Mrs. Martin's English Page

Speak: Melinda and Self-Injury

2012-02-13T18:20:00.000-08:00

In my Honors English 1 classes, we are reading Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. The protagonist, Melinda, has begun injuring herself in various ways. During class sessions, many students are having difficulty understanding what is underneath Melinda's need to cause herself harm. I looked into this further myself, and I found several articles that may be of interest:

"Why are so many girls cutting themselves?" Psychology Today

"Teen Cutting Defined" Teen Help.com

"Cutting - Self-Injury: From the Teen's Perspective"

"Stop, or I'll Shoot!"

2012-02-12T12:46:00.000-08:00

Juniors - if you read the article in the latest Up Front magazine about police officer monitoring, please respond to at least one of these thoughts below:

1. Respond to the question that is raised in the article: "If the police have the right to shoot video in public, should the public have a right to videotape the police?" (14).
2. They mention the famous situation where a bystander videotaped the police beating Rodney King in 1991. Can you describe a famous time in recent years when ordinary people broadcast a video that showed public officials in a bad light? Do you think it's okay for people to be able to do that?
3. How do you feel about the comment "We live in a world where cameras are everywhere, and we are constantly being recorded - often without realizing it" (15)? Do you know of places where you are recorded?

"Should the Minimum Wage Be Raised"

2012-02-12T12:36:00.000-08:00

Juniors - if you read the article in the latest Up Front magazine about minimum wage, please respond to at least one of these thoughts below:

1. What would you say is one of the author's main ideas of this article? What are your thoughts about that idea?
2. Do you have a job where you receive minimum wage? How do you feel about your salary?
3. Do you have any thoughts about the two graphs that appeared with this article? Explain.

**Feel free to have your comment also be a response to another student's comment.**

Survivor Stories

2012-01-30T05:01:00.000-08:00

At the start of quarter 3, in all of my classes, we have been studying the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and specifically the survivor stories that remain of that event. We watched the powerful documentary White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as read excerpts from the first-person account, Letters from the End of the World by Toyofumi Ogura.

This week we will read more from Ogura as well as look at parts of Keiji Nakazawa's graphic novel, Barefoot Gen. In addition, I will be asking students to find at least one other survivor story to read and bring to class by Wednesday. Students may find they want to also look into survivor stories from other disasters in our history in order to see if survivors have similar ways of writing about their experiences.

Here are some online places where there are survivor stories as well as other interesting information regarding the bombings - feel free to use these or find your own:

Voice of Hibakusha

Survivor of both bombing attacks

Hiroshima Peace Memorial

Boston Globe Photography Project

The view from Westminster Bridge

2012-01-21T10:15:00.000-08:00

On the midyear exam, some of my ninth grade students were given a sonnet by William Wordsworth titled, "Composed Upon Westminster Bridge." I wanted to share what he may have been looking at that morning when he wrote the poem:

What is the history of our words??

2012-01-21T09:47:00.000-08:00

This week in my English classes, when we study new vocabulary, we're also going to investigate why we have these words in our vocabulary. Each student will be given a word to investigate, essentially using etymology to understand a word better.

What is etymology? Well, it's the study of a word's history...it's looking at how the word came to be in our language. Knowing a word's etymological meaning is also an important skill in the Common Core State Standards Initiative, which is what Maine is using now as the guideline for what students should be learning. In the vocabulary section for high school students, they state that students should: "Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning, its part of speech, or its etymology." So, we will be working on finding the etymology for our words this week.

There are plenty of resources online that can help you this week as you undertake this task. Here is one that I find quite useful:

Online Etymology Dictionary

Abbreviations for Entries

Good luck, students!

