The Scarlet Letter

[debilorrah]

Quote:
Apply the five year rule here. Is it important in five years?? You decide, Mom.

 

[WriterofWords]

The assignment I give tomorrow might not be important in 5 years, but I guarantee it will be important this school year and have a major contribution to the grade my students will get this 9 weeks. In elementary we don't give summertime assignments, but in high school I did, especially in AP classes. I will never forget the two parents who decided that my assignment was not important and told their kids they didn't have to do them. Those parents screamed bloody murder when their kids were removed from AP English. Yes they count, and no they are not something a parent should decide if it should be done or not unless they are willing to risk the consequences of the missing work. We may not like it, but that's the way it is. The school district dictates the assignments will be made, not the teachers. My son is obviously not doing his summer work right now, he's in basic training! He has to be given the opportunity to catch it up, and it's up to him if he's willing to have a very low grade the first 9 weeks or not.

 

[FrenchHen]

Shhh. The five year rule must not be spoken of to those still in high school.
Might as well throw them in the pit of despair...

I try to make all my assignments meaningful and relevant. Hard with freshmen, but I try.

 

[pdsavage]

I never read it..proubly cause all i did was read and no one else in the class did..But i read what i like not what they think i should like...
Sides it takes less then a day to read a book...

 

[Mahonri]

Quote:
You've got a good dad.... but in the beginning, I let my kids use them, just to get the drift... then I forbad them telling them that they had read examples.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Quote:
Beowulf is awesome. I wish I could teach that...

I teach "Romeo and Juliet," Mississippi Trial, 1955, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Odyssey. I don't get to choose the books. Whoever designed the curriculum our school uses chose them.

Our whole school does 20 minutes of SSR as a separate period in the bell schedule every day. It's attached to third hour, so third hour is 90 minutes long instead of 70 minutes. The kids just stay in third hour and pick up their book of choice when the bell rings.

 

[Kansaseq]

I had to read Beowulf, as well as Hamlet in the 6th grade. Our English teacher liked to pushed us hard. Didn't understand much of what I read, and the highest grade on the test was a 'D'.
I did end up naming my Tervuren puppy Beowulf, though.

 

[debilorrah]

The five year rule - is it important in five years if they don't finish their assingments? In my opinion YES. Is it worth fighting them over YES. That is what I meant. Not encourgaing them to finish an assignment teaches them they can slack off when they don't feel like doing something.

Is it important to holler at them about keeping their room clean at 18 years old? NO.

 

[mom'sfolly]

Ah yes, I remember those days. I find that time period's literature to be very heavy going but there are some things to keep in mind. Novels written before the age of radio, television and the internet are much slower paced, they spend much more time setting the scene. These books were written for a time when it all came from your head. They are also meant to be read aloud. People read to one another as entertainment so reading it aloud may help.

Here are some things to consider for this novel:

Pearl: she has several symbolic/metaphorical meanings. She is Hester's "pearl of great price". She is also clean and seemingly untouched by her parents' sin, she is made as a pearl is, of an unwanted and irrititating substance; how does she differ from the other Puritan children/ Is she more or less constrained because of her mother's label.

How does the meaning of Hester's letter change for the community she is in? How is her outward shame different from the father's inward shame? (I can't remember his name since it has been 3000 years since I read the novel). What are the outcomes of the public shaming versus the internalized guilt. Who suffers more long term, Hester or the father? How are the communities rules enforced. How would they have treated the higher status man if his identity had been known?

Look also for any religous symbols, they would be very familar to the readers of the time.

It is hard to follow, but it is actually an interesting story that can be read on many levels.

 

[mom'sfolly]

I just want to add that this will prepare you for some seriously fun reading. One of my favorite college classes was called Chaucer's England, it was a history course based on English literature. Chaucer is fun, ribald, and loaded with historical detail. We read lots of what would be considered original source material, much of it written in middle English. One of my favorite was a set of rules for parrish priest's that included such rules as, "if your are so drunk you can't pronounce the Latin for mass, you are not allowed to say mass", and another which said you were not allowed to baptize your own children. The church has changed in 500 years.

Hang with it, slow down and pretend you're in a cold room, reading by candle/lamp light to friends and family.