Abacus Educational Services

Berlinski is a rare breed

2011-02-07T10:15:00.000-08:00

Dear Scholars,

We decided last week that no assignment was necessary as you all had strong ideas about what you wanted to write. It seems that everyone was inspired to write poetry. Let's discuss poetry a bit further, with emphasis upon adjusting the rhythm and meter.

Let's study these and perhaps their authors would like to recite:
Derek's APWBAP
Marc's Cemetery and Butterfly Butterfly

Auditory learning:

Has everyone listened to The Death of Criticism?

I also found Eagleton's lecture on Faith and Reason at Yale University quite fascinating and added it to my page of exemplary lectures.

I know that these talks are quite long, but they are definitely worth listening to if you have time.

Here is a very short talk I recently found. Berlinski is a rare breed -- he is an American who handles language beautifully:

David Berlinski -- flaws in Darwinian evolution.

There are many telescopes down which science is churlishly disinclined to peer

2011-02-07T10:13:00.000-08:00

Dear Scholars,

A number of works were handed in this week:
Angela's Insanity,
Derek's English Class, and poem about Through the Looking Glass and What Alice found There, and his revision of The Narwhal and the Bartender.

I mentioned last week the journal editing work I was doing and Derek asked to see it. I don't have permission from that client to share her work, so I posted an article I did some time ago which the author did give me permission to share: It is posted in our site: Lurking Behavior. We could look at it a bit though I expect that boredom would preclude a longer study.

Has everyone listened to The Death of Criticism? Do you have any thoughts on it? Would you like to have more lectures of this sort?

I encountered two rather interesting quotes this week. Perhaps they would serve as good essay prompts. Do they inspire you?

"There are many telescopes down which science is churlishly disinclined to peer." -- Eagleton.
"Intelligence is a lethal mutation." -- Chomsky.

Let's think about writing on these (or something else).

An algorithmic approach to verb phrase construction

2011-02-07T10:12:00.000-08:00

Dear Scholars,

I hope you all had a wonderful and productive Easter break.

Over the break I posted a new page on our site: An algorithmic approach to verb phrase construction. We may play with this a little in class tomorrow if there is interest. It presents a step-by-step formula for creating perfect, progressive and passive constructs in any combination.

I have been working on a new online education site and am posting lectures there for the purpose of language study. Here is one superb example I just found yesterday: The Death of Criticism.

Note: This lecture is posted purely for its language, not for any ideological message contained in it. Please listen to as much of it as you have patience for.

Description:

Prolific author and literary critic Terry Eagleton speaks at UC Berkely on "the death of criticm." Professor of English Literature at the University of Lancaster, and Visiting Professor at the National University of Ireland, Galway, Dr. Eagleton is probably best known for his "Literary Theory: An Introduction".

During this hour, Professor Eagleton demonstrates how unscripted speech may rival in its sophistication practically any highly polished and edited prose. Listening to lectures such as this will do more for your proficiency with English language than any quantity of grammar or vocabulary study.

Difficulty level: 8/10

Dialect: British (RP) English

Points to look for: one use of "criterion" which should be "criteria".

See you all tomorrow.

Adjective and adverb practice

2011-02-07T10:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Scholars,

Some of these are very easy, some much harder. See what you can do with them.

Identify the adjectives and adverbs and what words they modify.

Example:
Ginger spoke glowingly of Kyoko's lovely hat.

"Glowingly" is an adverb modifying "spoke".
"Lovely" is an adjective modifying "hat".

1-10 are fairly easy. The rest are more difficult. Do only the ones you would like to do. Be sure to look up words you don't know.

