11th Grade

In case you missed it, here are the notes we took in class today about annotation and how to do it successfully. First, I acknowledge that it slows reading waaaay down. That’s the point. I want to force you to read much more closely than you usually do. And it’s good. You’ll remember more. I promise.

(click the image to enlarge).

In the left margin, I like to make predictions, ask questions, make general comments, and make some note about connections with other texts, myself, or the rest of the world. In the right margin, I summarize each paragraph or section. I like to put a * by each summary so that I can find them quickly, in case I end up writing any comments or questions in the right margin.

There are many other ways to annotate a text, and many other things to look for while we read, but this is a nice place to start.

Happy HSPE week, y’all. I suppose that for many of you this means that you have a chance to sleep in a bit. So you’ve got that going for you, which is nice. (I’ll give a shiny new quarter to whoever gets that reference…). We’ve got a few things to do this week, despite the bizarre schedule. Take a look!

Monday: We’ll be starting our next unit on Monday, focusing on the work of the author Zora Neale Hurston, but will also be looking at some other authors associated with the Harlem Renaissance. We’ll be starting everything off with a look at Langston Hughes’ poem A Dream Deferred through a series of short questions. This poem does a pretty good job of setting the tone for the entire unit, and we’ll be looking at it in fair detail. I’ll post more about it shortly. Afterwards, I’ll be distributing copies of Zora Neale Hurston’s story Sweat. Finally, and somewhat sadly, we need to have a very realistic talk about your grades, essays, and things along those lines.

Homework: Read Sweat class on Thursday.

Tuesday/Wednesday: I’ll be dedicating these class periods to reading through Hurston’s story and annotating it. I’ll speak briefly on the topic of annotating a text, as I am keenly aware that many of you simply highlight things as you read, rather than making meaningful notes. I’ll post the presentation after class, in case you miss it.

Wednesday: Um… see Tuesday.

Homework: Finish reading and annotating Sweat.

Thursday: We’ll be breaking into small groups for an activity dealing with Hurston’s story. Let me be perfectly clear. If you have not annotating the text, or do not bring it to class, you will not be allowed to participate and you will not get credit for the work.

Friday: And with the HSPE finally over we’ll spend a portion of the class discussing the small group activity from Thursday and end by beginning to read our second short story by Hurston entitled The Gilded Six-Bits. You’ll be asked to read and annotate this text as well for class on Monday.

Homework. Um… see above.

Howdy juniors! This week we’ll be working towards completing our essays dealing with Into the Wild. As the week progresses we’ll be going through the writing process, which I’ll remind you, I do grade. In case you’ve forgotten it, here’s a quick graphic to remind you.

Okie doke. Here’s the week.

Monday: First thing on Monday I’ll be stamping the outlines for your Into the Wild essays. Remember, you need to have something resembling a thesis, clear topic sentences, and evidence to support each paragraph. Without a stamped outline, you absolutely, positively, cannot have a computer to begin typing a rough draft. I sincerely suggest that you take a flash drive with you to class on Monday so that you can quickly and efficiently move your work from home to school and vice-versa. After I have personally stamped and approved your outline, you can grab a laptop and start working.

Tuesday: Our entire period after we meet in the library for registration will be spent working on our rough drafts. Again, you cannot have a computer if you have not had your outline stamped, as the pre-write is the first step in the writing process. By the end of Tuesday you should have something resembling a first draft that your friends can edit. You need 2 copies of your work for class on Wednesday. No, I won’t give you time to go print it. No, you can’t have a single paragraph. It needs to be a completed rough draft. You need to have two copies. Printed. This is not rocket science (but this is).

Homework: Print two copies of your rough essay for class on Wednesday.

Wednesday: Wednesday is a computer-free day. It is dedicated entirely to peer-editing. This, of course, is why you need to bring two copies of your essay.

Thursday: So Thursday is an opportunity for you to work on revising your essay based on peer feedback. Remember, the goal isn’t just to find spelling errors. The goal is to reconsider the structure, the tone, the evidence, the commentary, and the voice of your essay. Major, significant changes are acceptable in this phase.

Homework: Print one more copy of your newly revised essay for class on Friday.

Friday: The final part of the writing process will take place on Friday. After you have a little more time to work on your essay, especially the proofreading portion. Finally, you’ll turn the essay in through Turnitin.com. It is due by 11:59:59, as per normal.

Hey juniors! Happy Monday, or, for those of you who are really on top of it, happy Sunday evening. This will be a relatively easy week, but I do have a few fairly significantly things that you should be aware of. Read on, and you’ll learn all about it.

Monday: A couple of things have to happen on Monday. First, we’ll be doing a short quiz on the reading from Into the Wild chapter 17. For those of you who read this early, well, congrats. That makes your life easier. (I’d focus on the end of the chapter). I’ve prepared a short study guide for the chapter, which we’ll complete in class. Afterwards, I’ll be giving you a little bit of time to read chapter 18, the novel’s conclusion.

Homework: Finish reading chapter 18 for the start of class on Tuesday.

Tuesday: We’ll start the day with a study guide for chapter 18, which I imagine will take most of the period. It’ll be fun, I promise.

Wednesday: I’ll hand out our study guide for Into the Wild so that you’ll be ready for the Final Exam on Thursday. Study up!

Thursday: Your Into the Wild final exam will take place on Thursday. See your study guide to make sure you’re good to go.

