11/20/09 - In order to complete the Core requirement of identifying text to self and the world, the students completed a final My Access project today entitled "A Lesson Learned."  Each person has been in trouble at one time or another because he or she did something bad or said something wrong.  Write a multi-paragraph narrative describing an instance when you did something you later regretted and the lesson you learned in the process.  Now that we have finished reading John Steinbeck's novel The Pearl, you will be responding to a narrative prompt (story) about a lesson learned in life.  You have two options for this prompt: (1) You may write this essay from first person point-of-view about a lesson you yourself learned; (2) You may write this essay from first person point-of-view about a lesson that Kino learned in The Pearl.  The key for success with this prompt is to stay in first person (I, me, we...) and to develop the story with characters, descriptions, and details.  As part of the prompt assignment, you should be sure to identify the specific lesson that you learned through this experience.  I will be scoring the final essay starting at 7:30 A.M. on Monday, November 23rd, so plan accordingly.  The students should bring their literature textbook from home to turn in Monday.  ALL MAKE-UP WORK MUST BE TURNED IN BY MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23RD!            

11/19/09 - The students turned in the Inquiry Chart from yesterday's work with the three different genres of writing.  During the first part of the hour today, I reviewed the requirements for a persuasive essay - thesis statement, three reasons, support for each reason, acknowledgement of the opposite side, call to action, and restating the thesis statement.  As a final persuasive essay activity, the students went into the Writing Lab today and completed a My Access prompt entitled "Pearl Tragedy."  The prompt says to carefully read the following quote by George Bernard Shaw: "There are two tragedies in life.  One is not to get your heart's desire.  The other is to get it."  Do you agree or disagree with this quote?  In a well-developed essay, discuss what you think this quote means and whether you agree with it or not.  Use specific examples from your study of The Pearl, personal experience, and/or observations to suppport your interpretation.  The students can also work on this prompt at home through the My Access program.  I will be scoring the final essay starting at 7:30 A.M. on Monday, November 23rd, so plan accordingly.  The students should bring their literature textbook from home to turn in tomorrow.  ALL MAKE-UP WORK MUST BE TURNED IN BY MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23RD!          

11/18/09 - Since today was a Late-Start Day, we took a little time to go over the final unit tests from Tuesday.  The focus today was comparing a theme with three genres of writing: personal essay, newspaper article, and short story.  The students watched a short clip of the Florida 90 airplane disaster before reading Roger Rosenblatt's personal essay entitled "The Man in the Water" starting on page 173.  We read the essay together and talked about the author's purpose and the theme.  The assignment is to read two additional selections: "Ill-Equipped Rescuers Dig Out Volcano Victims; Aid Slow to Reach Colombian Town" by Bradley Graham starting on page 267; and "And of Clay Are We Created" by Isabel Allende starting on page 257.  After reading the three selections, the assignment is to complete the Inquiry Chart comparing the author's purpose and the theme in all three articles.  ALL MAKE-UP WORK MUST BE TURNED IN BY MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23RD!   

 11/17/09 - The students turned in the A-I-M notes and the "Dear Diary" project at the first of the hour today.  I answered any questions that the students had concerning Steinbeck's novel The Pearl.  For the rest of the hour, the students completed the final unit test of Steinbeck's novel The Pearl.  ALL MAKE-UP WORK MUST BE TURNED IN BY MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23RD! 

11/16/09 - This is the last full week of first trimester, and the students have a lot of projects and assignments due this week.  I started class today reminding them that the "Dear Diary" Project and the A-I-M notes are due at the first of the hour on Tuesday.  In addition, I went over the scoring rubric for the "Diary" project, so the students know the points for the various requirements - a total of 140 points possible.  As a review of Steinbeck's novel The Pearl, the students participated in a Blow-The-Roof-Off activity to see which hour completed the activity first.  As a final segment today, I went over both how to identify "theme" in a piece of literature as well as identifying specific themes from The Pearl.  The assignment is to study for the final unit test on the novel, finish the A-I-M notes, and complete the "Dear Diary" project.  Students will be turning in their literature textbooks on Friday of this week.  ALL MAKE-UP WORK MUST BE TURNED IN BY MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23RD! 