Aunt Agatha looked cold as she slowly opened her presents.
The CEO feels unusually tense every Tuesday.
The penguin spoke briefly of Kyoko's lovely acting skills.
The children's teacher announced that the class was the most highly rated in the lake district.
Greg's sprightly mule accepted every task willingly.
In the winter, New York is much colder than Florida.
Hank waved his green socks enthusiastically at Steve.
Speak softly into the badly hidden microphone or we will suffer greatly.
When Thomas pounded firmly on the sliding door, he woke the sleeping troll.
"Grammar is so difficult and quite boring," the orderly student complained bitterly.
Aunt Agatha looked coldly at Uncle Cuthbert as she opened her parcel containing the infamous holiday assortment of industrial adhesives, one of which had quite handily, in an as yet unexplained case of misidentification, taken second place in the Pixley Festival of Disagreeable Cheeses.
Boadicea took refuge behind an enormous decomposing turnip, prominently displayed in the booth representing the Unrepentant Recovering Reductionists.
The soft singing seraphim found the stringy otter cheese revolting.
The softly singing seraphim found the stringy otter cheese quickly.
The bold brazen basilisk spoke with wit and candor of the disadvantages of eating squeaky sweets in the courtroom.
The boldly brazen basilisk spoke with wit and candor of the disadvantages of eating sweets squeakily in the courtroom.
This daffodil smells sweet and sings sweetly, though it seems only marginally sweeter than Saturday's marginal entries -- seemingly.
Unable to distinguish Braille E's from I's, the flabbergasted curmudgeon felt bad about feeling so badly.
The queen looked beautiful as she looked imperiously at the impudent haddock.
The misanthrope looked furtively about, trying avidly not to look furtive.
Aunt Agatha had only just recovered from the awful, confusing, but highly memorable funeral.
Uncle Cuthbert had been pleasantly surprised and diverted by the awfully confusing funeral.
Boadicea agreed that it was hard to picture the intensely unassuming Uncle Cuthbert stalking a reindeer, even after his apparent success with the irascible organ-grinder.

On Form in Poetry, Music and Art

2011-02-07T10:08:00.000-08:00

The following excerpts from The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry characterise, far better than I every could, the role of form in poetry and the bleak, undifferentiated maunderings into which free verse can degenerate. Please read it and present your thoughts.

By form, just so that we are clear, we mean the defining structure of a genre of type. When we say formal, the word should not be thought of as bearing any connotations of stiffness, starchiness, coldness or distance -- formal for our purposes simply means 'of form', morphological if you like.

In music, some examples of form would be sonata, concerto, symphony, fugue and overture. In television, common forms include sit-com, soap, documentary, mini-series, chat show and single drama. Over the years docu-dramas, drama-docs, mockumentaries and a host of other variation and subcategories have emerged.
...

If [Ezra Pound] was right in determining that his generation needed to get away from the heavy manner and glutinous clichés of Victorian verse, its archaic words and reflex tricks of poetical language, and all out-dated modes of expression and thought in order to free itself for a new century, is it not equally true that we need to escape from the dreary, self-indulgent, randomly lineated drivel that today passes for poetry for precisely the same reasons? After a hundred years of free verse and Open Field poetry the condition of English-language poetics is every bit as tattered and tired as that which Pound and his coevals inherited. 'People find ideas a bore', Pound wrote, 'because they do not distinguish between live ones and stuffed one on a shelf.' Unfortunately the tide has turned and now it is some of Pound's once new ideas that have been stuffed and shelved and become a bore. He wrote in 1910: 'The art of letters will come to an end before AD 2000. I shall survive as a curiosity.' It might be tempting to agree that 'the art of letters' has indeed come to and end, and to wonder whether a doctrinaire abandonment of healthy, living forms for the sake of a dogma of stillborn originality might not have to shoulder some of the responsibility for such a state of affairs.

... it is a wonder that any considerable poetry at all has been written over the last fifty years. It is as if we have been encouraged to believe that form is a kind of fascism and that to acquire knowledge is to drive a jackboot into the face of those poor souls who are too incurious, dull-witted or idle to find out what poetry can be. Surely better to use another word for such fee-form meanderings... Let us reserve the word 'poetry' for something worth fighting for, an ideal we can strive to live up to.
...
Looking back over the last few paragraphs I am aware that you might think me a dreadful, hidebound old dinosaur. I assure you I am not. I am uncertain why I should feel the need to prove this, but I do want you to understand that I am far from contemptuous of Modernism, and free ferse, the experimental and the avant-garde or of the poetry of the streets. Whitman, Cummings, O'Hara, Wyndham Lewis, Eliot, Jandl, Olsen, Ginsberg, Pound and Zephaniah are poets that have given me, and continue to give me immense pleasure. I do not despise free verse. Read this:

Post c***um omne animal triste
i see you
! you come
closer
improvident
with your coming
then --
stretched to scratch
-- is it a trick of the light? --
i see you
worlded with pain
but of
necessity not
weeping

cigaretted and drinked
loaded against yourself
you seem to yes bold
irreducible
but nuded and afterloved
you are not so strong
are you
?
after all

There's the problem. The above is precisely the kind of worthless *** dribble I am forced to read whenever I agree to judge a poetry competition. It took me under a minute and a half to write and while I dare say you can see what utter *** it is, there are many who would accept it as poetry. All the clichés are there, pointless lineation, meaningless punctuation and presentation, fatuous creations of new verbs ... -- every pathology is presented. Like so much of what passes for poetry today it is also listless, utterly drained of energy and drive -- a common problem with much contemporary art but an especial problem with poetry that chooses to close itself off from all metrical pattern and form. It is like music without beat or shape or harmony: not music at all in fact. 'Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.' Robert Frost wrote. Not much of a game at all, really.

Monday, 15 March 2010, 04:34 PM

2011-02-07T10:04:00.000-08:00

Assignments this week
by K. Titchenell - Monday, 15 March 2010, 04:34 PM

Dear Scholars,

No, actually there isn't an assignment this week. In class last week, I asked whether an assignment was needed and Derek in particular suggested that he didn't feel a specific assignment was necessary. As far as I am concerned, if creativity can flourish in the absence of assignments, as Derek has been successfully demonstrating, they are indeed superfluous. Please post and contribute whatever the muses inspire you with.

I did post some things for you to look at. The recent production of Hamlet performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company has been posted on youtube, and I have enjoyed watching it several times. It may not be available for very long, so please watch it soon:
In our classroom: http://www.aos.abacus-es.com/mod/resource/view.php?id=167
Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8B56A889217C5A98

I know most of you have already seen or read Hamlet, but it is certainly worth a second look. Let's discuss it in class and consider reading parts. Any thoughts?

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Re: Assignments this week
by K. Titchenell - Monday, 15 March 2010, 04:49 PM

Angela has posted a delightful little poem, Erasers, and Derek has posted a number of contribution s in our Poetry Forum and revised and extended his science fiction saga. Please read, comment, and post your own.

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Re: Assignments this week
by K. Titchenell - Tuesday, 16 March 2010, 06:32 PM

Derek's latest instalment.

Nathan has submitted poems: Good Times and Rhymes, Basketball and Life.

An example of stream of consciousness poetry: Windmills

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Re: Assignments this week -- Hamlet excerpt
by K. Titchenell - Tuesday, 16 March 2010, 10:17 PM

549 Now I am alone.
550 O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
551 Is it not monstrous that this player here,
552 But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
553 Could force his soul so to his own conceit
554 That from her working all his visage wann'd,
555 Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect,
556 A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
557 With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!
558 For Hecuba!
559 What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
560 That he should weep for her? What would he do,
561 Had he the motive and the cue for passion
562 That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
563 And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
564 Make mad the guilty and appall the free,
565 Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
566 The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
567 A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
568 Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
569 And can say nothing; no, not for a king,
570 Upon whose property and most dear life
571 A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
572 Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
573 Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?
574 Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat,
575 As deep as to the lungs? who does me this?
576 Ha! 'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be
577 But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall
578 To make oppression bitter, or ere this
579 I should have fatted all the region kites
580 With this slave's offal. Bloody, bawdy villain!
581 Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
582 O, vengeance!
583 Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
584 That I, the son of a dear father murder'd,
585 Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
586 Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
587 And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,
588 A stallion! Fie upon't! foh!
589 About, my brain! Hum — I have heard
590 That guilty creatures sitting at a play
591 Have by the very cunning of the scene
592 Been struck so to the soul that presently
593 They have proclaim'd their malefactions;
594 For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
595 With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players
596 Play something like the murder of my father
597 Before mine uncle. I'll observe his looks;
598 I'll tent him to the quick. If he but blench,
599 I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
600 May be the devil, and the devil hath power
601 To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
602 Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
603 As he is very potent with such spirits,
604 Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds
605 More relative than this: the play's the thing
606 Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

