September 3, 2013: What's Happening in English 10?

Focus: How does building background knowledge help us understand a tough story?

1. Warm-up: Sharing weekend research with partners

• What did you learn?

• Which parts of the story did it help you understand?

• What larger understanding of the story does it help create?

2. Finishing "bigger picture" statements and posting the best of the best on the blog

3. Introducing you to the world of SAT vocabulary

• Repeat after me...

• How to make a good flashcard

• Playing a little Scattegories

HW:
1. Find your favorite commercial (that's appropriate for class) and "bring" it class tomorrow; in other words, be prepared to quickly pull it up on youtube.  CANCELLED

2. Start working on your List 1 vocabulary flashcards; flashcards are due Thursday, and the quiz is on Friday.

3. Bring your independent reading book to class on Friday.

4. If you're planning on purchasing your own copy of The Kite Runner, you will need it next Monday.

August 30, 2013: What's Happening in English 10?

Focus: How does reading (and rereading) help me get smarter?

1. Fun Friday warm-up: What the world would look like if we were metacognitive all the time...

2. Relaxing into the world of independent reading; explaining why we do this and giving you time to do it!

3. Practicing a little more with Reading Strategy #3: Ask great questions

• Modeling a sample page from the middle

• Trying it out with the very end

4. Trying out Reading Strategy #4: Build up your background knowledge

• What should we research?
• The rest cure
• Weir Mitchell
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• Postpartum depression
• Anything else?

• How does our research help inform our understanding of "The Yellow Wallpaper"? Select ONE topic to research, then find at least THREE places in the story that your research helps you understand.  In the margins, explain what new understanding you've achieved thanks to this research.

HW:
1. Finish today's research activity (see directions right above in blue).

2. Spend 30 minutes with your independent reading book.

August 29, 2013: What's Happening in English 10?

Focus: How can great questions get us to great answers when we're reading tricky texts?

Reading strategy #3: Ask great questions

1. Warm-up: Asking the important questions from your metacognitives (and giving them answers)

2. Forming the "Bigger Picture" for both poems

a. Picking out the most important words on the board: In a word, this poem is about...

For example: In a word, this poem is about falling.

b. Looking at these words, form a full statement about each poem: On a deeper level, this poem is about...

For example: On a deeper level, this poem is about the world's indifference to tragedy.

3. Partners: Trying out "great questions" with last night's story, "The Yellow Wallpaper"; silent blog musings

HW:
1. Finish reading "The Yellow Wallpaper"; as you annotate, keep asking great questions, but try also to answer some of your own questions so that you can start to establish this story's bigger picture.

2. Bring your independent reading book and permission slip to class tomorrow.

August 28, 2013: What's Happening in English 10?

Focus: How can use questions to find our way into tough poems and stories?

PLC--Shortened class today

1. Gearing up with Reading Strategy #3: Ask great questions

a. Click here for a document called "How To Ask a Great Question" (also linked at the top of the class website).

b. Trying out Reading Strategy #3 with a metacognitive writing. Click HERE for an example.



2. Using Reading Strategy #3 with a crazy short story called "The Yellow Wallpaper."

HW:
1. Please finish reading "The Yellow Wallpaper" tonight; as you read, annotate using our reading strategies:
#1: Spend some time pulling out the little details/clues that might give away the bigger picture.
#2: When you come across something unfamiliar, try to connect it to something familiar.
#3: Ask great questions (see handout linked above for help).

2. Bring your independent reading book and permission slip to class on Friday.

3. If you're still feeling kind of lost with the painting from the weekend and the poems from last night, click HERE for a little help.

August 27, 2013: What's Happening in English 10?

Focus: How can we apply our reading strategies for paintings to poems and song lyrics?

Click HERE for all of this week's slides viewed in class.

(3rd hour: Reading the myth of Daedalus and Icarus and using it to reexamine the blog post from the weekend)

1. Warm-up: Using yesterday's reading strategies to analyze each other's lyrics

a. As you listen to each song, read the lyrics and mark up at least FIVE clues/little details that seem important to the song's larger message.

b. At the end of each song, compose a thoughtful, thorough thesis statement arguing what you think is the song's larger picture.


2.  Rereading the myth of Daedalus and Icarus (which you can access by clicking HERE)

Making sense of the myth...

(a) Imagine Icarus as the average 21st century teenager and Daedalus as the typical father.  What qualities does Icarus share with you or your friends?  What qualities does Daedalus share with your father/stepfather/friend's father?

(b) What might the "wings" translate into in the 21st century?

(c) What might the sun symbolize?  What about the water?

