Friday, August 31, 2012

08-31-12 Period 5

  • SAT lesson 1- 
      • Check out books.
      • Exercises due next Friday.
      • Quiz next Friday.
    • Background on Sniper author, read Sniper (annotations, relate to question, 3 higher level thinking questions)
    • Next Wednesday assigned memoir due Friday but you can start early.
      • We got handouts in class.
        • Kind of memoirs.
        • How to construct a memoir.
        • Rubric.
      • 5 memoirs will have to tie to a similar theme so use ones that can link.
    • Tuesday MAP testing in library/computer lab.
    • Look at a picture online of a man's hand in the middle of a half-falling row of dominoes.
      • Feedback:
        • When your life is falling down, literature can stop the process because it can show us what we should be doing or shouldn't be doing as a society or person.
        • Literature can motivate us to stand up for what we know is right because there is one hand among all of the dominoes.
        • When Jack was burning forest and the man in the ship came, he stopped the barbarism. There can be someone to say STOP. 
        • The domino closest to the hand is the one holding everyone up so it is supporting the other "people".
    • Google Liam O'flahrety (author of Sniper)
      • Feedback:
        • He abandoned training for Priesthood and fought in WWII may have influenced him.
          • He was wounded in war and went crazy do to shell shock.
        • He was interested in communism as a schoolboy.
        • He was Irish which may have influenced his views and beliefs.
        • He used psychology violent satyrs and dark themes in his stories.
        • He grew up in a poor home which gave him a different perspective.
        • He is a wanderer and traveled the world. If he wasn't secure in one place he may be insecure and scared which relate to his dark themes.
    • We started to read and annotate Sniper for the rest of class.
    • TGIF!

    Scribe for 8/31/12 period 3


    Scribe for 8/31/12 Period 3

    • HW: finish annotating The Sniper, meet in library computer lab tuesday for class, SAT 1 lessons, memoir work
    • MAPS Testing Tuesday
    • Received SAT book
    • Went over what good annotations look like
    • Good annotations include a legend, questions, literary elements, and connections.
    • Received back our annotations from Gentleman from Rio de Medio
    • Signed out our SAT books, wrote book number on sign out sheet
    • SAT Lesson 1 test next Friday, part of speech, definition, how its spelled, there are 15 words under Lesson 1 in the SAT book
    • Do all of lesson 1 in SAT book due friday, will be collected
    • For memoir hw, look at next week’s wednesday powerpoint, memoir is due next friday
    • Looked at a picture of a person putting his hand to stop the flow of dominoes
    • How does this relate to our question for the semester?
    • If you missed class, you can look at this picture from the powerpoint, there is a link on today’s slide
    • Searched about Liam O’Flaherty, the author of Sniper
    • Shared background information about him

    Thursday, August 30, 2012

    Scribe! August 30th Period 5

    Daily Power Point:  https://docs.google.com/a/lpsk12.org/presentation/pub?id=1DT425NvbrJ_tjip0VVpWXhWuSPjIXUWtAI5iBoloNmg&start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000#slide=id.g1ac9927d_0_29 
    • We started off the class with an aquarium discussion, talking about the research we found on Juan A.A. Sedillo. The background knowledge included where he was from, his beliefs and customs, and his background. 
    • Next we discussed the short story, The Gentlemen of Rio Medio, which an annotated copy was due in class today with three higher level thinking questions. We also touched back on how the short story is an example of our semester guiding question: how can literature be a motivator for social change?
    • We stated our memoir unit by taking a few notes on what IS a memoir, including
            • A snapshot
            • A picture
            • A moment 
            • A flashback                          
      • We also brainstormed for the memoir unit by creating a list of different things that make up YOU!
        • What communities are you apart of?
                                         (ex.: a daughter, sister, student etc.)
        • What are you an expert at?
                                         (ex.: baking, dancing, etc.)
        • What are some of your favorite things?
                                         (ex.: bands, foods, people)
        • What are some of your obsessions?
                                         (ex.: a food, a person etc.)
        • What do you believe in?
                                       (ex.: religion, morals etc.)
    Homework:  Set up a conference with Mrs. Smith for PLN-1, which you should have done yesterday.

    Period 3, Smith Scribe Post, August 30, 2012

    Announcements: Come support our Warriors tomorrow night at Littleton Stadium when we take on the Heritage Eagles! BLACK OUT!


