Substitute Lesson Plans

Dear Students:

As soon as you are seated, please do the following-

  1. Word of the Day
  2. Daily SAT Question |
  3. SAT Prep | 
  4. SAT Vocabulary Quiz  

| Sub Lesson 1 | Sub Lesson 2| Sub Lesson 3 |Sub Lesson 4 | Sub Lesson 5  | Sub Lesson 6 | Sub Lesson 7 | Sub Lesson 8 |Sub Lesson 9 | Sub Lesson 10 | Sub Lesson 11 | Sub Lesson 12 |Sub Lesson 13 | Sub Lesson 14| Sub Lesson 15 | Sub Lesson 16 | SAT Vocabulary Prep|

Sub Lesson 1: Use the Guidelines to Analyze Dickinson's Poetry

1. Speaker. Who is the speaker? What person (first, second, third) is ED speaking in? If it is the first person plural, with whom has she aligned herself? To whom is the poem addressed?

2. Setting or Situation. What is the setting? Real? Abstract? What about the situation? Is there action in the poem? What is it?

3. What are the verbs? What is their tense? Their mood (indicative, subjunctive, interrogative)? In what ways does their syntax vary from what you expect? Are any of them archaic or unusual?

4. What is the form of the poem? Closed? Open? What is the meter? the rhyme scheme? Where does ED depart from these patterns and forms? Why?

5. Dickinson is noted for her use of special kinds of rhyme. Where does she use the following, and for what effect?

a. slant rhyme: a kind of consonance (relation between words in which the final consonants in the stressed syllables agree but the vowels that precede them differ: add/read, up/step, peer/pare, while/hill).

b. eye rhyme: rhyme that appears correct from the spelling but is not so from the pronunciation, such as watch/match, love/move, through/enough.

c. true rhyme: identity of terminal sound between accented syllables, usually occupying corresponding positions in two or more lines of verse. The correspondence of sound is based on the vowels and succeeding consonants of the accented syllables, which must, for a true rhyme, be preceded by different consonants. Thus "fan" and "ran" constitute a true rhyme because the vowel and succeeding consonant sounds ("an") are the same but the preceding consonant sounds are different.

6. What elements are repeated? Inverted? Why? What instances of repetition does she use? What is the effect of the repetition?

7. What figures of speech does the poem contain? metaphor? metonymy? synecdoche? personification? extended metaphor? What kind of figure does she use as a comparison (vehicle)? Where has she used this before and with what kinds of meaning or resonance?

8. What kinds of images does she use? olfactory? tactile? visual? auditory? thermal? Characteristic Dickinson images include patterns of light/dark, bee/flower, mind/body, life/death. Do these occur here? In what combination?

9. Does the poem have an effective, striking, or climactic moment? Does it come to some kind of resolution? What kind? What recognition does the speaker's persona achieve, or does the poem chronicle simple description and observation?

10. Tone. What is the tone of the whole? Solemn? Playful? Irreverent? Mournful? Objective? What is Dickinson trying to convey?

11. Tradition. In what ways does she allude to other works or poetic traditions? In what ways might this poem be an "answer" to another author?

12. Rhetorical figures. Where does Dickinson use paradox? hyperbole? anaphora? apostrophe? litotes? Why does she use them?

13. Language. Note any words that are used in an archaic, special, or unusual way, especially words of three syllables or more. (These are less common in Dickinson's work than one- and two-syllable words.) Look them up in the dictionary, being careful to note obsolete or secondary meanings as well as primary ones.

SUCCESS is counted sweetest  
By those who ne’er succeed.  
To comprehend a nectar  
Requires sorest need.  
  
Not one of all the purple host         5
Who took the flag to-day  
Can tell the definition,  
So clear, of victory,  
  
As he, defeated, dying,  
On whose forbidden ear         10
The distant strains of triumph  
Break, agonized and clear.

 

SOUL, wilt thou toss again?  
By just such a hazard  
Hundreds have lost, indeed,  
But tens have won an all.  
  
Angels’ breathless ballot         5
Lingers to record thee;  
Imps in eager caucus  
Raffle for my soul.

 
YOUR riches taught me poverty.  
Myself a millionnaire  
In little wealths,—as girls could boast,—  
Till broad as Buenos Ayre,  
  
You drifted your dominions         5
A different Peru;  
And I esteemed all poverty,  
For life’s estate with you.  
  
Of mines I little know, myself,  
But just the names of gems,—         10
The colors of the commonest;  
And scarce of diadems  
  
So much that, did I meet the queen,  
Her glory I should know:  
But this must be a different wealth,         15
To miss it beggars so.  
  
