Welcome to Freshmen English! Please look at the links below and be sure to check out the weekly agenda as well to keep up with what we are doing in class.
Communication between students, parents, and teachers is essential to get the most out of students.
The best way to get a hold of me is via [email protected]. I check it regularly during the week as well as on weekends.
I also use remind.com. For class updates, please sign up for this service using the following document:
Communication between students, parents, and teachers is essential to get the most out of students.
The best way to get a hold of me is via [email protected]. I check it regularly during the week as well as on weekends.
I also use remind.com. For class updates, please sign up for this service using the following document:
invite__2_.pdf | |
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Join newsela.com through this link: https://newsela.com/join/#/UWGMSF and use this sign-up code: UWGMSF
I am working to load assignments onto this website. If your student is missing an assignment, they need to come see me first about assignments they are currently missing.
For additional help, I am currently available after school by appointment. For all MLA questions, please refer to the OWL website from Purdue University. It is frequently updated and one of the most current sites for MLA information! Another good resource for MLA is also this one, which makes it very easy! Also, the Calvin College Knight Cite makes creating a Works Cited, Annotated Bibliography, and Works Consulted pages much simpler.
While driving along the journey of high school, the ACT and SAT tests are an important speed bump in the process. There are many useful tips and practice tests at the ACT website.
The College Board website is really useful to help students find a post secondary institution. Also, if you are looking for scholarships to help pay for college, please click on the hyperlink to find a helpful website filled with scholarship information.
Other great Internet Resources for parents who want to extend their child's abilities in the area of English Language Arts.
VocabularyLiterature/ReadingNarrativeWritingGrammarResearchOther Great Stuff, including Poetry Current Professional Reading
I am working to load assignments onto this website. If your student is missing an assignment, they need to come see me first about assignments they are currently missing.
For additional help, I am currently available after school by appointment. For all MLA questions, please refer to the OWL website from Purdue University. It is frequently updated and one of the most current sites for MLA information! Another good resource for MLA is also this one, which makes it very easy! Also, the Calvin College Knight Cite makes creating a Works Cited, Annotated Bibliography, and Works Consulted pages much simpler.
While driving along the journey of high school, the ACT and SAT tests are an important speed bump in the process. There are many useful tips and practice tests at the ACT website.
The College Board website is really useful to help students find a post secondary institution. Also, if you are looking for scholarships to help pay for college, please click on the hyperlink to find a helpful website filled with scholarship information.
Other great Internet Resources for parents who want to extend their child's abilities in the area of English Language Arts.
VocabularyLiterature/ReadingNarrativeWritingGrammarResearchOther Great Stuff, including Poetry Current Professional Reading
- Translate reading into simpler terms: https://rewordify.com/
- Transitions: http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/Transitions.html
- Book List: Arrowhead Library System College Bound Reading List - This site offers 7 categories of College Bound books to choose from.
- Book List: College Board's 101 Great Books Recommended for College Bound Readers - This list includes mostly 'classics.' It's a more traditional list of books than some of the other lists.
- Book List: Outstanding Books for the College Bound (YALSA) - YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) creates a college bound reading list every five years (1999, 2004, 2009) Each list offers 5 different categories. That's a lot of lists and lots of books.
- Book List: Popular College Bound Books List published by goodreads.com - This list offers 2,300 books. Many are contemporary choices. Literary Terms from Scholastic - This is a pretty good source for finding definitions for literary terms.
- Literary Terms: Enotes Guide - Another extensive list of literary terms definitions.
- Literary Vocabulary - Extensive list of definitions for literary terms.
- Mockingbird: Why read To Kill a Mockingbird? - This is a great article about TKAM and its timeless draw to readers of all ages and levels.
- Poetry 180. A Poem a Day for High School Students - 180 poems selected by past Poet Laureate Billy Collins for use in secondary schools. These are great, highly readable, mostly contemporary poems.
