Octavia Butler's "Bloodchild"

Students read Octavia Butler's science fiction story "Bloodchild," winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards the year it was published. I handed back graded essays that students are welcome to revise for a higher grade, if they wish.

Work Day: Reading, Notes, Vocabulary

Students had the class period to get caught up on story notes, which are due tomorrow, and vocabulary notebooks, which are due on Friday.

Wells Tower's "Leopard"

We discussed motifs--repeated elements--of "Gorse Is Not People." Then students read Tower's "Leopard," a short story written entirely in second person narration. We discussed the story, and students worked on their story notes.
Homework: Story Notes #2 due on Wednesday; Vocabulary Notebook due on Friday

Frame's "Gorse Is Not People"

I discussed some background about New Zealand writer Janet Frame, and showed students how to create a Works Cited entry from an online magazine source. We read and discussed the story. Story notes on the next five stories will be due next week.

Carrier Bag Discussion and In-Class Writing

We discussed LeGuin's theory and tried to apply it to some of the storied we've read so far in this Unit. Then students wrote a short constructed response summarizing the features of the two types of stories.

Discussing LeGuin: Hero Story and Carrier Bag Story

Homework check: t-chart for hero and carrier bag stories. I briefly discussed grades. As a class, we gathered information about the chart. Then students divided into pairs to generate some questions to classify the short stories we are reading.

LeGuin's Theory of Fiction

I handed back the first set of short story notes, which have a completion grade of ten points. Incomplete notes were given five points, but they may be corrected for the same number of points. I gave a little feedback on specific stories, then gave a short lesson on theme. Four clues to an author's theme(s) or message(s) are: title, motifs, symbols, and theme statements.

Students spent the rest of the period on Ursula LeGuin's "Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction." They created a Works Cited entry for the essay, then read the essay. Students will record characteristics and quotes about the two types of stories in a t-chart: the hero story; the carrier bag story. Notes are due tomorrow; I will assign a grade for them.
Homework: Finish reading LeGuin and create the t-chart

Welcome Back!

I returned and briefly discussed the graded Bradford essays, which may be revised for a higher grade, if desired. I handed out Lesson 8 vocabulary, which will be our final Greek lesson. Students used the rest of the period to get caught up on story notes and vocabulary lessons.
Homework: Bradford essay due

Career Day at SWCCC

Career Pathways class only: students travelled to the SWCCC campus for Career Day.

Tuesday, November 19

Substitute teacher: Students read London's "To Build a Fire," and wrote their story notes.

Vocabulary Lesson 7 Quiz

Students

Work Day: Vocabulary Lesson 7 and Short Story Notes

Students had the class period to make up quizzes, work on vocabulary notebooks, and finish short story notes.
Homework: Story Notes #1 due on Monday (Achebe, Lahiri, Shea, Strand, Eggers)--stapled together in alphabetical order by Works Cited entry (author's last name); Lesson 7 Notebook due on Monday; Lesson 7 quiz on Monday

Short Story Work Day

I gave some management rules for paper copies of short stories: no marking; return ASAP.  We finished the "Jumper Down" story notes. For the rest of the period students worked on their short story notes, including two pieces  Achebe, Lahiri, Shea, Strand, and Eggers. I will do a note check on these five stories on Monday.
Homework: Vocabulary Notebook Lesson 7 due tomorrow; Quiz tomorrow

Short Story Notes: Second Lesson

We created a Work Cited entry for Red Sky at Morning. We finished the Achebe notes in class, and as a class created Works Cited entries for the Lahiri story and the flash fiction stories. We read "Jumper Down" and created short story notes for it (almost finished).
Short Story List so far:
Achebe, Lahiri, Shea
 

Short Stories: Achebe and Lahiri

Today I gave a few warnings about the Red Sky at Morning essay: analysis, not summary; transition sentences; evaluative conclusion reminders. Then I gave a lesson on POV using flash fiction.

