11/18/08 - AP English Literature - Since this is the last day of first trimester, we spent the hour working on a literary My Access prompt dealing with Ibsen's play A Doll's House.  On Thursday, the students should come with the Wuthering Heights multiple-choice passage read and completed.  The Book Card for Ibsen's A Doll's House is due on Friday, November 21st.  No school tomorrow!

11/18/08 - Language Arts 10A - Since this is the last day of first trimester, we spent the hour working on a My Access prompt entitled "A Lesson Learned."  The special instructions for the prompt were to write it from Kino's point of view (fist person).  This will be the last score entered into the grades.  No school tomorrow!

11/17/08 - AP English Literature - We spent the entire hour finishing Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House by reading Act III aloud as a reader's theater.  All the students have their Book Club Meetings scheduled for tonight at various times and places.  The assignment is to read through the passage from Wuthering Heights and answer the multiple-choice questions about the passage.

11/17/08 - Language Arts 10A - At the first of the hour, we finished reading the rest of chapter 6 in Steinbeck's novel The Pearl.  Next, the students turned in both their textbooks and finished the last diary entry in the "Dear Diary" project.  Before the end of the hour, the students turned in their "Dear Diary" final project for Steinbeck's novel The Pearl.  Today was the last day for any make-up work to be turned in.     

11/14/08 - AP English Literature - The students turned in the 10-term Annotated Glossary today.  All of the Book Club Meetings are scheduled for Monday, November 17th, so check for the time and location of your group.  We spent the rest of the hour reading Ibsen's play A Doll's House in a reader's theater format.  The assignment over the weekend is to finish reading the Book Club selections.  All make-up work MUST be turned in no later than Monday, November 17th.  Have a nice weekend!

11/14/08 - Language Arts 10A - As a review, the students got into pairs and created a Plot Line for Steinbeck's novel The Pearl.  We continued reading chapters 4, 5, and 6 today and finished up on page 76.  For the last few minutes in class, the students identified the six passages (quotations) from the novel that they will use to write the "Dear Diary" Project.  We will finish reading the rest of chapter 6 on Monday, and then the students will have a few minutes to finish the last "Dear Diary" entry before I call for the assignment.  The students should be completing all but the last diary entry over the weekend.  All make-up work MUST be turned in no later than Monday, November 17th.  Be sure to bring both textbooks to class on Monday to check them in.  Have a nice weekend!

11/13/08 - AP English Literature - We corrected and discussed the two passages with multiple-choice questions - Frankenstein and Jane Eyre.  Following the discussion, I introduced some background on Henrik Ibsen and his play A Doll's House.  After learning about the author, we continued to read Ibsen's play in a reader's theater format.  The assignment tonight is to complete the Annotated Glossary (10 terms) for tomorrow.  Any make-up work that needs to be turned in this trimester must be completed by Monday, November 17th, in order to be scored into the grade. 

11/13/08 - Language Arts 10A - At the first of the hour, I reviewed the elements of the plot so far in Steinbeck's novel The Pearl.  Following the review, we continued using the "Popcorn" reading activity starting on page 37 and finishing at the end of chapter 4.  Tomorrow we will probably finish reading the book.  The homework assignment is to complete SIX "Dear Diary" entries from the point of view of the protagonist, Kino.  The final "Dear Diary" Project is due on Monday, November 17th, along with any make-up work that the students want counted into their trimester grade.

11/12/08 - AP English Literature - The class will have a substitute today.  They will start reading Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House in the anthology textbook on page 1809.  The students will take parts and read the play aloud as a reader's theater.  The assignment is to finish the Book Club selection, read and answer the Jane Eyre passage and questions, and work on the Annotated Glossary. 

11/12/08 - Language Arts 10A - The class will have a substitute today.  At the first of the hour, the students completed a quiz on Chapter 1 of John Steinbeck's novel The Pearl.  Following the quiz, the students continued reading using the "Popcorn" method.  They read chapter 3 and part of chapter 4.  The assignment is to write one or two of the "Dear Diary" journal entries that are required for the book project at the end of the unit.

11/11/08 - AP English Literature - As a culminating activity with James Joyce's passage, "The Dead," we used the AP scoring rubric and scored two student essays.  During the process, we discussed the positive parts of each essay, as well as the weaker parts of each essay.  As a class, we also went over four different "leads" or "introductions" to the essay and four different body paragraphs for an essay.  The assignment is to read the Frankenstein passage and answer the multiple-choice questions about the passage.  Remember that the Annotated Glossary (10 terms) MUST be turned in on Friday.  The Book Club meetings are also scheduled and are written on the whiteboard.  Please bring your AP textbook to class, so that we can start reading Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House.

11/11/08 - Language Arts 10A - At the first of the hour, I passed out the "Dear Diary" Assignment which will be the final book project on John Steinbeck's novel The Pearl.  We went through the directions together, and I reminded the students that they must have SIX entries of at least 100 words.  This project will be due at the end of the unit (probably Monday).  We continued reading chapters 1 and 2 today aloud in class.  The assignment is to start the "Dear Diary" project tonight and write it from the point of view of the protagonist (Kino-main character). 

11/10/08 - AP English Literature - The state has asked that all the licensed My Access users complete a writing benchmark at the first of the year and then again at the end of the year.  Today, the AP students went to the Library Writing Lab to complete the first benchmark on the My Access program.  The homework is to continue reading the book selection for the Book Club Meetings that MUST be finished before the end of first trimester.

11/10/08 - Language Arts 10A - The state has asked that all the licensed My Access users complete a writing benchmark at the first of the year and then again at the end of the year.  Today, the Language Arts 10A students went to the Library Writing Lab to complete the first benchmark on the My Access program.  The students should be identifying and completing any class assignments that they need to complete before the end of the first trimester. 

11/07/08 - AP English Literature - Today I am teaching at Park Valley, so I had a substitute in my BRHS classes.  The students turned in their SPOTTTS poetry analysis on Shelley's "Ozymandias."  Next, the students went to the Library Writing Lab and completed a My Access prompt entitled "A Lesson Learned."  They responded to this prompt from the point of view of Victor Frankenstein.  Have a great weekend!

11/07/08 - Language Arts 10A - Today I am teaching at Park Valley, so I had a substitute in my BRHS classes.  We completed a hangman activity with the word "parable" to determine its meaning and importance in John Steinbeck's novel The Pearl.  As a frontloading activity, the students also completed an Anticipation Guide concerning a few statements relative to the novel.  We started reading the first chapter aloud in class today.  There is no homework.  Have a great weekend! 

11/06/08 - AP English Literature - At the first of the hour, I went through the My Access program with the students as a review.  Since I will be teaching at Park Valley tomorrow, they will be completing a My Access essay written from the point of view of Victor Frankenstein.  Today, we took turns identifying specific parts of the Frankenstein passage that the students annotated on Wednesday evening.  Following the discussion, we read through a passage by James Joyce entitled "The Dead."  I know I need to get happier selections!  The students completed a pair/share activity annotating the Joyce passage.  We started discussing the annotataion just as the bell rang today, so we'll continue with it next week.  The assignment is to complete the SPOTTTS poetry analysis of Percy Shelley's poem "Ozymandias" in XJK page 1078.

11/06/08 - Language Arts 10A - As a class, we discussed the purpose Isabel Allende wrote her short story "And of Clay Are We Created."  Since this theme unit is focusing on identifying themes and purposes in different writing genres, the students read two additional selections with similar themes.  The last part of the hour the students worked on an Inquiry Chart dealing with the three genres: short story, newspaper, article, and personal essay.  The assignment is to finish the Inquiry Chart.