    -The class shared their thoughts about the research that was gathered about Juan A.A. Sedillo. We concluded that this short story would reflect his life and experiences (which the story did).

    -We held a class discussion over The Gentlemen from Rio Medio. The most important topic we discussed was how this piece of literature could be a motivator to social change (based off of Smith's question). 

    -We then turned in our annotations of The Gentlemen from Rio Medio which was Wednesday's homework to annotate.


    Memoir Unit Introduction!

    *Our class is going to be redefining what a memoir is. We will not only write, but also create an audio and visual memoir. 

    • Class Goal: Help each other become better writers. 
      • In order to achieve this goal, we must be open to criticism, this way the best can happen.

    Memoirs (class thoughts on what a memoir is):
    • all about you
    • experiences
    • events that happened in the past
    • details
    • reflection looking back
    • painting pictures
    • colorful words-literary elements
    • create empathy
    • personalized

    Topics Smith had us brainstorm individually on (possible memoir topics):
    • What are communities you belong to? (think interests)
      • ex: AHS student, reader, a sibling...
    • What are you an expert at? (in what subjects would people come to you)
    • What do you do in your free time?
    • What are your favorites? (could be anything)
    • What are your obsessions? 
    • What do you believe in?


    Homework: Writing Conference for PLN1 (which you should have signed up for yesterday)

    Smith off hours: remember only 3 people per hour and before and after school work too! To sign up, ask Smith for her personal calender.

    M-W-F: 4th and 6th
    T-Th: 1st and 6th

    Here is the daily power point Smith shows us at the beginning of class!

    Week 2- Thursday


    :

    Wednesday, August 29, 2012

    Period 3, Smith Scribe Post, Aug 29, 2012


    (Announcements reminded us that tomorrow is Freshmen Picnic in the field for both first and second hour lunches! So bring your own lunch!)

    Even though last night's homework was to research the life of Juan A. A. Sedillo, author of The Gentlemen of Rio en Medio,we did not go over those papers in class. We also did not read The Gentlemen of Rio en Medio in class.

    -Today we reviewed the requirements for annotating:
    • literary devices- you don't have to always just print off the writing we will be annotating. Google Docs is a great resource for annotating. You can highlight, and comment on the side of the text. Also annotating does not need to be done in different colors.
    • connections- text to text, text to self, text to world
    • guiding questions- question the text as your working
    • asking higher level thinking questions- write three after done annotating. These questions should not be found in the book.
    • also label personification, metaphor, simile, characterization, theme, symbol, etc...


    *Smith should be able to tell what your are thinking throughout the ENTIRE story, and never wonder what you thought!

    For the remainder of the class period we worked as a large group together on a poster. The topic was our class question for the year: "How can literature be a motivator for social change?"
    -At first the class started brainstorming and mapping out specific examples (the titles of books) which limited us to what the question was really asking. After some re-direction from Smith, we came up with ideas such as:
    • the ideas of societies in books can scare us into changing our own societies
    • personal perception
    • stories can persuade us into taking action
    IMPORTANT: At the end of class we signed up in Smith's planner to schedule a one on one writing conference with Smith to go over our own PLN1. She would like us to go no further than two weeks. MAKE SURE YOU SIGN UP TOMORROW IN CLASS IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY! 
    Here are Smith's off hours so you can start planning:
    M.W.F- 4th and 6th
    T.TH-1st and 6th
    Smith is only scheduling 3 people an hour so if non of those off hours work for you within the next two weeks then schedule before or after school.

    Homework: read, annotate, and write 3 higher level thinking questions for The Gentlemen of Rio en Medio by Juan A. A. Sedillo.

    Here is the daily Power Point Smith shows us at the beginning of class!

