Tuesday, December 9, 2014

English 9--12/10/2014 & 12/11/2014

Jump Off #1
--If you have yet to submit the final draft of your well-written "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" Mini-Unit--End-of-Mini-Unit Assessment/Writing Assignment" essay typed in MLA format, please do so now by placing both your essay and all of your notes, outlines, etc. in the black basket on the front table. Staple the clean copy of your essay on top.
--Under the area of the front board labeled "Rainer Maria Rilke Background", write down one of the important facts that you found about Rilke as part of your homework.  Read what others before you have written, and if you have nothing new to add, of course, don't be repetitive--simply return to your desk.
--PLEASE SEE ME AT THE END OF CLASS: Peter D.

Jump Off #2/"Hook"/Warm-Up -- Tone in Email Correspondence
--"set the table" for the reading about to be shared
--Your purpose:
  • When listening to the return email from me to "Random Student", determine my tone. Remember that a writer's tone is the attitude he or she has toward the subject about which he or she is speaking. A writer's tone can be described using adjectives such as any of those from the list below:
    • angry
    • arrogant
    • baffled
    • depressed
    • detached
    • formal
    • honest
    • instructional
    • intimate
    • ironic
    • neutral
    • outraged
    • playful
    • serene
    • serious
    • tender
--brief discussion as per your purpose--cards drawn if necessary
  • What was my tone in the email?
  • How do you know?
S. the C.
--Reminder:
  • The following policy is in place in our classroom as per the "Important Information" document that you read and had signed at the beginning of the school year:
    • Long-term assignments (essays, presentations, projects, etc.) will be graded ten (10) points (or 10%) lower per day late, not per class day late.If you do not have a writing assignment completed on time, you will be required to come in for homeroom detention with me the following day to get assistance and work on completing the assignment.I expect you to continue coming in during homeroom until the assignment is completed.Failure to stay for homeroom(s) will result in a central detention.If after five days you still have not submitted a late long-term assignment, you will receive a “0” (though teachers in the English department have agreed to occasionally use our discretion here).
--today's class is an RI.2, RI.3, and RI.4-driven lesson with an assessment of RI.4 occurring at the end of the block
  • RI.4: English 9 students can determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact on meaning and tone.
      • What did you just do?!
      • What does this standard ask students to do?
      • When and how have we worked toward mastery of this standard or a similar standard this school year?
      • On a scale of 1-5+, how would you rate your mastery of these standards? BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF.
--today's class also presents an opportunity to apply standard SL.1 by aiming to participate effectively in a collaborative discussion--you will likely pose and respond to questions, incorporate each other into the discussion, and challenge/verify each other's ideas and conclusions
--agenda/HW

Transition
--Take out your copy of the "'Letter One' of Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet" document.  Then, purposefully reread paragraphs 3-7 (top of page 2 through the end of the letter) quietly and independently.
  • Your purpose:
    • Continue jotting down curious questions whenever such questions enter your mind (listen for them!)
    • Continue underlining key words/details
    • Make connections between the conclusions we drew last class and the remainder of the text, annotating accordingly--check out this exemplary T-O-D from the end of last class as a reminder of the key conclusion most of us drew by the end of the last lesson:
      • BLOCK 1 BDF: In Rainer Maria Rilke's "Letter One", an important idea that emerges is that a person cannot criticize art.  As an introduction, Rilke states, "Nothing touches a work of art so little as words of criticism."  He is saying that when other people try to grade/improve art, they just can't!  Rilke continues to develop this idea in the second paragraph when he says about a poem, "solitary figure does perhaps appear."  Rilke is now trying to give what the young poet was asking, but with hesitation.
      • BLOCK 2 BDF: Rilke introduces the idea of how criticism isn't useful or, in fact, even possible when talking about different works of art.  Because when people make a work of art, they make it from experience and personal decisions, Rilke believes that to criticize their choices would be "unsayable."  Althought Rilke does hint at some criticism in the second paragraph, he does, however, use words like "perhaps," saying that he doesn't want to object to the author's choices considering that he doesn't know the intended motive for his writing.
    • Draw boxes around any words or phrases that help you figure out what Rilke's tone is--THIS PARTICULAR FORM OF ANNOTATION WILL COME IN HANDY DURING THE ASSESSMENT AT THE END OF TODAY'S CLASS!
*T-O-Ds FROM LAST CLASS RETURNED*

Discussion -- "Letter One" of Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet--Paragraphs 3-7
--another exemplary T-O-D from the end of last class block shared--how does your own work compare to the exemplars shared?

--share out/address my related questions (cards drawn if necessary)--as I mark up the text on the SmartBoard, do the same on your personal copy of the text

"Cool-Down"/Full-Circle Ending
--let's talk about "Random Student" again and what he's up to now...

Transition
--Pick up the "RI.4 Ticket-Out-the-Door" document from the front table.

Closure
--After carefully reading the directions for the Ticket-Out-the-Door, complete the task at hand and submit your best work based on the time permitted prior to leaving class.
--Take a quick look at the list of Rilke background information on the front board, as knowledge of a source often helps in interpreting material from said source.

Brain Break (time permitting)
--free reading cold-calling--30-second share-outs (What is the title of your book? Who is the author? How much progress have you made? What happened when you last left off? Would you recommend the book to your peers?)

HW
--Finish your work with Article of the Week #7, which includes actively reading either "Should the U.S. & Canada Merge?" or "The Sixth Extinction?". On Friday of this week (ACE) or Monday of next week (BDF) (NEXT CLASS!), a multiple choice quiz will take place about the key ideas of the article that you choose to read. This quiz is intended to assess your understanding of these ideas and, thus, the quality of your annotations. Make sure to review your annotations prior to Friday's/Monday's class.
--Read your free reading book for at least 15 minutes between now and next class. Your book must be finished by late-January. ALWAYS BRING YOUR FREE READING BOOK TO CLASS.
--Bring your vocabulary book next time. Please do not forget!
--i-Ready should really be finished before break. See me if you need a pass to the lab or if you would like to see your results.

Backburner Goals (Mr. Martin's Note-to-Self):
  • Review the parts of speech as introduction to our grammar work/in order to aid in vocabulary study