Author Archives: englishparsons
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night — Using a Silent Scene. Thanks, Folger!
Today we experimented a little with video. In order to understand the events of Act II, Scene 5 of Twelfth Night, I asked students to compose videos that captured the key events of the scene. Here’s an example of what … Continue reading
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Whose Shakespeare? MY SHAKESPEARE!
As a warm up to this year’s Shakespeare plays, I had students read and perform Act 3, scene 3 — the scene where Cinna the Poet is confronted, attacked, and (possibly) murdered by a group of angry citizens. This lesson … Continue reading
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The Inspiring Story of Cain’s Arcade
Here are two inspiring stories. The first is the story of a brilliant nine year old who built an arcade out of auto parts boxes. The story moved me for two reasons: First, Cain is an inspiring kid — with … Continue reading
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Teaching Othello — Avoiding the Iago Effect
In his lecture to the Teaching Shakespeare Institute yesterday, Dr. Michael Whitmore described a recent conversation. “In five minutes or less, explain to me why schools should teach Shakespeare,” someone asked him. In reply, he picked on play that has … Continue reading
Why English? How English?
Lately I’ve tried to put myself inside the head of a student — NOT one who wants to grow up and be an English teacher, but one of the many busy, distracted, and bored young men or women who have … Continue reading
Mr. Parsons’ senior speech
To my students in the class of 2012: Congratulations! You have reached the last class of your High School English careers. I hope that you have found our year together rewarding and fun… and above all, I hope that you … Continue reading
All Quiet on the Western Front — Chapters 6-7
In today’s class students worked in seven different small groups. Each group moved through the room, stopping at a different passage from chapter 6 or 7 from All Quiet on the Western Front. Each group annotated their own passage and wrote … Continue reading
Presentation on “Style,” “Night Life,” and “Stockings.”
Ryan gave a quick summary of what happens in O’Brien’s story, “Style.” In it, the soldiers find a girl — a victim of a bomb that has destroyed her home and killed both of her parents. Rather than grieving, though, … Continue reading
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Presentation on “In the Field” and “Field Trip”
Today Allie, Amanda, Stephany, and Mallory presented the stories “In the Field” and “Field Trip.” Amanda gave a summary of the two stories, and Steph and Allie led the class in a series of questions about the two stories. Mallory … Continue reading
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Presentation on “Speaking of Courage” and “Notes”
The students have asked the class to write a blog post respondig to the followig questio: “Think of a time when you felt you had to use a lot of courage in your life. Here I go: For me, the … Continue reading
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A Year in the Life of an English Class 