Drafting Out to Sea: September 10, 2015

Focus: How can we strengthen our topic sentences and start drafting our essays?

1. Warming up with what we do NOT want our summary-responses to sound like: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/14fb297aa0596a73?projector=1

2. Peer editing each other's topics sentences with the English 10 rubric; revising our topic sentences

3. Exploring the structure of a sample summary-response and highlighting three lines from your article that you plan to use in your response (look to your reading journal first)

4. Working your rough draft

• Please start a new Google doc for your draft, label it "Your Last Name Summary-Response." and place it inside your Kite Runner folder.

• If you finish your summary in class, start on the response.

• See essay timeline attached here (and given out in class).

HW:
1. Bring your independent reading book to class tomorrow, as well as any questions you have about leading into (embedding) quotations.

2. Finish composing your summary and start working on your paragraph of response.

3. Independent reading.

4. Sep 25 is the end of 6 weeks. You know what to do, kids.

Distinguishing Between Objective and Subjective: Sep 9, 2015

Focus: How can we develop our objective and subjective skills to form topic sentences?

1. Warming up: Is it objective, or subjective?

Summary = objective

Response = subjective

2. Reviewing the summary-response essay, then working on your pre-writing document

• Please create a new folder called "(Your Last Name) Kite Runner."

• Place your Kite Runner folder inside your English 10 folder.

• Place your pre-writing document inside your Kite Runner folder.

3. Exploring the possibilities for your topic sentences and doing a quick demo together

HW:

1. Finish your pre-writing document if you did not finish in class.

2. Compose your summary topic sentence and your response topic sentence. Please make sure these are in a document called "Your last name Summary Response," which should be inside your new Kite Runner folder, which should be inside your English 10 folder. Yeah!

3. By Thursday, complete the new www.noredink.com assignment,"Leading Into (Embedding) Quotations."

4. Independent reading if you assigned some to yourself.

5. Remember that September 25 is the end of the first 6 weeks, and this is when any make-up work/revisions must be submitted (reading journals, grammar quizzes, etc.).

If anyone wants a head-start, The Kite Runner reading schedule is linked HERE and on the class website.

Painting the Background for The Kite Runner: September 8, 2015

Focus: What important background information do we need to gather for The Kite Runner?

1. Warming up by picking shapes, then articles on Afghanistan, kite running, the Taliban, Hazaras, and guilt

Here is the online article on the Taliban that I didn't make hard copies of because it includes video: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-11451718

2. Reading your articles individually with reading charts, then discussing them in small groups via "Save the last line"

• What's one line that seemed important to you?
• What's one question that this article raised for you?
• What's one prediction you have for The Kite Runner based on this article?

3. Reviewing the summary-response essay, then starting your pre-writing document

• Please create a new folder called "(Your Last Name) Kite Runner."

• Place your Kite Runner folder inside your English 10 folder.

• Place your pre-writing document inside your Kite Runner folder.

HW:
1. By tomorrow, finish the SUMMARY portion of the pre-writing document.

2. By Thursday, complete the new www.noredink.com assignment,"Leading Into (Embedding) Quotations."

3. Independent reading if you assigned some to yourself.

4. Remember that September 25 is the end of the first 6 weeks, and this is when any make-up work/revisions must be submitted (reading journals, grammar quizzes, etc.).

If anyone wants a head-start, The Kite Runner reading schedule is linked HERE and on the class website.

Sealing the First Three Weeks: Sep 4, 2015

Focus: What's confusing you about apostrophes? What do you need to wrap up from this week?

1. Warming up with the joy of apostrophes

2. Optional: Taking time individually to take practice quizzes/review lessons and the real quiz

If you don't feel ready quite yet to take the quiz, no worries. Just take it on your time before next Friday.

3. Enjoying the world of independent reading

OR

Finishing the revisions to your Anne Sexton analytical paragraph (please make sure I get your rubric back)

HW:

Really, you have the weekend off. However, if you struggled this week and fell behind, here are some things to consider:

1. This week was slightly hectic for English 10. Your future with The Kite Runner will be much calmer. If you have any work this week that you need to finish/improve, take the weekend to do it.

2. Interested in revising your first round of reading journals? Hand your blue rubric back to me (along with your revised journal if it's handwritten) when you're ready for me to regrade it. Please come in for help whenever you need it. You have until September 25, which is the end of the first six-week grading period.

3. If you're planning on purchasing your own copy of The Kite Runner, please do so by next Tuesday.

Revising the Pre-Assessment: Sep 3, 2015

Focus: How can we use Critical Reading Boot Camp to improve our analytical paragraphs?

Please make sure last night's homework (using your reading journal to interpret the film clip) is in your Critical Reading Boot Camp folder. If you handwrote it, please turn it in.

