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Vanessa Riley's Groups
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Science Fiction
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Teaching Texts
1337 members
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Using Blogs and Wikis in…
557 members
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Project Based Learning (…
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Teaching with Technology
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Vanessa Riley's Discussions
NOT Teaching Shakespeare in High School
Replied Jul. 25, 2009
Is absenteeism a problem?
Replied Jul. 25, 2009
Vanessa Riley's Page
Latest Activity
I model the behavior that I expect of my students. We discuss literature and relate it to our personal lives. We write. I ask students questions. I correct behavior.
However, I don't tell students that they *SHOULD* (or shouldn't) do anything. We d…
I teach Shakespeare to a classroom full of at-risk students. We read it out-loud together, we discuss it, and they LOVE it. Even JC. My secret?
I use No Fear Shakespeare. I've gotten slack about it before from the AP teachers in our district, but r…
I've taught from 6th grade all the way to 12th grade, and I have kept a good portion of my files.
The most important thing forme: If I haven't used something in 2 years, I scan it and throw the paper copy away. I'll save the scan, but if it's not o…
The Reese Education Center in Frenship ISD (Texas) has a great policy in place. I don't know all of the details, but they stress the 90% attendance rule to their students and let them know when they DON'T have 90% attenance and how many days it will…
For horror, you may want to try H. P. Lovecraft or one of his contemporaries. Some of the language is a bit anachronistic (and offensive, if I recall), but I there is a lot you can explore.
Just started my teacher twitter page - mrsvriley
Can't wait to find Twitter-Using Educators on LinkedIn.
I'm starting my fourth year at a 1:1 school. We have all of the tools to be paperless - tablet PCs, scanners, digital cameras, Angel LMS, etc, but I won't go *completely* paperless. Why? There are some things that can't be done on a computer and I r…
I've always used Delicious, but started looking into Diigo after reading this. Do you have your students create accounts? In order to annotate, don't they have to have the toolbar? Does your district allow that?
I'd *love* to be able to use this to…
I can't wait to do this with Rime of the Ancient Mariner!
Profile Information
- Where do you work?
- Vistas High School Program
- Choose all that apply to your job
- Graduate Student, High School English Teacher
- What is your Delicious or Diigo ID?
- lochnessa78
- What is your Twitter ID
- MrsVRiley
- What is your blog, wiki, or website URL?
- http://vriley.edublogs.org/
- What are you reading?
- Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos
- How do you define your role/work?
- Training wheels.
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Comment Wall (1 comment)
- At 12:49pm on July 27, 2009,
Meredith Welsh said…
- Hey Vanessa! Thanks for reaching out to me! I would love to collaborate with you...the more ideas the better. Since the start of school is just around the corner (already!) I've started thinking about that first week of school and first unit (short stories). What short stories have your kids responded to the best? I'm teaching Freshmen and Sophomores.
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Hi Pat, I have never done these myself, but there are some great examples at VocabAhead Vocab Videos which also contains links to digital resources to help students create their videos. While most of the videos are done professionally, there is at l…
Thanks for your reply -- it was very helpful. I think I understand what you are saying -- kids do try to craft a dazzling sentence, rather than one with insight. And something simple can be insightful. But my concern is really the thinking behind th…
I would say comedy is underrepresented. My students have nicknamed my class "AP Sex & Death" as we tend to go to the dark side. I do try to use some comedy in preparation for a Q3 comedy prompt. We do use A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Color Purple…
Your "rambling" is fantastic. So much good advice. You know, I'm actually looking forward to writing now. I feel like I've got a handle on it.
Thanks for all of your comments.
I really like "Out of the Dust" by Karen Hesse. It is short and I think very accessible for struggling students. It won the Newberry Medal. Not only did it help me understand what the big deal was about the duststorms of the time, I thought it told…
And what about the fact that often writers don't know what their thesis is until they begin reflecting in writing about a subject or occurrence? Happens to me all the time.
Thank you so much everyone! I definitely have a better feel for how essential questions work. I've been able to brainstorm a few and included a few here. Feel free to tell me if I am way off base.
What does it mean to be an “Outsider”?
What makes…
Judith--
One opportunity is Teen Ink (http://www.teenink.com). This is a publication for teens only, ages 13-19, to submit and publish their work. The one draw back I found is that once accepted, Teen Ink keeps all rights to the work. This means ki…
Bill,
You have it wrong. I didn't say the theory has not had wide influence. I never said anything like that. I agree that it has had wide influence. What I said was I've never heard of teachers labeling themselves as constructivists or nonconstruct…
The Ugly Truth is that my number one goal for my students right now has to be to raise their 2010 standardized test scores.
I find it disturbing, off-base, heart-wrenching, and almost something shameful to admit. However, NCLB has my entire school'…
I am in search of a novel set during the Great Depression/Dust Bowl era. It will be used in a 10th grade history class; most of the students are struggling readers. The teacher would like to stay away from the "big name classics." He wants something…
Yay Doug! He was one of my teachers in pre-teaching grad school (itp.nyu.edu), and I'm a huge fan of his work. Thanks for posting this, Frank. I'm really excited to see what these guys have come up with this time.
I am looking for opportunities for high school students to publish their writing. I am in VT. We are part of the NWP and can certainly offer that to our students. I know about the Mountain Review, but I would really appreciate other venues where stu…
Oh, a marvelous poem, Carol -- by one of my favorite poets. In graduate school far back in the 60's, I took a creative writing class from Bly at the University of Kansas, and have never forgotten it. Thanks for the connection.
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