Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Standard 01-14-2014

Whew!  We are finished with all our presentations now.  It feels good to me to be moving on to something else.  I'm sure you feel the same way.  The presentations were good.  We read a lot of good nonfiction and heard about things we probably would have never been exposed to.  We should also have a solid understanding now about the strengths and weaknesses of a nonfiction text and a film.  In addition we have all gained a bit of confidence so that the next time we need to stand in front of an audience and make a presentation will be even stronger.  Overall, great work.

Tool Time came back!  Yippee!  We took a look at differentiating between facts and opinions.  You all seemed to handle that pretty well.  Remember to look for key words (better, best, worst, greatest, always, never, etc.)  to help you distinguish between facts and opinions.

We started moving on today, and as you saw, our attention will stay with nonfiction for a few more days with a focus on hopes and dreams.  With those in mind I created a packet that period three received today.  Due to one final presentation today, period four will get it tomorrow.  The packet consists of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, a couple of Langston Hughes poems, and four quotes: two by MLK, and one each by Emily Dickinson and Aristotle.

Tonight period three should be sure to have read and annotated the King speech.  As you are reading the speech, be on the lookout for ideas that deal with our overarching idea of hopes and dreams.  Be sure to write down questions you have about it and mark up sections you are intrigued by or want to discuss.  We will have time tomorrow in class to read, analyze, annotate, discuss, and comprehend the poems and quotes.  Period four will have to play catch-up tomorrow.

I also have one more surprise I'll introduce to you all tomorrow.  The surprise also fits into our hopes and dreams focus.

Our initial goal will be to have a good understanding of the material.  After that, you will be challenged to do a synthesis writing.  This means you will be using elements from a variety of sources to make one point.  In this case, that one point will have something to do with hopes and dreams.

Can't wait to get into this.  The end of the grading period is Friday so we will be moving quickly on this one.

See you soon.  

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