Finish Red Sky; Begin Short Story Unit

Friday, November 7
Students took their final Red Sky at Morning quiz; band members may take the quiz on Monday during my office hours. Students read Chinua Achebe's "Marriage Is a Private Affair," and answered questions 7-9 at the end of the story, and the short constructed response on page 997.
Homework: Work on Red Sky comparative analysis essay


Monday, November 10
We made a few parting comments about Josh's coming of age at the end of the novel. In preparation for Jhumpa Lahiri's short story, I showed students two clips from the Bollywood film Jhoda Akbar, to show some differences in culture--especially the benign view of arranged marriage. I handed out copies of the story, and we read and discussed the beginning aloud.
Handout: Lahiri story
Homework: Work on Red Sky comparative analysis essay

Reading Quiz and MLA Title Transcription Rules

Students

MLA Rules for Transcribing Titles

I gave a handout from the MLA Handbook and discussed the rules for transcribing titles. We reviewed the grammatical concepts necessary for capitalization (subordinating and coordinating conjunctions, prepositional phrases, pronouns). Then students practiced, first with a slide show, and then with a worksheet.

Essay Guidelines and "Murder Your Lovelies"

I reviewed the comparative analysis structure for the Bradford essay; next, I handed out and discussed the essay rubric and reminded students about the deadline: Tuesday, December 2. The assignment is worth two hundred points, with five possible points for an early submission (before Thanksgiving Break). I presented a slide show lesson with examples on Becoming a Better Writer. The three areas of focus for these writing lessons were avoiding repetitive diction, evaluative conclusions, and refining quoting skills.
Homework: Finish Red Sky at Morning by Thursday class

Rachel's Challenge: Reading Day

Since most of my honors students attended the Rachel's Challenge training, students used the class period to get caught up reading Red Sky at Morning.

No School

Teacher Professional Day

Lesson 6 Vocabulary Quiz and Writing Lesson

Students took the Lesson 6 vocabulary quiz. When everyone was finished, I presented a slide show lesson on avoiding repetitive diction in writing.
Homework: Read through Chapter 19 of Red Sky at Morning by Monday; essay outline will be due next Wednesday

Wednesday, October 29

Criteria for a Good Relationship
To prepare for writing their Marcia-Victoria comparative analysis, students brainstormed criteria for a good romantic relationship, such as trust, commitment, physical attraction, etc. We discussed the criteria for most of the period, and then I presented how the criteria will fit into the structure of a feature analysis.
Homework: Read through Chapter 19 of Red Sky at Morning by Monday; essay outline will be due next Wednesday

Vocabulary and Red Sky Climax

I handed back Red Sky at Morning quizzes, and included three words for Thursday's Greek Lesson 6 vocabulary quiz: neoplasm, polydactyly, and osteoarthritis. Then we discussed the turning point of Josh's coming of age, and students wrote a short response to it that they handed in at the end of the period: In a well-organized paragraph or two, discuss the turning point in Josh Arnold's coming of age. Use textual support in the form of short, integrated quotations.
Homework: Read through Chapter 19 by Monday

Monday, October 27, 2014

I discussed grades and returned graded assignments. We discussed the Vocabulary Exam over Lessons 1-5, and I explained my grade adjustments to the original raw scores. I shared my data and item analyses with both classes, and we went over problems and misunderstandings about the exam.

Vocabulary Exam: Lessons 1-5

Students took the vocabulary exam today. Students who missed class today may make up the exam during the Monday class period.
Homework: Read Chapter 10 of Red Sky at Morning by Monday

Star Reading Test

Today students took the Star Reading Test, so we can get some data on our students' reading skills.
Homework: No reading assignment for tonight, but students should study their Greed roots, look over their vocabulary notebooks, and use the Lesson V Review Words list to prepare for tomorrow's exam.

Morphology Lesson

Today I defined and we discussed morphology, the branch of linguistics that addresses the meanings of words. A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language. The Greek roots, prefixes, and suffixes that students have been learning are all morphemes. Students did an exercise to get them to think more about pieces of language.