Redundant Prepositions Playsheet

2010-03-27T12:10:00.000-07:00

Dear Scholars,

We've had some very nice written contributions this week. Please make sure to read them, and the comments on them. Please add your own thoughts as well.

The following playsheet is posted In response to a redundant preposition error that appeared in one paper. See if you can find and fix the errors.

Redundant Prepositions

Please identify and correct the
mistakes in the following. Some involve a redundant preposition, but there are other errors too. Be sure to look up any words you do not know.

The lucubrating landlord was unsure about whom, when the skunk strutted into the darkened cellar the previous night, had set the aging eggplant centerpiece ablaze.
Demetrius strove to evade the amorous lady of whom he was not in love with nor could never become enamored by.
Boadicea, having hidden the VCR into which the pancakes had been stuffed in, asked whom, when all factors are taken into account, should be held responsible for having abandoned the puppy of who everyone was so fond with.
Abandoned by Demetrius, upon who she doted over so cloyingly, Helena fell victim of a mistakenly applied potion, about which she knew nothing of.
The centaur balanced the ciderpress, from which he expected great rancor to be generated over, upon his semi-equine shoulder before addressing the rebarbative assemblage of peacocks with a wink while waving about the infamous wooden spoon around.
Aloysius balked at the thought of taking credit for the highly successful encounter with the penguins, of who we still know very little about, and declined the honor of wearing the chain of office and the puce tights -- a color of which he felt an intense aversion to.

Assignment: Modifiers and dangling participles

2010-03-27T12:05:00.000-07:00

It would seem fairly obvious, but one of the most important elements of writing is to say what you actually mean. It's very easy to say something else without realizing it. Let's explore this problem.

A pronoun must refer to a single noun, not a phrase or a collection of oddments and especially may not refer to nothing at all. Check your work to determine the reference for pronouns.

Wrong:

The accountant's wheelbarrow was full of eels, which irritated the fastidious spectator.

The which does not refer to a specific noun. Are the eels irritating the professor, or is it the presence of the wheelbarrow?

Better:

The presence of eels in the accountant's wheelbarrow irritated the fastidious spectator.

Modifying phrases must modify something appropriate. "Misplaced" modifiers dangle about untidily.

Here are some examples of ambiguous anaphoric references and dangling participles.

While climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, which is quite steep up to the very top and then slopes away rather sharply, Rupert's hair dryer required constant adjustment.

(Who is climbing the mountain? The hair drier?)

Ducking under a flock of pestilent soiled budgies, the handlebars struck the sandwich in my pocket doing irreparable harm to the avocado.

(Who or what is ducking?)

To Rupert's surprise, he was comfortably able to drive the tractor wearing swim fins and goggles.

(Is the tractor wearing swim fins and goggles?)

Assignment:
Look at the following examples, try to determine what is wrong with them, and correct it. Please be prepared on these. We'll go over them in class.

