Honors: We examined Carl Sandburg's poem "A Fence" and I had you identify the author's feelings towards the fence and the overall theme of the poem. Good practice for ISTEP but it also revealed that we need to read the poems closer.
Spent a lot of time on our papers, sharing them, editing them, adding new paragraphs and new research, etc. While I'm not assigning any homework (per Mrs. Harper), it would be beneficial for you to continue working on them over the next couple days.
Standard: We also examined Carl Sandburg's poem "A Fence" but spent a little more time working on the analysis of the poem together. It's a tricky one to understand if you get too caught up in the first part of the poem.
After that we spent some time discussing and writing about the Holocaust. We examined some photos that helped for us to picture some of the events. We also read a brief children's story called "The Poison Mushroom" which demonstrated how Hitler was able to brainwash his people so easily. Finally, we passed out the book Night and started reading it.
We will duplicate all this tomorrow and then start fresh on Wednesday.
Monday, April 27, 2015
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Parallel Structure and Counter Arguments
Honors: If you weren't in class today, see me about taking a quick quiz over parallel structure.
There seems to be a lot of concern about finding good counter arguments. Understandable, but remember not everyone gets a seat at The Table of Influence. There are many baseball players who had really good careers but did not qualify for the Hall of Fame. In the IP case, the individual might have some influence, but didn't necessarily have any more--or as much--influence as someone else in their situation. For example, there have been 266 popes. All have had some measure of influence but they don't all deserve a seat at the table. A good counterargument might be that while the pope you selected for your IP had influence, he had no more--and maybe even less--influence as many of the other popes.
With the help of K.A., we discussed the importance of not just mentioning a counter argument but of also developing that counter argument with quotes and evidence. Build it up so you can tear it down.
We looked at our arguments and then discussed the outline I want you to start filling in tonight. Here is the basic format. I'm not expecting to see analysis yet, but the more you have completed, and the sooner you have it completed, the better off you will be.
Standard: We introduced parallel structure today. You seemed to pick up on it pretty quickly. We'll check tomorrow. Here is a link to the slides. Just focus on the first ten slides.
We also started talking about some essential questions for a unit we have coming up. The questions were
Are people basically good?
Does the past matter?
What is really important in life?
They are all connected and related to a topic we will start exploring tomorrow. Can't wait to share it with you.
There seems to be a lot of concern about finding good counter arguments. Understandable, but remember not everyone gets a seat at The Table of Influence. There are many baseball players who had really good careers but did not qualify for the Hall of Fame. In the IP case, the individual might have some influence, but didn't necessarily have any more--or as much--influence as someone else in their situation. For example, there have been 266 popes. All have had some measure of influence but they don't all deserve a seat at the table. A good counterargument might be that while the pope you selected for your IP had influence, he had no more--and maybe even less--influence as many of the other popes.
With the help of K.A., we discussed the importance of not just mentioning a counter argument but of also developing that counter argument with quotes and evidence. Build it up so you can tear it down.
We looked at our arguments and then discussed the outline I want you to start filling in tonight. Here is the basic format. I'm not expecting to see analysis yet, but the more you have completed, and the sooner you have it completed, the better off you will be.
Standard: We introduced parallel structure today. You seemed to pick up on it pretty quickly. We'll check tomorrow. Here is a link to the slides. Just focus on the first ten slides.
We also started talking about some essential questions for a unit we have coming up. The questions were
Are people basically good?
Does the past matter?
What is really important in life?
They are all connected and related to a topic we will start exploring tomorrow. Can't wait to share it with you.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Semi-Colons, Research and Power Posing
Click on this link for a semi-colon quiz!
Honors: It's the punctuation mark that can set your writing apart or it's the dreaded punctuation mark no one knows how to use. Either way, we discussed the semi-colon today. For some it was a reminder. for others, it was clarification or even new material. Here's a link to the slides on the presentation and Click on this link for a semi-colon quiz!