I ’m sure ’t is India all day  
To those who look on you  
Without a stint, without a blame,—  
Might I but be the Jew!         20
  
I ’m sure it is Golconda,  
Beyond my power to deem,—  
To have a smile for mine each day,  
How better than a gem!  
  
At least, it solaces to know         25
That there exists a gold,  
Although I prove it just in time  
Its distance to behold!  
  
It’s far, far treasure to surmise,  
And estimate the pearl         30
That slipped my simple fingers through  
While just a girl at school!

 

MY river runs to thee:  
Blue sea, wilt welcome me?  
  
My river waits reply.  
Oh sea, look graciously!  
  
I ’ll fetch thee brooks         5
From spotted nooks,—  
  
Say, sea,  
Take me!  
 
HAVE you got a brook in your little heart,  
Where bashful flowers blow,  
And blushing birds go down to drink,  
And shadows tremble so?  
  
And nobody, knows, so still it flows,         5
That any brook is there;  
And yet your little draught of life  
Is daily drunken there.  
  
Then look out for the little brook in March,  
When the rivers overflow,         10
And the snows come hurrying from the hills,  
And the bridges often go.  
  
And later, in August it may be,  
When the meadows parching lie,  
Beware, lest this little brook of life         15
Some burning noon go dry!

 

ON this long storm the rainbow rose,  
On this late morn the sun;  
The clouds, like listless elephants,  
Horizons straggled down.  
  
The birds rose smiling in their nests,         5
The gales indeed were done;  
Alas! how heedless were the eyes  
On whom the summer shone!  
  
The quiet nonchalance of death  
No daybreak can bestir;         10
The slow archangel’s syllables  
Must awaken her.

 

High School Hub to take SAT Quiz

Sub Lesson  2: How to write a good dialogue?

Sub Lesson 3:  How to create an interesting character?

Sub Lesson 4: Creative writing techniques-

Sub Lesson 5: Calling on the muse

Sub Lesson 6: Creative Writing

Sub Lesson 7: Creative Writing Process

Sub Lesson 8: Writing about Literature

Sub Lesson 9 :Writing Prompts

Sub Lesson10: Choose an activity to do in High School Hub
 

Use one of the following prompt to write a story-

  1. :: writing prompt # 24 ::  
    Imagine your life is now a book. In 100 words, write the blurb for it. (It's what people will read on the back cover.)
     

    :: writing prompt # 23 ::  
    Re-write the fairy tale, Snow White, from the point of view of Bashful, one of the 7 dwarves.
     

    :: writing prompt # 22 ::  
    In 200 words, write about your first toy.
     

    :: writing prompt # 21 ::  
    Write a letter to the 10-year old child you had been.
     

    :: writing prompt # 20 ::  
    Write about the color of hunger.
     

    :: writing prompt # 19 :: tuesday, 24th june
    Begin a story with "There was once a chance I didn't take..."
     

    :: writing prompt # 18 :: tuesday, 24th june
    Write about what you'd say to an uninvited guest.
     

    :: writing prompt # 17 :: tuesday, 24th june
    In 400 words, create your ideal place.
     

    :: writing prompt # 16 :: tuesday, 24th june
    Where do you go when you want to get away from the pressures of life, family, work, etc? Write about that place.
     

    :: writing prompt # 15 :: tuesday, 24th june
    Write a story about irony, with a teacher as the main character and a fuse box as the key object. Set your story in a lab.
     

    :: writing prompt # 14 :: tuesday, 24th june
    Moving from one place to another, and one house to another, is a big task. Write about one of your most memorable house moves.
     

    :: writing prompt # 13 :: monday, 23rd june
    Write about a weird day in your workplace.
     

    :: writing prompt # 12 :: monday, 23rd june
    Write about a brief but scary encounter with one of your old professors.
     

    :: writing prompt # 11 :: monday, 23rd june
    Below are 3 sets of words. Use all the words in each set to write mini stories in 300 words or less:



    SET 1: paper clips, principal, lunchbox, swing, girl with a pink ribbon

    SET 2: biology, class card, foreign student, leaf, blood sample

    SET 3: typewriter, filing cabinet, puncher, clerk, carbon paper, janitor

     


    :: writing prompt # 10 :: monday, 23rd june
    For this prompt, you'll come up with a poem about an object that describes you. First, choose an object. Next, list down the reasons you think the object you chose represents you. From your list of reasons, which one is the most powerful? Which one conveys the strongest image of you? Once you've chosen your main image, list down things that support this main image. Build your poem from there.
     

