Careful reading

ELA 11

Last night I graded the in-class writes and today I shared with students two examples of good student writing. The important thing to remember when writing about literature is that it is necessary to draw conclusions and make inferences, rather than just summarizing the events in the novel--many students just recounted the plot. But yesterday when I gave directions, I made sure to point out that they were not to focus on externals. This takes careful reading and a great deal of thinking. Group discussions are one way students can throw out ideas and get some feedback (see my post from last Friday), as are whole class times for questions and answers. I also got the impression some students had only read about half of their reading assignments to date--tomorrow we will quiz over Part I of the novel through page 68.

AP Language
Today was the all-time favorite: Socratic Seminar.  The discussion went from the qualities of good leaders to moral change to whether it is better to be feared or loved to when war may (or may not) be just--all motifs in Henry V, interestingly enough!