Midyear Exam Review

2012-01-11T14:12:00.000-08:00

Here are some websites to help you review concepts for the Honors English 1 midyear exam:

Quizlet sets for vocabulary and grammar (courtesy of Lucas).
Enter amartinbhs for username and english for the password:

Quizlet Sets

Quizlet with all 60 words, courtesy of Rachel: Quizlet with all Vocabulary

Romeo and Juliet Quote Quizlet:

Romeo and Juliet Quote Quizlet

Online Romeo and Juliet crossword puzzle - click on Crossword Puzzles, then Romeo and Juliet:

Romeo and Juliet Crossword

Online Adjective/Adverb quiz:

Adjective/Adverb Quiz

Another online adverb quiz:

Adverb Quiz

Sweet Vengeance by Joseph

2012-01-10T16:53:00.000-08:00

By Joseph, Period 5

Everybody with two eyes and more education than that which was commonly seen at the time, knew the tragic tale of Romeo and his beloved Juliet. Few people, however, know exactly why a certain character by the name of Tybalt managed to get himself and Mercutio killed, along with Romeo banished into a church three blocks down. Some may say Tybalt was somewhat of a hotheaded fellow, who took great enjoyment out of spilling Montague blood every morning before eating some nails and eggs to improve his sword-fighting. Sadly this was not the case, for Tybalt had his reasons for every action he made, even if the common tale was that he was a villain calling villainous fellow.

You see, long before all these creepy love affairs started happening, back when the days were fine and dandy, the Montagues and Capulets did not in fact despise each other. At that time, there was a pleasant little marriage going on among the Capulets. You see, after strenuously searching Italy, the Capulets at the time managed to find a lovely husband (by the name of Benvenuto) for his daughter, Alessio. They were both pleasant folk and quickly got along, and so scheduled a wedding for Thursday of the very week they had met. So preparations were made, and finally, to the joy of all the Capulets, the wedding began.

As all this was happening, a dreadfully bored Montague by the name of Edoardo sat back on a small porch. Suddenly, he was approached by a group of girl scouts selling cookies. Even in these far off times, such things still pestered the land. Through this cruel, scheming cookie selling technique, Edoardo was forced to buy some cookies. Another thing that was still common at the time was assassination attempts, for Edoardo had himself none other that a box of poison flavored cookies. Apparently not hungry for them, he decided to head over to the wedding, seeing as it was not to far and the merry music could easily be heard from where he was. So he strolled over to the wedding, dropped his crate-load of cookies onto the nearest snack bar, and began joining in the jubilant celebration.

So the time wore on, and eventually it approached dark, as torches had to be brought out to allow the merriment to continue. By this point Edoardo managed to drink himself into a deep stupor, as was common in fair Verona. Wine glass in hand, he sat and rested, until someone noticed that a person dropped dead to the ground. None other than Alessio herself had fallen from a cookie to the stomach, and none quite understood what happened. That is, until a few dozen other people who ate the cookies dropped dead as well. For this reason, Edoardo did the most reasonable thing of running for his life. Having no nice relatives or love life tying him down, he was free to escape Verona.

This was a terrible time for all those under the name of Capulet, make no mistake. Seeing the Montague run away from the scene of the crime, all those there firmly believed it was none other than a Montague who killed poor Alessio. The Montagues vehemently denied this, not willing to believe one of their own kin would steep so low as to destroy the wedding affairs, no, the very life of another. The royal family, after much decision, decided to permanently exile Edoardo, this being a favored punishment. As time passed, animosity grew stronger rather than lesser between the two noble families. Eventually the wound festered into a grudge, held and passed down generation to generation, until only a few still remember how it all began.

Tybalt was one of the few to still remember such, and seemingly feeling he knew the conniving of the Montagues, took it upon himself to protect the Capulet’s and their honor from this Romeo fellow. Hopefully this will satisfy you over Tybalt’s reasons challenging Romeo, yet you may still be wondering, “yet old wise story teller, why would Tybalt even consider fighting Mercutio, let alone killing him?” That question can easily be answered, because it is a little known fact that Tybalt has a deathly fear and hatred of those whom are funny, or humorous. Don’t blame Tybalt though, its hardly his fault the cruel man Peter kept throwing surprise parties in the middle of the night.

