English Department Blog

Monday, April 18, 2011

Homelessness in America

This week in the ninth grade we're looking at the question of homelessness in America. Through articles from the New York Times, local newspapers, clips from CNN and youtube, students will gain multiple perspectives on causes and solutions.

We will also be learning about Liz Murray, the remarkable young woman who grew up homeless in a family with drug-addicted parents—yet threw herself into her public school education, eventually attending Harvard on a full scholarship (and graduating with honors). Here are links to her talking about her memoirs and the charity she helped to found:

Here are links to the movie that was made about her life:

Here is another story on CNN about young African American teenage boy in a similar situation:

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Bearing Witness: Holocaust Testimony

We're reading Art Spiegelman's The Complete Maus in the eleventh grade. These two graphic novels are the non-fiction account of Spiegelman's listening to his father, Vladek Spiegelman, as he bears witness to what he lived through during the Holocaust.

You can read about Maus here.

We are examining Holocaust in a variety of forms: poetry; documentary; historical literature; first-person written testimony; video testimony; theatrical drama; children's literature; art; music; and memorials.

We will be reading psychological theory on bearing witness by Yale professor, survivor and psychologist Dori Laub while we finish Maus and also watch testimony from the Yale Fortunoff Holocaust Video Archive.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

"The Red Badge of Courage"

We just finished reading Stephen Crane's novel and are now examining his treatment of the Civil War. Just how did a a man in his twenties who never actually participated in the war come up with such details about the "realities" of battle and the interior monologue of a new soldier?

We'll be looking at a variety of historical sources to find parallels between the novel and actual events.

Here is a quick "Fact Sheet" with an overview of the war.

Here you can view Ken Burns' award-winning documentary on the Civil War. (The video, however, isn't very clear when viewed in full-screen mode). HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Here is the site from the Smithsonian Museum's 150 Years Commemorative Exhibit about the Civil War. Check out the eyewitness accounts, letters and discussions about the actual terrain where battles were fought.

Here are images, including photos, paintings and actual objects from the Civil War from the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Musem.

Here is the Smithsonian site about Civil War Studies. Take an online tour!

Here are photographs from the war with helpful historical descriptions.

These sites are quite helpful:

Eyewitness to History: The Civil War

American Civil War Resource Center

A Week in the Civil War

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Conformity

In conjunction with our reading of Lois Lowry's The Giver, we're discussing conformity in the eighth grade. This week we'll be looking at the famous Yale Milgram experiment. Click on this link to watch an informative 10-minute overview of Milgram's work.

Here is the original experiment:

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Robert Frost

We're reading poetry by Frost in the eleventh grade. (Hmm... As I write this, I just learned that the fourth-grade native-speaker English students have been reading him, too!) Here's an excellent link to read his poems online—and a short biography. The comments following each poem are quite interesting, too!

Here's an American college student's interpretation of "The Road Less Traveled":

Here is Frost himself reading "The Road Less Traveled":

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven"

So this is a bit creepy... But here's Poe "reading" you his macabre masterpiece...

Here's another version of the poem read, this time by American Christopher Walken—a man known for his uncanny ability to portray mentally unstable and scary characters...