I was reading through the Teacher's guide for teaching Rhetoric level literature and I keep seeing the inforation for Vocabulary Quizzes and Literary Analysis Sheets. Are these forms that are available or something that I just put together at my discretion? If they are forms, where would I find them?

Hi! Assuming I understand your question, here are a few thoughts... please let me know if this wasn't what you were looking for!

There are no "forms" for vocab quizzes, mostly because there are a lot of different ways to do them. In my class I usually just do an oral quiz or else pick out three words from that week's list and have students write out definitions on the spot at the beginning of class (this takes about 10 minutes if you have them switch papers and grade on the spot as well). I do not put together or recommend putting together any prefabricated quizzes, because I have found that it's great to have a lot of flexibility in which terms you choose and when you do quizzes (e.g. choosing shorter, simpler, or fewer terms, or not having a quiz at all, because the kids have had a hard week; or choosing the terms that are most important for what you plan to discuss). Usually I do 3-4 quizzes per unit and because the kids never know when one is coming up, they always do their cards and come prepared. Anyway, those are just my thoughts... if you wanted to take a more regimented approach to vocabulary quizzes, you certainly could. However, for my money, the flexibility is a superb way to go and allows you to custom fit the vocab quizzes so that they flow with your kids' week and what you plan to discuss in class. :-)

Literary analysis is a broad term that covers most written exercises the students do in the Student Activity Pages. They vary greatly from week to week, and (unless you happen to have the first printing of Year 2) the only "forms" required are those that you can find in Appendix C of Poetics (character description charts and I believe there is also a basic poetry analysis chart). Students will be directed to print off and fill out blank copies of those week-by-week as needed, and those charts are really all the literary analysis forms you should need. :-)

I hope this helps a little bit!

Christy Somerville
Staff Author
Director for Rhetoric Literature Studies
Lampstand Press

Thanks! That sounds like a great plan to me. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I'm diving in to my first year of Rhetoric this fall and it is all new I am excited, but I know I didn't learn even half of this when I was in high school, so I have a lot of learning to do myself! Thanks for your quick response. I really appreciate this forum. Happy Easter!

I lead a class of 13-ish senior high school students, and have found it hard to keep them accountable in traditional ways. One thing I do for vocabulary accountability that we all enjoy is to make it a competition. Every week, going through the entire list for that week, I ask for a specific definition. The first student who can recite it accurately gets a point (I also bribe them by tossing out a square of Dove dark chocolate for each correct definition). The student that has the most points gets to be Vocabulary King or Queen for the week, which enables him/her to change definitions,maul the language, etc. as much as he/she wants without being corrected. The person who wins the most competitions during the year gets to be Vocab. King or Queen for the summer, and they get to take home the class scepter.

It sounds dorky, I know, but the students seem to like it. It really appeals to their sense of competition, and facilitates class discussion, as well as bonding between myself and the students (which helps facilitate openness during the difficult discussions).

This sounds totally cool, and I would shamelessly borrow your idea if we had a live co-op. I am not sure it would work with our virtual co-op, but I may just think on that over the summer... Thanks for sharing!
Blessings,
April