The Secret Life of Holiday Gift Giving

This year I have focused on going green and being more aware of the world around me. As the holiday season slowly approaches I have started to think about my own holiday shopping. This year I want to "think green and globally" when making purchases. Recently, I found The Heifer Foundation . With donations starting at just $10 you can help purchase livestock for people in need. One of the options was honey bees, and of course, I instantly thought of Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd our summer reading novel! So to thank mom for buying you a copy of the novel, you could make a bee donation!
Beyond bees you can donate chicks (also great for moms), ducks, bunnies, cows, llamas, and more. I donated trees in my future brother in law's name welcoming him to our family tree. In the mail you receive a gift card to give to your recipient. The gift card is designed by one of my favorite children's artists Tomie De Paola. A great idea is to buy a small stuffed animal of the animal you donated.

QUESTION: What ideas do you have for "thinking green and globally" this holiday season?

Top 3 Most Misspelled Words

1. Definitely
2. Beginning
3. Woman

These are the three words I see most commonly misspelled in my students' work. This post is not so much a connection as a query: Why? Why are these three words so impossible to spell? Let us consider each one:

Definitely makes sense to misspell because we pronounce the word 'definately' and so it follows that 'definately' is how I see it misspelled most often. Sometimes it is spelled 'defiantly' which always makes me chuckle because defiantly has its own definition and can sometimes cause a normal sentence to suddenly become rather funny.

Now beginning, it seems to me, is a word that students most commonly want to shorten to 'begging.' The second 'n' is also frequently forgotten, 'begining.'

The third most misspelled word is not necessarily a misspelling as an inappropriate pluralization of the word. Woman implies one, while women implies many. I am a woman. My mother, sister and I are women. I can not begin to count the number of times woman/women are misused particularly on in-class essays.

And because no one is a perfect speller...

My own most commonly misspelled words:
1. separate
2. piece
3. Effect/Affect

I often write 'seperate'... I remember this now by saying "there's a rat in separate." Piece - well, I just misspelled it as I was typing this. Finally, the difference between effect/affect still alludes me sometimes.

Question: What are your 3 most commonly misspelled words?

Using Words as Fists

" Freestyle rap battles: opponents using words as fists. The words are improvised as quickly as they are spit. They rhyme. They are to a beat. And they are aimed directly at the specific weaknesses of the opponent.” - The director of 8 Mile, Curtis Hanson

Wit Combats were verbal duels that playwrights would partake in while at taverns in Elizabethan England. In front of crowds they would verbally "punch" one another with insult after insult. Speeding ahead 400 years I think of MTV's show Yomama and a movie that was on tv just last week 8 Mile starring rapper Eminem. Here is a clip of the movie director describing rap battles which are essentially wit combats of today. Note: this movie is rated R.

We do have one little piece of wordplay that has survived between two playwrights. Not necessarily insults but certainly playing off of one another's words. After watching the movie director's clip you can almost hear the rap rhythm of today come through in their words:

Jonson: If, but stage actors, all the world displays,
Where shall we find spectators of their plays?

Shakespeare: Little, or much, of what we see, we do;
We are all both actors and spectators, too.



Question: Are rap battles only hurtful or could we see them as beneficial?

How I Fell in Love with Shakespeare

This month my sophomores have started reading Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. I introduced this to my students by singing, "It's the most wonderful time of the year!" Many of them rolled their eyes - which I am used to - and let out groans of displeasure. So I feel there is something here that I must clear up: I have not always been in love with Shakespeare. It is not as if I was reciting Shakespeare in kindergarten, far from it. No, I did not fall in love with him until much later in my educational career when I finally understood him. I guess you could say we had been "dating" since high schoo,l but I just did not get him. He was confusing, melodramatic, and old. Really, really old. What made it worse was that all my teachers seemed to think he was the world's greatest writer. I must have been missing something...

Another common misconception of my students is that I got straight As in high school. Not true. I was a teenager that worked very hard for Bs (*Note: I did not use an apostrophe there because then 'B' would be owning something: B's new blog). The reason why I mention this is that when I finally got Shakespeare it was like winning the Superbowl. It was exhilirating and unbelievable. I was so proud of myself - I mean - I had gotten Shakespeare! From then on I chipped away at his plays, with the help of a favorite professor, and slowly but surely began to uncover what so many others had already realized: the man was a genius. He was witty, sarcastic, inappropriate, romantic, evil, hopeful and cynical all at the same time, in the same play. And not just once but dozens of times, in dozens of different kinds of plays! And everything he said then, all the topics he covered, are still applicable today: love, friendship, betrayal, jealousy, scandal and so on.

My goal: to help my students get Shakespeare; to help them have that feeling of pride like I did when they are able to explain a quotation that was written 400 years ago because they truly get it. And maybe they will not fall in love, but at least appreciate why I did.

Hopefully this helps explain the Globe Theatre model, the Shakespearean Insult Gum and the Much Ado About Nothings.

Question: What has your Shakespeare experience been like?

Defining English

English is about communicating ideas and feelings; it is about understanding what makes people tick; and it is about trying to better readers through journeys of personal enlightenment and tolerance.

Question: What is the purpose of English class?