2.1

For those who did not emerge from the changing of assignments (4 times) with a clear concept of our homework, here you go.

Read 2.1 (quickly through page 55-72, slowly through 73-77)

Be sure you understand it

Write a response on your blog

Start memorizing

Wednesday, November 24

Good job on your posters. We will continue on Monday. If you want to leave me a comment here with feedback about rotating around and teaching each other, please do so. Was it a good way to remember/learn or was it frustrating?

Your task for Thanksgiving break is to read Act II Scene II and write a blog journal entry (and comment on someone else's blog).

But most important, enjoy your break and try reading for fun!

Play Journals

Below I am including the instructions you received yesterday on a green sheet about your nightly posting. Post #2 needs to be done today based on what we read in class.

November and December

Pre-IB Sophomore English

Reader Response Journals

Objectives:

1. Students will learn to trust their own responses to literature.

2. Students will look critically at the plays both to understand it better and to analyze its subtleties

Overview.

You will be recording your reactions to the assigned reading. Your entries should be unique, personal descriptions of the effect the reading is having on you. In these responses you can admit your confusion, expand on the author’s ideas, and attept to discover your own.

General Guidelines:

1. As a rule, you will have one journal entry due every night. You will write your journals on your blog. Any exceptions to this will be noted in class.

2. You will also be making one comment on someone else’s blog each night you have a journal entry due. Your comments should be constructive, not destructive, and genuinely contribute to a literary conversation. “Good idea” is not a sufficient contribution. You will copy and paste your comment onto the bottom of the blog entry you created that same day.

Suggested Writing Starters:

1. Acknowledge your first impressions. Immediately after reading, take some time to think about anything that comes to you in relations to the text. If you’re intrigued by certain statements or attracted to a particular character’s issues, work with those.

2. Ask questions about the text. What perplexes you? Do you wonder why the author made a certain decision with the text?

3. Make connections with your own experiences and with other texts, concepts, or events.

4. Speculate about images, details, and lines that strike you for whatever reason. Why are they there? What do they add? Why are they memorable? Do they have anything in common? Can you make an assertion about them?

5. Copy passages, long or short, that strike you. Underline key words or phrases. What is striking and why? How do the words and images work? What doe it tell us about character, theme, atmosphere, or narration.

6. Write down words you do not know or find particularly effective.

7. Try agreeing with the author; add details to support his or her ideas. Try arguing with the author; where do you disagree. Choose details to support your points.

8. Identify the author’s attitude toward the subject, the purpose behind the piece of writing.

9. Notice repetition and muse about why it is used and what the effect is.

10. You can get creative. Change something about the story and see what the effect is. Write an additional scene.

11. Don’t neglect literary elements and techniques like imagery, theme, character, diction, punctuation, etc.

Suggested Starters:

1. I began to think of

2. I noticed that

3. This reminds me of

4. I realized

5. I’m not sure

6. I was surprised

7. I can’t believe

8. I can’t really understand

9. If I were

10. I wonder why

11. I know the feeling

12. Although

This is the same information on the sheet you received after your test - - - if you did not sign up, you are going on Monday!

On Monday your final multi genre project is due. This includes one cultural genre, one longer genre, one genre of your choosing, and a persuasive genre.

How your genres will be graded:

· Neatness and creativity

· Achieving all of the elements discussed in peer edits, specifically having a purpose for the genre that collaborates with the information included

· Organized and clear writing with no grammar errors

· Having a clear thesis that connects all of the genres together

Five-minute presentations on your culture and project will also begin on Monday and go through Tuesday. In these presentations you should include background information on your culture and the oppression there. You should explain why you chose one of your genres. And lastly you should share part or all of one of the genres. If time permits and it makes sense for your presentation, you may present on more than one genre. You should perfect your presentation until it falls between four and five minutes.

How your presentation will be graded:

· Clarity of speech and appropriate tone: you should sound professional and rehearsed

· Background information to the culture that is on topic and spoken about with knowledge and confidence

· Clear explanation of what the genre is and why it was chosen

· Engaging reading of the genre or a portion of the genre

· Remained within time limit

These will be the final grades of the quarter.

test review

Your test will include:

vocabulary

grammar

some literary elements and techniques

questions on Cry

quote analysis

Monday, November 1

Remember to spend the week preparing for you test and presentation.

Homework:

1. genre #3 rough draft due

2. read chapter 32

3. blog: what two things did you tab and why did you tab them

Friday, October 29

Blog: How does the land parallel the lives of either the Kumalo family or the Jarvis family? Use at least one specific example from the book.

