Research, Prepare, Present

Good morning,

In preparation for our reading of The Crucible (you have checked that out right?) you will be spending the next two days working on a mini-research project and preparing a presentation about a related topic.

• I will assign you to a group and I'll assign your group a topic.
• Share a presentation with each other in Google Docs so that you can all contribute what you find. Work quickly.  You should have 8-10 slides. 
• Consider history (origins), definitions, examples, important facts, impact on society, future significance, important individuals etc.
• Incorporate (and cite) images related to your topic to make your presentation interesting to your audience.
• Create three multiple choice questions that someone would be able to answer after listening to your presentation. Consider “why and how” questions first.  (Your group will turn in these questions tomorrow.)
• Each person in your group will be presenting this at least once to another group of peers.

Topics:

1.    Communism in the 1950’s
2.    Cold War Period (focus on 1950’s)
3.    Rise and Effects of McCarthyism
4.    Mass Hysteria
5.    Arthur Miller
6.    Puritan New England
7.    Salem Witch Trials

The Week Ahead

I know you won't forget that your Crucible Project is due on Wednesday. Remember the library is open after school if you need a computer to work on.

CAHSEE is Tuesday and Wednesday. A third of my students need to take the English or Math section or both. Please make sure to be on time and bring your ID.

Don't forget to change your Facebook privacy settings and LIKE the Mrs. Roberts Class page. I won't be able to see your status updates IF you have your privacy settings set correctly to "Friends Only". Parents can LIKE the page too if they want to know what's happening in our class.

Thursday there is no school, and Friday I thought might be the perfect day to show you the last part of The Crucible film.

Thesis Statement Frames

This was the presentation I showed you today about ways you can write your thesis statement.

Thesis statement practice

Recently, looking at your drafts I found we have an unexpected problem. Similar to the great run-on sentence crisis we had with our Orgins stories, we now have a crisis of Thesis Statements. Despite all the talk I hear from 9th grade teachers about teaching thesis statement, you, my students, still do not know what they are, how to create them or what to do with them. (There is plenty of evidence for this in your drafts.)

Today in class we looked at 11 statements.  I asked you to respond to each one by writing, "This is/is not a thesis statement because." All of the statements I showed you came from your drafts. At the end we reviewed them and then you wrote your own thesis statement.

Google Books

Good morning,
 Yesterday our work was focused on those of you needing to add evidence to your essays. We looked at how quoted evidence makes your argument stronger and also at some of the sentence starters you can use to follow a quote.

Today I want to give a little help to those of you working on project option 1, but the rest of you will also likely find some time soon when this will be helpful to you. We are going to look at Google Books.

With Google Books you can search by title or topic. And then, once you have found the book you can even search INSIDE the book. Try it. Search for "salem witch trials", pick a book and then use the search box on the left that says "search in this book". Try typing in the name of a person you are interested in, Proctor for example.

Why would it be helpful to be able to find a book like this on-line? Why would it be helpful to be able to search inside the book? How would you cite your source? Is this a primary or secondary source? (trick question)

A few of you still need to share your Crucible Project with me in Google Docs. Please make sure you do that today.  Your draft is due tomorrow.

The Crucible: Project Phase

Good morning,
  You've read The Crucible, most of it anyway. You are ready to take it to the next level. It's time for a project.
Check out this page of Crucible Project Options. Choose your project carefully. We will use the Source From to help each other with sources. View Sources Here!

The Crucible Act III Quiz and English Journal Entry

Good morning,
Are you ready for the Act III quiz?  Sure you are. Some of your classmates are probably already taking the quiz. You're not because you know that sometimes I hide hints and clues and secret words up here in the introductory text. So you are reading this hoping for something that will help you with an extra point or two. I'll tell you this. You can find at least 1-2 right answers by looking at the vocabulary list for Act III.

TAKE ACT III QUIZ HERE

ENGLISH JOURNAL WORK:

After you finish the quiz please open your English Journal and add another character diary entry. You are not writing ABOUT the character. You are writing like YOU ARE the character. Show what he or she would be thinking at this point. Remember what motivates your character. Include what he or she might be thinking about the OTHER characters in the play.

Also try Recomending a Book to the class. Hint Look for the  "Submit a suggestion" button at the bottom of the page.

Dramatic Irony- I know something you don't know...

Hello,
  If you were here today you know we watched a short video. It's from you-tube so you won't be able to view it again at school, but if you are at home you can take another look. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP-1kt92vqY
(Insert big lecture about why smoking is very bad for you and the people you love.)

The point of watching that was to learn about dramatic irony.  Dramatic irony, as we discovered in class, is when the audience knows something that one of the characters does not. In this case the woman did not know that the can belonged to the man and the man did not know what she put in the can.

We are looking for examples of dramatic irony in The Crucible, especially in Act III.
And you have homework, so be sure to check the homework link on the right.

A cinematic experience...

Today was the close of the grading period. Most of you got to watch the first 45 minutes of The Crucible film while I met individually with people I needed to talk to.

Some things I hope you noticed:

• The film is able to show the story in several more settings than the play can.
• The filmmakers chose to mix together information and events from Act I and Act II.
• And you saw what John Proctor was holding the first time he appeared on screen right?

The Plot Thickens...

Good morning,
 We finished Act II yesterday and we've been learning about that plot graph (see post below). Let's see what you know. We are going to take a quiz on Act II.  Once again I expect many of you are not actually reading this, so again I wish to reward those of you who are. I have a new secret word for you. It is prodigious. You must add it at the end of the first short answer question. I suggest making it all caps.

TAKE ACT II QUIZ HERE

Post-Quiz Priorties

1. English Journal- Make sure you have it complete, neat, dated in reverse etc. 
2. Origins Story- Make corrections if you need to. If you think it is perfect and I should print it let me know.

If all of that is FABULOUS then you can check out these resources below related to the Salem Witch Trials.
John Proctor's Diary
Which Witch?
Secrets of the Dead

Reading Act II

This morning I drew two lines on the board and asked if any of you recognized them. Some of you did. (I wish more of you did.)

We eventually decided this was the plot graph commonly found in literature, plays, movies and even TV shows.

I told you that this graph applies to the four acts of The Crucible, but there is also a plot graph like this for each act. Then you read more of Act II with your group.  We are looking for the climax of Act II.

Let's take a quiz

Good morning,
 I know you're not really reading this. Most of you already clicked the link below for the quiz, but I'm going to write it anyway. If you are reading this I wish to reward you. Add the secret word, apple, at the very end of the written question on the quiz and I will give you an extra point. Don't tell or no one gets it.
TAKE ACT I QUIZ HERE

ENGLISH JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT

On Monday night I asked you to write a diary entry showing the thoughts of ONE of the characters in Act I. At that point we had only read a bit of the play though, so you may not have known your character very well. Go now to your English Journal and write another diary entry showing the thoughts of ONE character at the end of Act I. You can write from the POV of the same character or a different one.

 Pointer News:  You need to know what's going on. Joint the Pointer news e-blast. Go to the school website and enter your e-mail address in the box near the upper left. Follow the directions.

Also read today's bulletin here!

The Crucible, Act I

 The presentation below follows the characters as they enter and leave the stage in Act I. If you were absent Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday please check the homework page.

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?

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 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

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!

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.

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!

Abigail's Fate?

Good morning,
In a moment we will read more of Act II, but first in your EJ write an entry about the question below.

• What do you think will happen to Abigail Williams at the end of the play? Explain why you think this will happen. (10 minutes)

If you didn't finish the vocabulary entry from yesterday find some time to work on that later today. The Library is open after school and you can come here and use a computer at Advisory (with a pass) or at lunch.