Friday: I’m going to introduce our Into the Wild essay on Friday in class, and we’ll be selecting a prompt and beginning to put together an outline. I’ll try to stamp the outlines in class, but if it isn’t done you’ll need to finish it over the weekend for class on Monday.

Homework: If you don’t finish your outline in class on Friday, you need to have it done first thing Monday.

Hey Juniors! I know that we’re a bit into the week, but I wanted to make sure that everything we were doing this week was posted. Here’s the schedule and the related assignments, in case you have questions or are missing.

Wednesday: I have a short assignment about chapter 14, in which we begin to learn about the author, John Krakauer, and some of his own adventures. You can find it here. This is something of a prelude to chapter 15, which we will discuss in great detail tomorrow.

Homework: Read chapter 15

Thursday: We’ll begin the day with Journal Entry #6, which is designed to help you make connections between the text and yourself. Next, we’ll move on to a deceptively simple series of questions about the function that chapters 14 and 15 serve in the text. Because they are such unique chapters (after all, they are about the biography’s author), they demand some attention.

Homework: Read chapter 16

Friday: We’ll be starting class with a quiz on chapters 14-16, which we have spent the majority of the week on. Afterwards, I’ll be giving you a portion of the class to work on the reading for the weekend and to work on a short assignment for chapter 16.

Homework: Read chapter 17

Hey 11’s! I’ve been a touch negligent in getting our work posted here, but I wanted to get back on that horse, so to speak. So, that said, here’s what we did this week and what we’ll be doing for the rest of it as we continue to read John Krakauer’s novel, Into the Wild.

Monday: I’ll be introducing an activity in which we’ll be illustrating a passage from Into The Wild which gives us some kind of insight into Chris/Alex as a character. You can find the direction here.

Tuesday: We’ll start the day with Into The Wild Journal Entry #4. Afterwards, I’ll be introducing Vocabulary #4, and asking you to craft a paragraph using 7 of the 10 words from Vocabulary #3 and #4. I’ll be stamping them on Wednesday.

Homework: Read chapters 7-9.

Wednesday: I’ll begin class by stamping your vocabulary paragraph, then we’ll be transitioning into an activity that will explore chapters 8 and 9 in detail. You can find it here. Also, I’d expect a reading quiz, if I were you. Just saying…

Homework: Read chapters 10 and 11.

Friday: After our weekly vocabulary quiz, we’ll be starting work on another characterization activity, focusing on the similarities and differences between Walt McCandless and his son Chris. Afterwards, I’ll give you some time to work on our homework for the weekend.

Homework: Read chapters 12 through 14.

Hey y’all. I’m in a little coffee shop in Chaing Rai, and I’m doing this because I love you all and you are having a hard time googling. So, for your assignment in which I ask you to make a series of precís about these articles, you can use this link to the New York Times series of opinion pieces. Enjoy!

Hey y’all! Here are the questions for the first part of Martin Luther King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail. Remember, you need to have these done for the start of class on Monday, 12/5. You also need to have the rest of the text read for the start of class.

Hola, juniors! I totally blanked on getting your week posted last week. That was foolish of me, and I’m terribly sorry. That said, I have the plan for this week right here. It’s a short week, I know, but there’s lots of work to do. Here’s the week.

Monday: To start the week we’ll be jumping into the editing of your essays on Romanticism. Remember that you need to bring two copies of your essay for our peer editing. If you miss class on Monday, you can find the peer edit protocol here so that you can do it with a friend. We should get through at least one complete edit during class. Before you do any of the editing I’m going to show you a little more clearly how I expect you to edit.

Homework: Make sure that you bring your essays back for class on Tuesday for our second day of editing.

Tuesday: Tuesday is day two of our editing. Again, you’ll need your essay and a copy of the peer editing sheet, your essay, and some other folks to help you.

Homework: Your essays will be due Tuesday after break. In the meantime, here’s your extra credit assignment over the break. Just print this picture, color it, and take a picture of your family with it. You must bring in a hard copy of the picture on Monday for extra credit.

Hola, juniors! We’ve for a bit of a short week, and we’ll be focusing on a single story all week as we continue our exploration of Romanticism. Our attention will be on Herman Melville’s story Bartleby, The Scrivner.

Monday: To start the week I’ll be introducing our story for the week, as well as the associated vocabulary (side note: we’ll be rolling our vocabulary over from last week). We’ll read the first part of it aloud, and we’ll be focusing on characterization and symbolism, specifically on how the novel’s characters fit in to definite… um… stereotypes.

Homework: Finish reading Chapter One for class tomorrow. You’ll need to know plenty about each of the characters introduced in the exposition.

Tuesday: We’ll begin the day with Grammar #7, then we’ll work through Chapter One of Bartleby by discussing the characters and what they represent. The second half of the day will be set aside for you to begin/finish reading Chapter Two.

Homework: Finish reading Chapter Two.

Wednesday: We’ll start with Grammar #8, then I have some questions for you dealing with chapter two. We’ll work through them in class, then discuss. Whatever time is left will be for you to read Chapter Three.

Homework: Read Chapter 3

Thursday: We’ll begin the day with two quizzes: first, the Grammar Quiz, then the vocabulary quiz. The end of the day will be a short group work piece dealing with our story. I’ll post it ASAP.