Mrs. Hallford's Writing and Literature Page

January Newsletter

2012-01-17T10:36:00.000-08:00

In literature class we remain thoroughly engaged in our reading of David Copperfield. We are nearly halfway finished and practically every student has become deeply interested in the unfolding events of the book. There is nothing so gratifying to a teacher as to stop reading at the end of a class period and be met with protests and pleas to keep reading! This is especially wonderful because David Copperfield is written with very complex, rich language and we are reading the unabridged version. The style and vocabulary of the book posed a challenge for many students at the beginning of the school year, and I am very pleased with how they have adapted!

The majority of our writing assignments are drawn from our reading. Currently the students are writing essays entitled Good and Bad Angels, which is the name of a chapter in David Copperfield where David, as a young adult, struggles with the conflicting influences of his peers. In their essays the students are exploring how people in their lives influence them both positively and negatively. When we finish these essays we will have a lesson on common verb errors and then identify and correct any verb errors in the rough drafts.

The students have previously learned to add exordium to the beginning of their essays as a way to create interest. The five types of exordia are challenge, question, quotation, statistic, and anecdote. The most popular choice is usually quotation and we have had a lot of fun finding relevant quotes and making sure that those quotes are connected and referenced later in the essays. Some of my favorite quotations that the students have found for the Good and Bad Angels assignment so far include:

"There is no such thing as a good influence. Because to influence someone is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him."

~Oscar Wilde

"A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example."

~Niccolo Machiavelli

"One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray."

~Proverbs 12:26

October Newsletter

2011-10-03T12:44:00.000-07:00

Hi again! We've already been in school for a whole month! We have had a wonderful start to the school year, and I'd like to share some of the highlights of September with you all.

In art class the students have completed their study of the Lascaux cave paintings. They did a wonderful job making their own paint and paintbrushes from primitive supplies such as bones, horse hair, and ground minerals.

I have been bringing Fezzik, my Great Pyrenees dog to school quite a bit. Although he is too young to be a certified therapy dog, he meets all of the qualifications for a therapy dog and the students love him! He makes his rounds from student to student in each class and is always ready to be petted and hugged. Dogs are wonderful for lowering blood pressure and stress levels, and having Fezzik around definitely brings happiness to the classroom.

Last week the entire upper school took a field trip to see a Casa Manana performance of To Kill a Mockingbird. We read this book last year as it corresponded with our study of modern history, so the majority of the upper school students were very familiar with the story. The performance was amazing and the students were wonderfully behaved!

This week in writing class the students are learning a brainstorming technique from The Lost Tools of Writing, called the ANI column. The students take an issue and then write arguments for and against the issue (Affirmative and Negative) and also facts (Interesting) about the issue. This is a good way to think of lots of ideas before we even begin writing, and a wonderful way to start thinking logically beyond their own personal opinions. The students are creating an ANI column on the issue "Whether David Copperfield should have bitten Mr. Murdstone" which is drawn from our reading!

Earlier in the month we discussed foreshadowing in literature, and the students wrote the stories of their own births, imitating the account that David Copperfield gave of his birth. The students also explored possible foreshadowing in their birth stories. Here is a sample essay by seventh grader Brett Oatridge:

I was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1998. The day I was born my mom woke up immediately in labor. She was in labor for twenty-one hours. Then she had to have a C-section. My dad held me in his hands while my mom was unconscious. My dad said I looked like Mister Magoo, which is funny, because I still love to make people laugh. I had a red face and every nurse in the room wanted me as their son, and even asked my mom, but she said, "No, he's mine."

We are looking forward to some exciting upcoming events in October, including the start of the Flint Falcons basketball season, our Barnes and Noble fundraiser, and Fall Fest!

Welcome Back!

2011-09-02T08:23:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! It's almost time for school to begin! The Flint staff has been in inservice all week and we're getting really excited, anticipating the coming school year. This year I will be conducting morning devotions with my homeroom class, teaching literature and writing to all of the upper school students, and teaching the art elective. All of my favorite subjects! I will pass out my syllabi for these classes on the first day of school, but I thought I'd post them here, just in case the paper copies never make it home.

Devotions Syllabus

2011-2012

Course Description

We will begin each day with a twenty minute devotions class, which will help everyone start their day on a positive, uplifting note. For devotions the students will have daily copy work from the book of Proverbs, which we will also discuss. In their copy books, the students will also list things they are grateful for. As we progress in the year, we will discuss ways to find gratitude and good even in things that do not initially seem positive. We will also read and discuss books filled with Christian purpose and meaning, such as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis and the allegorical writings of George MacDonald.

Classroom Expectations

Students are expected to have a positive and questioning attitude for devotions, as well as practicing their habits of attention, self-control, perfect execution, and sweet temper.

