English Gets Wired
By Amy HoStudents in English teacher Larry Vosovic's Contemporary Literature and Writing class now have a new website to help them undertsand material from the class.
The website has been in the workings since December and includes notes and summaries from Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World.
"When I was teaching Sophie's World for the first time, both the students and I had some trouble understanding the book. I surfed the net looking for more information, and then it occured to me that if I set up my own website students can log on any time when they need help," said Vosovic.
The website was designed by senior James Bennett and juniors Helen Cherkasova, Michael Jeung and Prasanth Padmanabhan. "I think it's a good idea becuase it opens up students to other people's opinions than those in their class. It also gives them a chance to see what others think," said Cherkasova.
There are five links on the site: books, chat, bulletin board, calendar, and links. "The best part about the website is that anyone can contribute to it. We have contributions from people in Australia and other parts of the United States," said Vosovic. Within the bulletin board there is chapter to chapter summary analysis and a place where people can put down their own ideas and thoughts about the book being read in class.
"The website has helped me understand areas in the book that I didn't understand at first," said sophomore Ohr Shottan.
According to Vosovic and the webmasters, this website will be expanding to cover other books such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Catcher in the Rye.
The website can be visited at https://members.tripod.com/~elvoz/. Plans to move this website is under way. It will be moved in late January to http://hhs.fuhsd.org.
This article appeared in The Epitaph, January 20, 1999.
