Yesterday I finished my exams with my eleventh graders. This was their first official assessment for the International Baccalaureate Diploma which they will get at the end of next year. Here's how it works:
They come into the room, and are given a poem or an extract from a piece of literature that we have read this semester. For us, that meant either a Langston Hughes poem or an extract from Shakespeare's Macbeth. They have 20 minutes to annotate the piece and decide what the most important elements of language and style are, and what message the author/poet conveys with those elements.
Then they give an 8-minute oral commentary, which is followed by a two-minute discussion of the piece (I ask them questions).
They all arrived on time, they all had prepared, they all made it through the commentary without breaking down. No small feat considering that English is their second language! I'm very proud.
So my head is full of literary elements. For example, Kelly Clarkson uses anaphora in the song drifting through my headphones right now. (Repetition of a word at the beginning of consecutive lines)
This Christmas I'm gonna risk it all
This Christmas I'm not afraid to fall
There is also situational irony in Ramallah: A 96% Muslim city has a massive green and red Christmas tree downtown. I offered to take a picture of a Muslim family in front of it the other day.
I also can't read anything without annotating it. Even the menu on a restaurant, I want to mark up with notes on imagery, effective descriptive language and hyperbole (exaggeration).
Friend in Residence Elizabeth Dodd gave me some straw ornaments to decorate our advent wreath with. This afternoon will be a Christmas Cookie making festival at the Swift House! Good thing I can get Philadelphia cream cheese here, for the tender dough of my favourite cookie.
Season's joys to you!
They come into the room, and are given a poem or an extract from a piece of literature that we have read this semester. For us, that meant either a Langston Hughes poem or an extract from Shakespeare's Macbeth. They have 20 minutes to annotate the piece and decide what the most important elements of language and style are, and what message the author/poet conveys with those elements.
Then they give an 8-minute oral commentary, which is followed by a two-minute discussion of the piece (I ask them questions).
They all arrived on time, they all had prepared, they all made it through the commentary without breaking down. No small feat considering that English is their second language! I'm very proud.
So my head is full of literary elements. For example, Kelly Clarkson uses anaphora in the song drifting through my headphones right now. (Repetition of a word at the beginning of consecutive lines)
 |
| The Cafe where I'm sitting now. |
This Christmas I'm gonna risk it all
This Christmas I'm not afraid to fall
There is also situational irony in Ramallah: A 96% Muslim city has a massive green and red Christmas tree downtown. I offered to take a picture of a Muslim family in front of it the other day.
I also can't read anything without annotating it. Even the menu on a restaurant, I want to mark up with notes on imagery, effective descriptive language and hyperbole (exaggeration).
Friend in Residence Elizabeth Dodd gave me some straw ornaments to decorate our advent wreath with. This afternoon will be a Christmas Cookie making festival at the Swift House! Good thing I can get Philadelphia cream cheese here, for the tender dough of my favourite cookie.
Season's joys to you!
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