Studying on your own.

Good morning,  (Read all of this.)

You have created a study guide with your group, worked in another group by months, and presented your work from your month group to your home group.  You have a view-only copy of every group's study guide and every month group's presentation.

It is time to work on your own. You could review study guides and presentations if you were absent Friday, re-read something you missed or forgot and summarize it for yourself (and your group), or work on an assignment from weeks ago that you want me to re-grade. You can also still submit questions you think I should use on the final.

Requirements:

1. Go to your EJ and write an entry about what you are planning to do today.
2. Do it
3. Write in your EJ about what you did and how it went.

Presenting your study guides.

Good morning,

First go to your English Journal and answer the question below. You probably want to look at the EJ scoring guide too.

What grade do you think you have earned on your EJ and why?

Today you will meet with your writing group to give your presentations for the month you worked on for the study guide. All the presentations are shared with you in your 3rd period View Only folder in Google Docs. You will reflect on each presentation and score it right after the person presents. Before you start take a look at the form you will be using to reflect and score. Return to it after each presenter.

Here is the link I promised you to the questions you suggested for the final. There is plenty of room for more.
Suggested Final Questions

Don't forget to use your...

PLHS English Department Classroom Video

Suggesting Final Questions

Good morning,

I want to give you a chance to suggest questions for the final. You can use this form.
Later this week I will publish your collected suggested questions and you can use those to help you study as well.

Making a study guide for the final, collaboratively.

Looking at more poetry

Good morning,
We've been looking at poetry and today we are going to look at a lot more.
We've been looking for the subject and ideas in poems.
We've also been looking at literal and figurative language.

So you are now going to work with a partner whom I have carefully selected for you. You and your partner will view five poems and work together to find the subject and ideas in the poem. The poems are in the presentation below. It will help to view it full screen.

Comparing poems about walls

Last week we read Mending Wall by Robert Frost. Go back and read it again to your self. In a moment we are going to look at another poem about walls.

Now listen to what Roger Water's said about walls. I bet you have heard this before, but have you ever looked beyond the subject of his words. There is a point and a theme going on here.

Now open your "Am Lit View Only Folder" in Google Docs. You will find a new file there called Comparing Poems. Follow the directions at the top of the page. Ask for help if you need it.

You have homework: Read the poem The Latin Deli on page 1224 in your textbook. After you read it write (on paper) a response to the poem in which you discuss the subject of the poem and the ideas in it.  If you wish to read it on line the book it is in can be found here through Google Books. It is on page 3. You will need to scroll to it.

Mending Wall

Poems have two parts, a subject and an idea. The idea leads you to the theme. Sometimes you can figure out the idea without understanding the subject.

Today we will look at a famous poem, Mending Wall by a famous poet, Robert Frost. It has a very clear subject this time, but can you figure out the idea? (This is the reverse of yesterday.)

The poem is shared with you in your writing group folder. Please go to docs and find the poem in your folder. Listen while I play the poem for you and then use the chat window to discuss it with your group. Remember your guidelines for discussions about literature.

Today you are specifically looking for the IDEAS of this poem.

What makes a poem?

Today we looked at a poem by Sylvia Plath without the title. I asked you what you thought it was about. You gave me many interesting answers, various animals, various groups of people, etc. None of them were the true subject of the poem though. (I knew they would not be right.) Then I asked you for the ideas in the poem. You told me conquering, rebellion, growing, nature, coming of age, revolution, etc. Your ideas about the ideas in the poem were all great. Even without knowing for sure what "things" the poem was about you could still figure out the ideas in it.

Poems have two component parts, a subject and an idea. Sometimes you can figure out the idea even if you cant figure out the subject.

Below is the presentation of the poem with LITTERAL images. Litteral is when something is exactly what it says. You told me this poem is really FIGURATIVE. The author is using metaphor and personification to describe her subject. The real subject of the poem is pictured on the very last slide.

Explaining your visual metaphor

You'll meet with your group today to explain the visual metaphor that you created yesterday. You'll only have 10-15 minutes max.

Explain what you drew and why.
Challenge each other to extend your answers.

____________ is the __________________ because he said, "______________________" which means that  _________________________, and that lead to _______________________________.

Visual Mataphors of Civil Disobedience

Today you will create / draw a visual metaphor to show how the thinking of Emerson, Thoreau, Gandhi and King are connected.  I drew an example on the board. You need to come up with your own.  I will explain more in class.

Making a table to track our learning

Good Morning,

Welcome back. Lets get to it with a little recap. 
Today I want to teach you some things about using tables in Google Docs (or any word processor)
A table is great for organizing information to help you brainstorm, or present information to others.
In your English Journal you are going to create a table with two rows and two columns. Like the one below.

 

Rows go across and columns go up and down.

Label your two top cells Content and Skills. Use the cells underneath each box to list the content and skills you know NOW after being in this class. Use your EJ, the blog and any other docs you need to help you find the things you want to use to complete your table.

I'll be popping into your EJ to check your progress.