9th Grade - Freshmen watched most of Act 3 of "Romeo and Juliet" while reading along in the book. We paused a couple of times during this section so that I could ask students some questions about empathizing with the characters.
For example, at the beginning of the unit, I asked students whether it would be fair for you to kill someone as revenge for someone killing your best friend - and most students answered "no." However, when watching the scene in the movie, most students agreed that if you actually watched someone kill your best friend, not having a violent reaction would be incredibly difficult.
Students then had time to continue reading Act 3 Scene 4 and 5, and we will have a short quiz on this section tomorrow. Basically, this is to guage student understanding of the story when we are not working as a group, and allows me to see what aspects of this play are difficult for students.
Homework - Read Scenes 4 and 5, quiz tomorrow!
10th Grade - Today was another drafting day in class using the mobile lab. Students had the full period to work on their drafts, and I conferenced with students one at a time about their specific writing.
Some common criticisms for many student papers -
Defining terms - many students have essays that use language in a way that can be interpreted differently by different people (for example, asking whether the experience of traveling in a foreign country is an "authentic" experience requires a set definition of what is meant by "authentic."). Make sure you clarify HOW you are using terms before introducing new ideas.
Vagueness in examples - "You need to think critically about things, because otherwise you might not get it." The words "things" and "it" can be interpreted as potentially anything and/or nothing - similar to the need to define terms, examples need CLARITY to work well.
Tomorrow - Draft due at the end of class; one copy printed out and turned in to the basket, another copy sent to me via e-mail.
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