If anyone out there cares and doesn’t know, the state requires 4 full days of testing at the end of each year’s language arts class. That’s a pretty big chunk of a class to dedicate to this sort of thing, especially considering how shallow the test really is. My general policy as a teacher is to essentially ignore what I know about the contents of the test during the semester and simply provide students with as many authentic and challenging reading and writing tasks as I can. Then, shortly before the test, I spend no more than 20 or 30 minutes covering the odd grammar rules or vocabulary things that I think they might need to know. Seriously, 20-30 minutes total instruction, as far as the “teaching to the test” stuff goes.

So far (over the past 4 years), my test results have been very positive so I feel pretty justified ignoring the test, as well as the state’s schizophrenic core curriculum document which swings from vaguely general to insanely specific.

I’d rather just read some books and write about them. So that’s what we did with the rest of the day today:

Here are links to the

READING LIST

and the place to post your book reviews:

11th GRADE BOOK REVIEWS

And then there’s the reading.

Amazingly, this already great book only gets better. Ahab’s weird adoption of Pip is so bittersweet. His upcoming speach, where he reveals his innermost thoughts and feelings to the ship’s leading skeptic, Starbuck, is one of the most touching things I’ve ever read. And then we finally meet the whale, and the ensuing fight doesn’t disappoint.

I admit, I’ve been reading ahead. Bad teacher!

Here’s the class:

Here’s the explanation of the last phase of revision for the Moby Dick essay. And then there’s some reading and some more talking.

Reading and talking. Pop the corn, uncork the sodas, and spin up the cotton candy machine. Because this is where the party begins:

If you want to know what happens when we learn about archetypes and then talk Moby Dick, you should listen the crap out of this podcast.

Sometimes we sound smart.

Today we sound slightly smart and quite confused.

Enjoy!

I’ve been having some technical difficulties over the past couple of days. Mostly with my brain, forgetting to turn on the recording equipment and all. But I have a good excuse: My face hurts. I got a cold a couple days ago, and this cold has expressed itself through a face ache. It’s a little distracting.

Anyway, here’s a rundown of what we’ve done if you’ve been gone:

1. We brainstormed topics for the first writing assignment. (You can see the complete assignment via the link over there on the right-hand side of the page.) The main challenge with this was getting topics that were narrow enough. The topic “whales” won’t work for this paper, but the topic “the blowhole of the whale” might be perfect. Think about the kinds of things Melville focuses his little chapters on, and think on that small scale. Also, the topic doesn’t have to directly relate to the sea or whales. This book has big, spiritual, metaphysical, mythological types of themes that can accommodate almost any topic you choose if you get creative with the connections.

2. I introduced the new vocab list, which consists of terms we’ll be using for literary analysis of the book. You can come get the list from me in class. We also started making cards for the latest round of the famous party game, “Go Fish (Yourself),” which I personally think is a stupid waste of time, but other people seem to like. Whatevs. You can all go fish yourselves.

That’s it. Today (Friday), my goal is to remember to hit Record, so you can get a few more instructions about the draft due today, as well as some more reading and discussion.

MT

Yawn. Right?

Score so far:

Pequod: 2

Whales: 0

Don’t give up, whales!

This discussion was the result of a little experiment. First, we did a day of general “awareness” kinds of meditation. Then, the next day, I read for the entire class period without stopping for discussion or explanation. Then, today, I tried to mine the class for ideas so that, all together, we could put together a general theory about what the day’s reading had actually been about. No individual really knew, since the reading was long and complicated. But I was reasonable sure that as a class, they could piece it all together.

Some classes were able to do that pretty well. The discussion I recorded is a bit scattered and inconclusive. Running discussions like this is such a crapshoot. When it works, it’s beautiful. When it flounders and dies, you think you’ll never regain the class’ interest and enthusiasm.

Oh! The travails of the modern teacher of Language Arts!

Behold:

Well. Today’s discussion proves that while our young citizens may, in fact, be crazy, they’re not stupid. Listen to how many plausible theories about the overall meaning of Moby Dick the class comes up with all on their own. (After the discussion, we read to the end of chapter 63).

– Wednesday and Thursday, we read up to page 300 and gathered two pages of possible writing prompts stemming from those days’ reading

– Friday was a short day and I used the time to introduce a few more books from the reading list in order to get people “pumped” for the final push towards next week’s 700-outside-reading-page deadline

– Today, Monday, we wrote the final in-class essay, essay #6, which you can find posted over there in the 11th Grade Writing Assignments area

The assignment was to locate possible “prompt” topics in today’s reading, and write them down in your notebook for future use (i.e., on next week’s timed writing). Remember that a few weeks ago we discussed the features of a good prompt–things like, it should be open-ended, opinion-based, it should relate to real life and real people, it should be a topic of general interest/curiosity, etc. I’ll be checking notebooks one more time next week.

I like these days where all we do is talk about words. I really do. Is it wrong for me to feel this way?

Oh yeah. Whiteness. Whhhhiteness. Ishmael finally explains the everynothingness of the color white.

All I remember about today’s class is that there were quite a few awkward pauses where everyone was staring at me and I forgot where I was.

I… didn’t get much sleep last night.

…the whhhhiteness of the whhhhhale: