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Monday, March 21, 2011

March 21st Daily Plan

9th Grade - Freshmen started a B.O.E. exam today based on reading. This B.O.E. specifically is designed to test students abilities to make predictions from given texts (fiction and non-fiction), discuss the author's intent, and create inferences about characters and vocabulary in a given piece of reading.

Freshmen had the full day today to work on this B.O.E., and will have the full day tomorrow as well.

HOMEWORK - S.S.R. Project due by Friday, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING accepted after Friday.

10th Grade - Sophomores also started a B.O.E. exam today, based on persuasive writing. Students are allowed to use any notes they have as guidelines for writing structure, but this is a fully in-class essay assignment. We used today to create an outline/begin drafting, and have tomorrow and wednesday to develop a first and final drafts.

HOMEWORK - S.S.R. Project due by Friday, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING accepted after Friday.

9th and 10th Grade!

If you have not turned in your Antigone essay (9th) or To Kill a Mockingbird project (10th), it is now 3 days late (minus 30% total grade). These are major assignments and not turning them in will SEVERELY impact your grade.

March 18th Daily Plan

9th Grade - Freshmen had today as their last day in the library to finish up the "final" draft of the Antigone essay. Students has a peer-review day yesterday, where they gave their last typed draft to a classmate to thoroughly review. Part of the grade on this assignment is how well each student was able to give feedback, because it provides another set of eyes to correct any mistakes and add in missing information before I actually grade it.

(note 3/21 - generally the students did really well on this assignment, especially those that took their editor's advice. Students who did not - unfortunately, very easy content corrections that were pointed out were not corrected, which definitely negatively affects the overall score)

HOMEWORK - S.S.R. Projects due by 3/25!

10th Grade - Sophomores had today to take notes on basic persuasive writing structure and strategy to prepare for their last B.O.E. of the year. All TKAM projects should be turned in; turning one in at this point (3 days late) means that the max score is 70%. However, this is still significantly higher than a score of 0 if it is not turned in, so make sure this assignment gets to me ASAP.

If you missed Friday, see me for a copy of the notes about persuasive writing.

Homework - S.S.R. Projects due by 3/25!

Friday, March 18, 2011

March 17th Daily Plan

9th Grade - Freshmen should have all turned in their final drafts of the Antigone essay yesterday. Because the goal is to have everyone produce the best writing possible, the best course of action was to take a day to have a thorough peer-edit looking for any content and argument errors, and then reviewing again for spelling/grammar/presentation. Students will have Friday in the library to take these corrections and develop a much stronger final draft. Ideally, everyone finishes this week with a piece of writing that they feel good about, and that can serve as a personal model for later essays.

Students who did not have their essay finished on time were given the day in the library to complete the essay; however, this means they did not have the same chance to peer-edit in class.

Homework - S.S.R. Projects due by 3/25!

10th Grade - As we have just finished up a rather involved unit with a significant final project, today was designed to be a lighter load in the classroom. Students were given part of the day to look at each other's projects and the different ways people connected media to TKAM. I also showed an episode of "King of the Hill" that borrows heavily from one of the scenes in the novel. Tomorrow we start notes on persuasive writing for a B.O.E. that students will start on Monday.

HOMEWORK - S.S.R. Projects Due by 3/25!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

March 15th and 16th Daily Plan

March 15th and 16th had inverse schedules for 9th and 10th grade (so 9th grade DID NOT have a full class on the 15th, in order to register for Fall classes. 10th grade DID NOT have a full class on the 16th for the same reason).

9th Grade - Students had any extra time after registering on Tuesday to begin typing up their final drafts for the Antigone essay, but there was definitely not enough time to complete the full essay. They were given the 16th as an additional day to type "final" drafts in class without the assignment being considered late.

10th Grade - Students has the 15th to work on their projects in class, and the final result was due promptly at the beginning of class on the 16th. Registration took up the overwhelming majority of classtime for all sophomore periods, so there was no new content discussed in class.

Monday, March 14, 2011

March 14th Daily Plan

9th Grade - Today was the last day to develop a full draft of the Antigone essay in class. I provided students with a couple of example paragraphs to review before writing their own. Basically, the two example paragraphs I used to model with the class broke the writing down sentence by sentence (i.e. Topic Sentence, Concrete Detail 1, Commentary 1).

The first sample provided was very a very basic model, and is what students need to be matching at the absolute minimum.

The second example used all the same information as the first, but incorporated the quotes and evidence into the commentary, creating a much better flow. The goal would be for most students to develop most paragraphs along these lines.

For those that missed class, extra copies are available in my room.

HOMEWORK - Full rough draft ready to be typed tomorrow.

10th Grade - Today was the last day to develop any needed writing/project work for the TKAM creative writing assessment. Students could either be working on the physical part of their projects, or writing the connecting pieces. Similar to the freshmen, I provided a model connection example, using the song we listened to in class last week.

Students had the full class period to work on these projects, and they are due at the beginning of class on Wednesday, 3/16This deadline has been set for some time, so there is NO extension past this date. If you are absent, IT IS STILL DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS.

Freshmen - you are registering for next year's classes tomorrow.
Sophomores - you are registering for next year's classes Wednesday.

Friday, March 11, 2011

March 10th AND 11th Daily Plans

9th Grade - Both these days were reserved for working on the Antigone essay. On Thursday, we reviewed the components to a well-written and complete essay. Basically, students were asked to come up with all the necessary pieces to create a piece of writing that could stand alone (the expectation is that a student could give his/her essay to another adult, and that adult could make perfect sense of what the argument being proven is without having read Antigone).

The assignment sheet is attached on this blog under "Assignments and Projects." However, the basic format is a five paragraph essay, which would look like -

1) Intro - Hook, background information, thesis
2) Body paragraphs - Topic sentence, Concrete Details/Direct Evidence from the text, Commentary/Analysis and Warrant (why does your evidence connect?), transition
3) Conclusion - Wraps up the argument, provides a "so what" for the reader, potentially expands the topic beyond Antigone.

We worked on a MODEL body paragraph outline in class on Thursday, and spent all of Friday developing a full outline and starting the rough draft.

HOMEWORK - FULL OUTLINE DUE MONDAY, FULL DRAFT TO BE WRITTEN BEFORE TUESDAY.

FINAL ESSAY DUE WEDNESDAY, REGARDLESS OF ATTENDANCE.

S.S.R. PROJECTS DUE BEFORE 3/25!

10th Grade - Both these days were reserved for working on the TKAM Creative Writing Projects. On Thursday, students had time to both work in class and in the library to gather resources that could be connected to the novel, and to begin working on the written components.

On Friday, I started class by providing a MODEL analysis for connecting a song to TKAM. Using the song "Modern Man's Hustle," by Atmosphere, I demonstrated to students that there were about 16 different ways in which the song could complement the novel. Obviously using all 16 connections would go beyond the scope of what is requested (2 paragraph minimum, using every connecting piece would turn out to be 3-5 pages overall), but this was meant to show students HOW MUCH is possible.

The rest of the class was dedicated to getting actually writing done; by the end of class on Monday EVERY student needs to have a rough draft of the ENTIRE WRITTEN COMPONENT completed.

PROJECT IS DUE WEDNESDAY, REGARDLESS OF ATTENDANCE.

HOMEWORK - Project ready to hit Monday's checkpoint - all media collected and ready to go, full draft of written component.

S.S.R. PROJECTS DUE BEFORE 3/25!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

March 9th Daily Plan

9th Grade - We finished reading Antigone in class today, and we discussed the merits of this story as an actual tragedy for a brief period. The majority of class today was focused on setting up the final essay assignment for Antigone. I explained to the class that

1) This is the first "real" literary response essay they have had to do for me, and
2) This is the largest graded assignment I've given thus far - it is a very significant component of their grade for the quarter.

The assignment sheet is uploaded onto this site as well.

After reviewing the assignment, the class worked together to analyze both Antigone and Creon, so that everyone has a good amount of information to begin with.

10th Grade - Sophomores had a vocabulary quiz to start off with, going over the last set of nine words (dilligent, infalliable, decree, devoid, begrudge, commence, tact, pejorative, altercation).

We then divided the rest of class into two portions -

1) Developing a full list of themes, motifs, ideas, charactes, and events from TKAM to everyone has a large list of resources to start their projects.

2) Writing the proposals for the creative writing project. We discussed the purpose of a project proposal, and the application of this step outside of school. The proposals written in class need to have a clear goal, and a written process for achieving that goal.

Homework - Prepping for in-class project work - this means getting images/songs/background information needed so we are able to work efficiently in class.

March 8th Daily Plan

9th Grade - We continued reading in Antigone, with the whole class working together to read and decipher Scene 4 and Ode 4. With this day's reading, the focus was on making sure that everyone is able to interpret the text on their own, and developing strategies to understand the reading without someone helping.

The biggest concern for students has been vocabulary - i.e. how to read when you don't know all of the words. We practiced figuring out meaning and approximate meaning from context - look at what is around the word you don't know, and work to make it fit into the sentence in a way that makes sense. Even if your definition isn't exactly on, if you can make the sentence at least make sense, the whole section of reading becomes easier.

Students then had to read through Scene 5 and complete the study guide on their own.

HOMEWORK - Complete reading Scene 5 and finish the study guide.

10th Grade - Students finished watching the To Kill a Mockingbird film, and then we discussed the final project for this unit. The outline for the assignment is available on this site.

HOMEWORK - Think of ideas for what you would want to do with this project.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

March 7th Daily Plan

Apologies for getting this on a day late.

All classes had shortened periods yesterday, to allow time for a school wide survey.

9th Grade - We discussed the idea of the death penalty and capital punishment in current society, since this is a major topic in Antigone. Students were asked to write for five minutes first about what crimes they believed were fitting of a death sentence, and had to explain their logic.

Between the two classes, some of the ideas - terrorism, murder, rape, child molestation.

The general rationale for these -

1) Murder - killing a murderer is an "eye for an eye," and therefore fair.
2) Child molestation/rape - this is taking away the innocence and scarring someone for life
3) Terrorism - it is acting against the country

Of these, we can most closely link terrorism to Antigone. Students were asked to compare her actions, which go against the state/government, to the idea of terrorism in today's society. The question students need to focus on is whether or not they consider her actions punishable or not.

HOMEWORK - Finish Scene 3 Ode 3 study guide if not completed.

10th Grade - Sophomores had another three vocabulary words - commence, altercation, decree.

There will be a vocab quiz over the last nine words Wednesday, 3/9.

We spent the majority of this class period working through the TKAM film, and will have in finished on Tuesday, 3/8. At that time, I will also present students with the final assignment for the To Kill a Mockingbird unit.

Homework - Review the end of the book, COMPLETE JOURNAL ENTRIES IF LATE.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

March 3rd Daily Plan

9th Grade - Freshmen continued in their reading of Antigone by working through Scene 3 and Ode 3 in small groups. Each member of each group was responsible for knowing the details of the scene, and we had a small competition based on which group could answer my questions about the scene fastest/most accurately.

Students were also expected to be filling out the outline for Scene 3 and Ode 3, since it will be very helpful with the Antigone essay that we will start next week.

Finally, I gave students the guidelines for the S.S.R. Book Assignment. As students have been expected to be reading a book for personal enjoyment over the semester, I expect them to know their books pretty well. To both demonstrate this knowledge and to share it with the class, students must create a pamphlet that advertises their S.S.R. book to the rest of the class. Students were provided specific guidelines for what is expected with this assignment.

S.S.R. Book Pamphlets are to be turned in ANYTIME BEFORE SPRING BREAK. The absolute last day to turn a pamplet in is the Friday before Spring Break, so students need to plan ahead and work accordingly.

10th Grade - Sophomores continued watching the film version of TKAM in class, looking at differences between the film and the novel. Students were asked to pay particular attention to certain scenes that highlight the main themes of the novel.

Students also had 10 minutes to complete another journal entry; the prompt options I provided were -

1) What do you think the strongest themes are in TKAM? What leads you to these beliefs?

2) What changes do you see between the novel and the film? Why do you think the filmmaker would make these changes?

Finally, I gave students the guidelines for the S.S.R. Book Assignment. As students have been expected to be reading a book for personal enjoyment over the semester, I expect them to know their books pretty well. To both demonstrate this knowledge and to share it with the class, students must create a pamphlet that advertises their S.S.R. book to the rest of the class. Students were provided specific guidelines for what is expected with this assignment.

S.S.R. Book Pamphlets are to be turned in ANYTIME BEFORE SPRING BREAK. The absolute last day to turn a pamplet in is the Friday before Spring Break, so students need to plan ahead and work accordingly.

HOMEWORK - Finish TKAM, create and respond to your own journal prompt (should complete a set of 5 for Part 2)

10th Grade Credit Recovery - For students that did not turn in the initial set of journal entries, I will allow any additional entries that are combined with the set due Monday.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

March 2nd Daily Plan

9th and 10th Grade - All periods had a sub today as I was in meetings. 

9th Grade - Freshmen should have gotten through another Scene and Ode in Antigone (scene 2/ode 2) and completed the Reading Log for that page.

Just to be sure that students completed the needed work in class, there will be a quiz tomorrow over Scene 2 and Ode 2.

10th Grade - Sophomores started the film version of TKAM  and completed another journal entry.

HOMEWORK - Read CH 27-29.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

March 1st Daily Plan

9th Grade - The majority of this class period was focused on reading and analyzing Antigone. Both classes read Scene 1 and Ode 1, and were given an Antigone Reading Log to help organize the events and characters in the story.

The final assignment for Antigone will involve a literary response essay, and these reading logs serve as a very useful outline when it comes time to develop an actual draft.

We worked through Scene 1 and Ode 1 relatively slowly, to make sure that everyone is understanding the events of the story clearly. Hint - students should read this play primarily as a STORY first, and not looking at it primarily for analysis. It will be much easier to analyze later if you are able to get into the plot line - remember, this was written to be performed as an audience, with an emphasis on being able to entertain an audience.

10th Grade - We reviewed the events of Chapters 22 and 23 briefly, and it did not appear that all three periods had read as thoroughly. So for the next reading (CH 24,25,26) periods 1 and 5 should expect a summary quiz.

The majority of class today was spent discussing the idea of capital punishment, since this is a major factor in the Trial of Tom Robinson, and an important aspect of TKAM. Students were given different scenarios and factual data about capital punishment, and then shared their viewpoints and discussed the efficacy and purpose of capital punishment as a class.

The last 15 minutes were devoted to another journal entry. Students could either use some of the potential prompts that I developed, or write on any subject related to capital punishment of CH22-23.

HOMEWORK - Read Chapters 24-26 in TKAM.