Short Week with Projects

Monday holidays make for a very short week for us.  We started the week off with vocabulary quizzes, which we always have on Tuesdays.  Despite the warnings of a quiz after a Monday holiday, the quizzes caught many students in a less than prepared state.  Ninth graders are finishing the Red Badge of Courage this week.  They will have an individual playlist project, complete with album cover art.  They will also have a group project to build a scene from the book, including a symbol as represented in the book.  We will have a presentation of these projects next week in a combined ninth grade event.  We will also have a test on this book next week, probably Thursday, March 2.

Tenth graders are starting a research paper that will include both Government and English content. This means that students will write one paper that will be major grades in two classes.  We have been preparing by learning about audience, tone and purpose.  We also have learned how to write  quality thesis statement and practiced ordering information from broad to narrow.  Of course we have covered how to avoid plagiarism. Because they will work in both classes, we have a tight timeline with the outline due on Monday Feb. 27.  Also, a reminder that tenth graders will take the PSAT exam next Tuesday, Feb. 28.

Reading and Test Prep

Ninth graders turned in a Strong similarity paper today, comparing a idea from a Walt Whitman poem with an idea from The Red Badge of Courage.  They shared ideas today and I was impressed with their depth of thought and analysis.  This week, they will have a lot of reading as we plan to finish the Red Badge of Courage by Thursday.  Keeping this pace will mean some will be assigned for homework, but we will have it finished by the long weekend.  Ninth graders also made our last vocab organizer with just ten words for the next quiz, Tuesday 2/21.  This should be a slam dunk, since they know the words and have over a week to prepare.  If you are at the school,come check out the character analysis Bio Poems hanging outside the classroom.  They are really fun to read.

Tenth graders are finishing an Anton Chekhov short story unit.  They have read and discussed some interesting short stories.  These stories don't have traditional endings, so they have been somewhat unsatisfying to some students, but the conversations we have had as we analyze and interpret the stories have been deep and interesting. We will take a comprehension quiz this week on Chekhov's stories, then we will do a little test prep for the PSAT that students will take at the end of this month.  It may not be the most exciting way to spend our class time, but because this is a National Merit Scholarship qualifying test, it could be a very profitable way to spend two days this week!

Have a great week!

Reading Assignments

Here's what's ahead in our week in English class.  Ninth graders are continuing on in The Red Badge of Courage, focusing on Figurative language.  They are also learning about symbolism in literature and learning strategies for identifying symbolism when they encounter it as they read. They will learn about other figurative language, such as allusions and euphemisms, with practice coming through IXL standards.

Tenth graders are learning about the Russian author Anton Chekhov and his unique approach to endings in fiction writing.  We will learn three types of endings used by Chekhov, reading a short story with an example.  We will also start learning some research writing skills for an upcoming research paper.  We have focused heavily on the reading knowing that we would shift to writing soon.  Tenth graders will have IXL standards due for homework this week in conjunction with that.

All students have a book report on March 8.  This should be on a self-selected book at their independent reading level that they are reading at school and at home.  Have a great week!