It is widely believed, even with this knowledge, that Tybalt was more looking at the past to see who he should fight, rather than what was right in front of him. Yet even if you did not know these entirely convincing reasons for attacking Montagues, did Tybalt really deserve to die? What reasons did Romeo have for slaying Tybalt, besides maybe extremely emotional reactions and enhanced sword techniques? That is a story for another day, so I say good luck, and may you not repeat the mistakes of Tybalt.

Friar Laurence's Grave State by Lucas

2012-01-10T16:49:00.000-08:00

By Lucas, period 7

The Breaking Point of the Friar

“It's not my fault that people die, it's the maker who decides who lives and who is taken off the face of the earth. But the question remains, why am I still here? Why didn't the almighty maker get rid of my devious corpse?
“Ever since that night when Romeo got word that Juliet was dead! But she really was not dead but in a deep coma like sleep! Does that really make it my fault? Does it! I suppose since it was my plan to have them meet each other in the tomb of the Capulet's. I shouldn't have done it, I shouldn't have devised the plan! I shouldn't have even married them! Especially against their parents wishes!
“Oh lord, even if I did marry them I should have told their parents and let their parents quarrel and argue about this matter for it is a family matter, not one of my own affairs! Oh no, oh no, oh no, this is what is to befall me, I am to sit here and live the rest of my life in anguish in this drafty prison cell!
“Why me, why Romeo, why Juliet! They should have never met one another! Ever! Romeo, if you are there watching over my condemned soul, please notice that I am eternally in debt to your soul.
The Friar then paused as if he heard something coming from a far off distance. 'Wait! I hear someone coming down the hall... who could it be?' Questioned the Friar internally.
“Here you bag of slime, here's you tray of garbage.” Said a guard bringing food to the Friar's cell.
“Oh please, oh please, make him go away... Oh help me lord.”
“That will be enough out of you! How dare you say the lords name after what you've done to Romeo and Juliet, how dare you call yourself a friar!” The guard then slapped the zany friar across the face, “that will be enough I said!” As the guard laid another slap on the friars face. The friar then whimpered like an injured dog until the guard left Friars cell and the hall. When the Friar could no longer hear the guards footsteps he finally let his emotions run free and cried.
A few minutes later he let his mind take over again and continued his ongoing rant. “Am I growing crazy? The devil is now my keeper, he's right, it was my fault that the two larks died, it is my fault. I should die than to live in this cell for the rest of my soulless miserable life!
“It is the devil, speaking through my lips, I am not subjected to this kind of craft, this is trickery!

This is devilry! this is insanity! What doth lurks through these eyes that see into thine heart? They are the beady eyes of Malice!
“Malice is the one that made me agree to such a preposterous marriage! It was Malice! And now, as I lay here in this desolate and cold cell filled with which brought me to this hell! Malice!
“I wish I could go back to the time when I had gaiety in my step! Oh how I long to have my youth back, with all its glory and tenderness. I never wanted to be a friar let alone a priest! If it weren't for my father, I would never have been a friar. If it weren't so! Oh how I loathed that moment and the story that was bestowed to me by my mother and father on my father's death bed!

A Time of Remembrance Brought By Remorse

“This newborn child shall sum my count and clear me of all my wrong doings and sins of killing as a nobles men. And that shall be this child's duty as my son, to be a priest. A worthy profession for such a little runt.” Said Sir Laurence.
“That is a terrible expectation for a child Harold!” Scolded Lady Laurence, “you've down right taken away the we babe's life and amusement away!”
“Well look at him, he's so small, he'll never amount to anything!” Retorted Sir Laurence.
“Well he's just a baby! What do you expect? By the sixth child I thought that you'd at least stop judging them from birth!” Exclaimed Lady Laurence
“Silence thy tongue Cossette, before I cut it off!” Ordered Sir Laurence. The conversation then slowed, “Yes, you will be a priest nevertheless, a priest you shall be,” stated Sir Laurence.

