English 9--10/2/2015

Jump Off/"Hook"/Warm-Up (8-10 mins.)

--Turn in your active, purposeful reading of Article of the Week #2 (either Choice A or Choice B) by placing your work in the black basket on the front table.
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 and/or audience to 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 the subject of my email?
• Who was the audience of my email?
• What was my tone in the email?
• How do you know?

S. the C. (8-10 mins.)

--today's class is an RI.2, RI.3, and RI.4-driven lesson with informal assessments of RI.4 occurring throughout the block and a formal assessment of RI.2, RI.3, and RI.4 (central idea and tone) at the end of the block

• RI.2: English 9 students can determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.  
• RI.3: English 9 students can analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.
• 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 does this last standard ask students to do?
• What did you just do?!
• 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

Gist Reading/Discussion -- “Letter One" of Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet (10-15 mins.--STOPWATCH)
--An informative excerpt from educational researcher Robert Marzano's book Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement:

• "Although it is true that the extent to which students will learn this new content is dependent on factors such as the skill of the teacher, the interest of the student, and the complexity of the content, the research literature supports one compelling fact: what students already know about the content is one of the strongest indicators of how well they will learn new information relative to the content. Commonly, researchers and theorists refer to what a person already knows about a topic as “background knowledge.” Numerous studies have confirmed the relationship between background knowledge and achievement (Nagy, Anderson, & Herman, 1987; Bloom, 1976; Dochy, Segers, & Buehl, 1999; Tobias, 1994; Alexander, Kulikowich, & Schulze, 1994; Schiefele & Krapp, 1996; Tamir, 1996; Boulanger, 1981). In these studies the reported average correlation between a person's background knowledge of a given topic and the extent to which that person learns new information on that topic is .66 (see Technical Note 1 on p. 127 for a discussion of how the correlation was computed)."

--take a look at background information about Rainer Maria Rilke--how can this information help us better analyze and understand Rilke's letter?
--Block 3: Finish gist reading first!
--scan back through your copy of "Letter One" of Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet

• What curious questions did you jot down?
• What did you underline/how did you annotate with regard to these two questions?:
• What does Rainer Maria Rilke, the author of this letter, say to "Sir" about what is important and meaningful to a person?
• What advice does Rilke give "Sir?"

--begin/continue doing the following: share out as per gist reading/address my related questions--as I mark up the text on the SmartBoard and jot down on the whiteboard important conclusions that we draw, mark up your personal copy of the text accordingly

Brain Break -- Desk Stretches (5 mins.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLPfP1oRJFM
*YOU MAY EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO PASS*

Purposeful Rereading/Informal Assessment/Discussion -- Central Idea and Tone in "Letter One of Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet (20 mins.--STOPWATCH)
--Purposefully reread as much of Rilke's letter as you can in 10 minutes quietly and independently.

• Your purpose:
• Continue jotting down curious questions whenever such questions enter your mind (listen for them!)
• Continue underlining key words/details with RI.2 in mind
• Make connections between the conclusions we drew earlier in class and the text, annotating accordingly
• Draw boxes around any words or phrases that help you figure out what Rilke's tone is (RI.4)
• FYI: THESE ANNOTATIONS, IF DONE WELL, WILL COME IN EXTREMELY HANDY DURING THE ASSESSMENT AT THE END OF TODAY'S CLASS!

--informal assessment of RI.4 (SEE FRONT BOARD)
--wrap-up discussion (time permitting)

Transition (2 mins.)
--Pick up the "Mid-Mini-Unit Standards Assessment--RI.2, RI.3, and RI.4" document from the front table.

Closure (remainder of class) 
--After carefully reading the assessment directions, complete the task at hand and submit your best work based on the time permitted prior to leaving class.

"Cool-Down"/Full-Circle Ending (time permitting)

--let's talk about "Random Student" again and what he's up to now...

HW (Class Preparation)
--Bring your vocabulary book next time. Please do not forget!
--Read your free reading book for at least 10 minutes between now and next class.  ALWAYS BRING YOUR FREE READING BOOK TO CLASS.  You have up until the first week of December to finish your book.
--Enjoy the weekend--you only get so many of 'em!

On the Backburner (Mr. Martin's Note-to-Self):

• Review the parts of speech as introduction to our grammar work/in order to aid in vocabulary study