Monday 12-20

Honors: Keep preparing at home for your Reduced RJ Performance on Wednesday!!

CP1: Remember, your first 3 entries are due Thursday. If you are ahead, 2 more are due when you return from vacation, SO if you do not want to have any work this vacation, finish those in class this week!

CP2: We are finishing Chapter 3 in class today! Chapter 3 Prove-its for HW.

Thursday 12-16

Honors: Essays were due yesterday for end of Romeo and Juliet. Continue to prepare for your big performances on Wednesday!!

CP1: First checkpoint for Choice Independent Project is on December 23rd (last day of school).

CP2: We are finishing Chapter 2 today in class. Please finish Chapter 2 questions you received today for hw if you did not in class!

Monday 12/13

Honors: Today we begin our group project "Reduced Romeo and Juliet". Your group will present Wednesday 12-22. You will condense your act into 3-5 minutes. Your job is to find the MOST important lines that keep the essence of the act in tact.

CP1: Period 6 will begin 5 People You Meet in Heaven this week! You will keep a journal to document your study of the novel.

Period 7 will begin Tuesdays with Morrie. YOu will keep a journal to document your study of the novel.

CP2: We will begin Of Mice and Men today! Be ready for chapter guides for each chapter.

Weekend HW: December 3rd

Honors: Read 4.1 and please describe in detail Friar Laurence's plan to save Romeo and Juliet's love! Typed, please!

Period 6 CP1: Read Chapter 6

Period 7 CP1: Finish Chapter 5

Period 5 CP2: Finish Journal entry for 11th Tuesday

Thursday HW

Honors:

CP1: Please be sure your Don't Float A Quote analysis paragraph is well presented and double spaced. This is a major grade!

CP2: Make sure journal entries on Tuesdays 8-10 (just 2 out of the three Tuesdays need a journal entry) are complete!

Weekend HW

Honors:

CP1: Read Chapter 3 and complete prove-its

CP2: None

Monday HW

Honors: Read 2.1-2.2 and complete your prove-its

CP1: Finish Chapter 1 and write your character summaries on George and Lennie

CP2: Finish Journal Entry on 2nd Tuesday

Weekened HW

Honors: Be prepared for a Socratic Circle with Act 1 (play and film).

CP1: Make sure to fnish your final draft of theme essay if you did not hand it in.

CP2: Finish your journal entry for the first Tuesday lesson ( We talk about the world).

Monday November 8th

Honors: Your HW for the weekend was to read 1.1 in Romeo and Juliet. Today we are reading it is class, and you will be responsible for 1.3 tonight!

CP1: Today we begin our study of Of Mice and Men with some pre-reading from Robert Burns' poem from which the title originated. "The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray." Study for your vocabulary quiz tonight!!

CP2: Today we begin our study of Tuesdays with Morrie. Study for your vocabulary quiz tonight by making flashcards for a hw grade.

Weekend HW

Honors: Practice your monologues!! Performances are on Wednesday 11-03

CP 1 and 2: Be prepared to finish all Flip Porject prep on Monday. We will begin filming in the second half of Monday's class.

Honors Paper

A Separate Peace Papers are due Friday, October 29th!!!

Remember MLA format!

To insert the "Header" of last name and page number:

On Word tool bar go to VIEW.

Go to Header and Footer.

Type ex. Pare 1

You are done!

Flip Project: The Most Dangerous Game

Today in class I explained the project we will be working on later in the week. Please view this example (on a History topic) done by PSHS Red Team students in Mr. Kuloweic's class. I need you to comment on this post to receive credit for viewing the example! Say something you enjoyed about the video AND one idea you have for your project!

Vocabulary Words of The Day

Vocaulary Quiz for tomorrow in CP 1 and 2: Honors, check previous post for your homework.

Rank (adj).- disgustingly foul or gross

Imminent (adj.)- about to occur

Invalid (adj.)- to ill to live a normal life

precarious (adj.)- dangerous

culpable (adj.)- guilty

heresy (n)- an idea that goes against what's commonly accepted

dogged (adj)- extremely stubborn or determined

infallible (adj)- unable to make a mistake

ravage (v.)- to detroy

reiterate (v.)- to repeat for emphasis

Thursday's HW

Honors: Finish outline for ASP essay.

Today we took notes on the structure of a literary analysis essay. We chose topics we found intriguing.

Let me please say how enjoyable teaching this novel has been for me. Our Socratic Circles were enlightening, our enthusiasm is wonderful, and the insights have been very sophisticated.