The Point of No Return for the Friar

“My father an estranged man, filled with his conceited way's. By his firm hand, what he wanted, happened. Nonetheless it was his way or no way at all. And my poor helpless mother, defenseless and subjected to such hate and anguish from my fathers poor deeds and judgment.
“I wish that he could have turned his life around and repented his sins. But he was to involved in his way's to turn the tables. When he died his last wishes were for my five brothers to go and claim their spot in the world and create an empire. But my father always had an escape clause for every last detail, and that included me, the last detail, which was for me. My Father's last detail was for the last son to purse priesthood, and I was fulfilling it until I got shut in here!
“And that's what brings me to talking to you, the rats! The default of all gods creatures, yes, you shall feast upon my corpse as soon as I go to hell for what I have done! Yes, that was god's plan all along! For me to serve indentured servitude to the rats for the price of killing two of my own faith and worship. Well bless him, bless his nonexistent soul! Well thanks for anything that I've amounted to! I only served my whole youth as your abiding servant! What have I for all the years wasted on you! Is this the plan? Is it really the plan! Why! Why! Why! Why!
The Friar then looked at the tray of food left for him. He skimmed the tray noticing every little detail. He then looked at the knife given to him to cut his rack o' lamb. The corroded and rusted knife. “Quiet, quick knife, will you end all my wrongs? Will you fix all that is bad? Subtle, sleek, sullen!” The zany priest then looked at the squealing rats. The friar flew the knife at a rat and saw the knife stick the landing rate through the torso of the rat.
“ No! What have I done, I didn't mean to! Yes, yes I did! No! Yes! No! Yes! Yessssss! Yes I did, come here! Little rat, small rat, what was your purpose? To scavenge your whole life?”
“Yes.”
“Well that doesn't seem like a practical purpose!” The Friar then squished the rat, so much that the eyeballs popped out of the rats skull from the tremendous strength of the Friar. “That was your original purpose you piece of worthless matter!
“See God! You don't control all the death in this world! No! See you don't! You don't!”

A Resolution For Friar Laurence & A Little Priest

It's been two days since the Friar has been thrown into his cell. The Prince and the Royal Assistant have been doing their daily duties in the great hall and have found time to talk of current events. There is an ominous tension between them as they stumble upon the subject of the Friar's enchained well being.

“It's always a sad day to see a figure of our city to be enchained in shackles,” said the Prince. “I feel that it wasn't the Friars fault that the two lovers came to there demise, it was more or less the quarrel between their two families.”
“Yes sire, quite right!” Said the Royal Assistant promptly. “You know, you could let the friar go, if you feel that he hath served his time in shackles. I don't think they suit him, if it's not to bold to say so your eminence.”
“No, you are perfectly right, I think he has served his time in that horrible rat infested labyrinth of hell,” Restated the Prince. “Tell the guards to release him and send him to the royal cathedral at once if you please.”
“I'll personally get the guards myself!” Resolved the Royal Assistant.
The guards marched down once more to the dungeons of dark despair and saw a malodorous sight. “Oh god save him!” A guard shouted as they saw the writing on the wall, “As God as my witness, God doesn't control every death in this world,” written in blood. The corpse of the Friar was not visible due to the mounds of rat that were crawling over his flesh and gnawing on his cold rancid corpse. The end of a subtle dagger was visible, rate through the throat of the Friar.
“I guess he can apologize to Romeo and Juliet now,” Said the first guard on the scene to the second. The second guard grimaced and then looked away as if in pain. “In hell,” concluded the first guard.

“Mother Mary! Save this being! Oh lord!” Screamed the second guard in anguish.

