Wednesday, April 6, 2011

I certainly do teach English, too!

Today is Wednesday, which is when I usually post about Maths Club. In my father's most recent email, though, he said, "your blog always seems to be about math. I thought you were teaching some English, too..." I guess it's high time I give an update on Class VII English!

The most important concept for students to wrap their heads around this year is metaphor. Most of the pieces of literature we study centre around one well-developed comparison. In 'Advice to a Girl' by Sara Teasdale, a piece of advice (specifically, "no one worth possessing can be quite possessed") is compared to a stone. A girl possessed by anger, it explains, can be calmed by good advice just as her hot cheeks could be cooled by a smooth stone. Once calm, she can meditate on the wise words just as she could study the stone's beautiful complexity. Needless to say, the poem appealed strongly to the intensely-emotional geologist in me. My class sevens selected their favourite proverbs and wrote them on smooth stones:


A more involved metaphor project was to prepare a poster comparing themselves to any object of their choice. I think they did a wonderful job!





3 comments:

  1. So glad to have an English update, their work looks excellent. They must enjoy the fun way of learning english concepts. Dad M

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  2. Remember to teach them that good poems rhyme. People these days suffer from the delusion that a poem dosn't need to rhyme.
    Sent

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  3. your update is great, you have very talented students it is very refreshing to see

    love Mom B

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