September
20
ELA 30: Sept 20 “The Loons” and a new presentation assignment to come…
- We began with a discussion of the short story, “The Loons”. Students had a mixed response to it and added some interesting comments, like when Curtis mentioned that it seemed to be a very slow story. This is true and we discussed some possible theories on why that might be.
- We then moved over to the laptop and watched a few videos to “get us in the mood” for what’s to come. It is unfortunate that this movie is so far beyond their time, but none of the students had heard of the movie titled Dead Poet’s Society. It is a classic film with popular actor Robin Williams in it. This scene is of the first class with the new professor at a boy’s prep school in America. Williams, the new teacher, takes a very different approach to reading poetry and it takes a few moments for his students to catch on. See what you think. (Sorry if it slows down your viewing of this page.
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- I explained to students that they are required by curriculum to give a multi-media presentation and to analyze a poem. We will combine both of these into their next assignment. To give them an idea of what they may attempt with the assignment, we watched several examples of poetry projects online. There are a variety of options available to them. It will be up to them what effort and creativity they would like to put into it.
- We talked about a popular Canadian poet named Al Purdy. Purdy has taped himself reading his poetry aloud and the lead singer of The Tragically Hip, Gordon Downie, took it upon himself to make a video highlighting Purdy’s poem. It’s quite a good combination of talents. We listened to another of Purdy’s poems, “Making Homemade Beer” that the students seemed to enjoy quite well. His speaking style and attitude towards the fight with his wife seemed to win over a few admirers.
- Students will have some pc time tomorrow to begin on their project or their search for an appropriate poem, other than the ones provided.