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J. D. Wilson, Jr.
- 60, Male
- Centerville, MA
- United States
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J. D. Wilson, Jr.'s Groups
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Teaching the Research ...
137 members
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Honors/Advanced English
121 members
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Poetry Round Table
209 members
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Science Fiction
59 members
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Teaching Media and Film
141 members
J. D. Wilson, Jr.'s Discussions
J. D. Wilson, Jr.'s Page
Latest Activity
This is a lesson I do contrasting tone and mood, two terms my students often confuse.I also added a couple of other exercises I do that involve tone. Hope they help.
Cordially,
J. D.
Here are some things I use. I do these as group work and then base a quiz question on the findings. There is one for the fourth voyage if you are interested but this only lets me attach three. Introduce the Restoration Unit with a group work "deba...
I forgot to mention that the images at the bottom of each of the journal pages illustrate events in the story. I give students extra credit on the quiz if they jot down the page number and give me a sentence or two description of what is going on....
I don't know if these are useful or not but they are exercises I have students do with bits of the text. I also added a nightly reading journal that I use. The first night is for something students get from the text book but nights 2-4 come from T...
I haven't taught from a textbook (well hardly at all from a textbook, I use them for short stories and poems) since I started teaching. I only teach novels in all my classes at all levels. There are a number of reason why I do this, which I have g...
I have quotes and images hanging all around my room, alas, none that hang from the ceiling, how awesome that would be. I also have a "wall of fame" like you sometimes see in old restaurants and pizza parlors with pictures of tons of authors and po...
Still, in a timed test, you want the student to focus on the content of their ideas and not on penmanship. That said. if students can be nudged to clearer handwriting in class it cannot hurt. But as an AP grader I can also say that the best handwr...
Profile Information
- Where do you work?
- Wareham High School
- Choose all that apply to your job
- High School English Teacher
- What is your Delicious or Diigo ID?
- http://delicious.com/christophernorthjr
- What is your blog, wiki, or website URL?
- http://www.warehamps.org/district/schools/whs/departments/english/M...
- What are you reading?
- Inherent Vice - Thomas Pynchon
- How do you define your role/work?
- educator/vocation
A Moveable Classroom
This is my classroom ning where students can converse with each other and do more academically English sorts of things.
amoveableclassroom
amoveableclassroom
J. D. Wilson, Jr.'s Blog
A Wicked Good Guy
My students seemed to like this blog so I thought I would post it here.
… Continue
A Wicked Good Guy
… Continue
Posted on October 31, 2009 at 7:19pm — 26 Comments
A tall Ship, A Guiding Star, and a Usable Word Hoard
A tall Ship, A Guiding Star, and a Usable Word Hoard
The Clipper Ship "Flying Cloud" off the Needles, Isle of Wight
James E. Buttersworth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buttersworth_-_flying_cloud.jpg
Tom Waits is singing about a man who is saying good-bye to friends, f… Continue
The Clipper Ship "Flying Cloud" off the Needles, Isle of Wight
James E. Buttersworth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buttersworth_-_flying_cloud.jpg
Tom Waits is singing about a man who is saying good-bye to friends, f… Continue
Posted on September 13, 2009 at 7:21pm —
Looking Backwards, Facing Forward
Looking Backwards, Facing Forward
 Roman ruins and sculpture
G.P. Pannini
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PanniniMusImagin.jpg
The song is an excerpt from William Blake’s poem Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion. The passage glances back to an English “golden age” in… Continue
 Roman ruins and sculpture
G.P. Pannini
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PanniniMusImagin.jpg
The song is an excerpt from William Blake’s poem Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion. The passage glances back to an English “golden age” in… Continue
Posted on September 7, 2009 at 8:23am —
At the Moment
At the Moment
Rose Window, Strasbourg Cathedral
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rosace_cathedrale_strasbourg.jpg
I am a schoolteacher. At the beginning of a school year it is important, I think, to consider what the new year has to offer and what ought to change and… Continue
Rose Window, Strasbourg Cathedral
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rosace_cathedrale_strasbourg.jpg
I am a schoolteacher. At the beginning of a school year it is important, I think, to consider what the new year has to offer and what ought to change and… Continue
Posted on August 30, 2009 at 6:55pm —
A Taste for the Unusual
A Taste for the Unusual
Netherlandish Proverbs
Pieter Brueghel the Elder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bruegel_Proverbs.jpg
I do not know what “frim fram” sauce, “oss-en-fay”, or “sha fafa” are, for all I know they may just be the invention of the lyricist. But I like the song beca… Continue
Netherlandish Proverbs
Pieter Brueghel the Elder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bruegel_Proverbs.jpg
I do not know what “frim fram” sauce, “oss-en-fay”, or “sha fafa” are, for all I know they may just be the invention of the lyricist. But I like the song beca… Continue
Posted on August 24, 2009 at 11:34pm —
Comment Wall (11 comments)
- At 8:10am on June 19, 2009,
Joseph Scotese said… - I think I did introduce you to co-ment - but, alas, no - it hasn't been installed on my server yet. Though that is a project I will be trying this summer.
- At 11:58am on June 7, 2009,
Joseph Scotese said…
- thanks! you're the first person in 3 years of the site's existence to notice (or to comment) on the name.
