Posted on January 22, 2009 by msnev
My seniors should choose one of the following to read independently by February 24th, 2009.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
All quizzes for these books will be taken in class on the quiz due date.
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Posted on December 8, 2008 by msnev
SENIORS: As we explore satire from the 17th & 18th centuries and our own popular culture, you will need to use the following links for various assignments.
* Please read this brief commentary on the definitions and use of satire techniques. It will hopefully help you process the notes you took in class on Monday, December 8th.
* The website for Monday night’s homework assignment (The Simpsons character analysis) can be found here.
* Two good informational sites about Jonathan Swift are The Literature Network and Victorian Web.
* You can always find good political cartoons at this site. Remember though, you will only understand the joke in a political cartoon if you actually follow the news. Even spending fifteen minutes of your time each day on CNN.com, NYTimes.com, Washingtonpost.com, theworld.org, bbc.com, or any other reputable news source will keep you more informed (and, consequently, able to “get” more jokes). Once you are informed about your world, THEN you can fully enjoy TV shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report.
More links may be posted later in the week — please check back often.
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Posted on December 4, 2008 by msnev
Pre-AP students, please read this article over the weekend. You should then write a 1-2 page (typed and double spaced) analysis of which points in the article you believe correspond to the history provided by Capt. Beatty on pages 54-62 of Fahrenheit 451. Please support your ideas with direct quotes from both sources, and provide a works cited page at the end of your essay.
More details about the assignment will be given in class on Friday, December 5th.
You also need to view this video in preparation for next week’s discussions.
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Posted on November 13, 2008 by msnev
It’s so wonderful that many students have been expressing interest in reading Dr. Faustus in it’s entirety. For those of you who would like to do so, you can find several full-text versions here. You can choose the date of publication and whether you prefer the regular or modernized version.
Additionally, this site has interesting information about various incarnations of the Faust legend — from its origins in fifteenth century Germany up to video games in modern America. You may be surprised to find that even certain characters in the Harry Potter books are related to the legend.
If you’re interested in this play, just wait until we read the novel Frankenstein. Several of the same themes are present, and the allusions will make you giddy with the rewarding feeling of everything we read together being connected somehow.
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Posted on May 7, 2008 by msnev
Seniors: Part 1 of the feature you will be responding to in a letter to the editor can be found here. There you will also find links to the other four sections.
If you want to read examples of letters to the editor, click here.
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Posted on February 4, 2008 by msnev
On Tuesday, February 5th you will be assigned supplementary readings (to be read by Tuesday, February 12th) that relate to your third AR book. Please use the following list to access the readings:
If you are reading PERSEPOLIS, click here.
If you are reading THE KITE RUNNER, click here.
If you are reading FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER, click here.
Please click here if you are reading PALESTINE.
Here is your link if you are reading A LONG WAY GONE.
Once you get there, follow the directions given in class on 2/5. Please feel free to go beyond the requirements and explore the sites further! There will be more supplemental readings over the next few weeks; if you come across something interesting that you’d like to share with your group please post a link to it in a comment or just print it out and bring it to class.
Remember, each Tuesday in February you will need to bring your book to help you complete an activity related to it.
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Posted on January 20, 2008 by msnev
I know, who really has any free time these days? But if you need a momentary diversion, I highly recommend http://freerice.com. It is good vocabulary practice and (hopefully) helps out people in need.
Just be careful; it’s quite addictive. Someone in a morning class told me about it a few weeks ago, and I ended up skipping lunch that day to give it a shot. My total ended up being about 4,000 grains of rice before I realized lunch was almost over and my sandwich had been neglected. Yikes!
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Posted on November 14, 2007 by msnev
My apoligies for such a long absence — I was having a little trouble getting links to post on the site from here (school), but I think that my schedule will calm down again in a week or two so I will have time to post new scholarship and writing contest information from home.
So, to make up for weeks of no quotes, here are a few:
” Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history; there could be no concept of humanity.” – Herman Hesse
“Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.” – C.S. Lewis
“Books tap the wisdom of our species — the greatest minds, the best teachers — from all ver the world and from all our history. And they’re patient.” – Carl Sagan
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Posted on October 15, 2007 by msnev
My apologies for not posting for so long — I was having a bit of computer trouble, but believe it is all resolved now. I have several new writing contests to post on Tuesday — please be sure to check back here for them!
In other news, several people have been asking me about my trip to Turkey, so here are the basics:
Over the summer, I was invited by two of my former professors from grad school to go with them as part of a teacher delegation to a school in Istanbul, Turkey. The school is affiliated with Kent State University, so once a year a group of teachers visits to observe in classrooms and work with the teachers. I have been paired up with a seventh grade teacher; I will be working mainly with helping to integrate books into the curriculum (they do things a little different over there… mostly memorization, from what I’m told).
I’ll be gone from Saturday morning, October 20th through late Monday night, October 29th. I plan to be back in room 212 the next day, although I will be fighting jet-lag so it might be interesting. I am very much looking forward to learning from my teaching abroad experience so that I can bring some new perspectives back to you.
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Posted on September 11, 2007 by msnev
Ms. Neville's Class Resources 