English Companion Ning Group

A wiki of Web-based resources made with English teachers in mind.

A lasting online resource and a companion project for Shakespeare in American Life, a radio documentary produced by Richard Paul and narrated by Sam Waterston, airing on Public Radio International (PRI) stations beginning in April 2007.

The Birthday Party by Katherine Brush     They were a couple in their late thirties, and they looked unmistakably married. They sat on the banquette opposite us in a little narrow restaurant, having dinner. The man had a round, self-satisfied face, with glasses on it; the woman was fadingly pretty, in a big hat. There was nothing conspicuous about them, nothing particularly noticeable, until the end of their meal, when it suddenly became obvious that this was an occasion-in fact, the husband's birthday. And the wife had planned a little surprise for him.     It arrived, in the form of a small but glossy birthday cake, with one pink candle burning in the center. The headwaiter brought it in and placed it before the husband, and meanwhile the violin-and-piano orchestra played "Happy Birthday to You" and the wife beamed with shy pride over her little surprise, and such few people as there were in the restaurant tried to help out with a pattering of applause. It became clear at once that help was needed, because the husband was not pleased. Instead he was hotly embarrassed, and indignant at his wife for embarrassing him.     You looked at him and you saw this and you thought, "Oh, now don't be like that!" But he was like that, and as soon as the little cake had been deposited on the table, and the orchestra had finished the birthday piece, and the general attention had shifted from the man and the woman, I saw him say something to her under his breath-some punishing thing, quick and curt and unkind. I couldn't bear to look at the woman then, so I stared at my plate and waited for quite a long time. Not long enough, though. She was still crying when I finally glanced over there again. Crying quietly and heartbrokenly and hopelessly, all to herself, under the gay big brim of her best hat.  

Finished a book you really liked? Try YourNextRead to discover a book like it.

"lots of English and history applications. It'd be fun to write survival guides for self-destructive historical or literary figures- maybe Edgar Allen Poe or Custer."

Custard?

:) That's embarrassing! I guess I was hungry when I added that. General Custer not Custard.

Author Peggy Orenstein comments about Twitter and how we use social networking to craft our identities.

Useful Forms and Readings If you know what you're looking for you will find it below listed alphabetically.  If you're new to WRG you want the file called "I Want It All".

class: Here are some examples of good college essays / personal statements that NPR published or aired.

Fun for students learning about Anglo-Saxons, Old English, or the history of English.

Orwell's advice to writers.