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.