Henrietta Lacks' Family Speaks Out

Bridgewater State University selected The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for their One Book, One Community project this year and are hosting the Lacks family on Saturday, October 4, 2014 from 11 AM to 1 PM at the Horace Mann Auditorium at BSU. This panel discussion is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

This book by Rebecca Skloot is a fascinating story. The information on the BSU event flyer tells us:

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells--taken without her knowledge in 1951--became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mappiong, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta's cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown.

BSU's invitation continues:

Hear a first-hand account from her family of her life and death, and the ethical dilemma they faced.

If you have read this book, please share your impressions in the comments. I will post again after I have attended the event. Hope to see you there!

Thank You, AEF!

We have just received notice of a generous Abington Education Foundation grant awarded to the Abington High School English Department to participate in the 16th annual WORDWRIGHT CHALLENGE for high shools--a national contest for students in grades 9-12 which encourages close reading of many different kinds of prose and poetry.

 Four times a year, students are given a vocabulary list to study, both of words from a literary text and the academic language of the questions. Students read the text and answer 10-12 multiple choice questions. Questions include reading comprehension questions as well as questions about the particular uses of language in a story, poem, or essay.

 Students with the 10 best scores at each grade level in each meet become a team. Team scores are acknowledge as well as individual high scores in each meet; students whose cumulative record is outstanding are acknowledged at our year-end award ceremonies.

WORDWRIGHT CHALLENGE Meets will take place between :
10/13/14 -- 10/21/14 for meet 1
12/08/14 -- 12/16/14 for meet 2
  2/02/15 --   2/17/15 for meet 3
  4/16/15 --   4/20/15 for meet 4

 Thank you, AEF, for the enrollment fees so that students from all 4 grades at AHS can participate. Stay tuned for the press releases that inform us about how Abington students compete with students from around the world!

Welcome to My Webpage!

This year, I will be sharing a webpage with an overview to my classes, the ELA department 7-12 in Abington Public Schools, to my professional work as well as my reading and writing adventures.

 Follow me by email by using the gadget to the right of these posts.

 I will be adding links to what we are studying, resources for projects, and other sites of interest to readers and writers. 

Please use the comments section of any post to ask questions or make suggestions.

Enjoy!