1960s Playlist - Periods 3 & 4

That's righteous, man! Here is a 1960's playlist just for you! If you want to listen, pause the playlist at the bottom of the blog. As you work on your 1960's projects and assignments, pull this up for a little inspiration. Totally rad! We are going to go ape for this lesson!

Periods 5 & 6 - Woohoo!

Here is your Their Eyes Were Watching God "blog task" for the week. For chapters 5 - 8, find one example from each of the tiers of syntax (way of organizing words, phrases and sentences):

Tier One - paradox, aphorism, cumulative, juxtaposition
Tier Two - antithesis, triadic, parataxis, freight-train
Tier Three - segregating, balanced, chiasmus, passive

You can use the Style and Rhetorical Appeals handout to the left for a review. This is due by THIS Tuesday by 11 p.m. for period 6; Wednesday at the same time for period 5. Remember to indicate the page number for each of your examples, and don't use the same one someone else has used. I look forward to your responses!!!

I'm out today :o(

Sorry, guys, but dad needs me today. He had a rough weekend, and I need to be with him to make sure he is OK. I will miss you terribly, that's for sure. Below is the work for the day that I want you to complete. Even though I am not there, I want your best! I will see you Tuesday. Until then, hugs and besitos! Love you all!

Period 2 – Turn to page 184 of your textbook, and use these definitions to complete pgs 70 & 71 in your workbook. Do all activities. (20 minutes)

Turn to page 72 in your workbook. Do all activities for pages 72 & 73. (20 minutes) Then turn to page 186 of your textbook. Read pages 186-197 (you can use the CDs that accompany the reading, which is in an Edge CD case next to my computer. (30 minutes)

After reading, the kids will work in groups. There should be 5 groups of 3 or 4, and each group will complete the following pages: Group 1 – Pages188 & 189; Group 2 – Pages 190 & 191; Group 3 – Pages 192-194; Group 4 – Pages 195-197

The task is that each group create a summary for their section. I want a new title for the assigned section, a one-sentence summary for their section, as well as three to five main points. Write it on a nice, white sheet of computer paper, add a graphic, and organize the info in a unique way. All work is due at the end of the period for a grade.

Period 4 – Students will work in groups to create a 4-3-2-1 chart for New Moon. Using the big paper (behind the bookshelf by the counter), create a chart that compares and contrasts the movie with the novel. On the chart paper, they will address the following:
4 aspects of the movie that were not in the novel
3 aspects in the book that should have been included in the movie
2 aspects of the movie you enjoyed
1 aspect of the movie you did not enjoy

Once they are done, they can share with the class, or they can wait until I return. After that, it’s Scrabble time (they MUST ALL play).

Period 6 – Turn in all vocab cards at the beginning of class. Be sure to include your name on the back of at least one of the cards.

In groups of four, the teams will complete the following tasks:
1. If chapters 1-4 were one chapter, what would the chapter’s title be?
2. Create a chart of 6 events from chapters 1-4
3. Write a nice, white sheet of computer paper, add a graphic, and organize the info in a unique way.
4. On another sheet, create a characterization chart for Janie, Nanny, and Logan Killicks. I want the physical description (quoted from the text); their mental, physical and psychological state; and their main motivation (so far). Again, make it unique!

Once you are finished, read QUIETLY! Your homework for chapters 5 & 6 will be on the blog, and you should expect a quiz on chapters 1-6 on Wednesday.

THANKS!!!!

New Moon Field Trip

Click here to see highlights from our New Moon field trip!

Thanks to Ms. Parra for making this Smilebox

and to all of the students and teachers who attended.

I am so proud of your outstanding behavior!

Periods 5 & 6

Here is your Their Eyes Were Watching God "blog task" for the week. For chapters 1-4, find one example from each of the tiers of literary tools:

Tier One - metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia, oxymoron
Tier Two - personification, paradox, hyperbole, allusion
Tier Three - apostrophe, metonymy, pun, or irony (verbal, situational or dramatic)

You can use the Style and Rhetorical Appeals handout to the left for a review. This is due by THIS Sunday at 11 p.m. Remember to indicate the page number for each of your examples, and don't use the same one someone else has used. I look forward to your responses!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to wish my sweeties a very Happy Thanksgiving. Let's start an Attitude of Gratitude chain right here on our blog.

