Monday, November 30, 2009

Orange Day

***ARE WE REALLY BACK AT SCHOOL?****

COLLEGE PREP

1. Vocab list for test this Friday
2. College Essay: more voice writing (something you find annoying)....sharing....playing "kite or clothesline" as a participation grade....sharing our responses....CLASS PARTICIPATION is huge during this college essay writing unit!

HONORS ENGLISH

1. College Essay: "I am a dynamic figure" activity....read essay by Leah Knobler....discuss cliches in writing....workshop essays
**NOTE**The essays were checked off for being DONE today....but you can give them to me by Wednesday if you want to make last minute revisions in the areas of the FCAs which are LEAD, SENTENCE VARIETY, and VOICE

ENGLISH 12

1. Vocabulary: words given for test on Friday....an in class participation assignment was to put each of the words in a sentence that is about YOU (we will be doing personal narrative writing next, so this fits well).
2. Papers: You had your "CS Lewis quote" papers due today, but because I am such a nice guy during this holiday season, you may give it to me on Wednesday...as long as you remember that a STRONG INTRO is a major focus correction area for this paper. We went over intros again, and you can see last week's blog post for more info....

Friday, November 20, 2009

ORANGE DAY

HONORS ENGLISH

1. College Essay
-pass back "clothes" essays
-read sample essays from Ambar, Clayton, BC, and Billy Shakes
-your essay (your free choice essay) is due on Tuesday. Be sure to remember the three focus areas: VOICE and LEAD. We will work on the third one-SENTENCE VARIETY-on Tuesday in class. Bring your computers to do this. Have your essays both printed out AND saved on computer.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

1. Confidence/Body Language
-finish rest of film clip presentations
-view episode of "The Awful Truth" as it relates to confidence in speech

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

ORANGE DAY

COLLEGE PREP
1. Collect paper...but first, go through and underline thesis statement and circle backstory
2. College Essay
-begin with discussion of what a college essay should look like
-go over the rubric for your essay (voice, sentence variety, lead)
-discussion of voice, tone, and style
-"voice game" writing....list 5 things that make you happy

HONORS ENGLISH
1. College Essay
-read examples from Clayton Kennedy, BC, Shakespeare, etc.
-mini-lesson on sentence variety and alternating sentence beginnings (replacing NOUNS with adjectives, prep phrases, appositives, participle phrases, etc)
***Remember that your college essay (the one of your choice) is due Monday after vacation. Remember the three FCAs (voice, sentence variety, lead!). It is DUE, even though you may not hand it in that day...we still have some work to do with editing, revising, etc

ENGLISH 12
1. Vocabulary test
2. "Herb Johnson-The God of Canton" by Garrison Keillor
-read aloud
-discuss: what could you POSSIBLY have in common with Herb, an 1800 pound former athlete?
3. Writing
-with Macs, begin writing the crafted response from CS Lewis: "We read because we want to know we are not alone."
-You all did very well writing in class today, and your homework is to finish this paper for Monday. Be sure to remember that our FCA (focus area) is STRONG INTRODUCTION!! See the notes we took on intros from last class....be sure your intro has good "backstory." As an example of backstory, see the short paragraph below (the italicized is the backstory).

Every single day, we see judge people we don't know. We see them in the school cafeteria, sitting alone, we see them in the library, and we see them in the hallways. There's a famous expression about not judging a book by its cover, and I think, unfortunately, that we do that all the time. Sometimes I feel like people dont really now me; people see me, a wicked awesome and cool looking English teacher at WHS, and think I have always been this way. The same is true for Herb Johnson in Garrison Keillor's story. Many look at him and think he is just a regular old fat guy. What people dont realize is that Herb used to be a star football player, and Mr Goldsmith used to be a Humpback whale. CS Lewis's quote trule applies to me and "Herb Johnson, God of Canton."

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

BLACK DAY

HONORS ENGLISH
1. College Essay: We went over the strategies of "magic 3," hyphenated modifier, and good leads....work on own "clothes essays" and integrate into your paper....read leads from "Dark and Stormy" book....trade papers and work on "shoes and socks" for your partner's paper....

PUBLIC SPEAKING.
1. Empathy/Body Language: Discuss the role empathy plays in interpersonal communication....via the Internet, take the BBC psychology "smile test"....discuss scores and difficulties regarding empathy...take "empathy quotient" test on your own (yeay macs!!)....discuss results....begin movie clips conveying confidence (Haley, Sam, Cody went today...the rest of you must present on Friday!).