After flash drafting on your influential person and the information you've uncovered so far, we took a quick detour to emphasize the importance of identifying all your sources and citing your quotes as well. Doing only one of those is not enough. A.B. gave us a great example of how to do it correctly.
We had some research time during which it became clear to me that we need to understand the difference between accomplishments and influence.
Galileo invented the first telescope. That's an accomplishment. That alone does not signify influence. How did his invention of the telescope influence (change the character, behavior or development of someone) the people of his time or those that followed him? The telescope was not the influence; how it altered the way people studied space and the stars is the influence.
Michael Jordan scored over 30,000 points. That's a great accomplishment, but did that accomplishment influence anyone? His influence is visible in other ways. that's what you need to uncover.
As you research, if you come across words such as: altered, changed, because of (influential person)..., etc., then you know you are on to something big.
Tonight I'm asking you to identify 3 + 1. Three arguments and one counter. These are only sentences--four total sentences. You do not need to stick with what you produce tonight, but
I need to know that we are all progressing in our research.
Standard: We also looked at semi-colons today. Here's a link to the slides on the presentation and Click on this link for a semi-colon quiz! Be sure to ask if you have questions.
We had our last day of power posing too. From this point forward, you'll need to see me during lunch to earn your points. Tomorrow I will work with students from period three. Friday I will work with students from period four. Hopefully, we'll be able to have everyone successfully demonstrating confidence through reading.
See you tomorrow.
Honors: It's the punctuation mark that can set your writing apart or it's the dreaded punctuation mark no one knows how to use. Either way, we discussed the semi-colon today. For some it was a reminder. for others, it was clarification or even new material. Here's a link to the slides on the presentation and Click on this link for a semi-colon quiz!
After flash drafting on your influential person and the information you've uncovered so far, we took a quick detour to emphasize the importance of identifying all your sources and citing your quotes as well. Doing only one of those is not enough. A.B. gave us a great example of how to do it correctly.
We had some research time during which it became clear to me that we need to understand the difference between accomplishments and influence.
Galileo invented the first telescope. That's an accomplishment. That alone does not signify influence. How did his invention of the telescope influence (change the character, behavior or development of someone) the people of his time or those that followed him? The telescope was not the influence; how it altered the way people studied space and the stars is the influence.
Michael Jordan scored over 30,000 points. That's a great accomplishment, but did that accomplishment influence anyone? His influence is visible in other ways. that's what you need to uncover.
As you research, if you come across words such as: altered, changed, because of (influential person)..., etc., then you know you are on to something big.
Tonight I'm asking you to identify 3 + 1. Three arguments and one counter. These are only sentences--four total sentences. You do not need to stick with what you produce tonight, but
I need to know that we are all progressing in our research.
Standard: We also looked at semi-colons today. Here's a link to the slides on the presentation and Click on this link for a semi-colon quiz! Be sure to ask if you have questions.
We had our last day of power posing too. From this point forward, you'll need to see me during lunch to earn your points. Tomorrow I will work with students from period three. Friday I will work with students from period four. Hopefully, we'll be able to have everyone successfully demonstrating confidence through reading.
See you tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Intro Clauses and IP Research
Honors: We reviewed introductory clauses and comma usage. Here's a link to the slides. Then we emphasized the need to identify sources thoroughly and correctly in the previous Defend Your Position paper and the upcoming Influential Person paper. We shared some info on who we are choosing as our influential people and then began researching. Tonight you should be compiling one page of notes on your IP for class tomorrow. Don't fill your notes with background on your IP. Instead identify the reasons why the IP is influential and then research those pieces of information. You need hard evidence in the form of quotes and data to offer convincing arguments.
Standard: We reviewed introductory clauses and comma usage. Here's a link to the slides. Then we went through some of the power presentations. Realize that there is a good reason why we do this, and it is not just to make good presentations. As you discussed today, it helps build confidence, it shows the importance of doing things with passion, it will lead to a more successful presentation of yourself and a more successful life overall. Who doesn't want that?