- Schmoop Learning Guides for Literature - Schmoop is kind of like SparkNotes but much better. Schmoop can help you understand a book and its themes by giving you overviews, summaries, and commentaries. Like all book guides, it's not meant to replace reading a book--it's to supplement your understanding if you need help. Maintain your integrity and READ a book with HELP from Schmoop's writers.
- Why Read? Ten reasons - Created using Kelly Gallagher's research, it gives ten great reasons why reading is so important.
- Advanced literary terms defined
- Common literary terms defined
- Creative Writing - An Awesome Library page full of links to sites for writers--mostly background resources, though--not as many short stories to read.
- Flash Fiction Carnival 2008 - This is a blog where people write flash
ficiton to a common theme offered each month. You can join or simply read and
comment on posted works. - Flash Fiction Online - Online magazine of and about flash fiction.
- Flash Fiction by Ian Hocking - A weekly flash
fiction podcast. Some may contain profanity. - Flash What? A Quick Look at Flash Fiction - Short, informative article
on an interesting writing site. Offers some good links at the end of the
article to other sites and books. - General Fiction--Writing World.com - Many useful articles about different aspects of narrative writing; characterization, dialogue, etc. Check it out.
- Genres of Writing - Another page of the Owl On-Line Writing Lab at Purdue University site. This one has extensive lists of online writing resources.
- Literary Vocabulary
- READ Short Stories Online - Lots of classic short stories--remember
to choose stories written in contemporary language if that is part of the
assignment. - Short Stories at East of the Web - Plenty of short stories to choose
from with short blurbs introducing them. - Short Stories to Read Online - Stories here are republished from the Fish Anthologies and previous years of the Fish Short Story Prize--no, they are not about fishing, Fish is the name of the publisher.
- Teen Ink - A publication with teen writing in all genres--be sure you
are reading from the fiction section if you are assigned to read short stories. - The King of Dialogue Rules--Novel-Writing-Help.com - Another excellent source of info
about writing dialogue. This one moves us through a series of important ideas
about dialogue, each in a short article. Be sure to click on the links at NEXT
STEP found at the bottom of each article. - Top 8 Tips for Writing Dialogue--About.com Fiction Writing - Excellent, concise advice on writing dialogue as well as hot links throughout to other useful information for narrative writing.
- Vestal Review - A flash fiction online magazine.
Writing the Perfect Scene - This article has excellent information about constructing scenes. The style of the wrtier is a bit intrusive, but the meat of the matter is very useful. - eNotes: Guide to Literary terms
- 40 of the Best Websites for young Writers - Fabulous resource for writing, editing, and publishing. Spend lots of time here.
- Abstract, Concrete, General, and Specific Terms - This excellent discussion of these terms that are vital to clear writing was written by John Friedlander of Southwest Tennessee Community College. This whole site is useful and contains interactive quizzes.
- Developing an Argument - This site, sponsored by Capital Community College, offers a step-by-step guide for writing an argument essay. It includes examples.
- Tone and Mood Words - A list of tone and mood words. The tone words are categorized as positive, neutral, and negative. Of course the lists are not absolutely complete--use your own words as needed. Check out the great mash-ups created to illustrate change of mood. Links are below the lists
- Writing prompts and exercises - Lots of prompts for essays, stories, poems
- About.com Grammar and Composition - An excellent site with too many valuable articles to list. Check it out!
- Absolute Phrases 1 - 'The Garden of Phrases' This page has good explanations and a link at the bottom to a good page on misplaced modifiers.
- Absolute Phrases 2 - Excellent explanation containing examples from published authors.
- Absolute Phrases--Past participle phrases -
'Past Participles' This sections isn't about absolutes, but the discussion here
of past participle phrases is very good and also includes excellent examples
from published writers. - Appositives--Purdue OWL - Great explanation, both of what appositives are and how to
punctuate them--includes essential(restrictive) appositives. - Clauses, the Essential Building Blocks - Watch the PowerPoint at the top of the page if you can. This site has excellent explanations and quizzes, so browse beyond just this page too.