Now, as we write our first major essay, let's try our best to follow the guidelines and delve beneath the surface of the novel to really answer the prompts with sophisticated arguments!


CP 1 and 2: Please study for our Vocabulary Quiz with your flashcards.

Tuesday's HW

Honors: Please Finish ASP and type up a well developed paragraph that reacts to the ending. No format. Just tell me your thoughts!

CP1: Finish reading The Lottery and be sure to have your foreshadowing lines picked out!

CP2: Finish your flash cards for our 10 words of the day. Quiz Thursday!

Monday's HW

Honors: Please read Chapter 11

CP1: Please create your 3 rules for a more effective discussion based on today's Socratic Circle

Today's Socratic Dialogues were, overall, very good. Period 6 had some really bright spots ( Sam and Siena were exceptional!) and some students need to come with more of an open mind.

Period 7 had an EXCELLENT inner circle. I was so impressed, particularly because we have not had the most productive class discussions in the past. We are on our way to some major growth as a class!!

CP2: Tomorrow we are finishing typing your Culpability essays in computer lab. Be ready to be able to finish!

I am incredibly impressed with the quality of most of your papers. Some have really blown me away!

Wednesday's HW

Honors: Chapter 9 Prove Its: ASP

CP1: Finish revisions for Culpability essay

CP2: Make sure you have your first paragraph revised!!

Tuesday's Homework

Honors: Complete vocab flash cards and study for vocabulary quiz!

CP1: Revise 2 paragraphs of culpability explanation based on model given to you in class today.

CP2: Revise 1 paragraph of culpability explanation based on model given to you in class today.

Columbus Day Weekend

Honors: Read Chapter 8 and create 5 thought provoking discussion questions.

e.g. The chapter begins with "Peace had deserted Devon". What does this reveal about Phineas' absence? ***This would be from chapter 6, I know!

CP 1 and 2: Based on your Culpability Charts from The Scarlet Ibis, please complete your 4 paragraph written explanation.

For each paragraph: Take one of the four choices of culbability: Doodle, Narrator, Parents, Society and explain why you assigned (or didn't assign) blame to them (and what percent). GIve 2-3 specific examples from the story to back up your decision. Next explain why you chose the color you did on your chart.

*Do this for all 4, even if one isn't on your pie chart. Explain why it isn't on the chart instead.

This should be a total of 4 paragraph once it's done!

Poetry Portfolio Feedback

I am about a third of the way done grading the Yellow Team's Poetry Portfolios

What am I noticing?

1. To begin with the positive, the poems themselves are generally very sophisticated! We have some great poetic minds on the Yellow Team!

2. Generally the annotations for 2 of the poems were solid!

2. Far too many of the poems are missing the rough draft component. Right there you are missing a grade, and 99 percent of you did do a rough draft! You were told to include the draft multiple times. It is very upsetting to me that you are lowering your grades for no reason other than careless mistakes. Push yourself to be thorough! You had 3 nights to organize these portfolios and make sure you had all the components. If you assumed you had eveyrthing and did not check, chances are that you are one of the students missing a draft.

3. Unorganized! Only 1 portfolio out of the 30 I have looked at were placed in the order you were asked to arrange the assignments.

4. Overall I was disappointed at the lack of pride I saw in the work. Doodles all over the pages, sheets turned in empty, drafts missing. I expect the best from my students and we all need to rise our OWN expectations of ourselves if we want to succeed.

If you wish to look at your portfolio again and make sure it is up to standard, you must stay after school or come to me during study. If you want a second shot you need to give some commitment.

Thursday HW

CP 1 and 2: Turn in any late portfolios. Study for the Poetic Devices quiz tomorrow!!!

Honors: Write your Socratic Seminar reactions tonight: typed, please!

Inner circle: please write your reactions to the discussion experience, and then offer up any rules to create a classroom protocol for an effective discussion.

Outer circle: Please describe in your first paragraph what you observed (based on your directed note I gave you) and any the reactions you want to share about being in the outer circle.

For part 2 please come up with suggestions for a more effective discussion!

Wednesday

Honors: Read Chapter 5 and complete discussion questions

CP1 and 2: Organized completed poetry portfolios due tomorrow!

Tuesday's HW

Just browsing through the ballads I received today, I am so impressed with the quality of your poems! Bravo!