 11/13/09 - Since our goal was to finish reading John Steinbeck's novel The Pearl today, I read for most of the hour.  During the time I was reading, the students continued to complete the A-I-M strategy notes for chapter 6.  After finishing the novel, we discussed how this novel fits the definition of the word "parable" and then decided on the moral or life lesson of the novel.  The final unit test, the A-I-M notes, and the "Dear Diary" project are all due on Tuesday, November 17th.  No homework.  Have a nice weekend!

11/12/09 - In order to remind the students to keep their heads up and to keep alert during the reading, I gave the students a quiz over the first three chapters of Steinbeck's novel The Pearl.  After completing the quiz, we reviewed the action so far in chapter 4.  The students completed the A-I-M strategy notes for both chapters 4 and 5 today.  Since we finally came to the climax of the novel in chapter 5, Kino killing a man, the students can now pick a passage and write the "Dear Diary" entry for the climax.  The assignment is to finish up five of the "Dear Diary" entries for the final project.  The final unit test, the A-I-M notes, and the "Dear Diary" project are all due on Tuesday, November 17th.

11/11/09 - I passed back the "Diary Passage" exercise that we completed in class yesterday and went over some of the errors that I found in the exercise.  Since the "Dear Diary" Project will include some passages, I wanted the students to understand how to document the passages properly.  We finished reading the rest of chapter three and started reading chapter four to page 48.  During today's reading, I no longer modeled the A-I-M note taking strategy for the students.  At this point in the novel, the students were required to fill in the A-I-M chart themselves as we read chapters three and four in class.  During the reading of this novel, the homework will involve the big project due at the end of the unit.  The assignment is to continue working on the "Dear Diary" project.  At this point, the students should have three diary entries completed and be watching for a fourth passage.           

11/10/09 - Since many of the students have had questions concerning the final "Dear Diary" Project that is due at the end of the unit on Steinbeck's novel The Pearl, the students completed a partner activity where they identified five quotes from the first 22 pages that could be used for diary entries.  Each pair was given 15 minutes to identify events in the plot and important passages that describe the details of those events.  As a class, we continued reading chapter three and taking the A-I-M notes for that chapter.  We read to page 30 in chapter 3 today.  During the reading of this novel, the homework will involve the big project due at the end of the unit.  The assignment is to continue working on the "Dear Diary" project.  At this point, the students should have two diary entries completed and be watching for a third passage.     

11/09/09 - At the first of the hour today, the students completed a Reading Check activity covering the first 14 pages of Steinbeck's novel The Pearl.  After a brief review of the action so far in chapter 2, we continued reading the novel aloud.  During the reading, the students continued working on their A-I-M note taking strategy to help them annotate - identify important information; infer - guess from that information; and then finally construct a main idea by synthesizing the information from the other two areas.  We stopped reading today just a couple of pages into chapter 3.  During the reading of this novel, the homework will involve the big project due at the end of the unit.  The assignment is to continue working on the "Dear Diary" project. 

11/06/09 - In order to help the students understand the idea of the "Dear Diary" Assignment, I shared two pictures books with the students today - Diary of a Worm and Diary of a Spider.  After reading through the picture books, I asked the students to identify any facts that they remember from the books.  Next, we identified the structure of the books.  I gave the students information about the "Dear Diary" project that they would be completing during the reading of Steinbeck's novel The Pearl.  A-I-M reading strategy graph and the Dear Diary project are both due at the END of the unit.  We finished reading chapter 1 in class and got to page 14 in chapter 2.  No assignment.  Have a nice weekend!