Essay Feedback and Red Sky at Morning

Students handed in their verb packets, eight worksheets that were due today. I reminded students that the Bradbury essay and sentence portfolio are requirements for each student's writing portfolio. I gave students more feedback on the Bradbury essay: how MLA handles numbers, why idiomatic expressions and vague language don't tend to advance an argument, and why one shouldn't conflate intelligence with knowledge. I handed back the Red Sky quiz from yesterday, ranted at students who need to read the book, and we discussed the latest chapters.
Homework: Read Chapter 8

Red Sky Quiz and Verb Practice Exercise and Packet

I reminded students who missed Friday's class to hand in their vocabulary notebook and take the quiz. I handed back graded notebooks. The vocabulary exam will be on Friday; I handed out a list of study words. I will test students on root meanings, words, and multiple choice sentence fill-ins. I handed back the Red Sky at Morning reading quiz from last week (Ch. 2-4), and tested students on their reading for today, Chapters 5-6. Students worked on a verb practice worksheet, which we reviewed, then worked on assembling their verb packets, which are due tomorrow. Students may come in during my office hours tomorrow for missing worksheets.
Handout: Exam word list; Verb Practice Worksheet
Homework: Read Chapter 7 of Red Sky at Morning; Assemble Verb Packet & hand in tomorrow

Lesson 4 Quiz and Red Sky Character List

Students handed in their Decomposition Books, took their Lesson 4 quiz, and wrote annotated lists of characters from Red Sky at Morning.

Red Sky at Morning: Stranger in a Strange Land

We discussed Chapters 2-4 of Red Sky at Morning,

Vocabulary Notebook and Reading Time

I explained a few things about grading the Bradbury essays. I am handing them back as I finish grading them, with brief individual conferences before and after class. For each essay I have written ample notes both on the rubric and the essay for students to understand areas of strength and weakness in their writing. Students may substantially revise their essays for a higher grade, but I need them by the end of the semester. I wrote examples of the MLA date format on the board, and briefly discussed the judicious use of indefinite pronouns such as some, all, many, each, several, and few. We finished reviewing the Verb Types worksheet, and students--some of them, anyway--used the rest of the period to read Red Sky at Morning and find derivatives for their vocabulary notebooks.
Homework: Red Sky: Read through Chapter 4 by tomorrow. Expect a reading quiz.

Red Sky at Morning and Verb Types Review

We discussed Chapter 1 of Red Sky at Morning; it's important to get a clear snapshot of Josh's snarky personality at the onset of this coming of age story. Students should read two chapters per night, and be prepared to take a short reading quiz the following day in class. Reading quizzes may only be made up by students with excused absences. Next we reviewed verb types and discussed the verb types worksheet.
Homework: Red Sky: Chapters 2-3

MLA Essay Format; Begin Red Sky at Morning

I posted some incorrectly and correctly formatted essays on the board to show students what MLA format looks like, since I saw so many variations in the Fahrenheit 451 essays I'm grading. I also instructed students about serif versus sans serif fonts (MLA requires a serif font because it shows greater contrast with italics), using italics for book titles, and placing the header and page number inside the margin of the document. Students signed out copies of Richard Bradford's Red Sky at Morning and began reading Chapter One. We discussed our snarky narrator/protagonist, Josh Arnold, and his sarcastic internal comments about everyone at his dinner table.
Homework: Red Sky: Read Chapter 1

Verb Types: Lesson and Practice

We began with an exercise about classifying verbs according to their complements. Students worked alone, then shared with a partner. I gave a lesson on the three verb types and the basic sentence patterns they determine. Then students worked on a practice worksheet.

Tuesday through Thursday Classes

Tuesday: Verb Tenses
While Mr. Archibeque took over my classes, students worked on a reading on verb tenses with two sets of exercises.

Wednesday: Vocabulary Work Day
During the short period, students worked on finding derivatives for their vocabulary notebooks. Some students worked on their Sentence Portfolios (they should be complete now).