Literature and Writing Syllabus

2011-2012

Course Description

We will read classical literature in class, following the Charlotte Mason method of narration, where the teacher reads aloud as the students follow along in their own copies of the book, then the teacher calls on individual students to narrate and discuss what was read. This year we will study David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, a selection of Greek mythology and philosophy including The Allegory of the Cave by Plato, as well as a selection of poetry by poets such as Tennyson, Longfellow, Dickinson, Stevenson, and Henley. Poems will be memorized via choral recitation at the beginning of each class.

Writing assignments will be drawn from our literature studies and discussions, and will incorporate concepts and strategies from The Lost Tools of Writing curriculum. This includes methods for gathering and classifying ideas, use of a traditional outline format, and elements of classical rhetoric such as exordium, amplification, refutation, parallelism, antithesis, alliteration, assonance, anaphora, and epistrophe. We will also touch on common verb and subject errors and nominalizations in writing.

Classroom Expectations

Students are expected to practice character-building habits at all times. Our classroom habits include the habit of attention, the habit of self-control, the habit of perfect execution, and the habit of sweet temper. We also strive to cultivate an atmosphere of joy in the classroom.

Although the majority of our writing work will be done in-class, work will be sent home occasionally. This work is assigned solely to the students, not their parents! If a student is unable to independently complete a homework assignment, we will find time during the next day to work one-on-one. I am available before school, during breaks throughout the day, and after school to answer questions and help students write their papers.

Assessments

We will have midterm and final assessments each semester, which will involve written summaries of our book so far, brief essay questions, and definition questions regarding terms and concepts from our study of classic rhetoric.

Art Syllabus

2011-2012

Course Description

We will study art for a two and a half month block before rotating electives. The art elective this year will cover artistic expression of ancient civilizations, to coincide with the historical period that the students are studying. This will include:

The Lascaux Cave Paintings
Sumerian sculpture
Egyptian tomb wall frescoes
The Bust of Nefertiti
Minoan frescoes
Greek red-figure and black-figure pottery
Progression of Greek sculpture
Nike of Samothrace
Aphrodite of Melos
Roman busts
Roman mosaic

We will use a variety of approaches when studying these works of art, including the Charlotte Mason picture study strategy, sketching sculptures and artwork, and recreating through imitation. When we study the Lascaux Cave Paintings, for example, students will study the paintings, learn their history, and sketch various samples. They will then make their own paintbrushes and paints from Paleolithic materials such as horsehair, crushed minerals, and animal fats, and then recreate a portion of the cave paintings on individual chalkboards. In addition to studying the techniques and compositions of ancient art, we will also discuss the way various works of art reflect the cultures that produced them, the purposes that ancient art served, and ways that the visual arts influence other arts.

________________________________________________________________

I can't wait to see everyone on Tuesday morning and dive into all of this!

~Nicole Hallford

Important Lessons From The Hiding Place

2011-02-17T13:08:00.000-08:00

After we finished reading The Hiding Place, I asked the students to write about the lessons that they carried away from the book. Everyone did a wonderful job with this assignment, and I would like to share a paper that struck me as particularly insightful. This paper is by a student who often questions the Christian belief system at Flint Academy:

IMPORTANT LESSONS FROM THE HIDING PLACE

"I will admit that at the beginning of this book I found both Corrie and Betsie to be your typical sheltered religious fanatics. However as the story progressed I learned to respect them. Even from my agnostic point of view I could easily respect them for their undying loyalty to their faith. I also learned to respect them for being so kind and righteous.

I have no trouble admitting that I could never have done half of the things they did. I'm selfish, I'm aggressive, and even at times cold hearted. Never in my whole life could I have not only forgiven the Nazis, but actually have the desire to heal my own tormentors.

The thing that I have learned is to forgive and have the desire to do so as well. The fact that people can be like this shocked me to no end.

I'm a pessimist by nature; very rarely do I have a positive view on the world. And like every other pessimist, once I am proven wrong I'm happy. They showed me that the world can be a wonderful place, no matter how much evil there is.

I couldn't believe that all this good happened in such an evil place. Yet why would she lie? That thought was what sparked the entire realization that they truly were saintly people."

To compliment our study of The Hiding Place, the upper school went on a field trip this week to the Dallas Holocaust Museum. The students were very interested in all of the information presented there and I was proud of their behavior. The museum staff told Dr. Flint that we were one of the best-behaved and engaged groups that has been there in a long time!

Sacrificial Love

2011-01-12T11:11:00.000-08:00

In our English class we have been reading The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. This is a firsthand account of Ms. Ten Boom's experiences hiding Jews and working with the Dutch underground during World War II. It has really brought the realities of the Holocaust to the students' attention and given us a lot of food for thought. Primarily we have been discussing what we would do if we were placed in a similar situation - if we would risk our lives over and over to help strangers.

