Maria O’Toole’s Web Index

SLM 521 – Telecommunications and the Internet

Activities for the High School English Classroom

Dropin 1: Students in an Honors level American Literature course explore the rhetorical device of hyperbaton, also known as syntactic inversion. Perfectly aligned with a unit on Colonial Literature, students explore the meaning of hyperbaton, the reasons authors use the device, and finally notice and signify hyperbaton in Anne Bradstreet’s “By Night When Others Soundly Slept.”

http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/otoolem/dropin1.htm

Dropin 2: Students in an Honors level American Literature course explore the rhetorical device anaphora, expanding on its meaning and then analyzing its use by founding father Thomas Jefferson in The Declaration of Independence. A link to the sound recording of NPR’s annual reading of the declaration is included.

http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/otoolem/dropin2.htm

Dropin 3: As Part II of a larger assignment, students in academic level English 1 explore the world of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Using pre-existing maps of the fictitious town of Maycomb, Alabama, the students evaluate for textual accuracy and use their findings to improve upon their own “Mapping Maycomb” projects.

http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/otoolem/dropin3.htm

Dropin 4: Students in an Honors level American Literature course investigate differing perspectives as to Edgar Allan Poe’s cause of death. Synthesizing information from multiple sources, the students analyze the pros and cons of the four most common theories surrounding Poe’s death and articulate a brief persuasive response detailing which theory they find to be most plausible and why.

http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/otoolem/dropin4.htm

Dropin 5: Students in an Honors level American Literature course acquire knowledge of common elements in American Gothic literature. They notice and identify specific Gothic elements in Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” and formulate signifying comments concerning the meaning and purpose behind the inclusion of the element in the text.

http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/otoolem/dropin5.htm

Presentations: Students in an Honors level American Literature course recap approximately the first 257 years of American literature, from the Colonial Period through the Romantic Period. This detailed PowerPoint presentation is designed to accomplish the goal of exposing the students to a survey of American Literature by helping students track progression of literature over time.

http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/otoolem/amlit_files/frame.htm

Audio on the Web: Students in an Honors level American Literature course listen to sound recordings of two of Poe’s most famous poems “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee” before annotating and commenting on the significance of multiple advanced literary terms. The activity for each poem culminates with a practice draft of a thesis statement and textual support body paragraph which explore Poe’s rhetorical purposes for including one of the literary devices examined.

http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/otoolem/audio.htm

Evaluating Websites: For those teachers who are tired of explaining to students why Wikipedia and other academically untrustworthy sites are not acceptable academic research resources, this checklist worksheet and model are a perfect way to show your students how to evaluate for quality web pages. Criteria are subdivided into three easy-to-remember categories: General Professionalism, Authorship, and Timeliness

http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/otoolem/evalweb.htm

Additional Recommended Resources

Lesson Plans: Find descriptions and handy links to five of the most useful web resources of lesson plans and ideas for the high school English classroom. Featured websites are: Web English Teacher; Folger’s Shakespeare Library; PBS Teachers; NCTE’s Read, Write, Think; and NEA’s The Big Read.

http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/otoolem/lessons.htm

Web Link Bibliography: A perfect resource for the high school English teacher, this page links to useful resources, study guides, activities, and worksheets for teaching four great American novels: The Scarlet Letter, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, and To Kill a Mockingbird.

http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/otoolem/wlinkbib.htm

eReading: Investigate the growing trends of eReading options, including accessibility of full-text novels via website and eReaders. Compare and contrast the three most popular eReaders on the market.

http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/otoolem/eread.htm

Search Engines: In pursuit of the perfect internet search engine? This web page names ten “best in class” sites, two each for the categories of General Search Engine, Meta Search Engine, Kid Appropriate Search Engine, News and Media Search Engine, and Image Search Engine.

http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/slm/student/otoolem/searchen.htm