(d) What are the lessons to be learned here?

3. Performing a physically close reading of a poem about Icarus and Daedalus   (Remember the painting "The Fall of Icarus"?  That one little detail was crucial to understanding the entire painting; figure out which details of the poems are crucial.)

4. Small groups: Applying your new reading powers to two challenging Icarus and Daedalus poems, which you can access by clicking HERE.

HW:

1. On your own, please complete the tasks you started with your small groups today.  Remember that you need to do the following for EACH poem:

a. Mark up all crucial details/the "little clues" in each poem (you can either annotate in the margins like we did with the song lyrics or create a chart like we did with the paintings), and...

b. Form a thesis statement asserting what you see as the poem's "bigger picture."  In other words, what statement is this poem making about the painting, the myth, or both?

2. Bring your independent reading book and permission slip to class on Friday.

3. Got Blogger issues?  Please resolve them by the end of week, at which point e-mailed blogs will no longer accepted.

August 26, 2013: What's Happening in English 10?

Focus: How can we empower ourselves as strong visual readers?

You can access all of today's slides by clicking HERE.

1. Warm-up: Celebrating a few A+ blogs!

2. Recapping Friday's reading strategy and trying out a second reading strategy with some tougher paintings

3. Reading the myth of Daedalus and Icarus (which you can access by clicking HERE)

Making sense of the myth...

(a) Imagine Icarus as the average 21st century teenager and Daedalus as the typical father.  What qualities does Icarus share with you or your friends?  What qualities does Daedalus share with your father/stepfather/friend's father?

(b) What might the "wings" translate into in the 21st century?

(c) What might the sun symbolize?  What about the water?

(d) What are the lessons to be learned here?

4. Returning to last night's painting armed with yet one more reading strategy

5. Composing your "exit ticket": Go back to the painting you analyzed over the weekend.  Employing at least one of the three reading strategies we've talked about so far, add something to your original comment that you didn't understand or notice the first time around.

HW: 
1. Bring a HARD COPY of meaningful and appropriate song lyrics to class tomorrow (in other words, there needs to be something of substance in there to analyze; avoid lyrics that may offend others).

2. Bring in the song itself and headphones.

3. You need your independent reading book and blue permission slip this Friday.

August 23, 2013: What's Happening in English 10?

Focus: What strategies do we use to understand visual texts?

1. Warm-up: Finishing the last part of your critical reading boot camp pre-test

2. Establishing your main reading strategy: Using little clues to develop the larger picture

3. Applying your new reading strategy to a few paintings by Norman Rockwell

HW:

1. Please complete the NEW homework blog by THIS MONDAY.  Click on the appropriate link below for specific directions and post your comments on that blog (not this one):

Click here for the 1st Hour Homework and Fishbowl Blog

Click here for the 3rd Hour Homework and Fishbowl Blog

Click here for the 6th Hour Homework and Fishbowl Blog

2. Remember that you need a physical copy of your independent reading book and your signed permission form in class on Friday, August 30.

August 22, 2013: What's Happening in English 10?

Focus: What strategies do you currently use as a reader?  What are your strengths and weaknesses as a reader?

1. Warm-up: Quickly recapping independent reading and explaining tonight's homework

• Your book should be one that you haven't yet read.
• Your book should be at your reading level (remember the "five finger" rule).
• You should really, really like your book; take your time picking it out.
• You need both your book and your signed permission form on Friday, August 30.

2. Taking the Critical Reading Boot Camp pre-test!

Please open the pre-test link above, click on File, then Make a copy.

Rename the test so that your first and last name come right before the original title.

Share your test with me: kleclaire@lps.k12.co.us

"Roll Away Your Stone"

Visa Commercial

3. Turning in your pre-tests OR taking them home to finish

HW:
1. Finish your pre-test if you did not do so in class.

2. Please complete the NEW homework blog by THIS MONDAY.  Click on the appropriate link below for specific directions and post your comments on that blog (not this one):

Click here for the 1st Hour Homework and Fishbowl Blog

Click here for the 3rd Hour Homework and Fishbowl Blog

Click here for the 6th Hour Homework and Fishbowl Blog

3. Remember that you need a physical copy of your independent reading book and your signed permission form in class on Friday, August 30.

August 21, 2013: What's Happening in English 10?

Focus: What are this class's policies and expectations of technology and independent reading?

If you have not done so yet, please turn in your signed class policies at the beginning of class.

1. Warm-up: Taking the technology oath!

2. Establishing blogging policies and membership grid groups

a. Please peruse the post and the comments for the two blogs linked below.  As you read quietly, think about which ones are strong and which ones are weak.  What makes the strong ones strong, and what makes the weak ones weak?

