Monday, March 19, 2012

Periods 3 and 7 Grade 12
WORD OF THE DAY:  acrid (sharp and harsh)


Today, students took one more look at the John Donne poem "Song".  Then, they read "Holy Sonnet 10" (the "death be not proud" poem).  They discussed their personal views about death and life beyond death; then, they applied those beliefs to the sentiments of the poet.  Students identified apostrophe, paradox, and personification in the poem.  They went on to read "Meditation 17" ("no man is an island").  For homework, students must read an excerpt from David Foster Wallace's commencement speech to the graduates of Kenyon College, noting as they read the similarities between Wallace's ideas about humanity and Donne's.  


There will be a quiz on the introduction to Metaphysical Poetry on Wednesday 3-21 (for period 3) and Thursday 3-22 (for period 7).  In addition, there will be a word quiz on the last 24 words on Friday 3-23 (for period 3) and Monday 3-26 (for period 7).


The words to know are:  ebullient, desiccate, debilitate, inchoate, insolvent, winsome, meager, cachet, arbiter, infinitesimal, supplementary, vivacious, ambivalent, visceral, disparity, hue and cry, sedulous, behoove, aviary, palaver, frangible, redundant, refute, acrid.


Periods 4 and 6
Grade 10


Julius Caesar continues.  The class will begin practice in writing persuasive essays in preparation for the 3rd quarter common task.


Period 1
Grade 10


The students finished up their outside reading presentations.  We continued with Julius Caesar.  He is about to get killed (Act 3 scene 2-3).


Have a great night!   

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Period 1 Grade 10
Oral presentations of outside reading began today.  Several students did not have a chance to present, so they will present on Monday.

Period 3 Grade 12 WORD OF THE DAY:  refute
Reviewed information from the introduction to Metaphysical poetry.  There will be a quiz on Thursday, 3-22!  We read and discussed the poem "Song" by John Donne.  We will continue with his poetry next week.  Students handed in the rough drafts of their summative reflective essays.

Period 7 Grade 12 WORD OF THE DAY:  refute
PLEASE SEE ABOVE.

Period 6 Grade 10
Students finished Act III scene 2 of Julius Caesar and completed their reading responses.  On Monday, we begin persuasive writing in preparation for the 3rd quarter common task.

Period 4 Grade 10
NO PERIOD 4 ON E-DAYS.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!  HAVE A GREAT WEEK-END!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Period 4
Grade 10

Today, we finished reading Many Stones.  The students finished their "theme" webs.  Then we continued with Julius Caesar.  There is no class tomorrow, but on Monday, we will read the monologues of Brutus and Marc Antony.  Afterwards, we will learn about persuasive rhetoric/persuasive writing in preparation for writing the common task next week.

Period 6
Grade 10

Read aloud from Many Stones; will probably finish the book tomorrow.  Continued with persuasive rhetoric/persuasive writing.  We learned about "loaded language" emotional appeals (basic needs, bandwagon, testimonials, and snob appeal).  Tomorrow, we begin a sample writing of a persuasive essay in preparation for writing the common task next week.

Period 1
Grade 10

Read aloud from Can't Get There From Here.  Two students presented their outside reading projects, then the rest of the class continued working on their projects.  Presentations are tomorrow...no exceptions/no excuses!!

Periods 3 and 7 (No class for either today)  Remember that tomorrow the rough drafts of your summative reflective essays are due.  These will count as a quiz.  Anyone without their rough drafts will forfeit a grade for the assignment as this was announced on Monday, 3-12.  Only those students with an "excused" absence are exempt.

Have a great night!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

"If peace comes from seeing the whole, then misery stems from a loss of perspective."

The week in review for:

Period 1 grade 10

The class continued it's reading of "You Can't Get There From Here.". We had two quizzes on the information from the book. We also reviewed heavily for a test on Julius Caesar on Wednesday. In the play, we have read up to the part where Caesar is arguing with his wife, Calpurnia, about going to the Capitol on the morning of March 15th (the Ides of March). We continue to go over the new vocabulary. There will be a quiz on Tuesday, 3-6-12.

Periods 3 and 7 grade 12

The words for the week are: arbiter,supplementary,infinitesimal,vivacious,and ambivalent.

We continued our group work/character committees. Presentations were given and we watched two versions of Ophelia's madness. March 2nd was happy, happy day for handing in final drafts of research papers! Period 3 celebrated with tantalizing treats on Friday afternoon! (The cake pops were to die for!)

Do not forget word quiz on Monday 3-5 and reading projects on Wednesday 3-7.

Periods 4 and 6 grade 10

Our read-aloud of "Many Stones" continues.

We have new vocabulary and two homework assignments -- two sentences for each of the first ten words and 1 paragraph using no fewer than 15 of the 20 vocabulary words.

We had a test this week on Act I of Julius Caesar. Our reading of the play continues. We are up to the part where Caesar is arguing with his wife, Calpurnia, about going to the Capitol on the morning of March 15 (the Ides of March).

Do not forget: Reading projects due Monday, 3-5!!