    :: writing prompt # 9 :: monday, 23rd june
    Describe what you feel right now using your sense of smell. If you feel frustrated, write about what your frustration smells like. Use vivid words. Don't skimp on adjectives.
     

    :: writing prompt # 8 :: monday, 23rd june
    Make a list of 40 things that happened to you this month. They can be funny, embarrassing, happy, or infuriating. Then pick one from your list and write about it.
     

    :: writing prompt # 7 :: monday, 23rd june
    Electricity is a recent discovery. Think of 12 things to do when there's no power.
     

    :: writing prompt # 6 :: monday, 23rd june
    List down all the cliches you can think of, then choose one you're most familiar with, or the one that strikes your fancy. Make that the first line of your poem. You can take the cliche literally or figuratively.
     

    :: writing prompt # 5 :: monday, 23rd june
    Choose a poem you like. Take the last line and use that as the first line of your own poem.
     

    :: writing prompt # 4 :: monday, 23rd june
    Fairy tales have happy endings. All of us know what happened in that mushy fairy tale, Cinderella. Yeah, it's romantic, the prince actually finding Cinderella. They lived happily ever after. But happy endings can sometimes be, well...boring. No zing. So predictable. So...happy. What if the shoe fit one of the sisters? What happens then? Play with your imagination here. Be funny if you like. Or serious if you feel like it. Or be an Alfred Hitchcock. Whatever you are into, write your ending to the Cinderella story -- but this time, make it so that the shoe fit one of the icky sisters. What does Prince Charming do? How does Cinderella cope with it? And what about the Fairy Godmother? Start your story here.
     

    :: writing prompt # 3 :: monday, 23rd june
    The dictionary atop your shelf has more than 200,000 words defined. Why don't you blow off some of the dust on its cover and randomly pick out 10 words? Don't look at the meanings; just concentrate on the words. Write down your chosen words on a (blank) sheet of paper. Now, you're going to have fun creating meanings for those words. What do the words make you think of? What do *you* think should they mean?
     

    :: writing prompt # 2 :: monday, 23rd june
    A picture is worth more than a blank page. Take out those dusty photo albums. Pick out photo # 14. Count however way you like, but make sure you stop at photo #14. Look at the photo for 2-3 minutes. Then for 10 minutes, write all the feelings that photograph made you feel. Don't censor yourself. Just write.
     

    :: writing prompt # 1 :: monday, 23rd june
    Close your eyes briefly. Think of one object that's in the room and focus on it. Without opening your eyes, recall as much detail as you can about it. After 3 minutes or so, open your eyes and write about that object without looking at it.
     

     

:: writing prompt # 85 :: tuesday, 30th september
What was the worst meal you've had? Write about it as if the event is taking place right now.
 

:: writing prompt # 84 :: monday, 29th september
List 15 simple pleasures. Pick one and write about it.
 

:: writing prompt # 83 :: sunday, 28th september
It was Erica Jong who said, "If you don't risk anything, you risk more." Write about what this means to you.
 

:: writing prompt # 82 :: saturday, 27th september
Write the story of a disastrous family picnic.
 

:: writing prompt # 81 :: thursday, 25th september
Take two people who dislike each other and stick them in the backseat of a cab. What happens?
 

:: writing prompt # 80 :: friday, 12th september
Pick a character in a day time soap and put him/her in a stranded commuter train. Write about what he/she is feeling/thinking at that moment.
 

:: writing prompt # 79 :: thursday, 11th september
Flip through a magazine and create a story around the first image you see.
 

:: writing prompt # 78 :: wednesday, 10th september
What reward would you like to give yourself after writing 500 words?
 

:: writing prompt # 77 :: tuesday, 9th september
Write about a memory related to a holiday.
 

:: writing prompt # 76 :: monday, 8th september
Write a letter to the teacher who gave you a hard time in gradeschool or high school.
 
:: writing prompt # 68 :: sunday, 31st august
Begin with "I thought I saw..."
 

:: writing prompt # 67 :: saturday, 30th august
Write about Valentine's Day without mentioning these words: Valentine's Day, cupid, love, roses, flowers, hearts, February
 

:: writing prompt # 66 :: friday, 29th august
Write a story with the help of this image: "The shore fumed at the waves"
 

:: writing prompt # 65 :: thursday, 28th august
"A funny thing happened on my way to..."
 

:: writing prompt # 64 :: wednesday, 27th august
List 10-15 things worth saving then choose 1 of those things and write about it.
 

