High School English Teachers Chatboard

Writing prompts by James Wayne for March 17 - 23 have been posted and are linked below. Following is just a sample of the stellar prompts for next week. (BTW, the first prompt for March 19 will resonate with some readers here. Perhaps we can discuss on this board.)

Psychologist B.F. Skinner was born in 1904. When asked about the future of ...See More

Mar 15, 2014

Comic for today: The best effect of any book...

Mar 14, 2014

Artist-illustrator Tim Newlin of TimTim.com (familiar to many readers of Teachers.Net Gazette for his quirky articles) is creating comics based upon famous quotations. Click below to check out the first of many we'll be sharing.

Jim Wayne's writing prompts for the week now posted!

Writing prompts for the coming week are posted online! (Note: Gazette pages might sometimes be unavailable for a few minutes at a time while the webmaster tends to some technical issues. If that happens, just check back a little later.)

Here's just one of many writing prompts for specific days in March that will entertain and motivate stud...See More

Mar 9, 2014

This week's writing prompts by Jim Wayne now posted!

This week's writing prompts by Jim Wayne are posted at the link below!

Here's a sample from the writing prompts for Feb. 28:

Most of the people of Curiepe, Venezuela, make their living fishing for sardines. Every year on this day, they have a funeral for the sardines they have caught during the previous year. The funeral serves to...See More

Feb 24, 2014

Need help with Senior curriculum

by Senior English

Jan 28, 2014

We currently do not offer an English IV class as the kids in our small school that are college bound usually take a college credit class; however, there are still a few kids who need a fourth English credit to graduate. I am teaching a class we call Communications that has been made with some creative writing as well as speech. We have 90 minute cl...See More

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Kathy M I teach a standard level Senior English class. I start the year with a poetry unit, then move to short story, and go into the novel. Throughout these units, we analyze how film uses the same elements as authors and poets using 20 minute film clips. We do a Shakespeare unit and a full fledged film unit, followed by a unit on the use and misuse of me...See MoreI teach a standard level Senior English class. I start the year with a poetry unit, then move to short story, and go into the novel. Throughout these units, we analyze how film uses the same elements as authors and poets using 20 minute film clips. We do a Shakespeare unit and a full fledged film unit, followed by a unit on the use and misuse of media in today's society. All through the year, we do a lot of writing. Students always complain that they did not sign up for honors or the college prep course because they didn't want to do the writing, and yet, they are doing a lot of writing. From reflections, to narratives, to poetry, to analysis, the students write. I also ask them to use a lot of technology because that is the world they are entering - if they can use MS programs, create prezis and infographics, or produce and edit video, they have an edge. We use Edmodo, wikis, and blogs. With the Common Core now part of our curriculum, my county/state has created CCR units. The unit in the fall semester was a little bit of everything that I teach throughout the year. Next year it will be great to use right after the poetry unit. On 1/28/14, Senior English wrote: > We currently do not offer an English IV class as the kids in > our small school that are college bound usually take a > college credit class; however, there are still a few kids > who need a fourth English credit to graduate. I am teaching > a class we call Communications that has been made with some > creative writing as well as speech. We have 90 minute class > periods so there usually isn't much instruction because I > can just give the assignment and they work. I do not like > this set up as it gives too much free time. So next year, my > principal has proposed maybe changing the class to a "Career > English" class. I am wondering what suggestions anyone may > have for assignments. I already do a career unit with my > Juniors where they choose their career, research it, and do > a paper so I would like to see if anyone has some ideas of > other things could be done for this class. Any ideas would > be helpful. Thanks

Feb 17, 2014

more suggestions On 2/16/14, Senior English wrote: > These are all wonderful ideas, however, I should have clarified a > little more...I already do all of this (except for the emails) > along with the career unit that is taught to all of my Juniors. I > do it Junior year because I definitely get all Juniors in class. I > only get a few Seniors in my ...See MoreOn 2/16/14, Senior English wrote: > These are all wonderful ideas, however, I should have clarified a > little more...I already do all of this (except for the emails) > along with the career unit that is taught to all of my Juniors. I > do it Junior year because I definitely get all Juniors in class. I > only get a few Seniors in my Communications class. So would it be > redundant to have them do it again as Seniors?

Do they remember it? As long as I've taught I've found all kids regardless of age forget a lot from year to year. I'd see nothing wrong with reviewing the skills.

It would be interesting to know what your Principal meant by 'Career English' or was he just coming up with a catchy course title that might attract students and please parents? What is Career English and wouldn't the answer to that vary a great deal depending on what your career is?? There used to an old 'Business English' class that taught pretty much just business letter writing and memos.

