Sophistication Fight Club

*Note* The following post is aimed at AP Lit or AP Lang, but can easily work for other reasons in other levels.

Sometimes I am scrolling through Facebook and see a post for school that I want to save until I can sit down on my computer and look at later, so I'll send myself the link to the post.  Sometimes I forget I have done that and it sits in my inbox for many months.  It happened with this particular one on helping students achieve the sophistication point on their AP Exams.

Kristian Kuhn has this great lesson plan for helping students to be aware of how often they use "to be" in their writing.  It's a basic building block of composition. The problem is that when it gets overused, it makes the writing seem rudimentary.  Plus, it is one bugger of a verb to revise.

You can watch his video for yourself:

I was captivated by the idea, but I wanted to incorporate the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em idea even more, so I put the lesson that Kuhn created into this presentation - complete with video fo the robot boxing game:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MHwfcpBffQs3viusOfBI1vaYzccUFcXsabzUGkTUmWo/copy

And with places for students to input their entries.

I'm trying it out next week.  Let me know if you are or if you have another revision lesson you like!

Don't forget to subscribe to Kuhn's YouTube channel and consider checking out my TPT store.  You might enjoy the Archetypes lesson - I find it super helpful for all levels to understand poetry better.

Freebie: Poetry with Odd Man Out

I was looking through my notebook where I scrabble out ideas so I won't forget them and I discovered two things of interest.

The first was the words UNSEEN POEM written at the top of the page, but there was nothing else on the entire page, so I guess that poem will remain unseen.  :)   I have no idea why I wrote that in my notebook.  I am sure it was a genius idea that, alas, is gone forever.

The second was this idea for Odd Man Out.  Full disclosure, I don't remember if I thought this up and wrote it down or if I heard the idea from somewhere and wrote it down.  So here is the activity - give the students four poems with three of them being from the same author and one from a different author.  Let them get into groups and analyze the poems and see if they can figure out which poem was written by a different poet.    I figure I will start with this gem from the past:

Then I will give the group the first page of this handout: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bOSbo7rGxUW7bWnbBzATffoHzAQTN8SPcRnuxr_LSKo/edit?tab=t.0

The first page has three poems from Cavalier poet Sir John Suckling and the poem in the bottom right hand corner is from Cavalier poet Thomas Carew.

I can do it again later or int he same day with the second page which has three sonnets by Elizabeth Barret Browning and one from Christina Rossetti (the one in the upper right hand corner).

Feel free to borrow the handout and try it in your own class.  Even if the kids are wrong, the practice at analyzing the poems will be worth it.

Two Annotation Practices: Porphyria's Lover and Life Is Sweet at Kumansenu

 Here are two annotation practices you are welcome to make use of in your classroom.  If you would like to share a practice of yours with me, I would be delighted to see it and potentially use it in my class.  Just send it to me in an email.  

The first one is the first poem I use with my AP Lit students when we start our poetry unit (they've gotten other poems, but this officially starts our poetry section.  It is "Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning, one of my favorite poems of all time.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14q5wdaJYzZTZvA3f5BKqHqlGGpcbpObfdd_6-fF4e_4/edit?tab=t.0

The directions are on the back and guides them for what to look for.

The other practice is one I am trying with my English II Honors students to step up their game a bit.  It is, for most of them, their first go at real annotation, so I built it up as a big deal.  It is with the short story "Life Is Sweet at Kumansenu" by Abioseh Nicol.  It was fun to see that some of the students got excited and whipped out a pouch full of highlighters or color markers.  

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1krB0CmLVjGv-UaySLzLDNW4ah2LAH6dT3twRAcn1j_g/edit?tab=t.0

We had just finished our archetype notes, which is why I specifically go out of my way to mention that in the directions.  If you have students struggling to discern deeper meaning in texts, then I suggest teaching archetypes.  It is a game changer.

The Masked Poet - Ozymandias

In 1817 and 1818, Rameses II was all the rage and topic of many a conversation.  Around Christmastime of 1817, Percy Shelley and his buddy Horace Smith were sitting around discussing ancient pharaohs, as one is wont to do, and decided to see who could write the best poem about Rameses II using the title "Ozymandias".  Both got published and experienced some acclaim, but Shelley's poem is the one remembered.  

That begs the question - is Shelley's poem remembered because it is greater or because he was the more popular poet?  The power of an author's name is nothing to dismiss.  Look at any Stephen King book published today and you will see his name in large letters and the title of the book small in comparison.  You also have the trend of writers loaning out their characters (Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler do this) and their name is still huge while the actual writer of the book gets the small print at the bottom of the cover.

In order to figure this out, we need a little blind taste test (so to speak) and what better way to do that than in the spirit of The Masked Singer?

I have a document made up and ready to print for your classroom needs.  You can get it here.  One one side, we have The Rook (Percy Shelley) and the other side we have The Bishop (Horace Smith).  I hand it out to students randomly so that they read different sides first since the order of reading may impact the judgement of the two poems.  

If you use it in your class, drop me an email or leave a comment.

Avoiding Summary on the FRQ3 Prompt for AP Lit

I recently had a student ask for a lesson on how to avoid summarizing on the FRQ3 prompt.  I've always just said, "Don't summarize, instead imagine you are talking to me about a Star Wars or Marvel movie - you don't have to tell me what is in it, I already know.  Let's talk about what it all means."  I didn't have anything else on it.

