Sunday, January 4, 2015

English 9--1/13/2015 & 1/14/2015

Jump Off
--Take out your annotated Article of the Week #7 ("Should the U.S. & Canada Merge?" or "The Sixth Extinction?").  I will be around to return the multiple choice assessments that you completed meant to assess the effectiveness of your active reading notes and review of said notes.  How did your active reading "hold up"?  How might you annotate/what might you look for in the future when given a similar task?
--The following students, absent last class due to a field trip, must submit Article of the Week #8 TODAY:
  • Karli B.
  • Liz D.
  • James D.
  • Hannah F.
  • Teagan L.
  • Alex L.
  • Owen S.
  • Alberto T.
  • Seth W.
--The following students need to see me AT THE END OF CLASS TODAY in order to touch base about missing work:
  • Seth W.
  • Zach D.
  • Hannah O.
  • Cameron V.
  • Vivian W.
  • Breonna P.
  • Dakota R.
  • Sydney S.
  • Kelsey W.
  • Ellen O.
  • Lexi W.
S. the C.
--information provided about future Article of the Week experiences
--agenda/HW
--list of students needing to complete i-Ready shared
--list of students needing to revise for the Cumulative Writing Portfolio shared--Would anyone like to schedule a meeting for a time slot during my office hours?
  • The due date for submission is Thursday, 1/15 (ACE) or Friday, 1/16 (BDF)--a few days from today!
  • Reminder: Any writing piece that has already received a score of 80% or higher can be given back to me for submission today if the writer of the piece chooses not to revise.
--During today's block, we will be focusing on the final assessment of Quarter 2:

End-of-Mini-Unit Assessment Prompt:
Write a well-developed paragraph in which you use ideas from both Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Letter One” (a nonfictional letter) and Eugenia Collier’s “Marigolds” (a fictional short story) to establish a controlling idea. (A controlling idea is a unifying central idea/theme statement for a theme word that emerges from both works.) Develop your controlling idea using strong and thorough textual evidence from both Rilke’s letter and Collier’s short story.

Transition
--Take out your copy of Eugenia Collier's "Marigolds".
--Read/scan back through the text up until the point at which we left off two classes ago, bearing in mind that we should leave today's class with both the gist of the story and some potential themes that are linkable to Rilke's letter.  What have you gotten out of the story so far?

Oral Reading (cont.) -- Eugenia Collier's "Marigolds"
--briefly share out as per the "Transition
--Reminder (blog post from late-September): the nature of a typical “first-draft” reading of a difficult text:
  • A gist reading--“survival mode” in order to understand/comprehend the text on a literal level
    • Ask the “curious questions”
    • Basic comprehension is essential if any deeper understanding is to occur.
  • Easier with some sort of defined purpose (therefore, often a purposeful reading)
  • Most effective when it is still somewhat active reading (annotate: jot down curious questions, jot down notes related to your defined purpose, etc.)
  • SEE THE FRONT BOARD FOR A REMINDER OF THE PURPOSE WE DEFINED FOR READING TWO CLASSES AGO (BRIEFLY DISCUSS).
End-of-Mini-Unit Assessment Prompt:
Write a well-developed paragraph in which you use ideas from both Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Letter One” (a nonfictional letter) and Eugenia Collier’s “Marigolds” (a fictional short story) to establish a controlling idea. (A controlling idea is a unifying central idea/theme statement for a theme word that emerges from both works.) Develop your controlling idea using strong and thorough textual evidence from both Rilke’s letter and Collier’s short story.

--oral first-draft/purposeful/active reading of "Letter One" finished
Transition
--discussion protocol/"Discussion Contribution Rating Scale" reminder
--3 vs. 4 modeling
--Form an alphabetical-by-first-name circle out of the desks. Have and be ready to discuss your annotated short story.

Discussion/End-of-Mini-Unit Assessment Preparation -- Eugenia Collier's "Marigolds"

--share out as per first-draft/purposeful/active reading annotations--as I jot down notes on the front board, do the same in your notebook/annotate your personal copy of the text

Closure -- Tentative Controlling Idea

--On a scrap of paper including your first and last name, respond to the following question:
  • Based on your analysis of Rilke's letter and our discussion of Collier's short story, what is your tentative unifying central idea/theme statement?
DEAR -- Free Reading Books (time permitting)
--students without books will read Upfront Magazine
*Time permitting, I will continue meeting with students about revisions.*

HW
--The due date for submitting a revised "'St. Lucy's...' End-of-Mini-Unit Writing Assignment" for the Cumulative Writing Portfolio is Thursday, 1/15 (ACE) or Friday, 1/16 (BDF)--a few days from today! Remember that YOU MUST schedule a meeting with me to go over your revisions; simply handing in the revisions is unacceptable as per the protocol. When time permits, meetings can/will occur during class time. (Time will permit for BDF students next time we meet!)
--One-pagers are due at the end of class next Tuesday, 1/20 (ACE) or next Wednesday, 1/21 (BDF) for those students who have yet to complete one.  We will use some class time on Tuesday/Wednesday to complete one-pagers.  Students who have already submitted a one-pager will engage in free reading during this time.  ALWAYS BRING YOUR FREE READING BOOK TO CLASS.
--Bring your vocabulary book to class next time. PLEASE DO NOT FORGET!