English 1 -- In today's class, we began reading To Kill a Mockingbird! Students started the class by recording in our Writer's Notebooks about their family histories and family traditions -- this could be anything from "my grandparents came from England" to "my grandma makes some mean hot tamales and now I'm learning how to make them." Next, students answered some opinion questions that got them thinking about controversial topics that will be raised in the novel. After discussing student responses, I told the students a little bit about the author of the novel, Harper Lee. I explained how Lee said that authors should write about what they know, and how she practiced what she preached in her novel by using characters and events from her own childhood. If students are interested, I even have a book in my classroom library called I Am Scout, which is a biography of Harper Lee that outlines all the ways in which her real life is mirrored in Scout's life. In chapter one, which was read aloud in class, we met several characters, including Scout, Jem, Dill, Atticus, Calpurnia, Miss Stephanie Crawford, and the Radley family. Participation Question: What is Calpurnia's role in relation to the Finch family?
English 1 Homework
Read chapters 2-4 (up to page 42)
Be ready for a reading check quiz at the beginning of next class
English 2 -- In today's class, students turned in their maps and questions from "It Can't Be Helped," and we went over their answers to the questions. We then read another short story by Malcolm X, called "Hair". After students answered critical thinking questions over the story, they began idea-gathering for their upcoming personal narratives through a memory map. By drawing a stylized map of a place where they spent (or are spending) much of their childhood and adolescence, students are able to jog their memories about important events and situations that would make great subjects for their personal stories. Participation question: What did Malcolm do to his hair?
English 2 Homework
Finish memory maps
Make sure you come to class with an idea for your personal narrative
Monday, September 29, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
September 25/26
English 1 -- In today's class students took their BIG SCARY TEST over Romeo and Juliet. After finishing the test, they turned in the remainder of their work for the play, including their study packets and their last Verona Persona entry. In the near future, students will be choosing their best/favorite two entries to type up and contribute to a class Verona Persona Book. To end class, students created funny, fictitious conversation between a horse and a bear who met each other on a country road. This activity was a fun, easy way to learn how to correctly format and incorporate dialogue into their writing. On Monday we will begin reading To Kill a Mockingbird! Participation Question: What was the moral of your horse and bear conversation?
English 1 Homework
Using the two dialogue rules we learned today (each new speaker gets a new paragraph, and punctuation goes both inside the last quotation marks and at the end of the sentence), add dialogue to your personal narratives. I will check them next class to make sure they are formatted correctly. My suggestion at this point would be to go ahead and type your current draft of the story, so that as we make more changes to them (and we will be making several more), you don't have to keep rewriting it over and over in order to make the additions.
English 2 -- In class today, we started our short story unit with "It Can't Be Helped" by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. The story provides an anecdote of Jeanne's childhood experience of deportation from her home in Ocean Park, California, to Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp during World War II. In this story, students learned that at the same time that Hitler was rounding up Jewish people and sending them to concentration camps in Europe, the US was rounding up roughly 120,000 Japanese American citizens -- many of whom had never even been to Japan and none of whom were involved with the Pearl Harbor attack -- and forcing them away from their homes and into internment camps. Of course, we discussed similarities and differences between the holocaust and the Japanese internment in order to make sure students knew that the US government did not support or believe in any of Hilter's beliefs or practices during his reign. After the story, students mapped out the Wakatsuki's path of deportation and illustrated the map with pictures symbolizing events and places along their journey. Participation Question: What family heirloom did Jeanne's mother smash on the floor in order to avoid selling it?
English 2 Homework
Finish the map and questions over "It Can't Be Helped" if you did not do so in class today.
English 1 Homework
Using the two dialogue rules we learned today (each new speaker gets a new paragraph, and punctuation goes both inside the last quotation marks and at the end of the sentence), add dialogue to your personal narratives. I will check them next class to make sure they are formatted correctly. My suggestion at this point would be to go ahead and type your current draft of the story, so that as we make more changes to them (and we will be making several more), you don't have to keep rewriting it over and over in order to make the additions.
