Here are two brief suggestions for teaching various aspects of English. They were submitted
at the Spring Conference. We hope to print a few of these each issue.
If you have other little gems to contribute, submit them to Jim Swanson, editor of the
English Notes. His address is Beadle Hall, Dakota State University, Madison, SD 57042.
Karen Clark
Chamberlain High School
To help my high school Title I students understand (and, hopefully, appreciate) Shakespeare, I have begun using the Shakespeare Can Be Fun! series published by Firefly Books and written by Lois Burdett. The series includes four of Shakespeare's plays--Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, and Twelfth Night--and his biography. Ms. Burdett has summarized these titles and Shakespeare's life into short books written in couplet form. She has used these books to teach elementary students, and she has collected some of their comments and drawings which are included in the books.
My students are often reluctant readers, but they seem to enjoy reading
these books aloud in class when I use them as an introductory "teaser" or as a quick review at the end of the study.
Lorynda Eekhoff
Beresford High School
During a short unit on poetry, my freshmen are asked to write "Life
Metaphors" poems. We begin by discussing the famous Forest Gump life
simile . . . "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get,"
. . . and expanding on that idea to explain what he meant.
Students write their own life metaphor in at least 10 lines, choosing the
most concise, descriptive words to expand their idea. They are required to type them and in some way
illustrate their poem.
I was very pleased with the creative ideas that students came up with,
and surprisingly, I had only two poems that used the same comparison.