 11/05/09 - In order to emphasize the importance of critical analysis when reading literature or a textbook, I introduced the A-I-M strategy to the students today to help them during the reading of Steinbeck's novel The Pearl.  The acronym A-I-M stands for the following:  A = Annotate - in other words, identify words/phrases that seem important to the novel; I = Infer - comment directly on the words/phrases you have selected; guess at what these words tell you about the novel; M = Main idea - taking all of your annotations and inferences into account, discuss the main idea in the novel (synthesize).  The students have a worksheet entitled "Taking A-I-M: Encouraging Analysis" that they will be completing during the reading of the novel.  As we began to read today, I completed a Think-Aloud modeling the A-I-M strategy for the students.  We read to page 6 in chapter 1 today and completed the A-I-M columns for that portion of the book.  One of Steinbeck's writing talents is his ability to use sensory details to "show" the reader and not "tell" the reader about the plot.  The assignment is to complete the imagery analysis worksheet for tomorrow.  Both the A-I-M and Imagery passage can be found under documents on this website.

11/02/09 - Since we didn't quite finish the video of Reginald Rose's play Twelve Angry Men, we started the hour by finishing it.  Our culminating activity for this unit is to complete a reader's theater from the READ Magazine about the conspiracy and trial of those responsible for the death of President Abraham Lincoln.  I started class today by asking the students to agree or disagree with five statements from American history.  We discussed the right answers and I introduce the situation surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.  The students volunteered to read the parts of the characters in the reader's theater.  Since we didn't finish the play today, we will finish it tomorrow in class. No homework.

10/30/09 - As a culminating activity for the play Twelve Angry Men, we watched the video of the black and white 1957 version of the play today.  I also scored the My Access prompt entitled "Twelve Angry Men" which was due today.  Have a nice weekend!

10/29/09 - The students took the final unit test on Reginald Rose's play Twelve Angry Men.  Following the test, they had some time to read several READ Magazines.  The assignment is to complete the My Access prompt:  In Reginald Rose's play Twelve Angry Men, the jurors have difficulty coming to a decision about the fate of the defendant.  Now after having read the play, pretend you were a member of the jury and identify your final vote - guilty or not guilty.  Write a persuasive essay explaining your position and your reasons.  You MUST support your decision with at least three strong pieces of evidence from the play.  The My Access essay is due by Friday morning, which will allow the students to submit and revise as many times as they want before then.   

10/28/09 - At the first of the hour, the students completed a Pair/Share activity where they drew and identified the parts of a plot line for Rose's play Twelve Angry Men.  Following the activity, I introduced a Dateline story entitled "Eyewitness" so the students could see how accurate they could be with identifying a criminal.  The remaining time in class the students completed a "Twelve Vocabulary Scramble" to review the law terms found in the play.  The assignment is to complete the law terms definitions, the Twelve Log, and the My Access prompt entitled Twelve Angry Men.  The final unit test on the play will be tomorrow, so the students should study for it.   

10/27/09 - Before starting the play Twelve Angry Men today, we spent some time reviewing the action in the play and the traits of the characters.  The students took the parts in the play, and we finished reading Act III.  Following the play, I helped the students with any of the law terms that they didn't have completed on their list.  For the rest of the time in class today, the students worked on completing their Twelve Log.  I also introduced the My Access prompt that I activated today:  In Reginald Rose's play Twelve Angry Men, the jurors have difficulty coming to a decision about the fate of the defendant.  Now after having read the play, pretend you were a member of the jury and identify your final vote - guilty or not guilty.  Write a persuasive essay explaining your position and your reasons.  You MUST support your decision with at least three strong pieces of evidence from the play.  The My Access essay is due by Friday morning, which will allow the students to submit and revise as many times as they want before then.  The assignment is to continue working on the Twelve Log and start the My Access persuasive essay. 

10/26/09 - We reviewed the events from Act II and identified the changes in the votes for "guilty" and "not guilty."  Following the review, the students completed an open-book activity identifying Juror #8 as the protagonist - the main character - in the play.  The students had to identify six jurors from the play and whether they supported the antagonist side or whether they supported the protagonist side.  The key to this activity was that the students had to support their opinions with quotes from the play.  We started reading Act III and finished on about page 53.  The assignment is to continue working on the Twelve Log because it will be due when the students take the final unit test (probably Wednesday).