The spinning wheel stood on the ancient parapet before it was dismantled.
The banner flew in the sparkling sun as the cavalcade approached the battlements just before it disappeared from view.
Harold helped Hermione rewrite the screenplay of Delightful Moments with Hideous People before being insulted by the dockworker, and it reminded her of a mermaid on a motorcycle.
While trying ineffectually to retrieve the eggplant centerpiece from his neighbor's trout pond, Rupert's phone wouldn't stop playing Monteverdi's Orfeo and the chicken just kept dancing until Irmgard threw a yogurt-encrusted spatula at him.
The day after the strange incident with the petulant penguin, Mabel found Hermione and Penelope putting the finishing touches on the marble bust of Jane Austin and then she came down with a bad cold and hid it in the refrigerator until she could think of a better way to explain why she missed the deadline.
There was a rumor going around that the library's copy of 16 More Things to Do in Zero Gravity had been used to store the dessicated duck's liver long after the expiry date and it was nasty.
The members of the sixth grade cooking class were issued charismatic wooden spoons, but were told by the three whisk-wielding Muscovites that they were expected to present them to the members of the board of holistic balloonists when they finished their tour of the campus model-railroader's exhibit of extinct Siberian waterfowl.

College Prep. English Essay Prompts

2010-03-13T23:45:00.000-08:00

College Prep. English

Dear Scholars,

Essay writing is a skill which, like most skills, can be developed through practice. However, unlike many acquired skills -- operating a stapling machine, bleeding brakes, tallying sales figures -- it does not become a mindlessly repetitive and ultimately onerous activity. Despite experience in high school classrooms (using the mass-production educational model and presided over by often well-meaning but uninspired pedants) which so often prompts one to conclude that essay writing is always something decidedly distasteful, the essay is an opportunity for endless creativity and variation, whose flexibility and expressive potential is limited only by the writer's ability to weave poignant and cogent content into a dazzling fabric of felicitous diction.

Well, perhaps it needn't always go that far, but my point stands: essay writing is what you make of it, and the more you do, the better you get, the easier it becomes, and the more fun you are likely to have doing it. So let's do some!

It is very hard to generate enthusiasm for writing when one's labor results only in an ephemeral entity whose sole purpose for existence is to be the subject of a cursory critical evaluation and a single mark in a grade book. Essay writing is often much more exciting and interesting when one is writing for an audience and not just for a teacher who will glance over the paper quickly, make a few red marks, and return it. (If you would prefer to write this way, you may do so by sending works directly to my email.) In our class you have the opportunity to write for an audience -- for the class as a whole, the teacher, and ultimately, after some honing and revision, for other homeschoolers at EIE, for your own portfolio, and for possible publication in any of a number of websites and periodicals. You will also have the advantage of seeing the works of other essay writers, some of whom are more advanced and accomplished writers than you. We are homeschoolers and our objective is to develop our skills while assisting our classmates in developing theirs. If our class members succeed in contributing to periodical literature, homeschooling and otherwise, and are able, as a result, to add a "publications" section to their college application resumes, we will have accomplished far more than just a mark in a grade book or even an "A" in a high school class.

There follow a series of essay prompts provided by The Collegeboard -- the organization responsible for the SAT exam. I will (and you are also welcome to) add more prompts of like ilk to the list. If you are preparing specifically for the SAT, it would be a good idea to practice writing in response to prompts like these; if not, write on anything that inspires you.

So Wrong It's Right

2010-03-13T23:41:00.000-08:00

College Prep English

Much thanks to Nathan for his excellent presentation on violin playing last week! It is always difficult to be the first to speak or write something for class.

Thanks to Jonathan B. for posting some excerpts from the works of Tolkien in the Great Writings Forum. I'm sure we will be discussing The Lord of the Rings later on.

I'm sure you have all watched the posted video, So Wrong It's Right, and have some responses to these questions.

Should English usage be described or prescribed? What difference would that choice make to the development of the language?
Can you think of a turn of phrase that has evolved during your lifetime? Is it something you would use?
Did you find any instances of synesis in this recording? Did it sound wrong or right?
What's wrong with using the built-in grammar checker in MS Word?

We'll be discussing these in class.

This week Sean will be presenting something and I want to have everyone writing something. Those of you who have already written something, please post it soon. We need at least something from everyone in class this week. Can we have a volunteer to do a presentation for next week?