Career English? What about public speaking and presentations? Everybody in almost every career has to do presentations now and so often they're deadly dull. There's an art to writing a presentation that's not in complete sentences - complete sentences are for written English -not for presentation English. Presentation English includes making eye contact with the audience and knowing how to make eye contact, dressing properly, and putting 'g's back into your words instead of leavin' 'em out.

Do they know what a semantic level shift is? I find knowing that very helpful when I listen to politicians speak. There are very good terms used to describe the tricks and techniques used in presentations semantic level shift being one - knowing when they've been used on you would relate to any career.

Logic - logic is communicated through language and some arguments are just downright illogical. "If Iraq is doing this then certainly other countries are doing it as well!" Really? Have them listen to some master speakers - Reagan's short speech after the Challenger disaster is very short and held in high regard - but what was really said? It was incredibly comforting but - didn't say much -yet it's a beloved speech. [link removed].

Learning how to speak English in other than a monotone way is good for anyone's career. This could be a very fun and worthwhile class.

> > > On 1/30/14, Vet Teacher wrote: >> On 1/28/14, Senior English wrote: >>> We currently do not offer an English IV class as the kids in >>> our small school that are college bound usually take a >>> college credit class; however, there are still a few kids >>> who need a fourth English credit to graduate. I am teaching >>> a class we call Communications that has been made with some >>> creative writing as well as speech. We have 90 minute class >>> periods so there usually isn't much instruction because I >>> can just give the assignment and they work. I do not like >>> this set up as it gives too much free time. So next year, my >>> principal has proposed maybe changing the class to a "Career >>> English" class. I am wondering what suggestions anyone may >>> have for assignments. I already do a career unit with my >>> Juniors where they choose their career, research it, and do >>> a paper so I would like to see if anyone has some ideas of >>> other things could be done for this class. Any ideas would >>> be helpful. Thanks >> >> Resumes. Kids have no idea how to put a resume together and >> there are different styles of resumes. Will they be able to >> afford a professional resume writer? Likely not. Teach them to >> how to construct their resumes. For a fun project afterwards, >> let them write resumes for some celebrity or historical figure >> of their choice. What would Benedict Arnold's resume look >> like? >> >> Cover letters. Kids write stilted cover letters that don't get >> anybody's attention and there are different styles of cover >> letters. Teach them how to write a cover letter specific to >> jobs they might want or real jobs found in the newspaper or >> monster.com. >> >> Do they know how to write a business letter? We still do write >> some of those and do they know how to write a properly written >> professional email? No BFF or smiley faces in professional >> emails. Teach them how to write business letters - there are >> several styles - what to say and what not to say - and how to >> write proper emails for work. (the New Jersey governor's >> current problem comes from things said in emails that should >> never have been put into writing. You could teach them what to >> say in an email and what NEVER to put in an email because it >> could derail their career) >> >> There are different styles of speaking - there's everyday >> casual and totally informal speech and then - there's the kind >> of discourse you'd have in an interview where you shouldn't be >> saying "Um, like, well, sort of I get that..." Give them >> interview skills. Do mock interviews. >> >> My sons went to 17 years of school from Pre-K through college >> and no one ever showed them how to write a resume, a cover >> letter or how to conduct themselves at a job interview. If >> school is supposed to be preparation for real life, I think >> we're leaving some very important things out of what we do in >> school.

Feb 19, 2014

I'm new to teaching, and after doing some research over summarizing and paraphrasing, I think I confused myself! I want to make sure I can explain and use the two terms correctly as I begin a student teaching activity.

If I have my students read a journal article for class, should I have them summarize it for me or paraphrase it? I'm look...See More

Summary vs. Paraphrase

by Lola E.

Jan 28, 2014

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Lola Thanks for the great ideas! I like the forest example; I'm definitely going to use that. On 1/28/14, Kathy M wrote: > On 1/28/14, Lit Teacher wrote: > One of the things I was taught > was that summarizing is a skill > that is not perfected until a > student is beyond the high school > level. > > Take a look at a > child's...See More

Jan 29, 2014

another idea for Lola I don't know where you checked online but the OWL (online Writing Lab) at Purdue is a widely used go-to source for all writing questions. Just google OWL at Purdue. On 1/29/14, Lola wrote: > Thanks for the great ideas! I like the forest example; I'm > definitely going to use that. > > On 1/28/14, Kathy M wrote: > >> On 1/28/14,...See More

Feb 5, 2014

Visiting Tokyo

by Brian Landreth

Feb 3, 2014

Hi! I'm investigating teaching English overseas and am visiting friends in Tokyo soon. I was wondering what were some of the best things to see in Tokyo or Kyoto? And how do you like teaching in Japan?