Monday, November 30, 2009

Grading Essays and Exploring Right and Wrong

Good morning,
I hope you all had a wonderful week off.  Today we have two things to accomplish. The first is to self grade your Crucible Essay on a rubric I will give you. The second is a longer entry in your English Journal.

1. Open your Crucible essay in google docs. Re-read what you have and look carefully at the rubric I just gave you. Circle or highlight the squares on the rubric that you think most accurately describe your paper. I will collect your rubric in a few minutes.

2. English journal entry. Write an extended entry in your English journal about the question below. The point is to really explore who you are about this. Give examples from your life too.
How do you decide what is right and what is wrong?

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Drafting Day

We are going to look at some of your EJ entries from yesterday.  Click the link above to get there. and then I'm giving you time to work on your essay.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Revisiting Act IV

In Act IV of The Crucible Reverend Hale says the quote below to Elizabeth Proctor. Copy and paste the quote into your English Journal and then explain it in your own words.
"Life, woman, life is God's most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it. I beg you, woman, prevail upon your husband to confess. Let him give his lie. Quail not before God's judgment in this, for it may well be that God damns a liar less than he that thows away his life for pride. Will you plead with him? I cannot think he will listen to another."
Crucible Essay Options Please review the options you have for your essay on The Crucible.  Note that a rough draft is due Wednesday and a final draft is due Friday. We will spend most of our class time this week working on this essay, but you should also plan to spend additional time on it outside of class.  The library is open after school daily if you need a computer to work on.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Friday Update

We've finished reading The Crucible.  If you missed reading any part of it I recomend catching up over the weekend. Next week we work on some essay choices.

I understand many of you need to master states and capitals for your history classes.  This is a game that really helps with that.  Select the way you want to play on the left and  then press play on the right.
http://www.yourchildlearns.com/mappuzzle/us-puzzle.html

Friday, November 6, 2009

Friday Update

We finished Act III in period 3 and are almost finished in period 4.  Act III quiz on Monday.  Remember the whole play is in your textbook if you need to read or re-read any sections.  And yes, I did say reading the spark notes online wouldn't hurt you either.

Next week we watch the end of the film and read Act IV, but not necessarily in that order. And you have Wednesday off!

If you are in 4th period please remember to bring back your Federal Survey card and sorry for the phone spam about that.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Author in Context

Good morning,

Part of one of our standards says "Relate literary works and authors to the major themes and issues of their eras."  Today we do a quick check of that.  

In your English Journal please write an entry that explains the connection between McCarthyism, Arthur Miller and The Crucible.

I'll be looking at this one closely when I grade your EJ. You have 12 minutes from the time the bell rings. (You can finish on your own time if you need more.) Then we read more of Act III.

Extra credit option: Write another entry (label it Extra Credit) that explains how "The Devil and Tom Walker" shows that Washington Irving was opposed to slavery.

RETURN YOUR FEDERAL SURVEY CARDS!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The Best of The Crucible On-line

Good morning,

We are short handed another day while many of your classmates are now taking the Math CAHSEE.  Yesterday you saw the History Channel Documentary 'In Search of History: Salem Witch Trials". Today we are going to explore some of the online resources available about The Crucible.

For each site you visit I want you to answer the following questions in your English Journal.

1. What was the site you visited? (duh.)
2. Describe what you found there and explain what you think about what you found. (Hint write several sentences and show your thinking.  This is good for your grade.)

  1. Are you a witch?
  2. Learn More about McCarthyism 
  3. A list of links about the 17th century  
  4. Historical Inaccuracies in the play
  5. Play Salem Witch Craft Jeopardy 
 If you have been to all of these and written intelligently about all of them then you may consider a little scavenger hunt.  Find the following images and add them to your journal along with the URL where you found them.
  1. A picture of Aurthur Miller
  2. A picture of John Proctor or his house
  3. An image of a historical document related to the witch trials.
And / Or  Write a tweet about one of the sites I just sent you to.  Include the hash tag #crucible.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Beginning Act III...then stopping for CAHSEE

Today we read the beginning of Act III. If you were absent you can catch up in your textbook at home.

Tuesday! CAHSEE!  About 1/3 of my students have not passed the English CAHSEE and more for Math.  We will take a two day break from reading the play because so many people will be out with testing. 

In the meantime I have a History Channel Video about the Salem witch trials to show you and a variety of websites to share about Salem and McCarthyism.
Good luck to all of you taking the CAHSEE!