The Life of the Prince of Verona by Jacob

2012-01-10T16:34:00.000-08:00

By Jacob, Period 4

The Prince stared awestruck. Before him lie the bodies of Mercutio a Montague and Tybalt a Capulet, the former slain by the latter and the latter slain by Romeo of Montague. The families of both surrounded the bodies, screaming for justice and threatening to cause further bloodshed. After surveying the situation for close to a minute the Prince raised his hand and the voices slowly quieted. “How did the two before us come to die?” There was a brief moment of silence before someone answered the Prince.

“It was Romeo of Montague,” Lady Capulet screamed in outrage “he butchered my dear nephew Tybalt so he shall be put to death as the law demands!” Once again the Prince raised his hand to stifle the roar of outrage coming from the Montague’s.

“Is that so? What say you Montague’s in Romeo’s defense?” Benvolio stepped forward exclaiming,

“Good Prince, though Romeo did kill the Capulet Tybalt, it was only in retaliation, for Tybalt killed Mercutio who lies slain at your feet. Romeo was only doing what you, inevitably, would have done in order to carry out the law. Shouldn’t he then, be pardoned, for this bloodshed was all started by Tybalt?”
The Prince thought for a moment, he knew Romeo to be one of the few well mannered and respectful Montagues of the boys his age. And Benvolio was correct he would have no doubt sentenced Tybalt to death had this been a case of only one murder. However the Capulet’s were a powerful and well respected family who could easily cause him trouble if he wasn’t careful. After another few minutes of thought the Prince yelled loud enough for all surrounding him to hear.

“Though Romeo has done a service in killing Tybalt for me, a life is a life therefore I banish Romeo of Montague. If he is seen in Verona’s walls after sunset he will be put to death.” Leaving that last word to resonate within their minds the Prince proceeded back to his quarters and where he instructed his guards to clear everyone, both living and dead from his courtyard.

After sunset the Prince commanded his guards to search the Montague house and he was returned with news that Romeo had left soon after he got the news. Feeling satisfied the Prince retired, but when he woke he was not the least bit satisfied to learn that in the night a courier of Father Lawrence’s was told to convey a plan to Romeo, now in Mantua, a way to not only get back into Verona but to take Juliet, Capulet’s daughter while he is here. Disgusted that Romeo would go against him despite the kindness that he had shown him the Prince concocted a plan to both punish Romeo and find out if Father Lawrence was truly loyal to him.

Within the hour the Prince had both Father Lawrence and the courier within the same room. After revealing that he knew about the plan to give Juliet a sleeping agent that will make her appear dead so that Romeo could sneak her out the Prince ordered the Father to do the unthinkable. “I have nothing against the Juliet girl so instead of replacing her potion with poison just make her the sleeping potion powerful enough for the funeral to take place and for our courier to travel to Mantua and Romeo to travel from Mantua, then add an hour or two extra.” The Prince then turned to the courier, “After Juliet takes the potion and the ceremony is done I want you to travel to Mantua and inform Romeo that his
beloved Juliet is dead.”

The Prince looked at the two and they nodded in acceptance. They were both too smart to dare refuse, for that would mean they would end up like Mercutio and Tybalt. Dead.

The next two days passed in silence but on the third day, the Prince received word that Juliet was “dead” and had been moved into the Capulet’s tomb, right next to her cousin Tybalt. The only thing left for the Prince to do was wait so, just like normal days, he punished the wicked and pardoned the
innocent. He solved petty disputes and sometimes he even created some for his own amusement. It was two days later at a quarter passed noon, that the Prince received news that Romeo had committed suicide in the Capulet tomb.

However he also found out a bit of news that distressed him. Not only had Romeo committed suicide but when Juliet had woken up she had taken her life as well. However the worst was yet to come. The Prince exited his quarters to find that Father Lawrence had felt that he betrayed God and had not only told all of Verona what he had done but told them that the entire plan was the Princes. Thus when
the Prince went outside he came to find a mob of Capulet’s and Montague’s alike that were so outraged with the Prince they dared to challenge his authority. If not for his league of guards and his ability to threaten death legally, he likely wouldn’t have made it back to his quarters without a large amount of his own blood being ejected through a hole in his throat.