Click on "comments" below and state three things for which you are thankful (be different)! I already know you are grateful for your parents and family, your friends, and your AMAZING teachers (try not to laugh), but I want some original things. I will go first so you can see what I mean (mine may be longer since I talk a lot)! Be sure to read the various comments that are posted, and you will see that we have so MUCH to be thankful for, even the small things we take for granted!

I hope your day and weekend is filled with all the love and happiness your heart can handle, and all the food your tummies can take! Remember, a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips! haha!

LOVE YOU ALL! Thanks for being the great kids you are! I am blessed!

New Moon Poem - Periods 3 & 4

I bet you can guess from the title of this post that you are going to write a poem for New Moon. Well, you guessed right...being the amazingly bright students you are. Here are the requirements:

• It must be a minimum of 14 lines.
• You will write your poem from the point of view of one of the characters.
• There must be a rhyme scheme (either ABBA, ABAB, or AABB).
• You must use at least five different literary tools (see our current list on the left).
• You must include the quote you are painting onto your shirt for our field trip.
• Proper grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization is REQUIRED!
  
• Your rough drafts are due Nov. 12 (period 4); Nov. 13 (period 3).
  
• Final drafts are due on Nov. 16 (period 4); Nov. 17 (period 3).
• Your final draft must include some graphic that relates to your poem

You may type your final draft and glue it on posterboard (or construction paper), or you can write it by hand NICELY and NEATLY on posterboard.

I truly look forward to seeing your work! I know it will be AMAZING!

HOMECOMING 2009

It's Homecoming Time! This year's theme is Mardi Gras, and it promises to be TONS of fun!

Monday - Flashback day (Wear clothes from your favorite decade.)

Tuesday - Cartoon Day (Wear clothing of your favorite cartoon character.) The faculty talent show is after school, and yours truly will be performing!

Wednesday - Pajama Day (There is no school that day, so you can sit at home all day in your jammies. LOL)

Thursday - Gladiator Day (Wear your favorite Gladiator shirt, or your green and black WITH your uniform pants.) The game is on this day at 7:30 at Traz Powell Stadium

Friday - Sports Day (Wear a jersey or tshirt of your favorite sports team. Jason Taylor, here I come!) Our Homecoming Dance is this day. Come out and have some fun!

When you dress up on a dress up day, I will give you Mardi Gras beads.

Periods 3 & 4 Reflections

In your literature circles today, you each had a role and you had meaningful conversations about quotes from New Moon, the characters, how this relates to our own lives and the human experience, among other topics. What I want you to do here is reflect on what you discussed. You can write about your role and how your circle members responded to your question(s), or you can reflect on the questions that were asked of you (or you can do both - LOL).

• Please be sure that your reflections are grammatically correct and that you use ALIVE words!!!!!
  
  
• Period 3's responses are due by Tuesday at 11:00 p.m.; Period 4's is due Wednesday at 11 p.m.

Periods 3 & 4 - This is for you!

Make sure you are caught up with your reading. You should have read up to the end of chapter 17 by next class (Monday for 3rd; Tuesday for 4th). Our activity this week is dependent on you having already read these chapters!!!!

I know you can do it! Nineteen days until we go see New Moon!!!!!

Periods 3-6: Trick or Treat Activity

As you walked into class today, you picked a piece of candy from the candy bowl. Did you know that what you picked says quite a bit about you? I know, SHOCKER!

Well, now that you’ve gotten the treat, you are going to do a trick and POST IT HERE.

Periods 3 & 4: In one paragraph, explain how the personality description of your selected candy bar resembles your personality. Explain with specific examples why this description is accurate or not. Use ALIVE words! In another paragraph, you will do the same for your favorite New Moon character. If he or she went trick-or-treating, which candy would he/she choose based on their actions, behavior, or powers? (You only get to pick one.) To support your answer, you will need to cite specific examples from the novel. Use ALIVE words! This is due Sunday by 11:00 p.m.

Periods 5 & 6: You are going to write a well-reasoned paragraph that challenges or defends the following quote: "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." Remember to use examples from your experiences, observations or readings to support your answer. In another paragraph, explain how the personality description of your selected candy bar resembles your personality. Explain with specific examples why this description is accurate or not. (For 6th, this is due by Sunday at 11:00 p.m.; 5th period's is due by Monday at 11 p.m.)

