Mrs. Huff’s English Classes

• Welcome | Wordnik

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• The Book Seer

  The Book Seer recommends books to you based on the last book (or any book) you read.

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of Mrs. Huff’s English Classes group favorite links are here.

• Schoolhouse 2 | The homework manager for Mac.

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of Mrs. Huff’s English Classes group favorite links are here.

• Advice for Students: How to Read Like a Scholar – Stepcase Lifehack

  This article might help you with summer reading, but How to Read Literature Like a Professor and How to Read Novels Like a Professor are even better.

  Tags: reading, literature

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Mrs. Huff’s English Classes group favorite links are here.

Students, this update will be the last of the year, aside from some notes I will add to the site tomorrow (the notes page is updated through yesterday).

If you are subscribed to this blog through e-mail and still wish to receive updates next year, please e-mail me (you can use the contact form at the top of the blog if you like). Otherwise, I will assume you want your subscription removed, and it will be deleted. The site will still be available to you; you just won’t receive notification in your e-mail each time it’s updated.

That said, I have some book recommendations for you. These books will help you become a better, more astute reader (and will help you write about what you read, too):

• How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
• How to Read Novels Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
  
• Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose
  

Don’t forget your summer reading is available at the Summer Reading link at the top of the Web site.

Grammar, Composition, and Literature CP2 (9th)

Here is an additional copy of the Review Guide.

Clauses video:

Clauses Review

British Literature and Composition CP and CP2

Study guides: CP and CP2.

Here are links to the presentations I have given this semester. If you follow the links, underneath the slide show, you’ll see a tab that says “Notes on Slide X.” If you click that tab, you’ll see my presentation notes! Also, you do not need to have PowerPoint or Keynote to view the presentations.

• Neoclassical/Restoration
• Milton
• Poetry Explication
• Romanticism
• Frankenstein
• Victorian Age
• Wuthering Heights

Let me know if there’s something else I can post that might be helpful.

Students, I ask you to please look over your study guides and try to formulate answers. We will have the most productive review if you are familiar with the terms and concepts mentioned on the study guide.

I am working on a gigantic study guide post for you that most likely will not appear until tomorrow owing to the fact that tonight is Awards Night, and I will have limited time at home this evening to prepare it. It will include presentations and introductions for the units we’ve covered, a clauses video for 9th grade, and links to downloadable study guides.

I warn you that in order to be successful on these exams, it is not enough to be able to memorize. You must be able to apply information you have learned.

Finally, I have just e-mailed anyone who is eligible to exempt the final exam, so if you did not receive an e-mail, it is because you do not meet one or more of the criteria established: an A (93%), no tardies, five or fewer excused absences, and no unexcused absences. Please do not argue with me about these criteria. The English department very generously allows exemptions for students who do meet these criteria, and it is completely fair to expect that if a student wishes to exempt, he/she has met all four criteria. It is also completely fair to disallow exemption if a student does not meet one or more of the criteria. High achievement, being on time, and being present DO count in this life and will help you go places.

As you know, a student may exempt final exams at the discretion of each department and each individual teacher. The English department’s exemption policy is as follows:

• You must have an A in the course for the semester (93%).
• You must have had no tardies to class.
• You must have five or fewer excused absences to class.
• You must have no unexcused absences to class.

I had planned to notify students who could exempt today, but I forgot that I do not have access to my computer gradebook from home. Unfortunately, I will not be able to send e-mails to students who meet the above criteria until tomorrow morning. I apologize for the delay.

Please remember this week is review, and you need to be thinking about what questions you have that I can answer so that we can make the best use of our time.

11th CP BLC students, wasn’t that a great poem? Here is the link to the NPR program—the episode of This American Life that I mentioned in class today. I previously mentioned it in connection with “Dover Beach.” Do you all see any connections between “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” and “Dover Beach”? We also read Dylan Thomas’s poem “Fern Hill.” Since I can’t resist, here’s a picture of my own Dylan Thomas:

Students in Writing Seminar II continued drafting their essays.

I thought 11th grade students might be interested in this Web site about W. B. Yeats, the poet we studied today.

Students in 11th CP and CP2 BLC read and discussed the poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree.” CP also read and discussed “Sailing to Byzantium” and “The Second Coming.”

Students in 9th CP2 GCL read Book 21 of The Odyssey. Your job for Friday is to finish Book 21, do your study guide questions, and be prepared for a quiz over Book 21. We will read Book 22 on Friday (or most of it). What we don’t finish will be homework for Tuesday of next week.

As final exams approach, please study the study guide I gave you. Next week we will review, and you want to come to class prepared with questions about the material you need help with so that our classes can be as productive as possible.

Students in 11th CP BLC read A. E. Housman’s poems “To an Athlete Dying Young” and “When I Was One-and-Twenty.” If we had more time this year, I’d ask you all to write a response to Housman’s poems about a life lesson you learned, including the age at which you learned it. For example, “When I was three-and-ten…” What did I learn when I was three-and-ten? Anyway, you get the idea. Alas, we are quickly running out of time.

Students in 9th CP2 GCL read Books 16 and 17 of The Odyssey. There will be a quiz on Book 17 tomorrow.

Students in 11th CP2 BLC peer edited their poetry analyses. The final draft of this essay is due Friday.

Students in Writing Seminar II continued a study of the power of writing through viewing Dead Poets Society. We have a few more minutes left to view tomorrow.