- Commas--extended rules for using commas by Purdue Owl - Excellent, concise comma review page
- Commonly Confused Words--Glossary of Usage - Check this site for clarification on Bear Words--and more. It includes a quiz you can take to test your knowledge.
- Conciseness--Purdue OWL - This section contains excellent advice on writing concisely. Check here for info about expletive openings.
- Extended Rules for Using Commas--Purdue Owl - Excellent, concise
comma review page - Glossary of Usage: Index of Commonly Confused Words - Check this site for clarification on confusing Words--and more. It includes a quiz you can take to test your knowledge.
- Grammar Bytes - Good grammar site with exercises and explanations
- Grammar Girl - Grammar Girl offers entertaining podcasts that cover almost any grammar skill or question.
- Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling - A section of the Owl On-Line Writing Lab at Purdue University that explains points of grammar and also contains exercises with answers. The interactive quizzes sometimes work, but not always.
- Guide to Grammar and Writing - This site, sponsored by the Capital Community College Fund of Hartford, CT, contains lots of interactive quizzes and exercises. You can learn, review, and test almost any grammar, punctuation, or usage skill on this site.
- Highly Irregular - A short article from Time online that also contains examples of the 'irregular verb' pattern
- 'I'm Firm, You're Obstinate...' - Examples of the 'Point of Veiw' assignment, a form Bertrand Russell is credited with starting when he conjugated what he called an 'irregular verb': 'I am firm; you are obstinate; he is a pig-headed fool.'
- Painting with the Brushstrokes Online Resources - This PowerPoint presentation details Harry Noden's brushstrokes--particples, participial phrases, absolutes, and more. Click on the screen to advance to the next slide. Students will want to click quickly through the boring 'teacher stuff' to get to the brushstroke info several slides into the presentation.
- Passive Voice - An excellent site in general. Good, concise explanations; plenty of commonly needed topics listed along the right side of the page; and additional source links for each topic listed at the bottom of each page. Check this one out.
- Quizzes - Lots of different interactive quizzes--check it out.
- Tongue Untied - A good site with a well organized table of contents to choose from.
- Top Five Tips to Cut the Clutter - An excellent article to help you tighten your writing. Be sure to click on links that look interesting within this site--lots and lots of good stuff here.
- Verb Shifts and Tense Errors - A handy one-page explanation of verb shifts and tense errors followed by an interactive quiz.
- EasyBib.com - This site offers tons of information and articles about research sources, source credibility, and citation guidelines with examples. The site will also build a citation for you, but remember--you are ultimately responsible for the correctness of your citation. 'That's the way the Web site did it' is not a valid excuse.
- MLA Style Guide from Purdue OWL - This is an excellent online source to help you understand and create MLA citation for your work.
- Plagiarism Test from Indiana University at Bloomington - Please take this test and print out your certification certificate. Be sure you take the TEST--not the quiz.
- PowerPoint of SQ3R - SQ3R stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review--a 5-step strategy for greater understanding of informational text
- Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources - An explanation--with examples--of the different types of sources for your research.
- Reading Strategies for the Journey North Teacher- While aimed primarily at teachers, the strategies explained here will help students read informational text with greater comprehension.
- Sites for Teens and Sites by Teens - A list of
various sites that focus on various topics of interest to teens. - American Life in Poetry - Ted Kooser, U. S. Poet Laureate from 2004-2006, created this site with poems by contemporary American poets and a short columns about each poem.
- How to Read a Poem (and fall in love with poetry) - Curious about poetry, but don't know where or how to begin? We've reprinted the first chapter from the book How to Read a Poem by Edward Hirsch. Its 16 sections provide strategies for reading poems, and each section has plenty of links to examples of poems in our archive to illustrate the points.' (from the Poetry Foundation Web site)
- Sites for Teens and Sites by Teens - A list of various sites that focus on various topics of interest to teens.
- Writer's Almanac from American Public Media - Garrison Keillor hosts this daily site with bits of literary info and poems. Go to the 'Archive' link in the upper right corner of the page for a week's worth of poetry