I have added a page of Autumnal Thoughts to the great writings forum. These are season-appropriate excerpts from many sources. We'll look at them this week.

A new audio file on English usage

2010-03-13T23:38:00.000-08:00

A new audio file on English usage has been posted on our English class site.

Please listen to it if you can, consider the points made, and submit your thoughts, if you have any, as responses to this message.

Should English usage be described or prescribed? What difference would that choice make to the development of the language?
Can you think of a turn of phrase that has evolved during your lifetime? Is it something you would use?
Did you find any instances of synesis in this recording? Did it sound wrong or right?
What's wrong with using the built-in grammar checker in MS Word?

In class on Wednesday, several things came up in discussion which led to adding resources to our classroom, something I intend to do -- as soon as someone can remind me what they were. I did ask at the time to be reminded of them if I forgot. Does anyone remember?

College Prep English Class, week 6

2010-03-13T23:34:00.000-08:00

College Prep English Class, week 6

Dear Scholars,

Nathan will give a presentation in class on violin playing. We will follow this with questions and discussion.

We will go over thoughts for writing projects and try to find something that will inspire everyone. Just a paragraph or two about a pet, or a relative, or an experience would be fine. I dislike using "What did you do on your summer vacation" because everyone hates to do that. The subject, and length are up to you.

Please have a look at the Vocabulary journals entries made by class members. There are some wonderful and useful words there. We will be discussing them and using them.

A link to the FreeRice vocabulary quiz page has been added to the class main page. This is a very well constructed vocabulary quiz program which adjusts automatically to all skill levels. We will discuss ways to use it. It is an excellent source for vocabulary journal words.

We will talk about class projects including reading a play (probably Shakespeare), and possibly submitting essays, poems, narratives in homeschooling publications. Please bring in any other thoughts you have.

2010-03-13T23:31:00.000-08:00

Dear Philologists,

Can we have a volunteer to do an oral presentation Wednesday -- movie report, book report, current event report, how to build a rabbit hutch, how to recognize a venomous octopus, how to build a backyard turnip accelerator?

Be sure to continue keeping your vocabulary journal, writing down and defining new words you encounter and posting them for the class in our Vocabulary journals forum. Everyone please post something.
Think of a subject and prepare to write a short narrative/story/review. Be ready to describe it in class. go ahead and write on the subject if you like, posting it in our writer's forum. Try incorporating some of your new vocabulary terms.
After listening to Spoken English example videos, please post your comments in the open forum and see if you can find some more good examples for the rest of us and post them.
Please be prepared to do the "like" playsheet in class -- come prepared with notes only if you need them.
Please think about class reading projects -- a play would be nice so we can do it in class. Suggestions were: A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet. Any other thoughts? Post your suggestions or anything else you'd like to share in the open forum.

Greetings from the College Prep English online classroom.

2010-03-13T23:27:00.000-08:00

Dear Scholars,

Greetings from the College Prep English online classroom.

You are receiving this message because you or your children are or have been members of the class. Note that at the top of this email you will see links to our classroom page, to this forum and to this forum entry, while at the bottom of the page, you will see links to reply to this message or to unsubscribe from the forum so you won't receive further emails.

A new Vocabulary Journals forum has been created in the classroom. Everyone in class the first week was given a small pad of paper for the purpose of keeping a vocabulary journal -- a list of new words you encounter. Please keep expanding your list and looking up the definitions, then post them in this forum for the benefit of the whole class. Please try to add a few more every week -- just post new entries as a response to your original message.

Other facilities for your use are:
The Open Forum, for general posting of any sort.
The Writers' Forum, for posting your writing and compositions.
The Poetry Forum, for posting and reading poetry.
The Great Writings forum, for posting and reading example literature.
The Class Chatroom, a realtime chat system. If you enter the chatroom, anyone logging into the classroom will be able to see that someone is using it and will be able to join in. Feel free to use it or to schedule times to meet in the chatroom by posting a message in the Open Forum.