BABY RUTH - Sweet, loving, cuddly. You love all warm fuzzy items. You are a little nutty, but you are interesting to talk to!
3 MUSKETEERS - You are adventurous, love new ideas, are a champion of underdogs and a slayer of dragons. When tempers flare up, you whip out your saber.
BUTTER FINGERS - Smooth and articulate, you are an excellent after-dinner speaker and a good teacher. But don't try to walk and chew gum at the same time.
SNICKERS – You are fun-loving, sassy, humorous. Everyone enjoys being around you. But you are a practical joker!
MILKY WAY - You are romantic, warm, loving. You care about other people and can be counted on in a pinch. You tend to melt in romantic situations. TWIX – You are sexy, always ready to give, very energetic, and you really like to get the most out of life. The opposite sex is always attracted to you. M & M’s - You are a very fun loving person who likes to laugh. You are fun to be with. People like to hang out with you because you are a very warm-hearted person.
CRUNCH – You are happy-go-lucky. In a crunch, you are a person who is reliable and resilient. You persevere under stressful situations, but you can have fun at the same time.

Happy Halloween! Make smart choices this weekend, please!

Periods 5 & 6 Home Learning Info

You will read "I Just Wanna Be Average" from the 50 Essays book (pg 350), or you can download it from two posts below this one. There are three tasks you have with this reading:

1. Do the four questions that follow the essay. (For those of you without a book, you will need to copy them out of someone's book.) You will only submit your answers, but they must be numbered and they must be in complete sentences and/or paragraphs.
2. I will look for ACTIVE READING on your handout, or in your book. That means I want to see highlighting, underlining and annotations (notes in the margins, between the lines, etc.)
3. You will do the Style and Rhetorical Appeals chart for this reading. The link for it is a few posts below, or look to the left. When you do the chart, remember to use the Style and Rhetorical Appeals Terms to Know. Understand that you will not find EVERY TERM on the chart in the essay. However, you will find quite a few things from each section on the chart. I want you to indicate what you do find and provide specific quotes, examples and details that support your findings. I want THOROUGH work here.
   

Be advised that there might be a chance of a pop quiz on this essay. Don't be alarmed. If you read, you will be fine. Remember, too, DO NOT copy off each others' work. The fix from that will only be temporary, as cheating ALWAYS catches up with you one way or another.

Period 5 - You have test corrections, too (due Monday with the home learning assignment). Oh, and don't forget to rewrite your essay (due Wednesday...YAY!).
Period 6 - The "I Just Wanna Be Average" items are due on Tuesday for you. Your vocab test will be on Tuesday, and your test corrections and essay rewrite will be due on Thursday, so plan accordingly. Most importantly, know that I miss you! (I am at a workshop today for A.P., which will help us all immensely!)

All classes, don't forget that the extra credit is due 10/27 and 10/28. The essay for Have a Little Faith, BTW, is to compare and contrast the the rabbi and the preacher (I don't mean their race, income, and religion). You will need to have an attention-grabbing introduction, a thesis statement, several body paragraphs, several quotes and examples, a stellar conclusion that leaves my mouth hanging open, leaves me in AWE!

Love and miss you all! Happy Weekend!

Periods 3 & 4

For Chapters 10-12, I wanted you to consider the symbolism (the emotional meaning behind an item, color, word or phrase) in New Moon. If you remember from our past classes, we discovered that Bella is like the earth. Earth symbolizes her because she is moved by (and reacts to) the forces around her, like the moon (Edward) and the sun (Jacob). The new moon symbolizes Edward because he is not able to be seen fully by Bella (the earth), but he is present. The sun symbolizes Jacob because he is warm and brightens Bella's world. Well, just like these three celestial bodies symbolize the characters and their personalities, such is the case for the colors fof each of the wolves in the pack.

Each of the five wolves in chapter 11 is a certain color. Bella explains on page 243 that one is deep gray, one is light gray, one is brown, one is reddish brown, and another is black. These five wolves represent the five members of the "La Push Gang" - Sam, Embry, Jacob, Paul, and Jared.

On pages 137, 146, 173, 198, 325 (and throughout chapters 6, 7, 8, 10 and 14), Bella and Jacob inform the reader about these young men. Based on what you learn about them, which wolf (and its fur color) represents which character?

Now, looking at your bookmark where it shows the symbolism of the many colors, why are the colors of the wolves appropriate (or not appropriate) for each of the "La Push Gang" members? Do the colors of their fur symbolize who they are as people?

For example, Sam is the black wolf, and black symbolizes power. Since we know that Sam is the leader of the pack, as explained by Jcaob, black is the ideal color for when he morphs into a wolf.