See you tomorrow.
Standard: We reviewed introductory clauses and comma usage. Here's a link to the slides. Then we went through some of the power presentations. Realize that there is a good reason why we do this, and it is not just to make good presentations. As you discussed today, it helps build confidence, it shows the importance of doing things with passion, it will lead to a more successful presentation of yourself and a more successful life overall. Who doesn't want that?
See you tomorrow.
Monday, April 20, 2015
Reflection Writing
Lots of links to share today. After our rehashing of the difference between active and passive voice, I introduced our next step: The Influential Person Paper. Here's the link to the assignment. In addition to explaining what you need to do, the document also includes a rubric.
The big news today was the multi-media aspect of the presentation. You'll be writing a paper that needs to stand on its own, but in addition you'll be inserting between three-five links to pictures, sources, videos, music, etc., anything that will enhance your presentation and your reader's understanding of the influential person you selected.
In addition you will be videoing yourself reading the paper and clicking on the links through a program called screencastomatic. I showed you how I did it today in class. Unfortunately, I seem to be having a little trouble sharing the link with you at this moment. I'll try again later.
Tonight you need to be doing two things. First, think up a couple of people who you would be interested in writing about. Identify your influential people. Second, be sure to complete the reflection of the Defend Your Position paper. Here is the link to the reflection questions.
In that standard class we also worked on our active and passive voice before seeing some people bring their A game to the presentation. We saw some good emotion and inflection and passion, but would love to see it on a more consistent basis. We'll get through more tomorrow before I'll have to start docking points for not bringing the passion, confidence, enthusiasm, authenticity in a comforting and captivating way.
The big news today was the multi-media aspect of the presentation. You'll be writing a paper that needs to stand on its own, but in addition you'll be inserting between three-five links to pictures, sources, videos, music, etc., anything that will enhance your presentation and your reader's understanding of the influential person you selected.
In addition you will be videoing yourself reading the paper and clicking on the links through a program called screencastomatic. I showed you how I did it today in class. Unfortunately, I seem to be having a little trouble sharing the link with you at this moment. I'll try again later.
Tonight you need to be doing two things. First, think up a couple of people who you would be interested in writing about. Identify your influential people. Second, be sure to complete the reflection of the Defend Your Position paper. Here is the link to the reflection questions.
In that standard class we also worked on our active and passive voice before seeing some people bring their A game to the presentation. We saw some good emotion and inflection and passion, but would love to see it on a more consistent basis. We'll get through more tomorrow before I'll have to start docking points for not bringing the passion, confidence, enthusiasm, authenticity in a comforting and captivating way.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Power Pose Tonight!
Standard: Power Pose! In addition to reading and reading and reading the passage/poem/excerpt tonight, be sure to power pose so that your confidence and testosterone are up. That will help you present with enthusiasm, passion, confidence and authenticity in a comforting and captivating way.
Can't wait to see how you do tomorrow. You will be successful or else you will be faking it until you make it!
Honors: After our parallel structure discussion and our anaphora reminder, we jumped back into our Pitts and Hiaasen articles. Thank you to all of the students who demonstrated their honors class pedigree by watching the video, looking up the O'Reilly statistics and researching the nine names alluded to by Pitts. We wrapped up the Pitts discussion and then brought in Hiaasen. This time I had you think/discuss/write about these three prompts:
While we didn't get a chance to fully discuss the prompts we will do so tomorrow and then discover what I mean by "The Next Step".
Can't wait to see how you do tomorrow. You will be successful or else you will be faking it until you make it!
Honors: After our parallel structure discussion and our anaphora reminder, we jumped back into our Pitts and Hiaasen articles. Thank you to all of the students who demonstrated their honors class pedigree by watching the video, looking up the O'Reilly statistics and researching the nine names alluded to by Pitts. We wrapped up the Pitts discussion and then brought in Hiaasen. This time I had you think/discuss/write about these three prompts:
1.