However this death threat wasn’t quite enough to dissuade Capulet because when the Prince's guards went to check on him the next morning, they found him with a dagger through his abdomen and his eyes open in fear.

Action Verbs

2011-12-17T18:04:00.000-08:00

Here is a fantastic poem created by Delaney and Evan in my period 4 class to highlight one of the verbs we studied, action verbs:

Verbs are the way to go,
when you're baking or making dough.
Action is a type of verb,
even when you're growing herbs.
Action verbs are when you're doing something,
like running, jumping, or hiking.
As you can see we have a quiz on Friday,
study your action verbs so you can get an A!

Love it -- great online photography project

2011-12-11T17:30:00.000-08:00

This year I learned about a website that has become quite fascinating to me. It is called "Dear Photograph". Here, people hold one of their old photographs over the same setting in current day. They also write a caption that captures how they feel about the juxtaposition of the two. The only way to understand it is really to check it out yourself and, of course, to submit your own:

Harry Potter

2011-12-10T04:16:00.000-08:00

On my blog for the past two weeks, I have had a survey asking about everyone's favorite book series. It looks like most of you love Harry Potter the best. I have to say that I love how J.K. Rowling's book series helped so many readers LOVE reading again. I love the series, too, and I also love the films that were created for the books. It's such a great world Rowling created!

In thinking about your own experience with Harry Potter, what has been your favorite moment in the series? Respond to this post with your answer!

Quizlets

2011-12-07T08:33:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to a Quizlet set I created for the Honors English 1 students to study their latest words: Quizlet for List 7 Words - 9th Grade

Here is a Quizlet that was created for the words my AP English 3 students have:
Quizlet for Juniors - our list 4

Santa Ana Winds

2011-12-05T07:41:00.000-08:00

To my students in AP English 3, here is a link to a news story about the powerful winds in southern California:

Santa Ana Winds article

Hopefully you recall that this is an important plot point in our novel we are currently reading, The Tortilla Curtain.

Anachronisms

2011-11-28T12:25:00.000-08:00

Anachronism is defined as "a thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists, esp. a thing that is conspicuously old-fashioned; an act of attributing a custom, event, or object to a period to which it does not belong."

In some sections of Honors English 1 today, we debated whether the mentions of guns, bullets, and gun powder in Act 3, Scene 3 could be considered an anachronism on Shakespeare's part. It certainly seems that it is since the violence on the streets of Verona always involve sword fighting. However, it appears that it is not a complete anachronism. Gunpowder was first invented in the 9th century, and firearms were first invented in China in the 12th century. Furthermore, Romeo and Juliet, according to historians, was probably intended to be set in the 1590's in Italy, and it appears that there were guns during that time as there was a famous battle in Rome in the 1590's. So, it can probably be concluded that Shakespeare was aware of guns and Italians at this time may have referred to guns, too.

Shakespeare does use anachronism in other places. When I have taught the play Julius Caesar in the past, I remember the use of clocks in Ancient Rome as being a particularly blatant anachronism.

Canyons in Tortilla Curtain

2011-11-25T07:38:00.000-08:00

Last week in our AP English 3 class we were discussing our experiences with Tortilla Curtain, and the question arose of what these canyons look like that Candido and America are living in out there in the Los Angeles area. Below is a photo I found online that will give you a good visual while you are reading. I have visited this area myself twice, and these photos fit what I remember about traveling there. I remember lots of dusty roads with large drop-offs. I remember seeing lush vegetation intermixed with very desert-like landscape. I remember when hiking in one of the canyons being able to see for miles, seeing the city, the ocean, the hills. It's interesting in this novel how they are living such a sad existence in such a beautiful environ.