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From Wikipedia:

Religion

A Shankha shell (the shell of a Turbinella pyrum, a species in the gastrpod family Turbinellidae) is often referred to in the West as a conch shell, or a chank shell. The shell is used as an important ritual object in Hinduism. The shell is used as a ceremonial trumpet, as part of religious practices, for example puja. The chank trumpet is sounded during worship at specific pointsin the ceremonies, accompanied by bells and singing.

In the story of Dhruva, the divine conch plays a special part. The warriors of ancient India blew conch shells to announce battle, as is described in the beginning of the war of Kurukshetra, in the Mahabharata, the famous Hindu epic.

The god of Preservation, Vishnu, is said to hold a special conch, Panchajanya, that represents life, as it has come out of life-giving waters.

As it is an auspicious instrument, it is often played in a Lakshmi puja in temple or at home.

Buddhism
Buddhism has also incorporated the conch shell, as one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols.

Ancient Peru

* The Moche people of ancient Peru worshiped the sea and often depicted conch shells in their art.


Literature and the oral tradition

William Golding's Lord of the Flies features frequent references to "the Conch". In the book, the conch is used as a trumpet to call everyone together and held by whoever is speaking at meetings, symbolically representing democracy and order. When a boulder released by Roger, Jack's lieutenant, smashes the conch, it is a sign that civilized order has fully collapsed since Jack's eventual increasing influence.

The famous Old English riddle Ic wæs be Sonde describes a conch: "I was by sound, near seawall, at ocean-stream; I dwelt alone in my first resting place. ... Little did I know that I, ere or since, ever should speak mouthless over mead-benches." Another meaning given to this riddle ‘Ic wæs be Sonde’ is that the sound of the conch corresponds to spiritualised sound as heard in higher realms. In the Hindu tradition, the conch shell is used in ceremony as the sound it makes is said to correspond with higher frequency universal sounds associated with music of the spheres.

In popular folklore, it is believed that if one holds an open conch shell (or any other large marine snail shell) to the ear, the ocean can be heard. This phenomenon is caused by the resonant cavity of the shell producing a form of pink noise from the surrounding background ambiance.]]> Lord of the Flies http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=160 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:47:00 -0900 http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=144
The first is the Table of Contents for the unit. This will be the first page of the completed chrestomathy. It shows what pages will be needed and in what order the materials will be presented.

The second is the Unit Specifics sheet for the unit. This sheet will not ultimately be included in the chrestomathy but is essential for knowing which options are available on each assignment. For example, included are the words available for the Word Quest and the topics available for all the types of writing in the unit, Narrative, Persuasive, and Response to Literature. The student will be referring to the sheet often.

The final sheet is the rubric that The World's Greatest English Teachers will be using when grading the chrestomathy. The student should print out a copy of this rubric so they will have a good idea how they will be graded, but it will not be included in the chrestomathy.
LOTF Table of Contents
LotF Unit Specifics Sheet
LotF Grading Rubric]]> Lord of the Flies http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=144 Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:44:00 -0900 http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=169
While we're reading Lord of the Flies for the next few weeks, you may need to consult the book at home while you're doing your homework, such as completing the Literary Techniques or Foreshadowing worksheets, or searching for appropriate quotes for one of the three essays you must write.

For your convenience, here's a link to a pdf version of the book. You can download it, then read it using any one of a large number of free reading tools.

Please delete it after we're done with the book.

If you need help, ask.

Take charge of your education!]]> General http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=169 Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:15:00 -0900 http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=168
In the World's Greatest English Classes, we'll be helping you prepare for the California High School Exit Exam in the coming weeks.

However, this test is so important to you and your future that you should work on your own to prepare for it. It's the responsible and adult thing to do. All the cool kids are doing it.

Here's a link to a California Department of Education site which has the study materials you can print out and use to familiarize yourself with the style, format and content of the questions that will be asked on the actual test! It almost will be like having a copy of the test in advance! Almost.]]> General http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=168 Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:52:00 -0900 http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=131
The "show and tell" exercise was done on the second day of class.

This is categorically true.

]]> General http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=131 Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:28:00 -0900 http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=171

This is the third of four chrestomathies each student in Mr. Campbell's First Period English Two class will be required to complete this year in The World's Greatest English Class. The three links below are the guide for the materials that are needed for completion of the unit:

The first is the Table of Contents for the unit. This will be the first page of the completed chrestomathy. It shows what pages will be needed and in what order the materials will be presented.

The second is the Unit Specifics sheet for the unit. This sheet will not ultimately be included in the chrestomathy but is essential for knowing which options are available on each assignment. For example, included are the words available for the Word Quest and the topics available for all the types of writing in the unit, Narrative, Persuasive, and Response to Literature. The student will be refering to the sheet often.

The final sheet is the rubric that The World's Greatest English Teachers will be using when grading the chrestomathy. The student should print out a copy of this rubric so they will have a good idea how they will be graded, but it will not be included in the chrestomathy.


The Last Shot Unit Specifics

The Last Shot Table of Contents

The Last Shot Rubric]]> The Last Shot http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=171 Mon, 9 Jan 2012 11:07:20 -0900 http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=130
The teachers have won the award for seven straight years.

The website, which was nominated for a 2006 Weblog award, chose Campbell and Hannigan for "their outstanding achievements in Language Arts education," according to the website.