How does this article mesh with the Pitts article?
2.
He ends with a sentiment similar to Pitts, yet he
approaches it differently. Explain the differences between the two
angles the men use.
3.
Explain why each is suited for its author.
While we didn't get a chance to fully discuss the prompts we will do so tomorrow and then discover what I mean by "The Next Step".
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Pitts and the Power Pose
Honors: What does it mean to have read and annotated an article for homework? The expectation is that you have done what you need to do to fully comprehend the writing. We discovered today that no one actually did that.
To begin with, large chunks of people had not seen and did not watch the video that went along with the article. Your comprehension of the writing would have been enhanced if you had done so.
Only one person took the time to see what "misleading statistics" Pitt was referencing. You could have offered more insightful discussion if you had.
No one could identify all nine of the names Pitt alluded to in his writing. His point would have been clarified and your input more valuable if you had.
Reading the article is okay.
Annotating the article is an improvement.
But to fully understand it and be ready to discuss the writing, sometimes a bit of additional work is needed. I trust you'll do that work this evening.
Solid discussion today on the Leonard Pitts article. I appreciate how many of you were calling into question his presentation. We discussed how the bias you correctly pointed out in the article could be expected due to the opinion based nature of the article. Again, all the more reason to consider author, purpose, evidence and source when reading nonfiction writing.
Once we got through that, we began discussing the construction of the article and why he made some of the choices he did. For those of you who were not in class today, here are the seven questions you should be considering/responding to for class tomorrow.
To begin with, large chunks of people had not seen and did not watch the video that went along with the article. Your comprehension of the writing would have been enhanced if you had done so.
Only one person took the time to see what "misleading statistics" Pitt was referencing. You could have offered more insightful discussion if you had.
No one could identify all nine of the names Pitt alluded to in his writing. His point would have been clarified and your input more valuable if you had.
Reading the article is okay.
Annotating the article is an improvement.
But to fully understand it and be ready to discuss the writing, sometimes a bit of additional work is needed. I trust you'll do that work this evening.
Solid discussion today on the Leonard Pitts article. I appreciate how many of you were calling into question his presentation. We discussed how the bias you correctly pointed out in the article could be expected due to the opinion based nature of the article. Again, all the more reason to consider author, purpose, evidence and source when reading nonfiction writing.
Once we got through that, we began discussing the construction of the article and why he made some of the choices he did. For those of you who were not in class today, here are the seven questions you should be considering/responding to for class tomorrow.
1.
What is Pitts' main idea in this article?
2.
What does Bill O'Reilly represent in this article?
3.
Explain the "moral squeeze" Pitts refers to in paragraph 7.
4.
Identify a sentence from the article that connects to the quote from
Jeremiah. Explain your selection and the connection.
5.
Who are the nine?
6.
What is his point when he mentions the nine names in paragraphs
13-15?
7.
I don't like questions. He ends with three! Effective? Why or why
not?
We will complete our analysis of the Pitts article tomorrow and then bring in the Hiaasen article.
Standard: How will you apply Amy Cuddy's lesson to your life? That should be prominent in your mind this evening. Where do you need to enhance your confidence?
You'll get the chance to apply it starting tomorrow. You will either succeed right out or you will fake it until you make it. Start looking for a few pages to read, a poem to share, a passage to recite in front of the class. You will do so with Cuddy's six key words: enthusiasm, passion, confidence, authenticity in a comforting and captivating way.
Can't wait.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
ISTEP Practice Today
As the title says we had our ISTEP practice today. Our REAL ISTEP experience will come the week of May 4--three short weeks.
Honors: Be sure to have printed, read and annotated the Pitts and Hiaasen articles. We'll look at them more closely tomorrow.
Standard: We'll finish our look at what Amy Cuddy has to say and discuss how it applies to us on a daily basis.