Click HERE for a sample homework blog.

Click here for a sample fishbowl blog.

b. In your membership grid groups, first fill out your names across the top.  Please fill in your first topic: "Blogging Expectations."  

c. As a group, decide on FIVE specific blogging policies for this class that will help keep our blogs strong.

d. I will compile your answers and print them out for the class to sign.

3. Perusing and commenting on each other's "If You Really Knew Me" posts

4. Browsing books and understanding the purpose and focus of independent reading this semester

Click HERE for an overview of independent reading.

HW:
1. If you're going to check out your book from the library, go ahead and check it out.  If you're going to purchase it, go ahead and order it or figure out when you're going to get to the bookstore.  The first day you will need your book is Friday, August 30.

2. Once you have decided on your book, ask your parents to sign the letter distributed in class today.  This letter is also due Friday, August 30 (note: you will not be able to start your independent reading book until I have your parents' permission unless you selected a school-approved book).

If You Really Knew Me...

In an effort to get to know each other and trust each other, I'd like you to take a little risk and post five things that you'd like other people in the class to know about you. The quirkier/more unique and personal, the better.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: PLEASE TYPE YOUR HOUR (1ST, 3RD, OR 6TH) AT THE VERY TOP 

OF YOUR POST. THANKS!!!

Here are my five:

1. I am a terrible sport and throw a fit when I lose--especially when it comes to board and card games.

2. I have a phobia of people throwing up.

3. I refuse to eat fruit when it's suspended in gelatinous substances.

4. Every night before I go to bed, I go into Sam's room and quietly thank him for being alive.

5. I really want to be writer, but I've never submitted anything to publication because I'm afraid of my work being rejected.

Your First Blogging Task!

Thanks for stopping by!

1. Your first mission: Subscribe to this blog by going to your dashboard, clicking the Add button, and entering our class blog's URL. Make sure you are signed into blogger before you do this.

2. Once you are signed in, you will notice that there are other options for connecting to this blog as well, including e-mail, Twitter and Facebook.  This is purely up to you, but you do need to join the site as explained in task #1.

3. Please make sure that your display name is your first name and your last initial (and it's fine if you also have your graduating year at the end).  If this is not your current user name, please change your user name at this time.

Ex: Philip Barner's user name would be Philip B  OR Philip B 2015.

Congratulations!  You have officially joined the prestigious community that is this English 10 blog.

August 20, 2013: What's Happening in English 10?

Focus: What are our laptop and blogging expectations?

1. Human minesweeper: Remembering the important stuff from yesterday

2. Collecting your letters from last night

3. The search is on!  Enjoying a brief class scavenger hunt

4. Establishing laptop policies and distributing eee's

5. Exploring blogs of the past and using membership grids to establish blogging policies for this class.

a. Please peruse the post and the comments for the two blogs linked below.  As you read quietly, think about which ones are strong and which ones are weak.  What makes the strong ones strong, and what makes the weak ones weak?

Click HERE for a sample homework blog.

Click here for a sample fishbowl blog.

b. In your membership grid groups, first fill out your names across the top.  Please fill in your first topic: "Blogging Expectations."  

c. As a group, decide on FIVE specific blogging policies for this class that will help keep our blogs strong.

d. I will compile your answers and print them out for the class to sign.

HW: 
1. Complete the first TWO blogging assignments tonight (due tomorrow).
2. Signed class policies are also due tomorrow.

August 19, 2013: What's Happening in English 10?

Focus: What would we like to know about each other and about this class?

1. Telling you a little bit about my journey

2. Telling me a little bit about yourself through "Wordless Introductions"

3. Investigating the syllabus and your new student calendars

         Write your name and my name inside your calendar.

          Look carefully at the table of contents. Find five different pages/sections of your student calendar (aside from the pages where you record your assignments) that you think could be useful to you. Use the tabs in the back to mark these pages.

         Please record my off hours on page 20. I will be in the study center during 4th hour (1st lunch) on Fridays.

4. Explaining your first English 10 assignment ("Dear Ms. Leclaire...")

5. Enjoying a brief scavenger hunt!

HW: 
1. Please compose a one or two page letter to me in which you tell me anything you’re willing to share about yourself. The better I know you, the better teacher I can be to you; please be as personal as you wish.  Your letters will be confidential. They may be typed or handwritten.

Please put a picture of you that you like at the top of your letter (you’ll get your picture back).

2. Signed class policies due Wednesday, August 21.

3. Make sure you have a functioning Google account and Blogger account (and that you remember your password!).