Study Guide #1, Day 1

After a short quick-write (below), we spent the remainder of the period working on the first study guide. The assignment is at Google Classroom, but is not homework.

Annotation Focus

Today we started with a quick-write about the roles of the men in The Awakening (Consider the men in the book. Are they the “bad guys” here, or are they in much the same situation as Edna? Explain your answer.) and then moved on to the activity below, using the annotations from last night's homework.

Tuesday & Wednesday

Tuesday we had our second quiz on The Awakening and then talked about the ending a bit. We wrapped up the period by self-evaluating our "Eleven" timed essays from Friday using the rubric from Monday.

Wednesday we began with a bit of figurative language practice, and then annotated chapter 6 (VI) together and part of the last chapter alone. Students should finish the annotation for HW. The passages are here.

Essay Scoring

We spent today's period looking at the scoring guide and some sample essays from the prompt the students wrote to on Friday. We will continue this process with some self-scoring, tomorrow.

Remember, The Awakening should be finished by then as well.

Being Eleven

Today we talked a bit about 6th grade and then read and discussed Cisneros' short story, "Eleven."

Quiz #1

Today we began the period with our first quiz of the year. After that we circled up and had an open discussion about the book.

More Figurative Language

After a short literary analysis warm-up with a quotation from The Awakening, we spent the rest of the day filling out the top half of page one of the figurative language review handout.

Discussion Rubrics & Work Time

Today students marked the discussion rubric and set goals for themselves for this year. After that they had some time to finish their "Phoenix" CRAs and post them to TurnItIn. We wrapped up the with a brief figurative language review.

Chapter 1 & CRA Revision

Today we discussed the opening chapter of Chopin's The Awakening and then spent some time revising and editing the "Phoenix" CRA paragraphs following our "Rules for Writing About Literature" handout. Students then started typing these revised paragraphs in their Google Drives in preparation for submitting them to TurnItIn.com tomorrow.

Kate Chopin

We began looking at Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" (see below) followed by an introduction to the novel and a brief look at chapter 1.

The First CRA

After discussion Sherman Alexie's short story "This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona" in groups and all together, we looked at these two handouts (The CRA & CRA Frames), and students had the rest of the period to write a draft CRA paragraph in their writer's notebook.

What is Lit?

Today we solidified our definition of literature by comparing the passages below. Students should read and annotate Alexie's "This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona" (available at Classroom) for tomorrow's class.

"Drowned Man" Analysis

After discussing "The Handsomest Drowned Man..." in groups and as a class, students had an opportunity to write a bit about it. At the end of the period, some students managed to post their analyses to Google Classroom. All responses should be posted by Sunday evening.

Writing on "Bedspread"

Today we wrote up our thoughts on "The White Bedspread," sharing them at Google Classroom.

"The White Bedspread"

We began the day  considering the definition of literature, and then spent the the rest of the day explicating "The White Bedspread."

Lilies, Etc.

After briefly reviewing the course description, we spent most of today talking and writing a bit about "The Three Lilies." For homework, students should read and annotate "The White Bedspread" (available at Google Classroom).

Picture Day!

Today we managed to do two readings of Jan Neruda's short story "The Three Lilies" (available at Google Classroom), annotating the text during the second reading. We began some small group discussions that will continue in the whole group on Tuesday.

How and Why to Mark a Text

Today we finished our reading and discussion of the Adler article from yesterday and students wrapped up the period making a reading goal for the start of this year. Tomorrow is picture day!