Hi everyone.
We’re on vacation this week so my blogging time will be less. Just wanted to let you all know in case I don’t get much written. It may be until next Tuesday before I get time again.
Enjoy your July!
Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Fall Class Schedule, Book Lists, One Thing Workshops
Finally what you’ve been waiting for: the Fall Schedule for Brave Writer classes and materials. We have an exciting program designed for your families. Check out the links below to read the details.
We’ll also roll out some high school book discussions in the coming weeks so stay tuned for those.
The Fall Schedule for:
The Language Arts Programs: The Arrow (3rd-6th) and The Boomerang (7th-9th) Book Lists now posted.
Registration for the Online Classes and One Thing Workshops opens at 12:00 p.m. eastern on Monday, August 1, 2008.
Automatic Monthly Subscription Payments for the Arrow and the Boomerang open on July 27, 2008.
If you want to order The Writer’s Jungle Platinum Package (which includes a full year’s subscription to The Arrow or The Boomerang at a substantial discount), you may do that now and we’ll automatically start your subscription August 1st, but send you The Writer’s Jungle now.
If you have any questions or want to find out how Brave Writer can best meet your family’s needs this fall, I’m available through the Brave Writer public discussion forum called The Scratch Pad every day. I check the forum to read the questions posed by parents who are interested in the Brave Writer program. I’ll be happy to give you guidance to help you purchase the right materials and to sign up for the right classes.
You may also email me with your questions, if they are of a more private nature.
Thanks for all the input this year! Here’s to an awesome fall!
Julie
P.S. Remember: Brave Writer classes fill quickly. To ensure a space, you will want to sign up when registration opens on August 1, 2008 (Friday). Have a friend register you if you are out of town.
Boomerang Book List 2008-09
At last! We have all the books picked out. I’ll update the website for both the Arrow and the Boomerang today. For now, here’s the book list for those who have kids 7th-9th grade. We’ll also feature both subscription styles: issues only and issues with discussion.
For those unfamiliar with the Arrow and Boomerang, here’s a brief summary of what they are. These are our language arts subscription programs. Each month we post an issue that features four dictation/copywork passages from a novel. I give you talking points for why I chose the passage, how to teach it and what to note in it (grammatically, literarily, in terms of spelling, and so on).
The Arrow then also includes a literary element that is taught and demonstrated through literature and includes a writing exercise designed to help your kids put the element into practice.
The Boomerang features 7-10 “think piece” questions related to the novel that enable kids to respond to the literature in writing.
Without further ado, here is the book list!
The Cay (an adventure story of a young, newly blinded man learning to survive on an uninhabited island) Theodore Taylor
The Chosen (story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures of growing up Jewish) Chaim Potok
Jane Eyre (classic tale of a poor, orphaned girl who falls in love with a rich man who hides a secret) Charlotte Bronte
The Eagle of the Ninth (classic historical fiction by renowned author) Rosemary Sutcliff
The View from Saturday (tells the story of four sixth grade quiz bowl champs and their paraplegic coach/teacher) E. L. Konisburg
A Tale of Two Cities (classic Dickens) Charles Dickens
Christy (Christy Huddleston leaves a life of privilege and ease to teach in the impoverished Smokey Mountains) Catherine Marshall
The Westing Game (a delightfully complex puzzle in the form of a “who-dunit”) Ellen Raskin
Treasure Island (classic pirate’s tale) Robert Louis Stevenson
The Hero and the Crown (captivating fantasy novel about a princess who determines her own destiny) Robin McKinley
Fall Class Schedule and Boomerang Book List
These are coming to a blog and website near you this week. My goal is to have them up by Friday. Thanks for your enduring patience. 🙂
Excellent Timed Essay: SAT/ACT Test
I’ve taught the Timed Essay for the SAT/ACT many times. I’ve read hundreds of essays that answer the prompts we use for that class.
It feels like I’ve heard it all, as far as content is concerned. I like to tell my students that if you can earn a total score of 6-8 on the essay (that means that each of your two graders will give a score of 3 or 4), you’ve done well enough to feel good about the test. I rarely hear of students earning a 10, have only ever heard of one 11, and have yet to know anyone scoring the maximum 12. (If your kid did, let me know!)
As a result, I read these essays with the intention of finding solid, competent writing, with some interesting personal anecdote material interwoven. Every now and then, a student startles me with insight and fresh ideas. The essay below is an example of what I would score a 5-6 (meaning a 10-12 total) if I were a grader.
Read the prompt first:
A little inaccuracy saves a world of explanation.
–C.E.Ayers
Assignment:
Is it always essential to tell the truth, or are there circumstances in which it is better to lie? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
Here’s the essay:
I was once told by a friend that, “Lying is never right. In some cases though, it is the lesser of two evils.” Although I have not always followed this principle, I do agree with it.
As a young child, I felt the need to act “mother” with my little sister. I wanted especially to calm her when she was hurt. Unfortunately, she didn’t get hurt nearly as often as I wanted to mother her. To “remedy” this, I regularly bit her. I didn’t bite her hard enough to cause her any physical harm, only just hard enough to make her cry. When my mother would ask me why my sister was crying, I would say, “She bit herself.” This was when I was 4 or 5. My mother didn’t know the truth about these incidents until a year or two ago. Even though by that time the incidents occurred too long ago for me to be punished, my mom was not pleased with me. These lies, and the fact that I hid them for so long, still serve as an embarrassment and a source of guilt to me.
At other times, I have lied to try to hide something someone else did. Once, my little sister smeared her sticky hands all across the mirrors just after they had been cleaned. Being the older sibling, my mother called me in to tell her what happened. I knew my little sister would get in trouble if I told on her, so I lied and said I did it. My mom believed me and I was mildly punished for my sister’s crime. Even though I knew what she’d done was wrong and I knew she deserved the punishment, I didn’t want my little sister to be harmed. I lied out of love. I considered my little sister’s pain more important than my own.
My final example of lying as the lesser of two evils is probably cliched. Anne Frank and her family, and many other Jews in Nazi Germany, hid from the Nazis for several years. During that time, the Franks trusted their friends to not tell the Nazis where they were hidden. They trusted their friends to lie about their hiding place. In such cases, where if the truth is told it means death, lying is most certainly the lesser of two evils.
Lying should never be considered optimal. It should never be considered the first choice, the first escape. We should always try to find another choice first. If there is no other choice, though, or the only other choices have worse consequences than the lie, telling a lie can be considered a valid choice.
Robin, 14