Thursday: Verb Tense Review
We reviewed verb phrases and verb tenses with the worksheets; some students are having trouble understanding the need for future perfect tense. For example, the modal auxiliary shall is only used in first person verb phrases. Students worked on another verb tense worksheet.

Vocabulary Lesson 3 Feedback & Lesson 4

I returned the students' Decomposition Books, which I graded over the weekend, discussing--with a diagram--the difference between aphelion and perihelion, and the distinction between a geocentric and a heliocentric astronomical system. I also railed against indefinite pronouns, especially something, which should only be used when a less specific term isn't available or intended. Another rant was against students who fail to write and investigate the vocabulary words in the Exercise for each lesson, as well as the words I write on the board every week. I handed out Lesson 4, and I wrote some more words on the board.
Handout: Vocabulary Lesson 4
Homework: Vocabulary Notebooks due Friday, October 10; Lesson 4 Quiz on same day--will include verb forms and auxiliaries
 

No School: Teacher Professional Day

There was no school today in order that teachers could have meetings, trainings, and planning time.
Homework: Students should finish their Bradbury essays, vocabulary notebooks, and sentence portfolios

No School: Parent-Teacher Conferences

Today students had no school so that parents could come in for individual conferences with teachers.
Homework: Students should finish their Bradbury essays, vocabulary notebooks, and sentence portfolios

Lesson Three Vocabulary Quiz

Students handed in their Bradbury essays (120 points) and their vocabulary notebooks for the Lesson 3 check. Then they took the Lesson 3 quiz. Students who finished early worked on their Sentence Portfolios.

The Five Verb Forms in English

I handed back and made some comments about the Beatty writing assignment, which will go into student writing portfolios. Then I did a lesson on the five verb forms in English. Students took notes, asked questions, and practiced their knowledge of irregular verb forms using a practice chart.

Finish Sentence Portfolio

It's time for students to catch up by reading Hiroshima and taking their written quiz; moreover, I will change those quiz grades to zeroes on October 1st. I handed out and discussed the Fahrenheit 451 essay rubric; the essay is due on Wednesday. Students finished up their sentence portfolios by the end of the class period.
Handouts: Transitions; Bradbury Essay Rubric

Sentence Portfolio: Compound Sentences

I gave a lesson on the three ways to combine two independent clauses into a compound sentence. Now students have all they need to know to complete their Sentence Portfolios. I reviewed sentences with students throughout the class period.

Vocabulary Work Day

Students used the class period to find derivatives for their vocabulary notebooks. Lesson 3 is due next Wednesday, due to the short week.

Monday and Tuesday Classes

MONDAY: Vocabulary Notebook & Quiz Returns, Lesson 3, Phrase and Clause Review
I returned and reviewed graded notebooks and quizzes, including the extra credit questions. There is a third version of the test for students who were absent on Friday. At the end of the period, students took notes as we made generalizations about clauses and phrases, and we did a little white board review so I could plan our grammar unit.

TUESDAY: Clauses: Sentence Portfolio Requirements
After a few reminders, students worked on writing their sentence portfolios. Tomorrow's class will be devoted to working on vocabulary notebooks.
Homework: Bradbury Essay due Wednesday, September 24

 

Lesson 2 Vocabulary Quiz

Students handed in their vocabulary notebooks for Lesson 2, which were due today. Then they took the Lesson 2 Quiz.

Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach"

I reminded students about the vocabulary notebooks and quiz tomorrow, with a few studying suggestions. I explained the Soapstone approach to analyzing poetry, and students practiced it on "Dover Beach," which is included in an important passage in Fahrenheit 451. We discussed the poem at the end of the period.

Vocabulary Work Day

During our short 40-minute period, students worked on collecting derivatives for Lesson 2 in their vocabulary notebooks, which are due on Friday.