A Spoken English example videos page has been created for displaying lectures and debates which demonstrate well-used English. These videos are chosen solely for their use of language and not for the content or message of the talks, which may be on anything. Please watch them; more will be added.

Please drop in the online classroom if you can and explore. Watch for further assignment emails. Please let me know if you have any questions.

College Prep English Class, week 4

2010-03-13T23:22:00.000-08:00

College Prep. English Class

Welcome! This class will cover the use of formal written and spoken English as expected and required of college students. SAT verbal section test preparation will also be covered. For questions: eclass@abacus-es.com (626) 798-9657.

Class schedule
Our College Prep English class will meet 9:00 - 10:30 and online throughout the week.

New Online Classroom
In addition to our class meetings, we have an online classroom for the exchange of resources, and assignments. Use of the online English classroom is not mandatory, just convenient.

Please change the password when you get a chance and please let me know if you have any problems logging in.

Textbook
We will work with many online resources as well as our class textbook, SAT Practice: The New Verbal Section, which is available in the EIE store. Purchase of the text is optional as it is posted and available in our online classroom.

Class materials
Please always have pencil, paper, and dictionary handy.

Class policies
Parents are welcome and encouraged to attend and to participate, given space. This is homeschooling and we want the schooling process to continue at home.

2010-03-13T23:19:00.000-08:00

Dear Excellence In Education English Students,

Welcome to all new and returning members!

(If you are a member from previous years, whether you are returning or not, you are very welcome to continue to participate in our online class. If you would like to be removed from this list, please let me know.)

Class schedule
Our College Prep English class will meet 9:00 - 10:30 Wednesdays and will start on September 16 at the Excellence In Education Resource Center, 2640 S. Myrtle Ave.Monrovia, CA 91016 (626) 821-0025. We will also meet online any time.

Textbook
We will work with many online resources as well as our class textbook, SAT Practice: The New Verbal Section, which is available in the EIE store. Purchase of the text is optional as it is posted and available in our online classroom.

New Online Classroom
In addition to our class meetings, we have an online classroom for the exchange of resources, and assignments. Use of the online classroom is not mandatory, just convenient.

Class materials
Please always have pencil and paper handy. Laptop, Blackberry, quill, stylus and clay tablet are all acceptable alternatives.

Shakespeare's Henry V, performance Saturday, August 22.

2010-03-13T23:15:00.000-08:00

Dear English Class Scholars,

This Saturday at Barnsdall Park in Hollywood the Independent Shakespeare Company will be performing Henry V. We have been studying mostly the comedies and the major tragedies but this play is one of the histories. It is perhaps one of the more renowned of these semihistorical dramas, containing the famous line "Once more into the breach my friends", "St. Crispin's Day" the most rousing of all battlefield exhortations, and the insightful scene -- re-enacted in an episode of StarTrek -- of the king in disguise on the eve of battle, sounding out his men.

My family is going. Anyone else like to come?

College Prep English Class, week 1

2010-03-13T23:07:00.000-08:00

Dear Scholars,

It is that time again -- oft associated with onerous drudgery (at least it was in my childhood), but when it is back-to-homeschool, it actually promises to be a lot of fun. Please think about material you'd like to cover, things you'd like to research and write about, excoriating letters you would like to write to public officials or heads of state, dialogues you would like to pen in parody of historical figures or recent events, etc.

Class continues -- same time as last semester
Our College Prep English class will continue this fall in the same time slot (9:00 - 10:30 Wednesdays) as last year.

New Online Classroom

We have a brand new online classroom.

German Class for Homeschoolers

Our English class will now be preceded by a German class which meets at 8:00 a.m. You are all welcome to attend that class if you are interested. The German class may have another class meeting added if there is enough interest.

Music Theory Keyboard Class

As in previous semesters, our English class will be followed by the music theory class which meets 10:30 - 12:00 noon. You are all welcome to attend if you are interested.

2010-03-10T13:53:00.000-08:00

Abacus Educational Services

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