WSCTE Newsletter....... November 2006
I. Censorship Rears Its Ugly Head
II. "Jabberwocky" and Grammar
III. Winter Workshop in Yakima: Building Liteacy in a Content Rich English Curriculum
IV. E-mail humor: A. Metaphors and English Teacher
B. Merged Books
V. Call for tips for teaching the research paper
VI. Banned Books Bracelet
I. Censorship Rears Its Ugly Head
I suppose it depends on one's reasons for promoting theater at a high school.
If it is just so the school district looks like it is giving a nod to the arts,
then Yakima School District is on the right path. If the reason for promoting
theater arts is to bring praise to your district, thenYakima is again on the
right track. Perhaps, it's to raise funds? Well, that appears to be a dicier
motive. So much of the financial success depends on the timing of a play, the
costs to put it on, the quality of the production, and the response from the
community.
I don't know what the Yakima School District intends by encouraging theater,
but clearly, it is NOT to encourage debate or questioning or to use as a teaching
tool for students to learn.
I say this because this fall, the Yakima School District, under the leadership
of Superintendent Ben Soria, cancelled the A. C. Davis High School's fall performance
of The Laramie Project. In fairness I should say that the District "postponed"
the performance until after the proposed levy
this fall. I wouldn't hold my breath that the play ever sees the light of day.
The Laramie Project, a play developed after extensive interviews in Laramie,
Wyoming following the death of Matthew Shepard, is intended to show the reaction
of a small town after realizing that such a horrific killing could take place
in its community. Although the play's initial incident is the death of the young
man at the hands of two guys who justified their killing of Matthew because
he was homosexual. The men beat Matthew so severely that when he was finally
found hanging on a fencepost in the cold Laramie environs, there was no skin
showing except for where his tears had washed gullies down his blood-covered
face. Matthew hung for over nineteen hours in Wyoming's chilling fall weather
before a bicyclist noticed him, thinking
he was a scarecrow, and went back to double check.
But, I digress. The place does not "promote" homosexuality as many
Yakima community members have expressed. Rather it asks a community like Yakima
whether it has an ethical core, whether a group of citizens has the right to
act with violence when someone who differs from them is present. The play is
NOT about homosexuality. The play is about hate crimes. The play is about humanity
and ours is always up for a close review.
The Reaction
As with most controversial issues, the cancellation of The Laramie Project has
brought an immediate and a widely varied response. According to Lee Maras, principal
of A. C. Davis High School, says that his phone calls and e-mails seem to fall
into two categories: those who think the play and, therefore, the school, are
promoting homosexuality and those who are angry
that the superintendent did not allow the students to entertain the important
conversations that would evolve from the play.
But the conversations are taking place. A student who had been cast in the play
wrote about the cancellation on the web in a MYSPACE.com blog. The Yakima Herald-Republic
found the announcement that had been kept quiet until then and wrote a rather
spectacular article about The Laramie Project and the ensuing concerns about
the cancellation. Letters to the Editors followed representing a wide spectrum
of points of view and then a great article appeared in Unleashed, the student
publication of the Yakima Herald-Republic. The Letters to the Editor continue,
so the idea of Yakima not talking about the subject has been rendered somewhat
moot.
For a full range of the letters, go to <www.yakima-herald.com> and ask
for
Letters to the Editor, The Laramie Project.
The Chilling Effect
No matter what descriptors are assigned to the pulling of a book or the cancellation
of a play, the termination must be viewed through the lens of censorship. Terry
Cooper, the Davis drama teacher, has courageous maintained that the conversation
with the district and the administration must remain respectful. After all,
that is what he had hoped to achieve by bringing the play to students. The goal
was to open the dialogue about who we are as a community and what role each
of us must accept as members of this community.
Cooper is still anticipating just a delay in the production. He thinks that
after the school levy has been completed, there is a possibility that the play
will be allowed to move forward. I hope that he's right.
As the conflict continues to roil through various communities I am hopeful that
those hearing of the situation will be buoyed with the realization that there
are many supporters who agree that the schools are the appropriate venues for
tough conversations. If we hide from the tough subjects, we are teaching our
students that they, too, should hide behind their fears.
Linda Brown
II. "Jabberwocky" and Grammar
Below is one of many lesson plans listed at The Educators' Reference Desk. This
one is a grammar lesson for grades 9-12 using Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky,"
but the site is worth a visit. Lessons are for grades Kindergarten-12 .
<http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/lessons.cgi/Language_Arts>.
There are all types of lessons that are worth a look/see for a variety of language arts classes.
