Frankenstein, Walton, & The Gothic

Today we opened with a discussion of Walton's letters and then transitioned to some discussion of the Gothic, watching this video and taking some notes.

POL & The Romantics

Today, we wrapped up Poetry Out Loud with a few final presentations and then moved on to the Romantics and Frankenstein.

Poetry Out Loud, Day 3

Today, we nearly finished round two!

Tuesday & Wednesday: Poetry Out Loud

On these days, students began presenting the poems they have been working on for the past two weeks. We did the first round and started the second. We'll wrap up the project tomorrow.

Wrap Up Day

After a bit more recitation practice in pairs, students had the period to wrap up their written poetry work. Recitations begin Tuesday!

Response Groups

Pacing & Tone

Today we worked on adding some nuance to our recitations by considering pacing and tone.

Essay Drafts

 After a bit of recitation practice, students had the period to revise essay drafts.

POL and Essay Prep

Today we began by writing out our POL poems by hand. After some talk about priorities, students had the rest of the period to work.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we started by chunking our essay and working on plans of development (POD) in preparation for essay drafting over break. Students should post revised thesis statements with PODs to Google Classroom. Also, watch for essay planning and drafting handouts over break. You don't have to use them, but they may be helpful!

Essay Topics & POL

AP Ashland and more POL

We started the day talking about the annual AP Ashland trip—reserve your spot by dropping a note (and your deposit if possible) by my classroom ASAP; it's first come, first served and there are only 13 spots.
The rest of the period was spent on POL annotations, etc.
Essay topics are due tomorrow!

Essay #1 & More POL Time

Today I assigned the first essay (here's the handout), and students had more time to work on finding their POL poems and starting their annotations.

Poetry Out Loud!

We spent the whole day on Poetry Out Loud. Everything you need, including links and handouts, is at Google Classroom.

Circle Time

Today we spent the period discussing some of the big ideas in Candide in preparation for tomorrow's timed essay.

A Return to Candide

Today I collected the exit ticket from the end of class yesterday, and then we applied the same principles of brevity and clarity to today's Candide work.

A Bit of Candide, but Mostly Poetry

Today we spent most of the period on some rather good conversations about poetry.

A Quiz & Some Poetry

We began the day with a quiz on the end of Candide and then began the poem presentations we created Tuesday.

Poetry Mini-Project: Day 1

Today, after reviewing a marking the discussion rubric for Q1, student annotated and analyzed one of seven poems and then discussed them in groups. Tomorrow, we will present those interpretations.
Students also turned in their writer's notebooks.

Candide & Meter Cont.

After some discussion of Candide, we mostly wrapped up the introduction to poetic meter.

More Meter

More Poetry

Today we continued our look at "Reapers" and a review of poetic terms. Meter tomorrow!

Satire & Candide & a Poem

We began the day by reviewing satire again with a short Key and Peele sketch and discussion of yesterday's article. We moved on to a short introduction to Candide and wrapped up with an initial look at Jean Toomer's poem "Reapers."

Homecoming & Satire

Friday, we reviewed the definition of satire and practice by analyzing a short clip from The Simpsons.

Monday, students again reviewed the definition of satire (for the half of the class that missed Friday) and then practiced on a short article from The Onion. Class wrapped up with an assignment at Google Classroom, which should be completed for homework if necessary.

Antigone Timed Essay

After a bit of homecoming voting, students had the period to write their Antigone timed essay.

Wrapping Up "Antigone"

Today we wrapped up our discussion of Antigone and prepared for tomorrow's timed essay by reflecting on the timed essay from The Awakening.

Poster Time

After some discussion of the quick write that began class, groups finished their posters and presented them.

More Antigone

Antigone Discussion & Term Hunt

A Quiz, Some Group Work, and a Fire Drill

More Irony with "Richard Cory"

And... the Internet is Back

Monday we started our look at Sophocles' Antigone. Students should have the entire play read and should post to our Google Classroom discussion by class time on Thursday.
Tuesday we reviewed the concept of irony

and spent a bit of time with Alanis Morrisette and Ed Byrnes.

Timed Essay #1

Today we spend the period easing our way into the first timed essay of the year.

Essay Norming

Today we spent the day looking at some timed essays on "Eleven" in preparation for the timed writing tomorrow.

Study Guide Prep

Today we spent the whole period working through the study guide. The file is at Classroom and should be posted to TurnItIn before the timed essay on Friday.

CRAs & Study Guides

After a bit of work with the draft Awakening CRAs, we started our look at the Study Guide. Final Draft CRAs are due to TurnItIn Thursday.

Friday

In my absence, students will work on this assignment.

Thursday

Today we wrapped up our discussion of "Eleven" by looking at some of the essay plans students wrote yesterday, as well as some good, bad, and amusing lines from actual essays on this prompt. After that, we spent a bit more time on general talk about The Awakening.

Quiz 2

After the second quiz on The Awakening, we had a solid first discussion of the end of the book and then wrapped up the day with a bit of "Eleven" essay planning.

"Eleven" Continued

Today we discussed "Eleven" and did a bit of prewriting related to the prompt.

"Eleven"

Today we did some work with the short story "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros.

More Figurative Language

Today we wrapped up the first part of our figurative language review by filling out our charts and playing a quick bingo game. Prizes Monday!

A Figurative Language Review

Today we split time between reviewing figurative language and talking a bit more about the first half of The Awakening.

The First Reading Quiz

We started with our first reading quiz today, and then we circled up and talked about the first half of the book.

Ticking a Few Boxes

Today, we began with a short look at the discussion rubric, writing a quick goal for the quarter in the writer's notebook. After that, we talked a bit about the CRA paragraphs at TurnItIn and the question/forum at Google Classroom. We rounded out the day with the last two critical schools presentations.

The Awakening & Some Critical Lenses

We spent the first part of the period discussing chapter one of The Awakening and then had a short introduction to Chopin and the novel. The reading/posting schedule is below.

In the second half of the period, we took a brief look at some critical theory in small groups. Groups will share their discoveries on Monday.

Kate Chopin

Today we began our look at Chopin's The Awakening by reading one of her short stories, "The Story of an Hour." We'll discuss chapter one of the novel tomorrow.