Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Patterns of Organization Reprise...

Good morning. It should be Wednesday. Is it Wednesday for you?

Today we are going to try again to look at patterns of organization. I found a helpful web page for that.

1. Go and read Patterns of Organization.
2. Look again at your list of paraphrasing from John F. Kennedy's Civil Rights Address. Your list should be in your Google Docs. If your list is unfinished you will have a lot more work today.
3. Decide which of the organizational patterns JFK was using in his speech. Be prepared to defend your selection. You will be writing about it.
4. You will also be labeling the parts of that pattern on your list in Google Docs. I will explain this more in class.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Monday Morning

Good morning everyone. A few items of interest before we begin.
1. Your Historical Investigation report is due today.
2. Open House is Thursday night from 6-8.

Your task today:
1. In your English Journal write a reflection about your report. Tell me what you feel good about, what you would do differently next time, and what you think you learned about your subject or the process.

2. You will work with a partner today to analyze JFK's Civil Rights Address.
I will explain the directions for this in class.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

For those of you playing along at home...

A little recap...
Monday I had a sub because Mr. G wanted me to take a day to work on the WASC report. With the sub you read Lecture to a Missionary from the textbook.
Tuesday we found that text on-line and looked at it again more closely for patterns of organization and you selected what you felt was Chief Red Jacket's best piece of evidence and wrote about it in your journal.
That brings us to Wednesday (today as I write this). We will learn the procedures for Writing Groups and you will find out which group you are in. You will share your draft with your group and work with them today and tomorrow.
Friday's lesson and work will be determined by the progress you make in your writing groups over the next two days.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Patterns of Organization

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkcivilrights.htm
Kennedy's Civil Rights Speech

Both links above will take you to John F. Kennedy's speech about Civil Rights. DO NOT click on the picture to play the speech. I will play it for you on the big screen. Scroll down so you can read the spech and follow along as he speaks.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Research Update

Here is the link to your assignment sheet for your Historical Investigation project.
Historical Investigation Assignment Sheet
  1. Re-read the assignment sheet above.
  2. Open your English Journal in Google Docs. (If you were absent Friday see the blog post below or ask for help.)
  3. Start a new entry at the top of your English Journal, date it today.
  4. Write me a note there about your research project. This note to me is due today.
    1. Remind me what your topic is.
    2. Tell me what you've learned so far.
    3. Let me know what event related to your topic you want to focus on.
    4. Tell me what your next steps are going to be.
  5. After you update me on your progress you can use your time to research your topic further. After you make great progress on that you can update your note to me at the end of the period.

Friday, September 12, 2008

English Journal and Themes

Today we will create a new Google Doc that will be your English Journal. It will be a place where you can do short daily assignments without constantly having to create new documents and share them with me daily.
This is important. You will ALWAYS put your most recent work at THE TOP of this document. That way neither of us has to scroll down a lot to find your current efforts.
  1. Go to Google Docs now and create a new document.
  2. Name it properly (i.e. 4JBEnglish Journal)
  3. Also include your full name at the top of the page.
  4. Share it with me immediately! (Create it, save it, share it.)
Today we are going to begin talking about themes in political speech. You will use the two links below in a moment. You can preview them now IF you have ALREADY created and shared your English Journal.

10 Themes in Political Speeches
Two speeches to look at

Thursday, September 11, 2008

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.
Inspirational Speakers

  1. Start a new Google Doc. Name it by period #, initials and speech 4JBspeech
  2. Go to the link above and look at some of the speeches there.
  3. Choose a speech and read it.
  4. Find a quote from the speech that you think is expressing a belief or assumption.
  5. Copy and paste that quote into your document.
  6. Write a paragraph to explain that quote. Make sure you include the title and author of the speech.
  7. Include words like assumption, belief, implicit and explicit. Use them correctly.
  8. VERY IMPORTANT SHARE YOUR DOCUMENT WITH ME!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Week 2

Good Morning!
You have found the blog. Good. Today you will use the blog as your starting place.

1. First you will visit Google Docs. When you get there sign in using your g-mail address and password. You will start a New Document in Google Docs.

2. This will be the first thing you type on your new document: The number of your period, your initials and 'assumptions'. (I know this sounds weird, trust me). For example if your name is John Brown and you are in my 4th period class you would type, 4JBassumptions.
(This will help me a lot when you all start to shre your papers with me. I will easily be able to tell what period and assignment, while the initials will help me to make sure I have the right student. )

3.After you have been to Google Docs come back to the blog on another tab. (Ask for help if you don't know what that means.) Now you should have at least two tabs, one for the blog and one for Google Docs. We are going to add another.

4. Today we begin work around standard 2.5 Analyze an author's implicit and explicit philosophical assumptions and beliefs about a subject.
I will teach you about assumptions and then...

5. You will seek out five quotes from the speech Sarah Palin gave last week and explain the assumption in each quote.

6. You will cut and paste the quotes into your new Google Docs document and then explain the assumption she is making in that statement.
Another source for Sarah Palin's speech in case the first one doesn't work out.