Hmm…..

This is my apology post for completely neglecting this blog for the last month.

It just so happened that the weekend after I started it, and was totally on track and proud of myself, Eric just had to go and propose on the 4th of July!

Needless to say I’ve been somewhat… distracted…. and the first thing on my mind has not been the test I have to take in October!

I promise to get back on track soon — and I am going to revise my plans to include only information that I need to study. That means we are ending the English unit since I’m a lit major, and moving right along. I will also be skipping Music. If you’re studying for the ORELA and need help in these subjects, feel free to message me!

Thanks for understanding-

Brynna

July 28, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments 

Studying for the ORELA - Stories and Speeches Pt. 1

This is the second in a 12-part series about studying for the ORELA - the Oregon Educator Licensing Assessment. This segment is on Language Arts: Stories and Speeches. All information is combined directly from What Your 5th Grader Needs to Know and What Your 6th Grader Needs to Know, both edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. Read the intro here.  This part will be in two posts, because it is quite long.

“Coyote Goes to the Land of the Dead” (folk tale, oral tradition)

In this retelling, from Native American, specifically Nez Percé and Zuni, folklore. This story draws on the archetype of the “trickster” in literature, who sometimes plays impish tricks on others, and sometimes makes himself a fool. In this story, a character called Coyote meets a spirit who tells him he can bring his wife back to the land of the living if he follows precise instructions. He sees his wife in the land of the dead, dances with the dead spirits, and then is told to follow her without touching her for 5 days. Every day he follows her he can see her more and more clearly. On the 5th day, Coyote “gathers his wife up in his arms” and she disappears. This is why the dead no longer can return to the world of the living.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

In this excerpt from Tom Sawyer, we get a good idea of Tom’s character, his desires and his mischievousness. The first scene included is the famous whitewashing scene, in which Tom convinces neighborhood boys that his job is so fun that they should do it, and they pay him to be allowed to do his chore for him. The next day Tom Sawyer goes to school, and stops to talk to Huckleberry Finn, who tells him about a cure for warts using a dead cat at a graveyard. Tom is consequently late for school. He sees that Becky Thatcher, the girl he likes, has an empty seat next to her. Tom tells the teacher why he was late in order to get in trouble so he will have to sit with the girls. Here Tom flirts with Becky, giving her a peach and writing “I love you” on his slate.
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July 10, 2008 | Filed Under Teaching, Testing | 21 Comments 

a poem on Thursday

A break from the boringness of ORELA until next Wednesday!

I want to share a beautiful poem I discovered last year, and it even goes along with our geography lesson. :)

Watershed
Here the land is tilted
Like a gambrel roof. The world
Slopes away from the Great Divide,
And all the people
And all the trees
Lean in the same direction
Just to stand up straight.

Even lies that lean that way are true
Like wilsome pines at timberline.
When I die and turn to rain,
I’d like to fall into the distance
And stay awhile.

I’d be happy to be smaller
Where close at hand is out of reach
And everything nearby is blue:
The denim work-clothes of the men,
Their axes in the spruce,
the spruce, the sky,
The knife that cuts the rain in two, the lie.

[by James Galvin, taken from God's Mistress, New York: Harper, 1984.]

My analysis of the poem after the jump:
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July 3, 2008 | Filed Under Literature | 9 Comments 

Studying for the ORELA - Geography

This is the first in a 12-part series about studying for the ORELA - the Oregon Educator Licensing Assessment. This segment is on Geography. All information is combined directly from What Your 5th Grader Needs to Know and What Your 6th Grader Needs to Know, both by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. Read the intro here.

Geography

Latitudes = Parallels, Longitudes = Meridians. Both are imaginary lines around the world, from east to west (latitudes) and north to south (longitudes). All are measured in degrees, in relation to the Equator (latitude 0º), the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, England (longitude 0º), and the 180º Meridian (the other side of the Prime Meridian).

Hemispheres. The earth is divided into four hemispheres (northern, southern, eastern, western), and the hemispheres divide Earth into quadrants. (The United States is in the northwestern quadrant.)

The Arctic Circle and the Antarctic circle are more ways of dividing the earth. The Arctic Circle begins at 67ºN, and continues inward toward the North Pole. The Antarctic Circle begins at 67ºS and moves inward toward the South Pole.

The Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn are two more imaginary reference points on a globe. The Tropic of Cancer lies at 23ºN, and the Tropic of Capricorn lies at 23ºS of the equator.
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July 2, 2008 | Filed Under Teaching, Testing | 2 Comments 

Studying for the ORELA - Introduction

[This is Post 1 of 13]

I am registered to take the Oregon Educator Licensure Assessment (ORELA) in October. The MAT admissions program suggested that to prepare for this test, I should read two books: What Your 5th Grader Needs to Know, and What Your 6th Grader Needs to Know, both by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

For the next 12 weeks, I plan to review each of the 12 main subjects in these books. I will outline what I learn and share it here. I hope to have a new post from this series published every Wednesday, and I will do my best to stick to that goal.

The subject areas are:

[Intro]
Geography
Language Arts (Stories and Speeches)
Language Arts (Poetry)
Language Arts (Mythology)
Language Arts (Language)
Language Arts (Sayings and Phrases)
World Civilization
American Civilization
Music
Math
Science (Life Sciences)
Science (Physical Sciences)

In this series of posts, I will be walking (slowly) though some of the important information I learn. It may seem very basic - as it should! Feel free to use the information (completely adapted from the E.D. Hirsch Jr. books) for your own studying and edification. If you are taking the ORELA now or in the future, good luck!

References:

Hirsch, E.D., Jr, Ed. What Your 5th Grader Needs to Know. 1st Ed. New York: Doubleday, 1993.

Hirsch, E.D., Jr, Ed. What Your 6th Grader Needs to Know. 1st Ed. New York: Doubleday, 1995.

July 1, 2008 | Filed Under Teaching, Testing | Leave a Comment 

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to www.brynnalynea.com, a blog about English and education.

I am Brynna - I am currently a student and am starting this blog for educational and professional purposes, to highlight and share the knowledge I gain about English and beginning teaching. It will also be for personal purposes such as reflection on my experiences.

I will start my graduate studies in secondary education next summer, and I am currently working on studying for and taking the required entrance examinations: the CBEST (California Basic Educational Skills Test), the Praxis II Subject Tests in language arts, and the ORELA (Oregon Educator Licensure Assessment). I will write information about these tests as I prepare for them and complete them.

I will also be writing reviews of literature I am reading, and posting about my personal writing and experiences with entering this field.

Thank you for reading!

Please let me know you stopped by, and subscribe to my RSS feed!

Brynna Lynea

June 30, 2008 | Filed Under Christianity, Literature, Teaching, Writing | 2 Comments