One of the most striking examples of this is a part of the book where the Ten Boom family is trying to find a safe hiding place for a mother and her newborn baby. They asked a minister to help, and he refused on the grounds that the baby posed too great a risk. Casper Ten Boom, Corrie's elderly father, responded by saying:

"You say that we could lose our lives for this child. I would consider that to be the greatest honor that could come to my family."

We discussed his response as a group, and then the students were assigned response papers, detailing how they would react in the same situation - if they thought they would be willing to risk their lives for a stranger's baby. All of the papers were wonderful! Here is a paper by Zola Wilson, as an example:

"My family and I will do the same. It will be worth it, because the baby will have a chance in life. That way when he's older he will know what my family and I have done for him. Hopefully he will be grateful. Life is too short and I wanted him to live. I am glad to give my life up for him. I just hope that when I'm gone, his life is peaceful and kind to him. I pray and hope that God will be with him through out his days. Whoever takes my life and my families lives well, may God have mercy on their souls. My family and I will forgive them. We may not be perfect but at least our lives were worth it for the baby. I'm glad that we did this for the baby. I think there is good in people, its just that fear kind of over shadows that. It makes you wonder if other people would do the same.

September 19 Newsletter

2010-09-19T06:09:00.000-07:00

I am really looking forward to our field trip this coming Friday! We will be attending a performance of The Importance Of Being Earnest at the Campus Theatre in Denton. The students have been doing a great job reading the play aloud in class, and I have loved hearing the different accents and voices they are using to make their parts stand out! I think that seeing the play performed will make it come alive for them even more, in addition to being a great cultural experience!

My language arts class finished taking a practice SAT this week. After reviewing their scores, I will make individual plans for the students, so we can work on any problem areas. The class is working really hard, and I am so proud of their dedication!

In humanities class, we are nearly finished with our picture studies of Paul Cezanne's Still Life With Apples. The students' work will be on display at Barnes And Noble this Friday for a fundraiser, so make sure you check it out!

I hope everyone has a great week!
~Mrs. Hallford

September 12 Newsletter

2010-09-12T20:33:00.000-07:00

Well we certainly had an interesting first week of school! Since the flooding prevented us from doing the majority of our planned lessons, we will resume them this week. I was very impressed though, with the enthusiasm that the students showed for reading their parts of The Importance Of Being Earnest aloud. They got off to a very fun start! I am also in the process of planning a field trip to see a performance of The Importance Of Being Earnest, which I think would be a great addition to our classroom reading.

Here are some pictures I took of my homeroom class on our first day of school - the students are enjoying a welcome-back breakfast while going over their schedules and basic school policies.

I'm looking forward to getting a lot of work done this week in all of our classes. Hope everyone is ready to really get into it!

~Mrs. Hallford

Back To School!

2010-09-05T12:56:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Hallford's Newsletter

Hi! I hope that everyone has enjoyed their summer, and is rested and ready for the school year to begin. Our family has had a wonderful summer, as we welcomed our newest daughter, Lainey, into the world!

I am very excited about this school year, and we are going to start off with some great projects! As your child's English teacher, I will begin with the subject of Comparison in our writing classes. By studying comparison, students learn to think more deeply about the topic of their papers, which enables them to develop well-argued essays. In our literature classes, we are beginning the year by reading The Importance Of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. This is a very funny play, and the students will tale turns reading different parts aloud in class. Not only will this play give the students a great introduction to the time period we are studying, but it will provide a lot of opportunities to learn new vocabulary, and to practice reading aloud with expression. Any students who would like to earn an Honors Literature credit will also read The Picture Of Dorian Gray independently and write an essay.

I will also be teaching a portion of our afternoon Humanities class, focusing on art and music appreciation. In music appreciation, we will be listening to the works of Claude Debussy. For art, we are going to begin by studying a still life painting by Paul Cezanne.

This picture study will be on display in Barnes And Noble on September 23 for our school fundraiser. After studying a still life by a master painter, the students will then create their own original still life paintings.

I hope everyone has a great first week of school. If anyone needs to contact me for any reason, my e-mail is nicole.hallfor@gmail.com and my cell phone is 817-372-0179. I would love to talk with you!

God bless!

~Nicole Hallford

September 8-10

2009-09-12T05:52:00.000-07:00

We had a really great first week back at school! The students of the upper school are showing so much promise and enthusiasm, and I thoroughly enjoyed beginning to get to know each of them.

