Author Archives: englishparsons

One of the important things that I hope students will take away from our unit on All Quiet on the Western Front is the eormous POPULARITY of the war — especially in the early years.  Here are links from English … Continue reading →

As an exercise to start thinking about the young men in O’Brien’s stories, I have asked my seniors to write about the things they carry — or plan to carry — as they begin the next part of their lives.  … Continue reading →

Drawn to the Shaper’s songs – his language and his music — Grendel repeatedly visits the mead hall.  While he listens, he is confronted with an enormous problem:  Language, which Grendel has previously used to define the world and to … Continue reading →

Happy New Year, Seniors! Congratulations on reaching the second half of your senior year!  Looking ahead, most of you will be starting your university careers in about nine months.  In less than five months — just over a hundred days, … Continue reading →

One of my favorite things about working in international schools is a traditional activity that I do right before everyone leaves for the winter holidays:  I ask students to write about their favorite holiday celebration, and they write and talk … Continue reading →

By now you have found a poem that speaks to you somehow.  There’s something about it that you like.  Maybe it’s the ideas that you see – Perhaps it’s the way the poem sounds.  It might be that you find … Continue reading →

Who is right at the beginning of Antigone?  Which character do you admire the most?  Which do you identify with? Antigone, who insists on burying her brother, even though he invaded her city and killed her other brother? Creon, who … Continue reading →

In today’s exercise, I’m asking students to look at two different columns of quotes from Macbeth.  In the left-hand column, there are nine short quotes from Lady Macbeth.  These are all things that she has said in acts I-III.  In the … Continue reading →