English 2 -- In class today, we started our short story unit with "It Can't Be Helped" by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. The story provides an anecdote of Jeanne's childhood experience of deportation from her home in Ocean Park, California, to Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp during World War II. In this story, students learned that at the same time that Hitler was rounding up Jewish people and sending them to concentration camps in Europe, the US was rounding up roughly 120,000 Japanese American citizens -- many of whom had never even been to Japan and none of whom were involved with the Pearl Harbor attack -- and forcing them away from their homes and into internment camps. Of course, we discussed similarities and differences between the holocaust and the Japanese internment in order to make sure students knew that the US government did not support or believe in any of Hilter's beliefs or practices during his reign. After the story, students mapped out the Wakatsuki's path of deportation and illustrated the map with pictures symbolizing events and places along their journey. Participation Question: What family heirloom did Jeanne's mother smash on the floor in order to avoid selling it?
English 2 Homework
Finish the map and questions over "It Can't Be Helped" if you did not do so in class today.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
September 23/24. 2008
English 1 -- In today's class we finally reached the end of Romeo and Juliet! Our hard work of the last six weeks came to a close as we finished Act V and watched most of the rest of the movie. For their homework over the long weekend, students also received points for writing a two page rough draft of their personal narratives. Next class (Thursday for 2nd block and Friday for 7th and 8th blocks), we will have our test over all five acts of the play. We will also finish up the rest of the movie, and do a fun activity to learn about adding dialogue to our writing. Participation Question: How do both Montague and Capulet plan to honor Romeo and Juliet (hint - something for all of Verona to see)?
English 1 homework
STUDY for the Romeo and Juliet test
Finish filling out study packet
Verona Persona piece 4 - should have begun in class; address the topics of Romeo and Juliet's ultimate fate, whether you think the Capulets and Montagues will keep the peace they promise, and what you think about the Friar's punishment (or lack thereof)
English 2 -- Today students were finally able to be rid of the research papers they have been working on for the last month. However, before turning in their final papers, each student gave a 1-2 minute presentation to share important information about the holocaust-related topics on which they are now experts after all that research. After presentations, we found out the fates of the rest of our butterfly children. Of the 48 butterflies who originally hung from the ceiling, only 18 remain - the rest of the kids perished at the hands of the Nazis, and are now surrounding the tombstone on the chalkboard. To end class, we went over the answers to the holocaust test taken last week. I'm incredibly happy to report that not one English 2 student failed the test!
Participation Question: How did Adolf Hilter die?
English 2 Homework
No assignments, but remember to bring your textbooks to class on Thursday. Students who were not issued one when you picked up your schedule this summer, I will check one out to you in class.
English 1 homework
STUDY for the Romeo and Juliet test
Finish filling out study packet
Verona Persona piece 4 - should have begun in class; address the topics of Romeo and Juliet's ultimate fate, whether you think the Capulets and Montagues will keep the peace they promise, and what you think about the Friar's punishment (or lack thereof)
English 2 -- Today students were finally able to be rid of the research papers they have been working on for the last month. However, before turning in their final papers, each student gave a 1-2 minute presentation to share important information about the holocaust-related topics on which they are now experts after all that research. After presentations, we found out the fates of the rest of our butterfly children. Of the 48 butterflies who originally hung from the ceiling, only 18 remain - the rest of the kids perished at the hands of the Nazis, and are now surrounding the tombstone on the chalkboard. To end class, we went over the answers to the holocaust test taken last week. I'm incredibly happy to report that not one English 2 student failed the test!
Participation Question: How did Adolf Hilter die?
English 2 Homework
No assignments, but remember to bring your textbooks to class on Thursday. Students who were not issued one when you picked up your schedule this summer, I will check one out to you in class.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
High Stakes Day
English 1 -- At the beginning of class today, students took a reading check quiz for Act IV of Romeo and Juliet, which was the homework they were given last time. While students took the quiz, I also took completion points for Act IV questions in the study packet. After the quiz, we dove right into Act V, thus traveling closer to the end of the play and closer to the demise of our two favorite teenage spouses. And though Act IV showed us many turns in the plot, we still have plenty more twists where that came from before all is said and done. We will be finishing up both the play and the movie next week (on Tuesday for 2nd block and Wednesday for 7th and 8th), and taking a test over the whole thing after that (Thursday and Friday of next week).