So I started looking and everywhere I looked, all I saw were web sites stating, "Do not summarize," but no other practices on how not to.

So now I was faced with having to create it myself, I just didn't have the passion to do it.  Luckily for me, Mandi Morgan posted on the AP Lit Facebook group a lesson she had designed for summarizing and was asking for feedback from teachers.  It's pretty awesome.  She wrote three example paragraphs.  each one has its own slide and animation to reveal what is summary and what is analysis.

I copied and tweaked it to fit with what I needed for my class and added one more example and a handout to go with it.  Mandi did all the hard work on this one. I asked her if it was OK to share it with you fine people, and she said yes.  

Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1EKA4UwMznRFxmb2ceUbgGCo7r7mx7Av61xBl5u0N_Q8/edit#slide=id.p

For the handout, it is just the examples on the presentation so that they can mark it themselves before revealing what is summary and what is analysis. That, and space to write their own paragraph.

Handout: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15WX1DM4VeQHGv6FgYFrxcU3UFmkiOI3WFAAptOfplbE/edit

Thank you, Mandi!  What about you?  Do you have a good lesson you'd be willing to share on this (or anything FRQ3 related)?  Tell me in the comments!

Freebie: Reading Challenge

 My English II class has a state reading comprehension test.  Now, I can go over all the tips and testing strategies, but when it comes down to it, a student must read and read often to improve their reading comprehension skills.  But how do you go about it with students who hate to read or struggle with reading disabilities or both?  Sure, classroom reading with questions and a test is a standard and one that is a necessity in our line of work, but it is not always effective, especially when a kid would has already learned that it is easier to take a low grade on reading assignments.

My solution is nothing new.  You may even have a version of it you do yourself, but here is my version that you can feel free to borrow and change up as you wish.

Quarter 1 challenge

Quarter 2 challenge

The idea behind this challenge is that they just read for the sake of reading.  No questions.  The only thing I have to measure if they read or not is the grade they give it and the signature from themselves and a parent/guardian verifying that it was completed.  Can students cheat on this?  Yes.  However, I am willing to take that risk because the students that don't cheat will come out with more reading under their belt.  

The beauty of this challenge is that they get to pick the direction they want to go with it.  There are plenty of big point items for actual books and also plenty of smaller point-value items to get them going (anything from poem to Wikipedia article to cereal box).  I just want them reading.  It also helps to have a small in class library and to give them time in class for reading.  We play with time spans from ten minutes to twenty minutes - building up as we go to give them practice on stamina.  

I've found this to be very successful in the past.  It gets tweaked every so often.  When I had English I, I would always throw the driver's ed manual in the mix too.  

Do you have a reading challenge?  Tell me about it in the comments!

Gotta Catch Them All (Emily Dickinson Poems, of Course!)

 

As we go toward the end of the year, we may find ourselves with some awkward pacing.  You can't always test on the last day (and that provides some headaches when students are absent and now have to wait until January to be tested on material they have forgotten) and you don't want to start something new just to have a two week interlude.

Here's a lesson that can be in about half a period.  It's fun and it is content relevant.

If I were teaching American Lit, I would just do this when I get to Emily Dickinson.  But as a British Lit teacher and an AP Lit teacher, we still talk about meter, iambic pentameter, and the effect these have on the poetry.  This especially works well after trying to teach a Shakespeare play if you focused any on how iambic pentameter works.

This presentation has students read three Emily Dickinson poems.  Feel free to go into whatever detail about Emily Dickinson's life you would like to add (she had a killer cake recipe and if done her way is coated with brandy and lasts quite a long time!).  Have the kids experience the poetry and get their thoughts.  They are short and different from what many kids are used to, so can be quite fun for discussions.

Then hit them with the common meter lesson.  This will seem boring until they get to the next slide - 

 I've taught this to standard and inclusion kids and they really perk up to this part.  Once you explain to them that all the above poems can be read to this song because of common meter, they are awed.  You are the cool teacher!

Want more cool points as a teacher?  Break out the karaoke machine and have the kids sing the poem into the microphone.

I provided slides to encourage the re-reading of the poems Pokemon-style.  Then we hit them with a few more songs they may be familiar with to wrap it up.  This can take you anywhere between 15 minutes to 30 minutes (maybe more) depending on how conversation goes.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1lFyBrFx8ejMu3_1w4l8SvcPVZ91M8k5SsLpVHY8ENhI/edit#slide=id.p

Have fun with it!  

If you want something to help with your iambic pentameter lessons for Shakespeare, look here!

Freebie - Macbeth Background Slides

 When we read Macbeth, I like to make it as immersive as possible.  We have the fog machine for all the witch scenes, sound effects students, etc.  I am still looking for an affordable lightning and thunder strobe, but none fit the bill (either in what I want from it or the price).  I also need to get my hands on a few items for students to wear or have on their desk while reading (like a crown for whoever is king at the time, etc.).

One thing I do is to have images on our screen to help set the mood.  None of the images are mine, but if you like them, each slide has a link to where the image came from. You can get the slides for free here:  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GtXRutPEQd7WG-cXGNe4p80i8ZJayqNMfrm2y3jFSEU/edit#slide=id.p

I would love to here what you do to make that Scottish play work in your classroom!