Wednesday, October 24th

Class: finished dissecting "Poetry" by Marianne Moore. Students need to have the poem completely marked up with notes, patterns, questions, explanations, symbols, etc. Along with notes, students should have written a sentence or two about their section's meaning as well as the meaning behind the entire poem.


Began round two of literature circles as well as audience participation. Period 2: groups 2( Sarah, Brianna W, Ashley, Katie G, Morgen) 8 (Sasha, Jen, Brianna S) 9 (Preston, Greg, Alex M, Katie C) will be presenting on Monday.

Period 4: Groups 1 (Rachel, McKenna) 4 (Cheyenne, Olivia, Austin) 7 (Mark, Tyler, Jessie, Maddie, Lauren) will be going Monday.


Homework:

-Lit circle preparation and reading

-Create a poem mimicking the style and message of Marianne Moore's poem "Poetry". It can be hand written or typed. Style it however you'd like with stanzas or not, rhyme or not but include imagery and strong language. Refer back to Monday's freewrite on enjoying something as an individual that maybe others don't understand, appreciate or understand. Use examples from your own life or someone you know. Maybe choose something that you've changed your mind about over time. Have it ready by Monday!

-Enjoy your time off; you've worked and deserve it!

October 17th!

Today in class we:

Identified elements in stanza 2 for "Easter 1916" and received a signature from Coulson when finished. 

Listen or presented the first two literature circle groups, moving onto the second two tomorrow! Be prepared when your group is presenting, have something written and be ready!

Homework:

-reading choice novel

-working on lit circle presentations.

-by Friday, you must blog a coded passage of the final stanza of Yeats' poem "Easter 1916". You only need to code 5-7 lines of the stanza 4! Remember when we coded a LOTF passage? You will do the same thing here. Highlight, bold, underline, italicize, number, shade, etc key vocabulary, literary elements, structure, rhyme, meter, theme, etc. Write a few sentences at the bottom of your coded stanza about the intentions of this stanza.

 -complete a guided journal on your choice reading assignment. 150 words, including a quotation from the text on anything your choose to write on from any place in the novel you've read. Prompts are on the handout given about reader response journals a few weeks back.

Good luck! Email me with any questions!

Monday, Oct 15th

Class:

Freewrite on the young Pakistani girl named Malala who was shot in the head by the Taliban last week. Article titles "I am Malala" are located on CNN, as well as videos covering this topic. Questions that I posed in class on the freewrite were:

1) how is the essence of education pivotal for all people?

2) Why do "some" try to limit access to education for people?

3) What are your thoughts on freedom of speech and how she's exercising her thoughts about the lack of educational opportunities for girls?

Students devised reading schedules for the choice novel... be reading! Finished thoughts and commentaries on "Still I Rise" as well as the annotation chart.

Be sure to upload Piano Lesson papers on turnitin before midnight tonight!

Literature circles begin Wednesday...pages 1-20 will be covered for select groups.

No homework other than reading and notetaking....

Wednesday, October 10th

In class:

-Piano Lesson presentations
-turned in Piano Lesson essays
-learned about turnitin.com
-book overview
-read online reviews of novels


Turn it in:

1. Go to www.turnitin.com
2. Either login with previous email and password or create a new account
3. enter the user ID and password I gave in class today
4. Enroll in the correct class and upload both LOTF and PL essays

Book Review:
We are now moving towards our choice reading unit. The novels Catcher in the Rye, Great Gatsby, The Color Purple, Lean on Pete, Yellow Raft on Blue Water and Behind the Beautiful Forevers were introduced today. Please go online and read summaries of each novel before coming to class tomorrow and begin to sign up. Select the novel best suited for you (style, content, level of interest, challenge, etc) not what your friends are signing up for.

See you Thursday!

pages on pages on pages!

October 9th:

Today in class we did a lot! To review, we covered how to cite properly in MLA format for play quotations, how to utilize topic sentences, the importance of understanding that August Wilson argues that there are "two Americas" and the essence of defending your thesis and essay which is due tomorrow!

Citing Quotes:

I’m only requiring the act number and scene number for your essays when citing quotations...for example: (2.4).

When you quote sets of dialogue between two or more characters use block format and put the characters' names in all capital letters. Don't forget a lead-in and a citation that includes all speeches being quoted. Example:

WINING BOY. What you mean broke? I got a whole pocketful of money.

DOAKER. Did you all get that truck fixed?

BOY WILLIE. We got it running and got halfway out there on Centre and it broke down again. Lymon went out and messed it up some more.

LYMON: Lymon nothing. You go down there and sleep in it. (1.2)

Block Quoting:When you have a quotation longer than four lines, you need to block quote.

Sample Block Quote:

 The plight of minorities adjusting to a predominately white university has historically

been difficult. The pressure put on minorities can be seen in this 1920 letter from a father

to his son:   

   

            “Son, remember you're a Negro. You'll have to do twice as much

            better than your classmates. Before you act, think how what

            you do may reflect on other Negroes. Those white people will       

            be judging the race by you. Don't let the race down, Son. . . . A Negro's

            just as good as anybody else, but he's always got to prove it,” 

            (Redding 112).   

The pressure on minorities to succeed, for themselves and their race, has been enormous.

 

 Remember:

-single space your header

-pagination and name in the top right corner

-double space

-times new roman

-use present tense!

-have fun and say something!

Monday/Tuesday classes 10-1/10-2

Monday:

Freewrite: Please reflect over the following quote and respond to it's meaning, whether you agree or disagree, and any other observations you may have.

“Blacks in America want to forget about slavery—the stigma, the shame. That’s the wrong move. If you can’t be who you are, who can you be?  How can you know what to do? We have our history. We have our book, which is the blues. And we forget it all.”

 -August Wilson

We also covered the basics of the essay, due Thursday, October 4th.

 Watched part of the film!

Tuesday: 

Grammar 2 practice

Sample thesis statements

Finished film

Group work time

HW:essay, project, vocab (quiz is Friday!)