A very cool app...

I recently found this new app, Steller . It's an awesome way to tell short stories with images!

Some great words to use in your writing...

Vonnegut on stories...

Recommendations for annotating your readings....

ANNOTATION ADVICE FROM:

How to Mark a Book

By Mortimer J. Adler, Ph.D.

There are all kinds of devices for marking a book intelligently and fruitfully. Here's the way I do it:

• Underlining (or highlighting): of major points, of important or forceful statements.
• Vertical lines at the margin: to emphasize a statement already underlined.
• Star, asterisk, or other doo-dad at the margin: to be used sparingly, to emphasize the ten or twenty most important statements in the book. (You may want to fold the bottom comer of each page on which you use such marks. It won't hurt the sturdy paper on which most modern books are printed, and you will be able take the book off the shelf at any time and, by opening it at the folded-corner page, refresh your recollection of the book.)
• Numbers in the margin: to indicate the sequence of points the author makes in developing a single argument.
• Numbers of other pages in the margin: to indicate where else in the book the author made points relevant to the point marked; to tie up the ideas in a book, which, though they may be separated by many pages, belong together.
• Circling or highlighting of key words or phrases.
• Writing in the margin, or at the top or bottom of the page, for the sake of: recording questions (and perhaps answers) which a passage raised in your mind; reducing a complicated discussion to a simple statement; recording the sequence of major points right through the books. I use the end-papers at the back of the book to make a personal index of the author's points in the order of their appearance.

Check yourself before you wreck yourself!

Check this website out for help with writing your essays!


Pro Writing Aid

Where does my blog title come from?

This is one of my favorite poems of all time...

What is your favorite poem? Post your favorite poem in the comments section

“Hope” is the thing with feathers - (314)

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 -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

Some helpful sites for English class...

Here are a few resources that will help you in writing your responses!

• Check yourself before you wreck yourself! Visit this grammar website: http://www.grammarly.com/handbook/.

• Become an active reader: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/success/reading.html. 

• A great article on writing in high school: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2006/04/27/10-things-teenage-writers-should-know-about-writing/

Welcome to Mrs. Zimmer's Blog

“Read, read, read. Read everything – trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.” – William Faulkner

Welcome to my blog. This is my first stab at the blogging world, so bear with me as I flail about in the shallow end of the blogging pool. My hope is that this page will not only serve as resource for my students, but also as a place for me to examine my own practice as an English teacher. Along the way, I may post a few rants as well as joyful announcements, but my main goal is for this site to serve as a gathering place for my English students and their thoughtful explorations into literature.

At the top of the page, you will see tabs for each of my classes as well as for the Writing Center. Click on these tabs and check them consistently, as I will post different resources as well as my own thoughts on what we are doing in class as often as I can.

You can also use this site as an example to set up your own blog for our class. As you build your blog, please share with me your blog's address so that I can collect them and post them on your class page.

I look forward to exploring the great wide world of literature and writing with you this year!