:: writing prompt # 63 :: tuesday, 26th august
List the names of 5-8 of your relatives and write a profile (in 50 words or less) of each.
 

:: writing prompt # 62 :: monday, 25th august
Start freewriting with the help of this image: "a melon strolling on two tendrils" (a line in Sylvia Plath's poem, Metaphors)
 

:: writing prompt # 61 :: sunday, 24th august
A drunk man sits next to you in a bar, thinks you're his buddy and starts confessing "the truth." Write about what "the truth" is.
 

:: writing prompt # 60 ::  
Try to use all of the words in a story: plastic bottle, hockey puck, dirty handkerchief, crumpled note, unhinged door
 

:: writing prompt # 59 ::  
Think of a human attribute for "pride" and freewrite on it for 5 minutes.
 

:: writing prompt # 58 ::  
Write a story about a town that ran out of sugar supply.
 

:: writing prompt # 57 ::  
In 300 words, write about "deceit."
 

:: writing prompt # 56 ::  
Write about what you'd cook for an enemy.
 

:: writing prompt # 55 ::  
Write about a good thing gone bad.
 

:: writing prompt # 54 ::  
Write about the biggest lie you've ever told.
 

:: writing prompt # 53 ::  
Write about the "fickle finger of Fate."
 
:: writing prompt # 52 :: wednesday, 30th july
Do a 5-minute freewrite with the phrase, "Anger suffers as grief withdraws" as your guide.
 

:: writing prompt # 51 :: tuesday, 29th july
In 500 words or less, write about "a plate of sunshine."
 

:: writing prompt # 50 :: monday, 28th july
In 200 words, describe a hot day.
 

:: writing prompt # 49 :: sunday, 27th july
Write a 150-word profile of someone named "Margaret Mallory."
 

:: writing prompt # 48 :: saturday, 26th july
What do you do on a rainy day? Write about it in 250 words.
 

:: writing prompt # 47 :: friday, 25th july
In 200 words, write about what this metaphor makes you think of: "a garnish of joy"
 

:: writing prompt # 46 :: thursday, 24th july
Put Shaggy (Scooby-Doo's partner) and Batgirl in an elevator and write a 200-word scene.
 

:: writing prompt # 45 :: wednesday, 23rd july
What does "a string of laughter" make you think of?
 

:: writing prompt # 44 :: tuesday, 22nd july
Choose one of your physical features and write about how you can change or disguise that feature.
 

:: writing prompt # 43 :: monday, 21st july
Write about a time you hid from someone, or a time you disguised who you really were.
 

:: writing prompt # 42 :: sunday, 20th july
Write an exaggeration of an ailment or illness (cough, fever, asthma).
 

:: writing prompt # 41 :: saturday, 19th july
What's your idea of a perfect vacation?
 

:: writing prompt # 40 :: friday, 18th july
Invent a 'hot' or sensational issue and write a news story about it.
 

:: writing prompt # 39 :: thursday, 17th july
Use the following words in a story: hypocrite, cookie jar, city, telephone
 

:: writing prompt # 38 :: wednesday, 16th july
List 20 things you're afraid of. Pick one fear and write about it.
 

:: writing prompt # 37 :: tuesday, 15th july
List 10 challenges you've faced in the last 3 months. Pick one challenge and write about it.
 

:: writing prompt # 36 :: monday, 14th july
You're in a room full of people and you're the only blind person there. Describe the room and the people in your mind.

 

:: writing prompt # 35 :: sunday, 13th july
Write about a joyous moment.
 

:: writing prompt # 34 :: saturday, 12th july
List 20 things that annoy you. Pick one and write about it.
 

:: writing prompt # 33 :: thursday, 10th july
List 10 things you can do with tissue paper. Pick one from the list and write about it.
 

:: writing prompt # 32 :: wednesday, 9th july
Write about a blue-colored object.
 

:: writing prompt # 31 :: tuesday, 8th july
Begin a story with the line, "The clock winked."
 

:: writing prompt # 30 :: monday, 7th july
Write an excuse for not working today.
 

:: writing prompt # 29 :: sunday, 6th july
Begin a 500-word piece with "If I had the power to change something, I would change..."
 

:: writing prompt # 28 :: saturday, 5th july
What's the most boring day you've had? Describe it, but this time, make it sound not boring at all.
 

:: writing prompt # 27 :: friday, 4th july
Write a story about an empty glass.
 

:: writing prompt # 26 :: thursday, 3rd july
Write about one of the easiest decisions you've made in your life.
 

:: writing prompt # 25 :: tuesday, 1st july
Write about one of the most difficult decisions you've made in your life.