    Week 2-Wednesday

    Scribe for Wednesday August 29,2012 P5


    Everyone welcome Ali Payne! She is new to our class, not to our school.
    Today we reviewed annotation examples and went over the proper way to do them. We touched on these points:
    ·         Look for literary devices (like the ones we took the pretest on)
    ·         Connect the story to the guiding question
    ·         Connect Text-Text,  Text-Self, Text-World and EXPLAIN
    ·         If you don’t want to waste paper, you can copy and paste into a Google Doc and highlight and leave comments.
    ·         Someone reading the annotations should feel like they are having a conversation with the annotator about the story
    ·         Go into depth about thoughts on the story
    Also, we signed up in Mrs. Smith’s planner for an appointment to discuss and review PLN1.
    Note: For your PLN rewrite, you can revise it and post the original as a comment on the revised one.
    For the last part of class, we all gathered in the center around a big red piece of paper with a box of markers. We wrote our guiding question “How can literature be a motivator for social change?” in the middle of the paper, then were asked to write examples, imagery, etc. that related to the question and find the general meaning of them.
     Our ideas we as follows:
    ·         The Bible provided a guideline for people to live their life.
    ·         Mein Kampf planted an idea in people’s heads that grew into an entire society.
    ·         The Jungle brought awareness to people about the meat industry.
    ·         To Kill a Mockingbird alerted people about the injustice against African Americans in the South and the persecution of the innocent.
    ·         1984 made people realize how technology and governmental influence have grown substantially.
    ·         Newspapers and magazines control what people know and how people think about the current situation.
    ·         Brave New World warned about the importance of balance and the impossibility of perfect stability.
    ·         Boos by Jodi Picoult focus on controversial topics and morals.
    Homework:
    ·         Read  Gentlemen from Rio Medio and “annotate you guts out”
    ·         If you haven’t  already, make sure you make an appointment with Mrs. Smith about your PLN1

    Tuesday, August 28, 2012

    Period 3, Smith Scribe Post, Aug 28, 2012

    If you have not taken your PLN-1 post from the class blog page, you NEED to do this and re-post it in your own personal blog!!!

    In class today, the first item on the agenda was to take the literary terms pretest

    Afterwards, we peer evaluated each others PLN-1 blog posts. We posted our comments at the bottom of our peer's blog post. We commented on the structure of the blog post, and we needed to give constructive and positive feedback to the writer. Topic sentence should show the author's view on the video, as well as include strong verbs. Summary should have none of the author's personal thoughts or feelings, while the response should be full of hot spots (how the author feels about certain situations that really get to them), and the author's thoughts and feelings on the video.

    At the end of class, we finished up by grading each other's literary terms pretests.

    HW: Do background research on the author who wrote the short story on  "The Gentleman of Rio en Medio". Ask questions like, who is the author? What do we need to know about him culturally?

    The author's name is Juan A. A. Sedillo






    Block 5 Scribe 8/27/12

    Today in Language Arts, Mrs. Smith started us off by explaining our agenda for the day. We then took a pre-test that showed our knowledge about literary terms. Once everyone had finished, we worked for a little on giving feedback to each other's recently completed PLN 1 essays. After that, we graded each others' pre-tests. From there, we moved onto discussing how to give feedback on our peers PLN essays. Mrs. Smith explained to us what a good essay includes like: strong verbs in the topic sentence, no personal feelings or opinions in the summary, and good ideas and thoughts when responding to the work.

    Monday, August 27, 2012


    Scribe for Monday 27 period 3

    -If you posted your blog for PLN 1 on the class blog, you need to take it down and post it on your personal blog
    -we talked about google reader; on reader if your names bold then Smith knows if you turned blog in or not!
    - handed in the LOF final annotations
    - talked about good teacher/student expectations
    -you can find that in Period 3 Teacher Class Expectations document on power point for today
    - collected Lady or the Tiger annotations
    - had discussion about the short story:
    -summarized it
    - going to hurt the princess if he opened either door
    - in fates hands
    -not going to necessarily let her love die in such a horrible way
    - would every couple do the same thing?
    - sh is either selfish or selfless
    - because the guy was very low in status would it cause a social change
    - not in the story but maybe make you think
    - could she not have talked him out of this??
    -totally different situation
    -a women could not dispute it
    - different kinds of relationships father/daughter
    - ended class
    hw: look at literary terms, “quiz” tomorrow

    English Honors: Smith August 27, 2012


    Today in English, we did a variety of activities, here is a outline of how class went:

    Smith greeted us today with a cheerful "Hello everyone!" as usual. We then turned to the slideshow to see our agenda for the day. Here is the link for the slideshow from today and the rest of the week:  Class slideshow

    Next, we all made sure that Smith was subscribed to our blogs. Remember, it should be your blog name and then .blogger.com (ex. RileyC2016.blogger.com). Also, we were reminded that PLN 1 (Which was due today) should be posted to our personal blogs, not the class blog! When that was all set, Smith collected our Lord of the Flies books and rubrics.