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Orange Day

COLLEGE PREP
1. Collect "Lake" and any other stories you may have!
2. Assign paper that is due on Thursday: "CS Lewis once said that 'we read because we want to know we are not alone.'" Apply this quote to a story we have read during our short story unit. The FCA for this paper is INTRODUCTIONS
3. Writing introductions lesson....we learned all about backstory, thesis statement, etc. There were some handouts to go along with this, so get them if you missed. We modeled some intros and focused on creating good backstory. Pay extra attention to your introduction when you hand in your paper on Thursday

HONORS ENGLISH
1. College essay: Revisit "magic 3," hyphenated modifier, and lead, and share how they were integrated into your "clothes" essay....swop papers with a neighbor to do shoes and socks for their essay....begin reading sample essays and provide feedback on them (we only got to the one by Ambar Espinoza today)...I collected the essay and it will be graded as one of your two "test" grades for this unit.

ENGLISH 12

1. Collect "Once More to the Lake" and other short stories
2. "Daily" done in class, to count for a participation grade (see me if you were absent and need one)
3. Reminder of VOCAB TEST THURSDAY
4. Paper topic is this: "CS Lewis once said that 'we read because we want to know we are not alone."" Apply this to a story we have read during this short story unit. (this is not DUE next class....but, rather, you should bring your computer so we can work on them in class!)
5. The focus correction area for this paper is going to be a strong introduction....we spent time going over the process of writing good intros with 3-5 sentences, backstory, thesis statement, etc.
6. For next class, you should attempt writing an INTRO for your paper. That is all.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Black Day

HONORS ENGLISH
1. Vocabulary Test was taken today
2. College Essay: Today in class was a "writing day," since the class elected last Thursday to do this in class today. Time was allotted to write to the prompt "What does your clothing say about your identity?" Remember, of course, that "clothing" is a blanket term for clothes, jewelery, talismans, piercings, etc etc........(school appropriate). A printed out draft is due in class on Wednesday. We need it to be double spaced for our work shopping purposes.....

PUBLIC SPEAKING
1. Empathy/Body language in speech: We had a general discussion of how body language affects the way you come off in your public speaking....we went over the importance of inferential skills....we played "two truths and a lie" in order to see how we are "judged" by our classmates...
2. FOR WEDNESDAY, please bring in a short movie clip (no Youtube, etc) that is about 2 minutes or so. This clip should clearly demonstrate CONFIDENCE IN SPEECH as we have talked about this year. See me soon if you do not understand this!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Orange Day

COLLEGE PREP

1. Vocabulary test was taken
2. "Once More to the Lake"
a. focused writing: describe a place that has changed for you since you were young
b. read essay in class
c. point, question, connect to essay
3. College essay
a. bring materials to class so we can begin next unit

HONORS ENGLISH

1. College Essay
a. share "clothes" essays....brainstorm lists...etc
b. I read "Outfits," an original piece by me, G
c. Mr Carey, Mr Bourne, and a hundred other people stop by to visit...haha
d. teach writing strategies of MAGIC 3, DIALOGUE, HYPHENATED MODIFIER, and LEADS
e. share some reallllly bad leads
f. for next class: integrate your new writing tools into your clothes essay....you can write in pen right on the paper....you should also develop three alternate (random, zany, funny, creative) leads for your essay

2. Vocabulary test

ENGLISH 12

1. New vocabulary words for test next THURSDAY
2."Once more to the lake"
a. write about a place that has changed since you were younger
b. read essay in class and create 2 literal, 2 inferential, 2 transcendent questions for TUESDAY
**Remember** you need to bring your copy of "Lake" with you...if not, it is a zero for a participation grade....

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Black Day

HONORS ENGLISH
1. College Essay
a. exchange papers (which were a participation grade) and offer shoes/socks on them
b. write THREE alternate beginning sentences for your partners piece of writing
c. read "English Journal" article on creative nonfiction, and then discuss the article
d. don't forget that your COLLEGE ESSAY VOCAB QUIZ is on MONDAY

2. The class elected to write the next essay IN CLASS on Monday, so make sure to bring your Macs

PUBLIC SPEAKING
1. Stump speech (25 seconds, off-the cuff, creative, etc)
2. Doublespeak
a. bring closure to unit by researching examples on the world wide web....then sharing/presenting to the class for a participation grade