Genre #3: Due on Tuesday

Continuation from yesterday: comment on two of your peers' blogs (you can comment on the Ashoka fellows or on the land/people journal entry) and decide on a topic for your persuasive paper

Thursday, October 28

*Remember that tomorrow is silent reading day, so bring your books.

*Your 600 word genre rough draft is due tomorrow.

*Blog assignment: 1. Read about what three Ashoka fellows are doing to try and improve the world. Click here to do so. 2. Summarize what each person's idea is on your own blog. 3. Start visiting your peers' blogs and leave at least two comments discussing the ideas you think are of value. 4. Refine your list about what you will write about in your persuasive paper. 5. Pick one concept for your paper.

State Reading Test Practice

Go here for an online practice test.

Click here for a printable reading test to use for practice.

Wednesday, October 27

1. Have a conversation with the person you wrote a letter to about what parts had them almost convinced and what parts they reacted against.

2. Read chapter 30

3. Blog: Pick one character who does not have a name. Look back to all the times they are mentioned. What is the effect of using this character? Why do you think Alan Paton did not give them a name? Do you think this was a good decision on his part? Why or why not?

4. Start working on 600 word genre. Remember we moved this pack to being due on Friday. Your following genre will be due Monday, so don't procrastinate.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Please let your parents know that I will only be available from 5:00-6:30 on Thursday night.

Multi-genre Project

Thank you all for being flexible and proactive with this project. To clarify the discussion we had in class, your cultural genre can be a genre that isn't necessarily specific to that culture but it shouldn't be incongruous with it either.

All of your genres need to include your own writing and significant thought/analysis. For example, you can not just copy facts or information in to a new format. You need to do something of your own with that information.

If you have questions during the weekend, please leave them in a comment here and include the email address to which you want me to answer the question. Otherwise, I will answer the question as a comment here so that others can read it as well.

Additionally, if you used google documents and gave permission to view to jwecker, you need to redo this and give permission to jennifer397@gmail.com - my error.

What group are you going to research and write about?

You need to pick a group that is or has suffered from oppression. Be sure your chosen group fits into the definition of oppression. If they do not, your project will be difficult to complete. No more than three people can work on the same group of oppressed people, so if three people have already commented with your topic, pick a new one. If you need ideas, browse the blogs of your peers.

Leave a comment here telling me what group.

Cry Journal 4

Journal (due on Wednesday)

At least two links to information related to a society that is or has been under some form of oppression. Remember that oppression is the UNJUST use of power to keep another group of people down.

Reading for tonight (due on Tuesday)

Chapters 10,11, and 12

October 1 Journal (Cry #3)

• Read chapters 8 and 9 (tab while reading)
• Journal: Make a list of lines and phrases that repeat, images that repeat, and concepts that repeat. Pick one from each list (one phrase, one image, and one concept) and explain what the effect of that repetition is and why the author would use it.

Cry Journal 2

Read chapters 5, 6, and 7 (don't forget to tab - try for two a chapter)

Journal: How does Alan Paton characterize the different genders? Is the difference significant? Why or why not?

Cry Journal 1

Read chapters 1-4 and tab using a system to indicate what category the passages falls into. Your categories are narrative, plot, characters, setting, and language.

Once you have read and tabbed, blog about four of the passages you selected. What passage and why did you tab it? What is significant about each passage?

Theme

Writers often use characters, setting, language, plot, and point of view to develop and convey their themes. For your journal tonight, explain the theme you identified and explore at least two of the ways in which William Golding explored/developed/conveyed that theme.

Tone Review by Lucy

"Touch the barn. It's on the farm."

Tone: playful, instructional

"Touch the cow. Do it now."

Tone: Scary, threatening

I think she got it.

The Effect

For your post/journal this weekend I want you to examine the effect of two of William Golding's decisions from the first page. This should equal two paragraphs.

A few tips:

• Embrace the fact that you have already read the entire book. Draw from other parts of the book to inform your analysis of the effect.
• Don't stop asking "what is the effect of this" until you absolutely can not dig any deeper. For example: Alliteration. What is the effect of this? Creates a rhythmic sound. What is the effect of this? Mirrors the sound of the ocean. What is the effect of this? Highlights the water locked setting. What is the effect of this? Associates the rhythmic consistency of the ocean to the programed nature of humans to follow a pattern. What is the effect of this? Creates an almost trance like mood. What is the effect of this? Develops the theme that human nature will always revert to a natural and instinctual pattern of behavior.

First Day Business

Okay, here we go...

1. Have parents read and sign the disclosure document. Fill out the student information section.

2. Set up a blog. www.blogger.com

3. Leave a comment here telling me your full name and your blog address.

4. Finish marking up page one of The Lord of the Flies.