Tent Theatre

Each summer Missouri State provides Springfield with a unique entertaining (and educational) experience. Since 1963, Missouri State's Theatre Department has been producing outdoor performances. This year three plays will be showing outside Craig Hall between June 11th and July 20th: Cyrano de Bergerac, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Anything Goes. These plays are not only entertaining, but they provide a good way for students to experience important literature in a fresh way.

http://www.tenttheatre.missouristate.edu/

Biopoem Strategy

Here's a teaching strategy designed to get students to read and think about characterization. It can be used in many different content areas, but is especially useful to English coursework...

Biopoem Activity

Formula:
First name
Relative of... (i.e. "Father of...")
Who is... (list three characteristics)
Who needs... (list three things)
Who feels... (list three things)
Who fears... (list three things)
Who gives... (list three things)
Who would like to see... (list three things)
Resident of...
Last name

Example:
Here's what a biopoem might look like for Marcus Brutus of Shakespeare's Juilus Caesar.

Marcus
Son of Marcus Junius Brutus and Servilia Caepionis
Who is the protagonist, Caesar's close friend, a conspirator
Who needs honor, secrecy, a loyal army
Who feels sorrow over his betrayal, patriotic, his death is imminent
Who fears monarchy, defeat, Caesar's ghost
Who gives military leadership, important speeches, Caesar mortal wounds
Who would like to see a Roman republic, Julius Caesar out of power, a Roman victory at Philippi
Resident of Rome
Brutus

Amazon's Kindle

Does Amazon's Kindle hold the future for English education? The Kindle is handheld, wireless reader. Instead of purchasing actual books, readers can download books onto this PDA-like device in minutes. Over 130,000 books are currently available, a number which grows daily. Entire personal libraries can now be reduced into Kindle. The books are cheaper to download than to buy traditionally as well, with most books selling for $9.99. Books aren't the only text available on Kindle. One can subscribe to newspapers and magazines from all over the world, read blogs and even read documents from email.
But will this technology make it into the classroom? Eventually I think it will. Imagine, years from now, instead of students signing their names into five different text books on their first day of school, they are giving a Kindle-like handheld reader. They download the textbooks they need for their classes. And teachers are no longer limited to the readings in their textbooks. Want students to read a couple of sonnets not in the Norton Reader? Just upload them onto their readers. English offices no longer need bookshelves of class sets of To Kill a Mockingbird and Hamlet. Teachers no longer need to make copy after copy of readings.
Obviously the cost will need to drop significantly. (I can't imagine many schools dropping $360 on each student.) But I think that in my teaching lifetime we may get to the point where these would be economically viable.

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Wireless-Reading-Device/dp/B000FI73MA

There Once was a Man from Malta...

To teach English to students in Malta, a bilingual Mediterranean island, teachers are using one of the oldest and most English poetic forms: the limerick. The British Cultural Association (Malta was at one time a British colony) sponsors a limerick-writing contest for middle school-aged students.

Writing poetry is a good way to for students to continue their language acquisition. It requires students to engage vocabulary, as well as phonology, as the sounds of words are important to the rhyme and rhythm of the limerick. Plus it allows students to be active and creative in their learning!

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080713/education/learning-language-with-limericks

Some Ground Rules...

I'll be posting here frequently and I encourage readers to interact with their own comments. But the blogosphere can be a pretty tempestuous place, so here's some ground rules to keep things civil.

1. This blog is meant for students and educators and will be used in classrooms, so let's keep things school appropriate as far as language is concerned.

2. Be peaceable. Certainly good dialogue may ruffle some feathers, but let's not be intentionally inflammatory. This includes derogatory speech and name-calling.

3. Don't write about others without their permission.

4. Use care in what information you chose to reveal about yourself. Remember anyone can see this blog, so avoid personal information including addresses, phone numbers, etc.

5. Use spellcheck and try to keep posts grammatically readable.

6. AND DON'T TALK IN ALL CAPS! (Everyone will hate you if you do.)

7. Fun is mandatory.