Rebellions Are Built on Hope

 Read the poem below by Emily Dickinson - 

"Hope" is the thing with feathers --
That perches in the soul --
And sings the tune without the words --
And never stops -- at all --

What is the literary term that drives the meaning of this poem?
  

a. metaphor

b. simile

c. repetition

d. allusion

Scroll down for the answer.

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a. is correct.  We do not have what the complete comparison is, but we should be able to figure out that Hope is being compared to a bird.

Shameless Plug - Awesome Lord of the Flies Survival Simulation Game

 Never fear, fellow English teacher!  You Daily Dose of EOC is still here - just scroll down.  :)

 I love this book with a passion!  As far as teaching symbolism, this book really gets reluctant readers to "get it".  The book has great characters, plenty of action, and lots of good, wholesome violence to keep teenagers happy.  The only problem is that it starts so slowly.

Anyone who teaches reluctant readers knows that if you cannot hook them immediately, you've lost them.

So, while sitting in church one day when I should have been listening to the sermon, I had an idea for a game to get my students into the book.  I made it all by hand with maps, cards, the whole nine yards.  As the years went by, I get tired of replacing lost cards or materials that were marked on by various students and started to take it online.  It took a few more years to perfect it, but I think I finally have it down pat.  It has by far been the most popular page on my class web site by other teachers and it is the most mentioned lesson of mine when other teachers contact me.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/EET-_Lord-of-the-Flies_-Interactive-Survival-Game-6933163

I break my students into groups and each group represents 20 island-stranded kids.  The students decide how many rescue fires they will have, where they will be sheltered, who goes hunting, who goes fruit gathering, and if they want to go exploring.  Each round is a 'week' in the game.

First thing we do is have each group draw and Act of God card.  These cards sometimes bring good things to the group, have no effect on the group, or (more likely) bring bad karma to the group.  Then we draw cards to see what happens when they go hunting, fruit gathering, and exploring.  At this point we tally up the morale.  The morale goes up and down depending on many factors like having shelter for everybody, getting food, people dying (there are a lot of people dying), etc. 

If the morale goes below 10, then the group leader has to draw a Revolt card to see what happens.  Sometimes something good happens, but most likely something bad will.  Then it's off to see if you get rescued.  

For the teams that are left, they do it all over again for the next week with the remaining people they have left.

Sometime groups have everything perfect and it is more like a Gilligan's Island episode than a Lord of the Flies scenario.  Many groups get a good Lord of the Flies type experience, and some have so much bad luck that they make the book seem like a pleasant fairy tale.

Students are encouraged to think outside of the box and try things that are not expected. The teacher is the final say-so for what happens, so when students get creative, roll with it.

Whatever the outcome, the students experience situations that prep them for the action in the book.  Whenever I have used this game, I have found that students are more connected to the reading.

I always like it when teachers send me how their students came up with something new.  Sometimes I adjust the game to match it.  when my students started sabotaging the game to try and make their leader draw a Revolt card, I introduced a new element - Mutiny.  With some groups, that is very popular!

The game comes with the choice to either have it all online (in which case they would move objects on a screen), or to have printables for students to physically manipulate.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/EET-_Lord-of-the-Flies_-Interactive-Survival-Game-6933163

A Fable

Read the following fable:

The Donkey and His Masters

  A donkey, belonging to an herb-seller who gave him too little food and too much work made a petition to Jupiter to be released from his present service and provided with another master. Jupiter, after warning him that he would repent his request, caused him to be sold to a tile-maker. Shortly afterwards, finding that he had heavier loads to carry and harder work in the brick-field, he petitioned for another change of master. Jupiter, telling him that it would be the last time that he could grant his request, ordained that he be sold to a tanner. The donkey found that he had fallen into worse hands, and noting his master's occupation, said, groaning: "It would have been better for me to have been either starved by the one, or to have been overworked by the other of my former masters, than to have been bought by my present owner, who will even after I am dead tan my hide, and make me useful to him."


The best lesson of this story is:

a. He that finds discontentment in one place is not likely to find happiness in another.
b. Good can be found even in difficult times.
c. There is hope for those who wait patiently.
d. He who hesitates is lost.







Scroll down for the answer.







____________________________
a. is the correct answer.


~

I Read This Poem Aloud to Punish My Students

Read part IV of "The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe:

Hear the tolling of the bells -Iron bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night, How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people - ah, the people -
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All alone,
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone -
They are neither man nor woman -
They are neither brute nor human -
They are Ghouls: -
And their king it is who tolls: -
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the bells: -
Of the bells:
Keeping time, time, time
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells: -
To the sobbing of the bells: -
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells -
To the tolling of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells, -
 To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

What literary term is used way too much in this poem?

a. allusion

b. hyperbole

c. repetition

d. verbal irony

Scroll down for the answer.






















_________________________

c. is the correct answer.

Teachers!  The title to this selection is true.  When you need to get your class's attention, pull out this poem and start reading it.  Every time someone speaks, rolls their eyes, put their head down, etc., say that it distracted you and now you have to start all over.  Once you make it all the way through the poem, just pin your copy of the poem to the wall.  Whenever in the future you need to regain their attention, just walk toward the poem and watch the kids get each other in line.  Best form of passive aggressive  classroom discipline ever! 
~

Haiku - Bless You!

 Read this haiku from Basho:

Sick on my journey, 
only my dreams will wander 
these desolate moors 


This poem is about:

a. traveling

b. death

c. birth

d. being sick on vacation

See comments for answer.

Jupiter Is a Jerk

Read the following fable by Aesop:

Two neighbors came before Jupiter and prayed him to grant their hearts’ desire. Now the one was full of avarice, and the other eaten up with envy. So to punish them both, Jupiter granted that each might have whatever he wished for himself, but only on condition that his neighbor had twice as much. The Avaricious man prayed to have a room full of gold. No sooner said than done; but all his joy was turned to grief when he found that his neighbor had two rooms full of the precious metal. Then came the turn of the Envious man, who could not bear to think that his neighbor had any joy at all. So he prayed that he might have one of his own eyes put out, by which means his companion would become totally blind.

What is most likely the moral of this story?

a. Be careful what you wish for.

b. Vices are their own punishment.

c. To be envious is better than to be greedy.

d. It is better to give than to receive.

Scroll down for the answer.

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a. is incorrect.  The first man gets his wish for a room full of gold .  There is nothing wrong with it.  He can't enjoy it because he is so greedy that he can't stand for his neighbor to have more.  This is the best wrong answer.

b. is correct.  See above.  The greedy man can't enjoy his own wish because somebody has more.  The envious man wastes his wish on losing an eye so that his neighbor would lose both.  It was their own vices that led to their unhappiness.

c. is incorrect.  This is completely wrong.  Both are bad and neither is praised over the other.

d. is incorrect.  It is nice, but the only giving here is punishments.

She sells seashells, too.

​Read the following:


Wallace walked wearily while wondering where Wendal was.


What literary device does this sentence rely on?


A. Simile
B. Alliteration
C. Hyperbole
D. Personification

Scroll down for the answer.

________________________________________________




The correct Answer is B.


Thanks to Ezra for this excellent and egregiously terribly twisty tongue teaser. If you want more tongue twisters, try this site: http://www.engvid.com/english-resource/50-tongue-twisters-improve-pronunciation/