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Orange Day

COLLEGE PREP

1. Vocabulary
a. check off words (participation grade) you were supposed to look up, report on, etc
2. Point, Question, Connect reading strategy
a. teach strategy
b. apply to popular film or show
c. apply to "Herb Johnson, God of Canton" which we read LAST class.
**Note: We didnt get to the whole class plan due to the flu shot clinic**

HONORS ENGLISH

1. College Essay
a."daily write" on superhero quality you would desire.....incorporate voice and guess each others
b. Read "English Journal" article on "creative non fiction"
c. Reminder of COLLEGE ESSAY VOCAB TEST on FRIDAY
d. Voice writing exercises on board...write from perspective of other characters, etc
e. crafted narrative due on Friday: "How does your clothing identify you?" Note that you should consider clothing your clothes, jewelry, tattoos, piercings, accessories, etc etc etc. ALSO, you should brainstorm a LIST of as many pieces of your favorite clothing as you can think of. Please write something you don't mind sharing in class. Make it rich in voice!! THIS WILL BE ONE OF YOUR TWO GRADED PAPERS FOR THIS UNIT

ENGLISH 12

1. "A&P"
a. re-read story and work on questions
b. go over questions, discuss the story, etc.
**since we were missing over half of the class, we did not move forward with the writing we will do next. We will continue this on Friday, with new vocab words, writing instruction, and our last short story. If you will not be here on Friday either, make sure you come see me**

Monday, November 9, 2009

Black Day

HONORS ENGLISH
1. College Essay
a. essayish vocab words to be tested next Monday AND (hopefully) to be integrated into your essays!
b. "collecting activity" brainstorming and sharing
c. "Kite or Clothesline" part 2
d. For next class, make sure you have written at home for about 15 minutes regarding a prompt from our collecting activity today. We will share these with each other and do work shopping

PUBLIC SPEAKING
1. Doublespeak
a. Seinfeld clip
b. Read "Words Don't Mean...." and discuss
c. examples of doublespeak in our world today....write down the list
***Bring your computers for next class....we will be doing some research!***

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Black Day (AND COLLEGE PREP ORANGE ASSIGNMENT)

**To CP students: I am sorry for the lack of a blog last night....I forgot because I was so excited about the soccer game! The prompt to which you were to respond was this: "Can perfection exist in nature? Why or why not?"

Today's classes......

HONORS ENGLISH
1. Discussion of Voice, Tone, and Style....review of definitions....how to put them into practice
2. "Voice games"....we went over how to distinguish voice in our writing, and how to incorporate it....we all wrote to the prompt of "what annoys you?" and then tried to guess who wrote what....based on our individual voices
3. "Interview activity"....we walked around, paired up, and discussed possible prompts

PUBLIC SPEAKING
1. Finish "Merchants of Cool" documentary
2. Doublespeak
a. discussion questions in small groups
b. view powerpoint presentation on hedging, doublespeak, softening language, etc.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Black Day

HONORS ENGLISH
1. (same as honors from yesterday....we went over "Once More to the Lake" and started our college essay writing unit).

PUBLIC SPEAKING
1. Presentation of Ad Consultant projects
2. Haley and G finally do their teaching projects!
3. Begin "Doublespeak" unit!
*We will finish "Merchants of Cool" next time.....

Monday, November 2, 2009

Orange Day

COLLEGE PREP ENGLISH
1. The "status quo" response was due today
2. "Three levels of questioning" powerpoint was presented.....we worked in groups to create literal, inferential, and transcendent questions....we then shared our findings
3. Read "The Birthmark" by Hawthorne, and create 3 inferential questions and 2 transcendent questions to be collected on Wednesday

HONORS ENGLISH
1. "Once More to the Lake" was finished up....we had our discussion of symbolism in the essay...I collected the findings you were to write down
2. The college essay unit was begun....I went over all the expectations of the unit....we had a discussion of "voice," and then we played "Kite or Clothesline" game, where we shared "what we were."
3. Your only "homework" during this whole unit is to GET READY TO SEND COLLEGE APPLICATIONS! There was no "writing" assessment due on Wednesday

ENGLISH 12
1. We got new vocab words for a test to be on Friday. Each student was assigned a "word," and the student is to become the "expert" on that word, doing the following
a. write FIVE original sentences using the word
b. write a good paragraph explaining how the word might relate to them personally!
2. Quick review of three levels of questioning
3. Read the short story "Freak the Geek," and create 3 literal questions and 2 inferential questions.