1. Warming up by finding Icarus in yesterday's commercial: what does this myth have to do with the iPad Air?

Taking a  quick walk down memory lane...what strategies have we been trying out for the past two weeks? How can we use them on the Sexton poem?

2. Exploring a sample analytical paragraph and discussing its structure

3. Revising your own analytical paragraphs based on the strategies you've used over the past two weeks and the sample essay given in class today

4. Composing a brief paragraph (3-5 sentences) underneath your analytical paragraph in which you respond to the following questions:

• What did you do differently this time in terms of reading the poem?

• What did you do differently this time in terms of writing the paragraph?

• How did those revisions improve your reading and writing?

HW:
1. Look over your noredink.com assignment on Apostrophes and come to class with any questions you have; we will go over your questions in class tomorrow before we take the QUIZ.

2. Bring your independent reading book to class.

3. Interested in revising your first round of reading journals? Hand your blue rubric back to me (along with your revised journal if it's handwritten) when you're ready for me to regrade it. Please come in for help whenever you need it.

4. If you're planning on purchasing your own copy of The Kite Runner, please do so by next Tuesday.

Pulling Together the Text, the Visual, and the Auditory: September 2, 2015

Focus: How do we apply our reading strategies to "layered" texts?

1. Introducing you to the world of noredink.com

• Setting up your accounts: 
• 1st hour class code is heme9ehc
• 3rd hour class code: x7em8a4w

• Playing around on the website

• Time to start your first assignment: Apostrophes 1

2. Warming up by manipulating your customer with color

In advertising, what emotions do you think the following colors are meant to evoke?  Try to think of a brand that utilizes each of these colors in their ads:

Red

Green

Blue

Purple

Black

Yellow

Orange

Pink

Brown

3. Analyzing the complex little worlds of commercials

Please click HERE for the reading journal and dedicate one row to each of the following "layers":

Layer 1: The visual (What images do you see?)

Layer 2: The music (What kind of music/background noise do you hear?)

Layer 3: The voiceover (What words are being spoken? What kind of voice is speaking them?)

Layer 4: The text (What words appear on screen? Does this commercial have a slogan?)

Layer 5: The product (What is being advertised? To whom? What aspects of this product are being emphasized in this commercial?)

4. Trying out our newfound skills with a film clip
(22:30-36:30)

HW:
1. Complete your Noredink assignment on apostrophes today; prepare for a QUIZ on Friday.

2. Please watch the short movie clip from Batman Begins linked HERE; fill in at least one side of the reading journal to unravel the layers of this clip.  Here a few things to keep an eye (and ear) out for:

a. The visual: Important images, colors, movements, postures, clothes, facial expressions, etc.
b. The music: How would you describe it? What tone does it help create?
c. The voices: What words are spoken out loud?  Why are they important?
d. The central character: What can we infer about him and how?

3. Bring your independent reading book to class on Friday.

4. If you're planning on purchasing your own copy of The Kite Runner, you will need it next Tuesday.

Can It Be Both? Using Multiple Strategies To Find Multiple Meanings: Sep 1, 2015

Focus: How do we combine multiple reading strategies to develop multiple meanings?

Please put the following activity in your "Class Activities" document in your 

Reading Boot Camp folder.

1. Warming up by rereading the ending and brainstorming symbols in "The Yellow Wallpaper"

2. Exploring the multiple meanings of these symbols

• What's one symbol in the story you find important?

• Find at least four passages in the story that describe that symbol and highlight/underline them.

• Pull out specific words and phrases from those passages that describe that symbol, and do some web brainstorming (see sample on the board).

• Add at least one piece of background knowledge on the rest cure, the author, and/or postpartum depression to your web brainstorming. How does it fit?

• What patterns can you find? Try to group the descriptions, just as we did with poems.

• What larger understanding of the story does it help create?  Form a thesis statement that looks something like this:

• The (insert symbol here) in Perkins' "The Yellow Wallpaper" represents _____________________, but it also symbolizes _____________________.

2. Extending our thinking by creating Level 3 questions and posting the best of the best on the blog (with a partner)

3. Introducing you to the world of noredink.com

• Setting up your accounts: 
• 1st hour class code is heme9ehc
• 3rd hour class code: x7em8a4w

• Playing around on the website

• Time to start your first assignment: Apostrophes 1

HW:
1. Tomorrow morning I will be grading your "Yellow Wallpaper" reading journals; be ready to turn them in tomorrow (or make sure they're in your English 10 Google folder). 

2. Start working on your first NoRedInk assignment (Apostrophes 1), which is due Thursday; the QUIZ is on Friday, but you'll be happy to know that all quizzes are open-note.

3. Bring your independent reading book to class on Friday.

4. If you're planning on purchasing your own copy of The Kite Runner, you will need it next Monday.