perhaps the first few scenes. Keep in mind the structure is written employing enjambment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enjambement. Also, remember language choice is of utmost importance in a play, so consider how the play's language reveals its meaning.
2. Get a grasp of how the material is organized:
Scan the section for stage directions, headings, sub-headings, and topic sentences to get its general idea; pay attention to people's names, titles, ranks, relationship to one another, elements of setting, etc.
3. Make use of annotations: read first for what you do understand, and to determine the difficulty of the rest. Use the annotations to clarify meaning immediately. Some of you are still resistant to this - don't be! The annotations will help unlock meaning and deepen your understanding of the moment.
4. Mark what you do not understand to review later. Remember to invert the syntax of the structure to make sense of antiquated sentences - find the subject, then find its verb!
5. Look up words whose meanings are important to your understanding of the material, but you cannot discern from the context.
6. As you read, practice the "look-away method:" Periodically look away from the text and ask yourself a stimulus question relating to the text. Write these questions down on your packet as annotations and record your answers, thoughts, discoveries next to them.
7. Make connections and associations, but don't use this exercise to memorize--but rather understand. Remember: making connections to your personal life is a good pre-reading activity that will help to unlock meaning later. It is not the goal, however, of academic reading, so be prepared to go beyond making connections!
8. Read to the end. Do not get discouraged and stop reading.
Ideas can become clearer the more you read. When you finish reading, review to see what you have learned, and reread those ideas that are not clear.
9. Continue to interact with the play by taking notes on it. Later, you can organize your notes by connecting ideas into an outline or concept map. Pay attention to relationships between ideas.
10. At this point, if you do not understand your reading, do not panic! Set it aside, and read it again the next day. Remember, once you've genuinely gone through this process, it's not cheating to check out "Macbeth Made Easy" or "No Fear Shakespeare". Just remember the importance and value of attempting the original play first!
11. If necessary, repeat the above process. This allows your brain to process the material, even while you sleep. This is referred to as distributed reading.
12. Try reading aloud - it forces you to consider language more carefully than reading silently to yourself because it is active and forceful.
13. One last option - the online textbook may have audio of particular scenes. Reading along while listening to a recording may not have worked for you in the classroom in the past, however I find listening to a play or novel expands my understanding and has made me a MUCH better reader, so feel free to check out the online site!
Good luck kids - I hope you enjoy Macbeth. Of course there will be sections that won't keep your interest, but for the most part it is a riveting play and one that if studied carefully, can be used as an allusion for the rest of your life.
I hope you're enjoying your break from school; for those of you who are 18, don't forget to vote today!
Don't forget to read Act I of Macbeth. Every human fault, foible, value, and virtue can be found within this play's five acts - it's all of humanity rolled into one play!
If you haven't started reading Macbeth yet or if you have started but are having difficulties, take a moment to refresh your mind and remember the reading skills we have been practicing this year:
1. Choose a moderate amount of material to begin with - perhaps the first few scenes. Keep in mind the structure is written employing enjambment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enjambement. Also, remember language choice is of utmost importance in a play, so consider how the play's language reveals its meaning.
2. Get a grasp of how the material is organized:
Scan the section for stage directions, headings, sub-headings, and topic sentences to get its general idea; pay attention to people's names, titles, ranks, relationship to one another, elements of setting, etc.
3. Make use of annotations: read first for what you do understand, and to determine the difficulty of the rest. Use the annotations to clarify meaning immediately. Some of you are still resistant to this - don't be! The annotations will help unlock meaning and deepen your understanding of the moment.
4. Mark what you do not understand to review later. Remember to invert the syntax of the structure to make sense of antiquated sentences - find the subject, then find its verb!
5. Look up words whose meanings are important to your understanding of the material, but you cannot discern from the context.
6. As you read, practice the "look-away method:" Periodically look away from the text and ask yourself a stimulus question relating to the text. Write these questions down on your packet as annotations and record your answers, thoughts, discoveries next to them.
7. Make connections and associations, but don't use this exercise to memorize--but rather understand. Remember: making connections to your personal life is a good pre-reading activity that will help to unlock meaning later. It is not the goal, however, of academic reading, so be prepared to go beyond making connections!
8. Read to the end. Do not get discouraged and stop reading.
Ideas can become clearer the more you read. When you finish reading, review to see what you have learned, and reread those ideas that are not clear.
9. Continue to interact with the play by taking notes on it. Later, you can organize your notes by connecting ideas into an outline or concept map. Pay attention to relationships between ideas.
10. At this point, if you do not understand your reading, do not panic! Set it aside, and read it again the next day. Remember, once you've genuinely gone through this process, it's not cheating to check out "Macbeth Made Easy" or "No Fear Shakespeare". Just remember the importance and value of attempting the original play first!
11. If necessary, repeat the above process. This allows your brain to process the material, even while you sleep. This is referred to as distributed reading.
12. Try reading aloud - it forces you to consider language more carefully than reading silently to yourself because it is active and forceful.
13. One last option - the online textbook may have audio of particular scenes. Reading along while listening to a recording may not have worked for you in the classroom in the past, however I find listening to a play or novel expands my understanding and has made me a MUCH better reader, so feel free to check out the online site!
Good luck kids - I hope you enjoy Macbeth. Of course there will be sections that won't keep your interest, but for the most part it is a riveting play and one that if studied carefully, can be used as an allusion for the rest of your life.
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