Blogboard

Teach Baltimore reprints the lengthy, no-nonsense e-mail message he sent to parents after his IB students performed poorly on a quiz on Richard III. "I wonder if you can read between the lines in this email that I'm actually kind of seething," he asks. Well, yes, you can, but that's part of its charm (so to speak). We especially liked this part:

I do not recommend using a translated, modernized text, mostly because I'm finding that most students who have them rely on the modernized text and nothing else. Every student who did this failed the quiz yesterday. If you see one of those "Shakespeare Made Easy" texts at home, they can be dangerous. ... Additionally, using online sites like Sparknotes do not help students immerse themselves in the language, and thus are not useful in the course.