More Grammar Review Using "Jabberwocky"
Submitted by: Kim Wilson
Grade Level(s): 9, 10, 11, 12
Subject(s): Language Arts/Grammar
Duration: 50 minutes
Description: This lesson provides students with a grammar review exercise using
"Jabberwocky," by Lewis Carroll.
Goals:
o To provide an opportunity for students to review essential grammar conventions
while gaining experience, confidence, and stimulating cognitive growth.
o To provide the teacher with an opportunity to identify where the students
are with their grammar at the beginning of the school year. From there, the
teacher can choose to emphasize the various areas of grammar that need to be
strengthened.
o To reinforce learning through the use of technology.
Objectives: Students will be able to:
o locate the nonsense words from the poem.
o summarize the action of the poem "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll.
o identify and label the various parts of speech including nouns, verbs, pronouns,
adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and articles found in the lines of the poem.
o effectively search for the definitions of the parts of speech.
For the entire lesson go to
http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Language_Arts/Grammar/GRM0001.html
III. Winter Workshop in Yakima: Building Literacy in a Content Rich English
Curriculum
February 27, 9-4. (Clock hour available)
With WASL, SAT, ACT. ASSET, and No Child Left Behind, a strong emphasis has
been placed on literacy skills. In the English classroom, we always deal with
literacy skills, but how do we meet current expectations while still providing
students with rich material, writing opportunities, and experiences? Join us
for a day while we explore this topic focusing on poetry, challenging literature,
and non-print texts. Participants will be actively involved and will leave with
research-based methods honed by experienced teachers.
For more information, go to our web page www.wscte.org. For registration go
to
http://www2.esd105.wednet.edu/EventCenter/ESDEventListing.cfm?eventid=3124
IV. E-mail humor
These are two of those e-mails that get circulated like urban legends. The accuracy
may be questionable but they are fun.
Analogies and Metaphors List…or Bang Your Head Here
Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their collections
of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts
are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here
are last year's winners . . .
1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently
compressed by a Thigh Master.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants
in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who
went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with
a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about
the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a
pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature
Canadian beef.
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just
before it throws up.
6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of
his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free
ATM machine.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling
ball wouldn't.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with
vegetable soup.
11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal
quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on
at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry
them in hot grease.
14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy
field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at
6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed
of 35 mph.
15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled
Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also
never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East
River.
18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one
that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
19. Shots rang out, as shots are won't to do.
20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this
plan just might work.
21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for
a while.
22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a
real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind
her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power
tools.
25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if
she were a garbage truck backing up.
Merged Books
From the Washington Post Invitational contest, Merge-Matic Books: Readers were
asked to combine the works of two authors, and to provide a suitable description
of the merged book.
"Machiavelli's The Little Prince" -Antoine de Saint-Exupery's classic
children's tale as presented by Machiavelli. The whimsy of human nature is embodied
in many delightful and intriguing characters, all of whom are executed.
"Green Eggs and Hamlet" -Would you kill him in his bed? Thrust a dagger
through his head? I would not, could not, kill the King. I could not do that
evil thing. I would not wed this girl, you see. Now get her to a nunnery.
"Where's Walden?" - Alas, the challenge of locating Henry David Thoreau
in each richly-detailed drawing loses its appeal when it quickly becomes clear
that he is always in the woods.
"Catch-22 in the Rye" - Holden learns that if you're insane, you'll
probably flunk out of prep school, but if you're flunking out of prep school,
you're probably not insane.
"2001: A Space Iliad"- The Hal 9000 computer wages an insane10-year
war against the Greeks after falling victim to the Y2K bug.
"Rikki-Kon-Tiki-Tavi"- Thor Heyerdahl recounts his attempt to prove
Rudyard Kipling's theory that the mongoose first came to India on a raft from
Polynesia.
For the complete list go to
http://www.laughbreak.com/lists/merged_book_contest_winners.html
V. Call for Tips for Teaching the Research Paper
It's that time of year again….the time of the research paper. Many of us have refined our process over the years but we always benefit by seeing what others are doing. So, e-mail us your tips and we will compile them for the next newsletter. Do you limit the topic or keep it wide open. Do you use MLA or APA style? How do you teach that effectively? What do you do for source evaluation? How do you prevent plagiarism or check for it? Do you use a specific scoring guide, general rubric, or holistic method to grade them. How do you get through reading them all? Send your ideas to webmanager@wscte.org
VI. Banned Books Bracelets
ALMA has banned books bracelets for sale at
https://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/braceletsorderform.htm