Dec. 15th Daily Plan

9th Grade -

We worked on our Fahrenheit 451 projects in class today, with a very specific focus on certain areas.

First, I provided an example of a piece of media that I felt connected well to the novel. It is the song "The Thing About It" by Sweatshop Union. If you missed class, you can find the song on Youtube. We spent a short amount of time as a class finding which themes, scenes, ideas, etc. that the song could be connected to (its possible in many, many different ways).

I also provided the class with two example paragraphs for what I am expecting for the writing component. Students had to choose which of the example paragraphs did a better job connecting the song to the novel, and explain why. It is from these models that we set guidelines for what I am expecting from student's work.

1) Words that you DO NOT USE in academic writing - first, no vague words.

• ex - thing, stuff

2) No using pronouns without a clear antecendent.

• ex - do not say "its" "theirs" "his" unless you are very clear WHO or WHAT you are referencing!

3) Quotes must be clearly explained.

• It is required that students use some quotations from the book. In order to use these quotes well, you must explain HOW/WHY they connect to your argument.

HOMEWORK - Full draft of writing component - for every song - 2 paragraphs, for every image - 1 paragraph.

10th Grade -

Part of today was focused on getting all three 10th grade classes segued back on track to finish The Crucible essay at the same point. I have extended the due date to Tuesday, Dec. 21st to make up for the day students were taking the PLAN-ACT.

All three sophomore classes should now be absolutely finished reading the play, and have the characterization guide filled out to outline their essays.

I explained to the class there are two simple ways to organize the paragraphs in this assignment.

1) Organization by Act - ex. Proctor in Act 1 would be a paragraph, Proctor in Act 2 would be a paragraph, and so on.

2 Organization by Trait - ex. Proctor-Pride would be paragraph 1, Proctor-Compassion could be paragraph 2, and so on.

However you choose to organize your essay, it needs to be clear. As long as there is a logical progression of logic, other forms of organization can work.

HOMEWORK - Full draft of body paragraphs, several quotes ready for use in-class tomorrow. We will revise the body paragraphs in class tomorrow and then start on the intro/conclusion work.

paz.