reading – Savannah Schaffer

Weekly Compendium (4.19.20)

April 19, 2020 April 19, 2020Compendium

What I’ve Been Reading Tribes, by Seth GodinWhile I’ve been aware of Seth Godin for quite a few years, I only read his work recently. Late last year I read The Dip and then this past month Tribes. I struggled a little with his writing style and formatting, it seemed like a random collection of ideas. Each section might be a paragraph to a page long and do not connect together very much. While this makes it highly accessible, it also felt too broad. There were a few ideas that I wish he had spent more time exploring. But overall,…

There and Back Again: Adventures of Teaching The Hobbit

May 6, 2017 May 6, 2017Education, Literature, Uncategorized

Last semester at Veritas Christi Hybrid Academy, in my 7th and 8th Literature & Composition class I’ve been teaching The Hobbit. There have been multiple times that my own knowledge of Tolkien’s world has been put to shame by students who are quickly becoming experts in Middle-earth lore! I used this as an opportunity to introduce the concept of summarizing, so each day of class would open with a review of the reading assignment they finished. Then the students would take a few minutes to write a one sentence summary of the chapter they read. I found that they enjoyed reading their sentences…

Reflections on Paradise Lost

April 29, 2017 April 29, 2017Art, Christianity, Literature

Despite being a voracious reader, I’ve always been intimidated by Medieval and Renaissance literature. So I had somehow gotten this far in my life without reading Paradise Lost. But in preparation for teaching a British Literature class this fall, I decided it was time to overcome my fear. In the Christian Guide to the Classics series, I discovered that Leland Ryken had written a guide for Paradise Lost which I found invaluable during my reading. It broke the text up into manageable sections and provided a summary of the plot that helped me follow along. Additionally, the questions and ideas that Ryken explored made the book more fascinating…

I Could Be Bounded in a Nutshell

March 3, 2014 March 3, 2014Christianity, Fiction, Life, Literature

I recently finished an online course by Futurelearn.com about Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. I wanted to share some reflections on what I learned and what I found most interesting about the course. Although I had read Hamlet a few times prior to this course, I confess that I never really “got” the point. I didn’t see why Hamlet was so upset about his father’s death, and the whole thing just didn’t make sense. But this course helped me understand what it is all about. Hamlet isn’t just about a prince avenging his father’s murder…it is about a young man grappling with the fundamental questions of our existence….

Believe and Live

February 5, 2014 February 5, 2014Christianity, Life, Words

Link Love

February 1, 2014 February 1, 2014Christianity, Culture, Education, Shared

This is an interesting article arguing that it isn’t necessary to formally teach math. Who invented writing? This charming video from TED Ed describes the development of writing. This looks like a neat writing curriculum, Brave writing. What does it mean to remember? I haven’t watched this TED video yet, but it looks really fascinating. I enjoyed reading about a Day in the Life of a Waldorf Kindergarten. Some thought-provoking ideas about reading from Albert Mohler. I haven’t completely watched this video either (for some reason I have a really hard time watching videos) , but the subject, why MOOCs still matter,…