For each of the wolves, do what I just did for Sam - write a few sentences that explain why/why not the fur color symbolizes the character. There are other traits that symbolize black, so you will still have to do one for Sam. Use specific quotes, details and events from the novel to support your answer.

This must be done on the blog by Monday, October 26th at 11:00 p.m. WATCH FOR SPELLING, GRAMMAR and PUNCTUATION. Type out your response in Microsoft Word, run a spell check, then copy and paste it into the comment section on the blog.

I believe in you!!! You can do it!!!!

5th and 6th Periods - LOOK HERE!!!

Bring in your 50 Essays book.

You will need to bring it EVERY DAY from this day on!

Let me know if you are having issues with this, and I can try and help.


You will need to print this chart (You might as well make a few copies for future use): http://www.scribd.com/doc/15650763/AP-Style-and-Rhetorical-Appeals-CHART

And you will need to print this story if you don't have your 50 Essays book: http://www.middlesexcc.edu/faculty/Robert_Roth/rosetext.htm

Periods 1-6 Extra Credit

Here is your chance to get some extra points (don't ask me how many). I am going to be reading Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom, and for those of you who want some extra credit, you are too. Get the book this weekend and begin reading. In your book, I will look for "How to Mark a Book" concepts (See me for it TODAY if you don't have it). I also want to see vocab added to your journal. You will have an oral quiz on 10/27 during lunch, and you will have a paper due on 10/28 by 7:20 a.m. There will be NO EXCEPTIONS to these dates or times!!!!

For the synopsis, click HERE. I am sure it will be truly inspiring!

Binder Check

Ok, guys and gals, periods 3-6 will have binder checks next week! This is what I want to see:

A BINDER (3 rings, 1.5 inches thick or more)

DIVIDERS (Notes, Tests, Handouts, Vocab, and Responses. Post-it notes as your dividers WILL NOT work. I want the real deal.)
NEATNESS (No papers in side pockets, and the binder should ONLY include English class notes, work, items, etc. If you have reading with me, too, you can create a 6th section just for reading. I am OK with that.)
COVER PAGE (Your first page should be inviting. Have your name, the class name, the period, and some cool graphic).
NOTES (Any notes from the blog or class lectures should be included.)
VOCAB (Your vocab notes, tests, corrections, Words of the Day, should all be in this section. If you like the vocab journal idea, just put the actual journal in this section).
HANDOUTS (All handouts, short stories, etc., should be here. For AP, these should include ALL summer handouts, too.)
RESPONSES (These include classwork, homework, essay responses, etc. These DO NOT include anything dealing with VOCAB).
TESTS (Pretty self explanatory. Again, VOCAB tests go in the VOCAB section).
BRING IT! (This is the most important part - you MUST bring your binder everyday).

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment. Periods 3 & 5 will have their checks this upcoming week). Periods 2 & 4 will have theirs the following week. This should be the easiest A you earn all quarter, so please get it right.

Love you all!

WORDLE Activity FOR 5th and 6th

Post the URLs for your wordle posters here. Remember, you are either defining or finding synonyms for the Words of the Day. You will get your word and the instructions in class...just post the URL here. Be sure to include your first name, the word you did and the category.

SMILE!

FIRST PERIOD...This is for you!!!!

It's United Way time. I need you guys to bring in dimes for Friday, 10/9; quarters on 10/13, and dollars on 10/15. Try and help any way that you can. This is a wonderful cause. SMILE!

Never Quit

I know we are only six weeks into the school year, but I can see the stress on some of your faces. I just wanted you to know that YOU CAN DO IT. I saw this video, and I thought you would like to see it, too. Don't let anyone or any obstacle stand in the way of your dreams and your success. Never settle for less than who you are - AMAZING! I truly mean that. Love you!

Periods 3 & 4 - New Moon

Hello, New Mooners! LOL!

Here is your blog/New Moon task for the week. For chapters 4-7, find examples from the book that show PARADOX, OXYMORON, IRONY (verbal, situational or dramatic), PUN, or HYPERBOLE. Of the five literary tools, you must find examples for at least three. You can use the Literary Tools Handout to the left for a review. (I will fix it by tonight; I see the file is corrupted.) This is due by Friday, 10/9 at 7 a.m.

Remember to indicate the page number, and don't use the same one someone else has used.

Have fun with this!!!