Frankenstein, MD

PBS Digital Studios released a mini-series called Frankenstein, MD via YouTube. Each fictional episode is approximately 5-7 minutes in length and explores various aspects of the text through the eyes of a modern scientist who is fabricating her own creature. Access the entire playlist here.

POEtry and Pi

What does Pi have to do with Poe?

Besides the fact that I really like pie (especially pumpkin or pecan!) and find Poe stories to be intriguing...nothing, really. At least, nothing on the surface.

Mathematician, software engineer, and author Mike Keith enjoys blending his passions by applying mathematics to music and the English language, the latter of which led to his interest in Pilish.

What is Pilish? Pilish is one approach to the idea of constrained writing where the writing adheres to a pattern based upon Pi. To write in Pilish, each word's letter count must match with the numbers found in Pi.

For example, Keith rewrote Poe's The Raven using Pilish. It begins:

"Poe, E.

Near a Raven

Midnights so dreary, tired and weary."

If you count the letters in each word and put them together, you have 3(.)1415926535. The first eleven digits of Pi!

You can find the entire Near A Raven poem and its 740 digits of Pi here. Keith also wrote Cadaeic Cadenza, another Pilish piece that uses nearly 4,000 digits of Pi. (Cadaeic Cadenza is a collection of shorter pieces modeled off of other popular texts; part one is Near A Raven.)

Perhaps a little something to tuck away for March 14th...(Is it too early to start planning?)

If you're intrigued, here are Keith's guidelines for writing in Pilish.

Turn It In Discussion Board

If you are a high school English teacher in our district, you are most likely already making good use of Turn It In and its many features, but did you hear about the newest feature?

Turn It In now offers an online discussion board!

I had the opportunity to view it in action this week with freshmen; I get to see it with juniors next week...and I am very excited about this new feature!

Why am I excited and using exclamation points? Don't we already have access to online discussions through Google Classroom?

Google Classroom does allow students to have discussions via questions the teacher posts to the stream. Turn It In takes it a few steps beyond the basics, however. Here's what you can do in Turn It In's discussion feature:

• Teachers post questions using a screen similar to posting an assignment. There is a spot for the question, a spot for additional instructions, and a due date.
• Teachers can have multiple questions posted at once, and they are easily viewed on the Discussion page.
• Teachers can chose to moderate posts or not.
• As students post responses and reply to posts, Turn It In visually tracks the thread and labels each response.
• 1 (or another single number) means the post is the beginning of a thread.
• 1.1, 1.2, etc means the posts are responses to the original post labeled 1.
• 1.1.1, 1.1.2, etc means the posts are responses to responses to the original post labeled 1.
• (I'm not sure how far down the path it goes, but I did see a 1.1.1.1 yesterday!)
• Teachers can manipulate how they view the posts. They can view the posts threaded (meaning the posts read like a conversation, in the order they were posted) or they can view the posts by student.
• When a teacher sorts the posts by student, the teacher can see both original posts and replies to classmates posts. The student's every contribution shows up. (In contrast, Google only shows a student's original post.)
• Students can post questions if the teacher allows. This could add an interesting dynamic to the conversation.

Thinking of giving it a go in your room? Please let me know how it goes!

Exploring Poe Online

PoeStories.com is an informative and easy-to-navigate website dedicated to the life and writings of Edgar Allan Poe created by Robert Giordano, a graphic artist, photographer, and fellow writer. Giordano included a number of features that make his website a fantastic tool and resource for both student and teacher. Like most Poe websites, it begins with a biography of the Master of Macabre, and there are a number of photos accessible within the included photo gallery, including some of Poe's gravesite taken by Giordano himself. Along with the biography, Giordano also includes a timeline that cross-references Poe's life events with major historical events that occurred in his lifetime. 

One piece that was especially important to Giordano in creating his website was accessibility to Poe's writings. Through his website, teachers and students have immediate access to the full digital texts. In order to help readers, Giordano hyperlinked words and phrases, connecting them to a glossary he has created. The glossary assists readers in understanding both definitions and allusions. Readers have access to the glossary as a whole, but the information is also visible while reading a text. Instead of being redirected to the glossary page, clicking on a hyperlinked word in a story opens a little pop-up box with the definition/explanation.

Whether you're looking for a new Poe story to engage your students or seeking a more accessible way to read his works, Giordano's website might be worth checking out.

Let Your Imagination Fly - PTA Reflections 2015-2016

Oh, the Reflections contest! Having a mother who was extremely active in the PTA, the Reflections contest was on our yearly calendar. Perhaps my memory is incorrect, but I do not recall there being so many categories. I hope if dance had been a category back when I was in school that I would have taken that opportunity!

If your students are looking for a creative outlet that can earn them a little scholarship money, encourage them to think about entering this year's contest. Entries need to connect to the theme "Let Your Imagination Fly" and fall into one of the following six categories: Dance Choreography, Film Production, Literature, Music Composition, Photography, or Visual Arts. 

The local Sioux Falls deadline is Saturday, December 5, which is less than a month away. Access the printable registration form here. As I learn more, I will update this post,

Streamlined Digital Timelines

A few weeks ago, I shared this timeline for our English curriculum study. It is a digital timeline that I created through TimelineJS, which is based out of Northwestern University's Knight Lab. A few people expressed interest in how I created the timeline, and the instructions are all presented very clearly and concisely on the TimelineJS website.

In a nutshell, you make a copy of a Google spreadsheet template from TimelineJS. (If you are going to have your students use this program, I recommend making your copy of the template "View Only" so that students have to make a copy from your copy.) Then you (of your students) fill in the information on the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet has spaces dates (start and end), times (if appropriate), heading text, explanatory text, digital media (images, YouTube videos, website links, etc.), and digital media source citations.

Once your spreadsheet is complete, the TimelineJS website walks you through how to publish your spreadsheet to the web. After a few clicks on their website, you have a moderately interactive digital timeline that looks pretty polished.

Honestly, the part that took me the longest was finding the perfect picture for each event on my timeline!

If you are thinking of having your students use TimelineJS for a project, here are a few tips from the website:

1. Keep it short. We recommend not having more than 20 slides for a reader to click through.
2. Pick stories that have a strong chronological narrative. It does not work well for stories that need to jump around in the timeline.
3. Write each event as a part of a larger narrative.
4. Include events that build up to major occurrences - not just the major events