    Next, we went over the homework, which is listed below: 
    • Pretest over literary terms tomorrow
    Then, we discussed what makes a good teacher, student and class. This is something we all have blogged about individually, however, today we all made one master list with the most important points. After the list was created, we printed it off and each of us made a commitment to be responsible for our part on the list, Smith included, by signing it. The list is now hung on our classroom wall.

    After that, we all moved the desks around and got in position for a giant fishbowl discussion about The Lady or the Tiger, here is the link to the story: Lady or Tiger
    Here are some of the questions and things discussed in our giant fishbowl today:

    What do you think was the moral of the story, or message? We all agreed that the point of the story was jealousy vs. compassion. As humans, we have all experienced jealousy when people we like talk to others. An important point that was brought up was that we don't have enough information on the relationship between the princess and her lover to make a judgement over why he trusted the princess or why she should would send him to a specific door. As a class we took a vote on what we would do if we were the princess, tiger or the lady? At first, the lady was the winning vote, but when we revoted, the votes were pretty even. Another question we all had was, if the princess had enough power to find out who was behind each door, why couldn't she switch who the lady behind the door was? Of course, we all realized that her father (the king) would realize if anything about the day was amiss. Finally, we all got to the big question: How can this story be a motivation for social change? The conclusion to this was that this story is similar to Lord of the Flies, it is a reflection of human nature and what our natural instincts are, so this should make us remember that compassion should always come before jealousy. Of course, we are not the princess who is influenced by her jealousy and barbaric genes from her father, as well as her love and compassion for the man she loves. So, which door do you think was opened?


    While we were having our discussion over the short story, Smith came around to check that we had our three critical thinking questions regarding the story. 

    In case the links aren't working, here are the websites so you can copy copy and paste them in your web browser: 

    • Class slideshow: https://docs.google.com/a/lpsk12.org/presentation/pub?id=1DT425NvbrJ_tjip0VVpWXhWuSPjIXUWtAI5iBoloNmg&start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000#slide=id.g1ac9927d_1_1
    • Literary terms 1: https://docs.google.com/a/lpsk12.org/file/d/0B7HKsWF2Z1WHX0M1TWZGRXRrT00/edit?pli=1
    • Literary Terms 2: https://docs.google.com/a/lpsk12.org/file/d/0B7HKsWF2Z1WHYWpLaGFQVDN0WHM/edit
    • Uncp.edu: http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/general/glossary.htm
    • http://academic.brooklyn: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html 
    • Lady or Tiger: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LadyTige.shtml


    Saturday, August 25, 2012

    Class expectaions

    I think that a good teacher should be humorous, happy, and understanding. This way class would be interesting, and students would be more comfortable approaching their teacher for help.
    I think that a good student should be inquisitive, willing to listen, and willing to talk in class during class. This way the student would learn easily, and also be able to teach others because of the comments te student says during a class discussion.
    A good class should be able to follow directions, think deeply about questions, and be respectful. This way the class would get things done quickly and correctly, and it would have intellectually  stimulating discussions.
       

    Thursday, August 23, 2012

    Summer Reading Blog



    This summer I read two novels. The first novel I read was called Artemis Fowl, and it was written by Eoin Colfer. It was about a 12 year-old boy named Artemis Fowl who comes from a long line of rich criminals. Recently, his family has lost much of their reputation and money so Artemis decides to attempt to kidnap a fairy and hold it for ransom. I liked this book because it was an easy, yet gripping read. Much of this book was humorous, and they were several action sequences. The other novel that I read was called Skeleton Creek  and it was written by Patrick Carmen. It was about a 13 year-old boy named Ryan who investigates on old mining machine known as the “Dredge”, which he believes is haunted. Over the course of the book, Ryan and his friend Sarah sneak out to the old mining machine and take videos of it. The thing a really liked about this book was that you had to watch the videos that they took inside the Dredge. These videos can be found on YouTube and are rather scary and greatly impact the storyline. Obviously, these videos are fictional. I enjoyed reading these two novels over the summer and recommend them to anyone who is looking for a new book to read.

    Monday, August 20, 2012

    Expectations


    What are the qualities of good teachers? of good students? of a good class?

    Think about your answers before you post them. Make sure to proofread your response. Also, make sure to come back and comment upon one another's comments. Do you agree or disagree with what they are saying?