Mary Shelley as Sullen Adolescent and Building Our Own Odes

Yesterday was one of those teaching days when my energy level just CRASHED during my first class (first of three).  Was that crash just going to happen regardless?  Was it something about that class and its dynamics?  Something about the time of day?

Happily, I was able to keep going.  In my third class, the Creative Writing class, we had an in-class writing day, and I spent some time with Frankenstein, or more specifically, the readings that come with the Norton Critical edition.  It was great to spend the end of my teaching day remembering what teenagers are capable of producing.

Of course, most of my students are not Mary Shelley.  But if we could go back in time to meet Mary Shelley and her compatriots, we might not see her genius.  I would probably be the one wondering why she was making such disastrous personal choices--could the sex with Percy be that good?

Yes, I am officially old now.

I wish I could have structured the Brit Lit class differently so that we were reading Frankenstein closer to late October, early November.  But we are not.  

We did Keats' "To Autumn" on Wednesday, which was a delight.  Keats perfectly describes the weather we've been having, that shift from summer to autumn, but it's the warm side of autumn, not the kind that makes us know that winter is coming, and it won't be long.

I had such success with the Build Your Own Gothic/Spooky or Build Your Own Detective worksheets in Tuesday's Creative Writing class that I created a worksheet for Wednesday.  We did the worksheet first, then we read the Keats poem.  I'll let them do a revision as one of their Revised Writing options.

Here's the worksheet, in case it's useful:

Build Your Own Ode to a Season


Fill in the blank, and then add some additional thoughts in the space below.


Season of __________________________________________________.


If this season was a human, it would be ______________________________.


The animals associated with this season are _______________________________.


Most common type of weather in this season______________________________.


Parts of nature most associated with this season: ___________________________.


Best and worst foods associated with this season are _________________________.


Rituals and celebrations that are part of this season:____________________________.



In the past, humans saw this season as ____________________________________.