- At 11:48am on May 27, 2009,
Mike Brawer said… - J.D.,
I wanted to clear the air a bit if I may. I did not mean to make any assumptions about your abilities or your dedication to your district. I do see where my comments may have been taken that way though and for that I apologize. I truly enjoy this discussion and find great value in it. As I take up for one idea against another’s position it does not mean that I am against it, I like to play devil’s advocate and draw from a person as much on a topic as possible by offering counter positions.
I would argue that the skills we teach are not optional, they are essential which is probably why there is so much discussion about what we teach. There are so many avenues to get our students to acquire the skills we feel they desperately need for the world outside our classrooms. At the end of the day no matter what text we teach we need to feel that we have done our best for our students.
- At 5:43pm on May 19, 2009,
Sally Paduch said… - I just wanted to tell you that I had such a fun time reading Animal Farm today. I was at the podium (brought out for this very purpose) and... I mean, I WAS Major. I was up there pounding on the podium, pointing at the "porkers", and ranting at the chickens! The kids didn't know what to think. But I had their attention, that's for sure! After class, I even started singing, "You say you want a revolution..." Maybe It'd work better if I brought in my Beatles CD's. What a class!!!
- At 6:03am on April 20, 2009,
Sally Paduch said…
- I can't thank you enough for introducing me to this site. I know it's going to be really helpful.
- At 4:31pm on April 19, 2009,
Joan Porter said… - YOur poem by John M. was a poem I had to memorize for Grade 4 Royal Conservatory Exam, when I was a child. Thanks for the memory. I, too, live beside the sea.
- At 4:35am on April 13, 2009,
Steve Shann said… - Thanks for your thoughtful and wise response to my blog post. I get such a sense of warm encouragement from the things you write
- At 5:13pm on March 9, 2009,
Steve Shann said…
- I don't mind at all that you've sent my blog to some of your colleagues. You might want to check out the postscript, written after some of the comments came in, and with amended rubric. http://steveshann.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/123/
- At 4:40am on February 28, 2009,
Steve Shann said…
- Thanks J.D.
You should come here one day.
I spent 3 years in the States ... but left 57 years ago when I was 5!
Thanks for your permission. I've enjoyed reading your contributions.
Cheers,
Steve
- At 11:22pm on February 27, 2009,
Steve Shann said…
- J.D.
Would like to quote you in a blog post I'm writing. As follows:
Another English Companion Ning contributor, J. D. Wilson Jnr, speaks directly about this.
I teach the books I teach because I find them sublime and beautiful and I hope my students can come to appreciate the beautiful and the sublime. [English Companion Ning]
He understands the difficulties involved in reading some of these texts.
I am dyslexic and reading is very difficult (it was all through school for me) and requires more time for me than it seems to require for others but it has always been worth the investment of time ... A student should not have to wrestle with Chaucer, Morrison, Shikibu, or Scheherazade or any author if the text itself does not have a value that makes the wrestling match worth the time spent wrestling with it. But too often, I think as a culture, we expect immediate pleasure or gratification, we do not want to tough it out.
Is that OK with you?
Steve
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Latest Activity
I think it depends upon the purpose of the literature circles. I mainly use them as a way to support independent reading once or twice a year. I also use them for short stories, but that is a little different.
Since one of the main purposes is to...
What do you mean by differentiating grammar?
I think you've hit it right on the mark - they hate the sheets, and they tend to actually reduce the conversation to a 'get it done' type of activity. They 'cover' the sheets & don't really delve deeper. I often post a few discussion questions par...
The first 30 pages are a challenge for many students, since they don't get the irony, and they want to read for 'action' / plot, and there is very little in the first part of the novel.
I always started with stations, I had about 6 different stat...
There are several threads regarding this topic that might be interesting to you in the Personal and Professional Balance group. Also this thread and this one might be useful.
And in the small town, teachers had their own children as students (when you're the only math teacher in the whole 9-12 building, and the next nearest school is 20 miles away, there's really no choice). When I was younger, there were teachers over...
I am going to begin teaching this novel soon as well. I am hoping to bring in a lot of current H1N1 materials. Did you find any other supplementary material that really worked for your students? Thanks.
Attached is audio from Jim Burke's High School Matters presentation on his digital journey. He referenced the following tools in his presentation:
Ning
Twitter
Diigo (and the EC Ning diigo group)
Jim's Blog (created using Typepad)
Blogger (platfo...
Try Asminov. Bradbury is good too. Some titles to consider - "All Summer in a Day","The Rhumm", "The Pedestrian", "The Secret".
Good Luck!
It isn't tracking. Who said I was tracking?
I did not mean to suggest that you are "guilty" of tracking. I had just responded to the post about RTI, and that does seem to me to be tracking. So does differentiation. Your example of finding six fig...
Feed, City of Ember are both high interest and popular with students
Rachel,
I like your ideas on the research paper and I want to extend your idea to the long term paper (10-15 pages). We would write the essay over the year and it is a kinder and gentler way to introduce students to research writing. Do you have ...
1. They all have a meaningful task to accomplish (this is why the planning is so intense), so there isn't much reason to get off task. There's always a little bit of goofing around, and I'm OK with that as long as most everybody is more or less ge...
I am grinning from ear to ear. . .that is Alan Sitomer. . .he blogs everyday here at ECN. . .but you are right, Kara. . .super sessions to be had this year. I am reading two Sitomer titles this week and revisiting his book about teaching teens.
Gary and Mark,
I, too, was once an admirer of Howard Gardner--until I neared the end of his An Unschooled Mind where he calls for the creation of a national curriculum and the standards that would accompany said document. To my mind, such thinkin...
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