Honors: Complete ASP CH. 4 discussion questions on "a separate piece" of paper ;P

CP1: Organize portfolios

CP2: Complete extended metaphor question from "The Writer"

Monday's Homework

Honors: You need to revise your ballad and type up a well formatted final draft of your poem. Be prepared to share at least a portion of your ballad on Tuesday!

CP1: I have now conferenced with any student with a completed rough draft of a ballad. Please type up a well-formatted, revised ballad for Tuesday. Be prepared to share your ballad, juuuust in case!!

Weekend HW

Honors: Read Chapter 3 and complete discussion questions

**Amendment: No discussion questions, we forgot to hand them out! WHoops! Be prepared to answer them at the beginning of class on Monday.

CP1: Finish P.A.T for "Snacks in the Shade" or "Ode to a Lemon" if you did not in class on Friday

CP2: Finish your PAT for "Ode" or "Concrete" poem for Monday


Have a Happy Weekend!

Thursday

Thursday Night's HW

Honors, CP1: Finish Rough Draft of Ballad based on the news article you printed out.

* A note of advice: A lot of students expressed that their article was "too boring" to be a poem. Putting aside for a moment that you can take anything and inject enough creativity to make it interesting, you were instructed to find an interesting, exciting article. If you need to go back to nytimes.com and find a new article that does work for you, I strongly urge you to do it.


CP2" Finish your P.A.T. on you individual poem.

Monday 09-20

Honors: Please read Chapters 1 and 2 of A Separate Peace by Thursday

CP 1 and 2: If there was any work you did not finish in the computer lab today, please have it ready for tomorrow!

Coming next in Poetry Unit: Ballads!

Weekend HW

Honors: Please complete A Separate Peace Anticipation Guide

CP 1 and 2: Complete your extended metaphor poem with at least 4 supporting metaphors.

Wednesday

Sorry for the lack of a post last night!

Tonight's homework:

Honors: Poem Analysis sheet for Mali's poem due Friday. A Separate Peace novels will be handed out by Friday. Please do not forget to hand in Hobbit books.

CP1 and 2: No homework. If you did not do your Metaphor Poem on Tuesday night, please have it for next class!

In class we are working on : Extracting meaning out of metaphors and similes
Writing original metaphor and (to come) writing extended metaphor poems

How Did We Do?: Lyrics as Poetry

I received 42 responses to this weekends "Lyrics as Poetry" blog assignment.

Congrats to the 42 who took the time to complete it.

A bit of feedback to the quality of the work I received:

• Most people chose lyrics that certainly did include some great poetic devices! One student even mentioned allusions, which we covered in Friday's class- bravo!

• In regards to the explanations, nearly all of them need a lot of work. A sentence such as "It included a metaphor" is not a sufficient high school response. You should be identifying the metaphor and including the line in your response. Then you should be explaining the significance of the metaphor!

• Push yourselves! General, unexplained statements do not not reveal real higher level thinking, which all of you are capable of. "I chose this poem because it has a lot of meaning." This was a very common explanation. If you were a teacher, how would you feel about that answer? Explain, explain, explain!

Bravo again on the effort, and let's shoot for greatness next time!!!

Homework: CP 1 and Honors

To complete this assignment, please submit it as a comment to this post.

Please choose a song lyric that you feel could be a poem. Lyrics can be very poetic, and I want you to REALLY think about the song you choose. The song should use poetic devices and should be appropriate. Don't just choose a song because you like it. If I do not see the poetry in the words, that will reflect in the credit you receive.

After you paste the lyrics into a comment, then please

1. Explain why you choose it
2. Be sure to say who you are

Friday September 10

I am so pleased to be able to say how well this week has been for Yellow Team students. So far the majority of you have proven to be maturely behaved and enthusiastic learners.

I can tell this is going to be a productive, fun year.

Check back for your homework, to be done on this blog as a comment.

First Writing Assignment

To all classes: Your Dear Mrs. Pare letters are due on Friday! Do not forget to format it exactly like mine- it should also be just as long!

It was a pleasure meeting you all today. You have a great personality as a group!

Extra credit to anyone who comments on this post by Thursday!

Yellow Team Welcome Video

Please excuse how out of order this seems. You teachers need more lessons with a Flip camera, I suppose!

Welcome Yellow Team Students!

The school year has officially been kicked off. Get ready for a challenging, but rewarding year in room 76. I hope to have a lot of challenges, triumphs, and laughs as we learn how to write and communiate at the high school level.