Quiz Review and Essay Assignment

I returned and discussed the Lesson 1 vocabulary quizzes. Students should complete their notebooks  before the quiz so they will be more prepared. Students copied the writing prompt for the Bradbury essay: Discuss how Guy Montag's interactions with other characters in the story contribute to his internal conflict and ultimate transformation. The essay is due on Wednesday, September 24th. We discussed the structure of the essay; outlines are not required, but I will be happy to look at them and give suggestions for a writing plan.

Fahrenheit 451: Writing about Beatty's Speech

 I suggested a few words to add to this week's Lesson 2 vocabulary notebooks: logorrhea, pandemic, gynomastia, biogenesis, and pathogenesis. I checked the t-charts assigned as homework last Friday, and students wrote about Beatty's speech: According to Beatty, how did society evolve into the dystopic future of Fahrenheit 451? Students handed in their writing at the end of the period.

Fahrenheit 451: Beatty's Speech

I began class with a short lesson on homophones and homographs, nice selections for the Lesson 2 vocabulary notebook. Working in small groups, students read and discussed Beatty's monologue in Part 1 of Fahrenheit 451 and gathered textual evidence for his main points in t-charts.
Sophomore counselor Mrs. Rightley talked to students at the end of the class period about the services offered by the counseling office.

Fahrenheit 451:Part 1

Today I returned the reading quizzes. Based on their understanding of Neil Gaimon's "Introduction", groups brainstormed  sci-fi scenarios, especially If this goes on.... We then continued to discuss Bradbury's science fiction classic in light of Gaimon's scenario.

Fahrenheit 451 and Hiroshima Clips

Students took a written quiz about Fahrenheit 451. [5th period: Using details from the novel to show your careful reading, discuss the protagonist's relationship with his wife. 6th period: Using details from the novel to show your careful reading, discuss the protagonist's relationship with his Clarisse.] We began discussing Part 1; students should remember to bring their books to class tomorrow so we can study passages. I showed a few clips from an HBO documentary called White Light, Black Rain, including some excerpts from Reverend Tanimoto's appearance on This Is Your Life in 1955, and a surviving Hiroshima Maiden.

Vocabulary Lesson 2 & Quote Integration Assessment

Today I gave students feedback about their Vocabulary Notebooks:
1. Accuracy: Make sure each derivative actually comes from the root; investigate word origins.
2. Quantity of derivatives: Productive roots generate a lot of derivatives.
3. Completeness: Collect derivatives for ALL roots, prefixes, and suffixes in the Lesson.
4. Cumulative nature of Lessons: You will be required to remember meanings for ALL roots in ALL Lessons, since they incorporate your previous knowledge.

Next we gathered a few quote selections from the Fuller article so I could assess each student's skills at integrating and citing quotations.

Homework: Read Neil Gaimon's "Introduction" the 60th edition of Fahrenheit 451.

"Rhodesia, 1976" and Quoting Lesson & Practice

We discussed the reading for today, Alexandra Fuller's "Rhodesia, 1976," the first chapter of her memoir Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight. Then I gave a lesson on quote selection and integration. In the first step, quote selection, students should choose short phrases of vivid and precise language that supports analysis. In the second step, students write a sentence using the chosen phrase. The resulting sentence must be grammatically correct; in other words, the quotation should be integrated into the student's sentence as a functional part of speech, such as a noun (subject, object), verb (main verb or verbal), adjective (modifier), or adverb (modifier). The third step is properly documenting the source with a parenthetical reference.
Homework: Hand in Vocabulary Notebook tomorrow; Lesson 1 quiz tomorrow

The Process of Analysis: Five Moves

I gave a short presentation on Bloom's Taxonomy to emphasize the important of higher level thinking in high school. We discussed the Writing Analytically reading and the five steps of analysis. We also started the Alexandra Fuller reading from her memoir Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood.
Handout/Homework: Finish Fuller reading for class tomorrow
Vocabulary Notebooks due Friday
Memorize meanings of Lesson 1 roots, prefixes, and suffixes for Friday Quiz

