“Words can be like x-rays, they’ll go through anything.
You read and you’re pierced. That’s one of the thing I try to teach my students: how to write piercingly.”
Hello, students, parents and teachers.
Although I am currently retired, my love for teaching writing and usage skills as well as literature analysis has not left me.
I have so much admiration for those school districts and teachers who had to establish on-line learning platforms in a matter of days due to the pandemic. My hope is that this website will support homeschooling parents and their children as well as offer high school students or teachers supplemental learning materials.
“Never forget that throughout your lives you will be judged by how you speak and by how you write.”
MATERIALS
The Writing Process
Including Author's Tone and Attitude
Parallel structure and Conciseness
Learning parallel structure and avoiding wordiness are the secret weapons of good writing..
Usage Concepts
Active and Passive Voice, Action and Linking Verbs, the Nominative and Objective Forms of the Personal Pronouns.
Sentence Structure
Sentence Structure for Emphasis: periodic or left-branching, mid-branching, balanced or parallel, loose or right-branching, serial.
Persuasive Writing and Techniques
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The College Admissions Essay
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“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”
About me
My hometown is Bangor, Wisconsin in the La Crosse River valley and located in the Coulee Region, a region also known as the Driftless Area characterized by scenic hills, valleys and ridge-tops. The Fish Creek Valley print and my father, George Kapanke's photos show the beauty of the area, a part of Wisconsin not scoured by by the glaciers of the Ice Age.
An essay that I loved to share with my students is "The Coffee Cup", written by another hometown kid and family friend, George Hesselberg about the town we share. The essay describes what it was like growing up in a small, midwestern town, but I also like the essay for its tone of wistful nostalgia, the way I, too, feel about Bangor.
After attending the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where I earned undergraduate degrees in English and speech education, I taught high school English for the Spring Grove School district in southeast Minnesota. For the next 32 years, however, I taught secondary English and speech at Elkhorn High School in southeast Wisconsin, an area known as the Kettle Moraine and part off the state covered by mile-high glaciers. I've lived in both glaciated and unglaciated parts of Wisconsin; the Coulee Region and the Kettle Moraine are different regions in the state, each with unique and beautiful scenery.
In 1985, I earned my Masters Degree in English and education at the University of Wisconsin. In the course of my career, I've taught both required and elective classes, among which were a college-prep writing class offered for dual credit in partnership with UW-Oshkosh, AP English literature, speech and an elective I planned called Literature, Nature and the Environment. I enjoyed reading, evaluating and sharing my students' essays as well as analyzing and facilitating discussion of literature.
In 2000 and 2004, I was nominated to "Who's Who Among America's Teachers". Was it Eleanor Roosevelt who said "Once you find a job you love, you will never work a day in your life?" I agree.....
“Budaniel and Simba the Toy Lion”
The book Budaniel and Simba the Toy Lion is a true story about Susan’s nephew Nathaniel and his favorite toy, Simba the lion. The story will resonate with adults who have fond memories of toys from their childhood and especially with children who are delighted with the companionship of toy animals. It narrates the true story of a child’s affection for Simba, the toy lion who gives the boy courage in his shyness
One day, Nathaniel’s family visits his grandparents who were hosting a family reunion where he could bond with his cousins in playtime. Amid all the excitement, Nathaniel lost his favorite toy, the lion Simba. This brought sadness to the boy for the Lion was his favorite. He felt lonely and sad without his beloved toy. Aunt Susan comforted her nephew by assuring him that Simba must be enjoying a little adventure but would return to his beloved boy.
The book, a true story, is perfect for all readers, not only for children who have favorite toys, but for anyone who enjoys the comfort of friendship or of treasured possessions.
STUDENT RESOURCES
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” Aldo Leopold
Literature of Nature and the Environment
Photo by George E. Kapanke
AP English Literature
“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort. There must be the will to produce a superior thing.” John Ruskin and Will A. Foster
Sophomore English
“What matters most is not what others think of you but what you think of yourself.” S. Kapanke
“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”
To Kill a Mockingbird
Contact
kapasusan@gmail.com