English 1 Homework
Finish writing your rough draft for your personal narrative. Remember to make it as much like a story as possible -- lots of description, imagery, active verbs, etc. Your goal is to add entertainment value and drama!
English 2 -- Today was test day over our holocaust unit. After finishing the test, students did a systematic revision of their research papers, including:
-getting rid of "be" verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been)
-finding synonyms for often-repeated words
-making sure they used a variety of sentence beginnings
-making sure they used a good mix of short and long sentences
-eliminating "dead" words like good, very, nice, rather, quite, sort of, kind of
Students also had the option of having an individual paper conference with me to get advice for improvement before turning in the final copy next Tuesday.
English 2 Homework
Finish research papers -- they are due at the beginning of next class period (9-23). Make sure to include internal citation and a correctly formatted works cited page.
Also, be prepared to get up and teach the class a bit about your topic next class -- these "presentations" will be brief, only a minute or two, and can include anything you wish -- statistics, a summary, pictures, etc.
English 1 Homework
Finish writing your rough draft for your personal narrative. Remember to make it as much like a story as possible -- lots of description, imagery, active verbs, etc. Your goal is to add entertainment value and drama!
English 2 -- Today was test day over our holocaust unit. After finishing the test, students did a systematic revision of their research papers, including:
-getting rid of "be" verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been)
-finding synonyms for often-repeated words
-making sure they used a variety of sentence beginnings
-making sure they used a good mix of short and long sentences
-eliminating "dead" words like good, very, nice, rather, quite, sort of, kind of
Students also had the option of having an individual paper conference with me to get advice for improvement before turning in the final copy next Tuesday.
English 2 Homework
Finish research papers -- they are due at the beginning of next class period (9-23). Make sure to include internal citation and a correctly formatted works cited page.
Also, be prepared to get up and teach the class a bit about your topic next class -- these "presentations" will be brief, only a minute or two, and can include anything you wish -- statistics, a summary, pictures, etc.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Nearing the end...
Nope, not of the school year, but of the first six-week grading period, and of the current units of study for both English 1 & 2. For those of you who don't know, the grading period ends this Friday, so you will be receiving progress reports in the mail sometime in the next couple weeks. Students, if you are reading this, and you leave me a comment on here letting me know you stopped by (that means leave me your name and a nice hello), it might just be worth a few participation points....
English 1 -- During this class meeting, we finished up Act Three of Romeo and Juliet. This Act is known as the climax of the play, where we have the loss of two important characters (Mercutio and Tybalt) in scene one, and we find that Romeo is sentenced to exile, or banishment, from Verona. As if this isn't bad enough, in the last scenes of the Act, we learn that in an effort to cheer her up after her cousin Tybalt's death, Juliet's parents have moved up her impending marriage to Paris...it is now going to take place in three days! Wait, doesn't Juliet already have a husband? Yup, that's right, so for her and the rest of the characters in the play, it's all downhill from here!
We also worked a little bit with our newly-assigned personal narratives. To recap, the prompt for the paper is to write about a time when someone made a decision for you, and you had no say in the matter. Student's came into class ready to put their chosen topics in writing, which they did...in only 25 words. No more, no less, and without using "be" verbs. It was a tough little task, I know, but it's a good way to learn that in writing, our words have to pack a punch, so we need to use them wisely!
English 1 Homework:
Read Act Four of Romeo and Juliet in your textbook. Fill out Act Four questions in your study packet, and be ready for a reading check quiz next class. Also, make sure you have any writing on your personal narratives with you next time we meet.
English 2 -- During this class meeting, students brought with them a rough draft of their body paragraphs. Introductions and conclusions were still allowed to be a little shaky since we just learned the correct format for them today in class, but those students who had the rest participated in the all-important peer reader response activity. Students traded their papers with classmates to get friendly criticism and suggestions on their progress so far. Next class each student will have a personal conference with me to discuss their current drafts.