In Writing class, each student wrote a brief journal entry (something we will be doing periodically) about what they want from their educations. This was an opportunity for the students to reflect on their long-term goals. It also gave me a chance to get to know everyone a little better, as well as discover a little about their writing styles and abilities.

We also began a project that will be ongoing throughout the school year. Any time that students are finished with their writing assignments earlier than their classmates, I wanted to have a relevant project for them to work on. Our spare time project for the year was inspired by our study of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin last year. We learned then that Benjamin Franklin taught himself to write using some intriguing methods. He would read a selection of beautiful, classical writing, and then re-write it in purposefully poor language, as badly as possible. He would put that away for a few weeks, and then, using only his poor version as reference, attempt to re-write the beautiful selection. Franklin commented that on some occasions, he was pleasantly surprised to see that his final revision was better than the original!

In this vein, each student is given a book that is very simply written, and while good reading practice, not beautiful or meaningful literature. Their assignment is to re-write that book using rich, beautiful language. It should be a lot of fun to see what the students can come up with!

We have had a lot of fun in our Literature classes. The concept of narration (a student retelling a paragraph or page of a book after it has been read aloud) was quickly understood by the students who are new to Flint. In Mrs. Roy's class, we began Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, and have really enjoyed it so far. Mr. Flint's boys began Edgar Allen Poe's Tales of Mystery And Terror. The first story in that collection is Ligeia. The boys are impatiently waiting to discover how Ligeia is a scary story, because so far it has only been about love :)
For Coach Hallford's boys, we have begun Frankenstein, and the class has been intrigued by the author's device of narrative letters to introduce the story. The plot of the story did not begin where they expected, and we are enjoying learning how different the book is from the more familiar movie versions.

My class has begun Johnny Tremaine for literature, and we are really enjoying the descriptive language of the book. We completed the first chapter, and the class illustrated it. Most chose to depict the loft that Johnny shares with his fellow apprentices.

In all of the literature classes, we begin each lesson with a few minutes of recitation. Each class is memorizing a poem, and we take a little time to learn a new line each day.

I am really pleased with all the classes, and I'm very proud of my class for adjusting so quickly to all the changes that joining the upper school presents. They are doing a great job! Next week we will begin our first picture study, which should be a really fun project for the afternoons.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!
God bless,
Mrs. Hallford

Back To School!

2009-09-07T07:49:00.000-07:00

Welcome, everyone! I'm very excited about starting the school year! Our family has had a wonderful summer, and I hope you have all had the same. Although I will primarily be posting about the writing and literature classes I am teaching this year, I wanted to go ahead and put a walk-through of what my own class will be doing on there first day. If you want to go over this with your child and discuss everything, it may help soothe some nerves that they are feeling.

I can't wait to see everyone tomorrow!
~Mrs. H

Before 9:30 - Go to the upper school morning room (the old lunchroom)
9:30 - Mrs. Hallford will bring everyone into the classroom. We'll start the day with a devotion and the pledge of allegiance, then we'll introduce everyone, have muffins and orange juice, talk about some behavior expectations for the class, our class schedule, and get familiar with the work we'll be doing in Language Arts every morning. Every student will be given a schedule of their own, so they can know what is coming next throughout the day.
10:15 - Mrs. Hallford and Mrs. Parsons will help everyone find their math classes.
10:55 - We'll have a ten minute break, either playing on the playground or in the upper school break room (old lunchroom, stocked with games, a ping-pong table, etc.)
11:05 - Go to the Science/Nature study room for a Biology lesson with Mrs. Roy. Mrs. Parsons will go with the class to help out, and Mrs. Hallford will stay in her classroom to teach a different class.
11:45 - Go to Coach Hallford's classroom for a US Government lesson. Mrs. Parsons will go with the class to help out, and Mrs. Hallford will stay in her classroom to teach a different class.
12:30 - We'll have an upper school assembly in the break room, and Dr. Flint will address the students regarding the handbook, dress code, etc. Then we will all go to the new lunch room (was the chapel room last year) and eat lunch.
1:15 Go to Mr. Flint's room for a Latin lesson. Mrs. Parsons will go with the class to help out, and Mrs. Hallford will stay in her classroom to teach a different class.
2:00 Go back to Mrs. Hallford's classroom. We'll discuss the different kinds of work we'll be doing in Writing class this year, and write a short journal entry.
2:40 We'll have a ten minute break.
2:50 Go back to Mrs. Hallford's classroom. We will have a discussion about how the first day of school went, and begin reading The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, which will be our secondary novel.
3:30 Mrs. Hallford will explain our "Service Learning" assignments (class chores) and students will complete their tasks. Students will return to their seats after finishing, and then wait to be dismissed by 3:45
(Since we are starting chores at 3:30, please plan to pick your child up at 3:45 to give them adequate time to complete their tasks.)