Thursday, January 27, 2011

Thursday - January 27, 2011

1st Per - Creative Writing:
We read the George Orwell story "To Shoot an Elephant" in class and discussed it.  No homework.  Papers and Journal entries due tomorrow. 

2nd Per - Honors
We discussed the 3 poems from pages 316, 317, and 318 and the compare and contrast responses you wrote for them.  We also started to read the George Orwell story "To shoot an Elephant."  We'll finish it on Monday or Tuesday and discuss it. 

3rd Per - 8th Grade
Mrs. Henley has provided a handout of how to organize a persuasive essay.  We spent the period reviewing this and discussing good essay organization.  I have copies of it on my homework counter.  Please pick one up if you didn't get one in class today.  No homework today, but don't forget to study for the vocab and spelling tests tomorrow!  We also had a little spell-off in class to choose an alternate member of the spelling Bee team.  Alex was the lucky winner and will step in if one of the other three can't go. 

4th per - 7th Grade
We read from page 212 today and discussed the article about Bubonic plague in Europe and it's ramifications.  This was tied in to students ability to grab the most important information from a book and be able to write a credible response to a question asked about the topic.  We also had a brief spell off to pick an alternate member of the spelling bee team for the 7th grade.  Rachel B. won this and will take the place of one of the other three if they can't or won't go.  Congrats, Rachel!

5th per - 12th Grade
We read from the text two other poems from John donne.  The one on page 292 - called a Valediction forbidding mourning was about a son that Donne lost.  The other, on page 290 was probably written after he had been unsuccessful winning some woman's heart earlier in his life, or had been scorned by such a woman.  We contrasted these two poems with the Meditation 17 on page 297.  No homework, but remember to study for the vocab and spelling tests tomorrow. 

6th per - 10th Grade
Its ESSAY Time!  Yea!!! 

Part 1:
You will research the life of one of the authors in your textbook.  We will chose authors on Monday or Tuesday of next week.  The paper should be between 2 - 4 pages long, will include citations and a works cited page and will discuss:
-The writer's early life.  What was their upbrining like?  Where did they live?  Parents?  Siblings? Etc. 
-The writer's career life.  Many writers are not successful paying the bills with their work, or they are simply discovered after they are dead.  If the person was an unapprecaited living author, how then, did they  make their living?  How might that tie in with their stories?  Herman Melville spent several years out at sea on a whaling ship before he ever wrote Moby Dick.  It obviously influenced his writing greatly. 
-IF the author was lucky enough to be paid to write, what was that part of their life like? 

Part 2:
You will put together a "Prezi" on the computer showcasing the author's life.  You will need an email account to log into and use Prezi, but the basic service is free.  You will present these to the rest of the class sometime the following week.  We will have several days on the computers to put these together.  Prezi is not too hard to use, but it does have a learning curve, so you will need some practice. 

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