On this site you will find course pages, composition aids, whs drama, and the WHS Boys' tennis page (see More...).
"The Play's The Thing" Hamlet
All of my classes rest on the idea that playing with language is the best way to improve language skills. And it's way more fun than NOT playing with language. To play with language is to explore syntax and diction, to experiment with the same, to laugh, to take risks, to fail, to push boundaries, to pun, to riff, to rant, to actually enjoy using the English language. This is what we do in the American Literature courses and the UConn ECE Composition and Rhetoric course. On this website you can find curricular documents, links to youtube videos, cool photos, and assignments.
To totally stereotype, the Irish are the best in the world at playing with language and their artists are great examples for the rest of us. The background photo above is of the Trinity College Library Long Room in Dublin, and the inset is of the Samuel Beckett Bridge over the River Liffey, also in Dublin. And yes, I've been to Ireland and want to live there.
To totally stereotype, the Irish are the best in the world at playing with language and their artists are great examples for the rest of us. The background photo above is of the Trinity College Library Long Room in Dublin, and the inset is of the Samuel Beckett Bridge over the River Liffey, also in Dublin. And yes, I've been to Ireland and want to live there.
A running list of writing tips, including a definition of plagiarism and resources for responsible citations, is on the Composition Tips page! Check it out.
The Immutable and Irrefutable
(Rules of the class)
1. Courtesy and commonsense rule. Don’t be a jerk.
2. Respect the right to learn – do not disrupt the class in any way, shape or form. (eg. Talking/texting/playing on your phone, walking about, private conversations, sleeping, throwing, etc.)
3. Whining is forbidden – if you have a legitimate complaint, put it in writing and see me after class.
(Rules of the class)
1. Courtesy and commonsense rule. Don’t be a jerk.
2. Respect the right to learn – do not disrupt the class in any way, shape or form. (eg. Talking/texting/playing on your phone, walking about, private conversations, sleeping, throwing, etc.)
3. Whining is forbidden – if you have a legitimate complaint, put it in writing and see me after class.
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FOR CLASS OF 2025 - JUNIORS
11 Honors American Lit students: we begin the year looking at American Literature through the lens of race - something always appropriate in our country.
For several years we used classic texts like Uncle Tom's Cabin and Huck Finn as summer reading material. You'll still read Huck Finn, but instead of starting with the perspectives of white American authors, we will start this year with texts written by African American authors. Both of these texts (already in our curriculum) have been making the lists of books on race that need to be read by every American. (I've added an example of such a list here, in case you would like to read further.) Ta-nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me, a 2015 best seller and National Book Award winner, is a memoir in epistolary form (that means it is a letter), in this case a letter to his black son about surviving in America in a black body. Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys, is a 2019 Pulitzer Prize winning, best selling novel based on a true story of a boys' reformatory school in Florida. These will be challenging reads. Pay attention. When we get back to school, we will also read the first essay in James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, a 1963 best seller and still a necessary read if you wish to join the conversation about race in America. The first essay is the model for Coates' memoir; it is Baldwin's letter to his nephew about his future in America as a young black man. In September, we will also be looking at the textbook How to Read Literature Like a Professor. I provided a link to it below if you want to get ahead. |
FOR CLASS OF 2024 - SENIORS
UConn ECE - “The course opens with an immediate follow-up on a summer assignment, which consists of reading the texts Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant, and They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing with Readings (2009 edition or later), by Graff, Birkenstein, and Durst. Both of these texts focus on a relationship between thinkers, readers and writers/speakers – a relationship that takes place within a larger communal conversation. In other words, these texts suggest that any “high school” model of a response to art or argument that begins and ends with “me” is seriously incomplete. The acts of reading and thinking and writing all happen in a swirl of other voices; conversations that inform and confuse and illuminate and obfuscate. Our reading and writing are part of such conversations, but we need to see them as such.
Think Again is a text that shows us the value of being wrong, and the necessity of rethinking and unlearning our beliefs. We will use this text the entire year as a touchstone for conversations and rhetorical moves. They Say/I Say will provide some actual exercises to do as well as spurring discussion of academic rhetoric. Students will respond to writing prompts that follow the “Readings” found at the end of the text. This exercise allows students to explore the social and conversational aspect of academic writing and models the composition and rhetorical concepts behind close reading analysis. The text offers templates of rhetorical tools that students can immediately add to their own writing toolboxes. Students will read several of the attached writings and write two response essays, in multiple drafts, to practice the skills of summarizing, quoting, determining what matters, assuming a position, planting naysayers, using transitions, and being aware of the need for meta-commentary as a writer.” In case you got a copy of They Say, I Say without readings, you can use the pdf below.
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Notes for ECE
| Steps to Increased Credit Transfer Success.pdf |
College Prep/college application essay
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