Today in class we also watched a video called The Wave, which is based on the true story of one California high school in 1967 that got caught up in a Nazi-like frenzy at the forming of a student group. Since I have had many students ask how the Germans could have let Hitler rule them and let the Holocaust happen, I hope this video gave them a little insight into how it could have possibly been done.
Last but certainly not least, next class (Thursday) we have a TEST over Night and the three Connections pieces we read. Don't forget to study the Night chapter question sheets I have handed back...they will help tremendously!
English 2 Homework
STUDY for the test on Thursday!
Bring all research paper materials next class as well, since you will be having individual paper conferences with me.
That's all for now!
-Mrs. K
English 1 -- During this class meeting, we finished up Act Three of Romeo and Juliet. This Act is known as the climax of the play, where we have the loss of two important characters (Mercutio and Tybalt) in scene one, and we find that Romeo is sentenced to exile, or banishment, from Verona. As if this isn't bad enough, in the last scenes of the Act, we learn that in an effort to cheer her up after her cousin Tybalt's death, Juliet's parents have moved up her impending marriage to Paris...it is now going to take place in three days! Wait, doesn't Juliet already have a husband? Yup, that's right, so for her and the rest of the characters in the play, it's all downhill from here!
We also worked a little bit with our newly-assigned personal narratives. To recap, the prompt for the paper is to write about a time when someone made a decision for you, and you had no say in the matter. Student's came into class ready to put their chosen topics in writing, which they did...in only 25 words. No more, no less, and without using "be" verbs. It was a tough little task, I know, but it's a good way to learn that in writing, our words have to pack a punch, so we need to use them wisely!
English 1 Homework:
Read Act Four of Romeo and Juliet in your textbook. Fill out Act Four questions in your study packet, and be ready for a reading check quiz next class. Also, make sure you have any writing on your personal narratives with you next time we meet.
English 2 -- During this class meeting, students brought with them a rough draft of their body paragraphs. Introductions and conclusions were still allowed to be a little shaky since we just learned the correct format for them today in class, but those students who had the rest participated in the all-important peer reader response activity. Students traded their papers with classmates to get friendly criticism and suggestions on their progress so far. Next class each student will have a personal conference with me to discuss their current drafts.
Today in class we also watched a video called The Wave, which is based on the true story of one California high school in 1967 that got caught up in a Nazi-like frenzy at the forming of a student group. Since I have had many students ask how the Germans could have let Hitler rule them and let the Holocaust happen, I hope this video gave them a little insight into how it could have possibly been done.
Last but certainly not least, next class (Thursday) we have a TEST over Night and the three Connections pieces we read. Don't forget to study the Night chapter question sheets I have handed back...they will help tremendously!
English 2 Homework
STUDY for the test on Thursday!
Bring all research paper materials next class as well, since you will be having individual paper conferences with me.
That's all for now!
-Mrs. K
Monday, September 15, 2008
Welcome!
Hello all!
I'm so glad to finally get this up and running! I am looking forward to all of my students and their parents being able to use this blog as a great additional resource for my English classes. The plan is to post homework, upcoming assignments, and other interesting tidbits about my English I and II classes every day (actually every other day in order to correlate with block scheduling). So students, every night when you are on the computer checking your email, Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, etc., make sure you drop by this site too, so you can check on your homework assignments and see what I had to say about our recent classes. Also, if you happen to be absent, I will upload assignment files on this page so you can print them out at home and never miss a beat in class. And parents, this place is for you too! Feel free to check up on your students and find out what we are doing in class on a daily basis!
I'm so glad to finally get this up and running! I am looking forward to all of my students and their parents being able to use this blog as a great additional resource for my English classes. The plan is to post homework, upcoming assignments, and other interesting tidbits about my English I and II classes every day (actually every other day in order to correlate with block scheduling). So students, every night when you are on the computer checking your email, Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, etc., make sure you drop by this site too, so you can check on your homework assignments and see what I had to say about our recent classes. Also, if you happen to be absent, I will upload assignment files on this page so you can print them out at home and never miss a beat in class. And parents, this place is for you too! Feel free to check up on your students and find out what we are doing in class on a daily basis!
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