The duo earned specific praise for their work in bringing California Standards-based lessons to their classrooms, developing innovative and engaging lessons for the play "Cyrano de Bergerac," the novel "Lord of the Flies" and the seminal satirical political fable, "Animal Farm," and for their revolutionary "outside reading" program known as "TIES," or Thematic Investigation, Exposition and Synthesis, which guides students through a variety of "bundles," which are groups of thematically related books, articles, websites and films, before prompting them to produce a variety of materials in response.







"We love the books we teach and the students to whom we teach them," said Educator Tim Campbell. "I particularly like Animal Farm, which contains many important lessons for students, such as the part in which Napoleon aggrandizes himself by awarding himself medals and the like."

Hannigan said he was grateful for the award and the recognition it brings. "It would be false modesty to say we didn't deserve this award. We've worked very hard on the behalf of our students. It's all about them. They are the future of the world. Right now, though, Mr. Campbell and I are the present. We are a gift we give to our students."

Students seem to appreciate that gift. In an essay written for Mr. Hannigan, one student said "Mr. Hannigan's intellectual ideas have greatly influenced all people."

The student, who cannot be identified because of state law, said his "family moved to Union City just so [the student} could be one of the students of the Almighty Hannigan."

Similar comments have been made by students about Campbell, who has also been named the James Logan High School Teacher of the Year.

The website, www.worldsgreatestenglishclass.com, cited statistics that prove, through scientific analysis, that Campbell and Hannigan's students get higher grades in both high school and college, earn more after they graduate, are more popular with their peers and have lower lung cancer and colon cancer rates than their counterparts. Their mates report higher levels of satisfaction, as well.

Educational expert Fred Jedder praised Campbell and Hannigan, saying that "the educational community would do well to submit to their leadership and give up resisting the inevitable conquest of the exhausted pedagogies."

Prince Felatu, ruler of the island nation of Tatua, said he would grant Campbell and Hannigan hereditary titles of Lords of the Realm of Tatua, and ordain them as bishops in the Church of Tatua.
]]> General http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=130 Thu, 5 Jan 2012 00:21:00 -0900 http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=147
If you need to read Animal Farm at home, it's available free online from Google Books.





Click here to access the book.



Or you can download a copy by clicking here.



]]> Animal Farm http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=147 Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:26:00 -0900 http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=146
A fable differs from a parable in that the latter excludes animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech and other powers of humankind.

The word "fable" comes from the Latin "fabula" (a "story"), itself derived from "fari" ("to speak").
An author of fables is termed a "fabulist," and the word "fabulous," strictly speaking, "pertains to a fable or fables." In recent decades, however, "fabulous" has come frequently to be used in the quite different meaning of "excellent" or "outstanding" (which, to be sure, some fables may be).

Characteristics
Fables can be described as a didactic mode of literature. That is, whether a fable has been handed down from generation to generation as oral literature, or constructed by a literary tale-teller, its purpose is to impart a lesson or value, or to give sage advice. Fables also provide opportunities to laugh at human folly, when they supply examples of behaviors to be avoided rather than emulated.

Fables frequently have as their central characters animals that are given anthropomorphic characteristics such as the ability to reason and speak. In antiquity, Aesop presented a wide range of animals as protagonists, including The Tortoise and the Hare which famously engage in a race against each other; and, in another classic fable, a fox which rejects grapes that are out of reach, as probably being sour ("sour grapes"). Medieval French fabliaux might feature Reynard the Fox, a trickster figure, and offer a subtext mildly subversive of the feudal social order. Similarly, the 18th-century Polish fabulist Ignacy Krasicki employs animals as the title actors in his striking verse fable, "The Lamb and the Wolves." Krasicki uses plants the same way in "The Violet and the Grass."

Divinities may also appear in fables as active agents. Aesop's Fables feature most of the Greek pantheon, including Zeus and Hermes.

The fable is one of the most enduring forms of folk literature, spread abroad, modern researchers agree, less by literary anthologies than by oral transmission. Fables can be found in the literature of almost every country. The varying corpus denoted Aesopica or Aesop's Fables includes most of the best-known western fables, which are attributed to the legendary Aesop, supposed to have been a Greek slave of the 6th century BCE.

In modern times, the fable has been trivialized in children's books. Yet it has also been fully adapted to modern adult literature. For instance, James Thurber used the ancient style in his books, Fables for Our Time and The Beast in Me and Other Animals. George Orwell's Animal Farm satirizes Stalinist Communism in particular, and totalitarianism in general, in the guise of animal fable. Felix Salten's Bambi is a Bildungsroman — a story of a protagonist's coming-of-age — cast in the form of a fable.]]> Animal Farm http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=146 Wed, 7 Dec 2011 14:17:00 -0900 http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=145
The first is the Table of Contents for the unit. This will be the first page of the completed chrestomathy. It shows what pages will be needed and in what order the materials will be presented.

The second is the Unit Specifics sheet for the unit. This sheet will not ultimately be included in the chrestomathy but is essential for knowing which options are available on each assignment. For example, included are the words available for the Word Quest and the topics available for all the types of writing in the unit, Narrative, Persuasive, and Response to Literature. The student will be refering to the sheet often.

The final sheet is the rubric that The World's Greatest English Teachers will be using when grading the chrestomathy. The student should print out a copy of this rubric so they will have a good idea how they will be graded, but it will not be included in the chrestomathy.
Animal Farm Chrestomathy Table of Contents

Animal Farm Chrestomathy Unit Specific Sheet

Animal Farm Chrestomathy Rubric]]> Animal Farm http://worldsgreatestenglishclass.com/index.php?itemid=145 Sun, 20 Nov 2011 08:30:00 -0900