Hiroshima Essay Feedback

Because of comments during yesterday's discussion of Hiroshima, I showed students some political cartoons published during WW2 that depict the Japanese in racist ways. Then I gave some essay feedback:
1. Attribution (author and title presented effectively)
2. Focus on writing task (discuss, not narrate or summarize)
3. Test as crutch (long quotes, inadequate paraphrasing)
4. Reading the book (an important educational experience)
5. Your personal peccadillos (minor) and stylistic problems (major): How will you address them?
Major: lack of ideas; wordiness, repetitive words & phrases; repetitive sentence structures (makes for choppy writing); formal voice and diction, no 1st person
Minor: spelling, apostrophe abuse, punctuate sentence structure
Students looked at their essays, which will be the first document in their sophomore writing portfolios.
Homework: Read introduction to Writing Analytically for tomorrow's class

Hiroshima Discussion

A number of students came in to finish their Hiroshima tests during lunch hour. We discussed Hersey's book: what it revealed about Japanese cultural attitudes, what it taught the world about radiation sickness, and how the habakusha ("explosion-affected persons") were treated in their own country.
Homework: Hand in Vocabulary Notebook on Friday;
Read Fahrenheit 451 Part 1 before Tuesday after Labor Day.

Hiroshima Test

Students who finished the book took their Hiroshima written tests. Makeups will be on Monday at lunch time in my classroom. Writing prompt: Using details and properly cited quotations from the book, discuss how one of the six survivors of the Hiroshima bombing illustrates the horrors of nuclear war. Students who haven't finished the book read during class, or read the Word Clues Introduction, or worked on their vocabulary lessons.
Handout: Word Clues Introduction
Homework: Read Word Clues Introduction; Get caught up on reading Hiroshima and Fahrenheit 451

Workday: Vocabulary Notebook Lesson 1

I gave students some feedback on their Greek and Latin prefix bookmarks, which were due yesterday:
1. Last name on ALL assignments
2. Thoroughness: Include all prefixes
3. Label GREEK & LATIN lists
4. Hyphens designate affixes (e.g., re-, -ing, ultra-, meta-, -ment)
5. Ease of use--clear to use as a reference look-up

After I showed them the Online Etymology Dictionary, students used the rest of the class period to work on Lesson 1 in their vocabulary notebooks. They worked in groups, using print dictionaries, my two computers, and their smart phones. Students will have a new Lesson every two weeks.
Homework: 
1. Hand in vocabulary notebook on Friday, 8-29, when there will be a short quiz
2. Written test on Hiroshima tomorrow 

Dictionary Skills: Finding Derivatives from Specific Roots

Students handed in their first assignment, their prefix bookmarks, and formed working pairs for our dictionary lessons. I familiarized students with the parts of a paper dictionary (pronunciation; abbreviations; POS; senses; fullest form; origin). Using the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, students looked up various words to work on their dictionary skills, as well as identify genuine derivatives from Latin and Greek roots.
Homework: 
1. Purchase Decomposition Books ($4.00) ASAP: first assignment begins tomorrow
2. Parent email or signature due by Friday

Welcome, Wise Fools!

Our first class period was devoted to classroom orientation and a slide show etymology lesson in preparation for our new vocabulary curriculum. Students took short notes on the lesson. I am doing my best to remember my new students' names, but please be patient. I gave students instructions on making prefix bookmarks for their vocabulary notebooks. Students who did not receive the summer reading assignment need to read John Hersey's Hiroshima and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 very soon (I can allow a bit more time, but both books are quick reads).
Handouts: Syllabus/Parent Letter; "Greek Roots and Derivatives"/"Latin Roots and Derivatives."
Homework: 
1. Parents read Syllabus/Parent Letter & acknowledge by email
2. Reading test on Hiroshima on Friday (make-up on Monday)
3. Bookmarks due tomorrow for Greek and Latin prefixes
4. Buy Decomposition Books ASAP for Vocabulary Notebooks ($4.00)