Honors: Be sure to have printed, read and annotated the Pitts and Hiaasen articles. We'll look at them more closely tomorrow.
Standard: We'll finish our look at what Amy Cuddy has to say and discuss how it applies to us on a daily basis.
Monday, April 13, 2015
SHIMP, Cuddy, Hiaasen, Pitts and Barenaked Ladies
Lots of links today. The top two are for the standard classes and the bottom three are for the honors classes.
If you are in the standard class, click on the S.H.I.M.P. link and read over the slides. Be sure to complete either option one or option two in your writer's notebook.
After that, you should click on the Amy Cuddy link. It's a short video that we weren't able to finish today. We made it through 15 minutes of the 21 minute video. Feel free to watch the first fifteen minutes if you were not in class today so that you are up to date in what we've been doing.
Tomorrow we are taking the ISTEP practice test. Nothing to prepare for...just practice.
Tomorrow you should also be turning in your Defend Your Position papers. I'll be collecting them before taking the ISTEP practice test.
Click here for the S.H.I.M.P. presentation.
Click here for the Amy Cuddy video we started today.
If you are in the honors class, then click on the link to the lyrics to "One Week" and see if you can identify all the allusions in the song. Write them down and show me to see if you were able to identify them all. Then write a couple sentences explaining why writers should use allusions in their writing.
We looked at the following quote...
I then linked you to two articles, one by Leonard Pitts and one by Carl Hiaasen, both journalists with the Miami Herald. I want you to read, print and annotate the articles for Wednesday's class.
Tomorrow we are also taking the ISTEP practice test. Get a good rest and do your best tomorrow.
Click here for the lyrics to "One Week" by the Barenaked Ladies.
Click here for the Leonard Pitts article.
Click here for the Carl Hiaasen article.
If you are in the standard class, click on the S.H.I.M.P. link and read over the slides. Be sure to complete either option one or option two in your writer's notebook.
After that, you should click on the Amy Cuddy link. It's a short video that we weren't able to finish today. We made it through 15 minutes of the 21 minute video. Feel free to watch the first fifteen minutes if you were not in class today so that you are up to date in what we've been doing.
Tomorrow we are taking the ISTEP practice test. Nothing to prepare for...just practice.
Tomorrow you should also be turning in your Defend Your Position papers. I'll be collecting them before taking the ISTEP practice test.
Click here for the S.H.I.M.P. presentation.
Click here for the Amy Cuddy video we started today.
If you are in the honors class, then click on the link to the lyrics to "One Week" and see if you can identify all the allusions in the song. Write them down and show me to see if you were able to identify them all. Then write a couple sentences explaining why writers should use allusions in their writing.
We looked at the following quote...
-“...You
foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but do not see, who have
ears, but do not hear.”
-Jeremiah
5:21
...and discussed its meaning.
I then linked you to two articles, one by Leonard Pitts and one by Carl Hiaasen, both journalists with the Miami Herald. I want you to read, print and annotate the articles for Wednesday's class.
Tomorrow we are also taking the ISTEP practice test. Get a good rest and do your best tomorrow.
Click here for the lyrics to "One Week" by the Barenaked Ladies.
Click here for the Leonard Pitts article.
Click here for the Carl Hiaasen article.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Honors: I shared a very strong, student-written counterclaim and counter to the counterclaim from the Defend Your Position papers. Those are due tomorrow.
We also listened to some nonfiction presentations. Hopefully, we finish those tomorrow.
Standard: We shared and edited our Defend Your position drafts today. We'll finish those tomorrow. I'll share a strong counterclaim and then we'll discuss the works cited page one more time. Your final drafts will be due Tuesday after break.
We also listened to some nonfiction presentations. Hopefully, we finish those tomorrow.
Standard: We shared and edited our Defend Your position drafts today. We'll finish those tomorrow. I'll share a strong counterclaim and then we'll discuss the works cited page one more time. Your final drafts will be due Tuesday after break.
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