09.30 - High School Sports (sub)

I was not in class today as I was out on a NEASC school visit. The instructions for today for the class were as follows:

Have students read the article “The Case Against High School Sports” and respond to the reading questions. Make sure they understand that there are Pre-Reading, Reading, and Post-Reading questions that they answer before, during, and after reading (respectively).

They should return the articles at the end of class for other classes to read.

They can turn in their responses at the end of class if they are done or finish them for homework and hand them in tomorrow.

The Case Against High School Sports - Article
The Case Against High School Sports - Processing Questions


Homework:

If you did not finish the reading and questions today from the work in class, do so for homework.

09.27 - Roots and Prefixes / NWEA Wrap Up

We started today's class by finishing sharing out the research on allegorical figures in Animal Farm that we worked on yesterday.

We then had our roots and prefixes quiz for the set 2 words.

After this, we moved to Ms. Gervais' room so that people who had yet to finish doing their NWEA testing could wrap that up. While they finished their tests, those who were already done worked on completing or revising work for Animal Farm that was not yet done.

Homework:

If you have not completed or need to revise your Animal Farm character analysis or utopian story scenes, do so for homework.

09.26 - Allegory Research Wrap Up

We started today's class with the following writing prompt for everyone's writer's journals:

Using three of the roots or prefixes from this week's list, create and define three new words.
OR
Using three of the roots or prefixes from this week's list, create and describe a superhero (or villain) whose power is connected the meaning of the root or prefix.

Feel free to combine those two options in any way you choose. Just be sure to use three roots or prefixes.

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, everyone shared out their answers.

Next, people met with their partners from the Animal Farm character analysis activity to complete their research and report out on the allegorical figure/group/element that their Animal Farm character represented in the book.

Groups had until the last ten minutes of class to finish finding 5 facts from 3 different sources about their figure/group/element and to create a poster with a drawing that represented or depicted their figure surrounded by the facts they found and adjectives that described that figure.

At the end of class, we began sharing out facts about the allegorical figures and looking at how they were connected to the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Homework:

If you did not complete your research today in class, do so for homework.

If you have not completed your Animal Farm character analysis or utopian story scenes, do so for homework.

09.25 - NWEAs (Language)

We had our second round of NWEA testing today. Today's test focused on language skills. We will have some available make up time in the next couple of days for anyone who did not have time to finish their test.

Homework:

Study the roots and prefixes quiz for Friday.

09.24 - Roots and Prefixes Set 2

Today in class we focused on the set two roots and prefixes. Everyone worked to fill out the roots/prefixes sheet individually and then we shared and recorded our answers as a class. These notes are available below.

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We did not define the words that people gave as new examples in writing to save time. 

We did address and talk about these examples in class though.

We then went over the back of this sheet and talked about which words fit into which sentences.

We will have a quiz over this material on Friday.

Extra copies of today's handouts are available here:

Roots/Prefixes Word List

Roots/Prefixes Practice Sentences

Homework:

Review the set two roots/prefixes for our quiz on Friday.

09.23 - Utopian Scene Compilation

At the beginning of class today, everyone responded to the following prompt in their writing journal:

Consider the person, organization, or group of people you researched as part of our allegory exploration in Animal Farm. Would that person/organization/group fit into your utopia well? Explain why or why not?

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, we discussed students answers and I kept track of them on the board (see below).

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We then returned to working with the scenes we have been writing for individuals' utopias. According to where each person was at they were either:

Typing their scenes from their writing journal on to Google Drive (files should be shared with caleb.collins.lhs@gmail.com)

or

Finishing writing the scenes so that they can be typed.

A description of these scenes is as follows:

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Homework:

Finish typing your scenes from your Utopia into Google Drive. Share all scenes with caleb.collins.lhs@gmail.com

Continue to read Animal Farm according to the class schedule.

09.20 - Allegory in Animal Farm

Today we focused on allegory in Animal Farm. We started out by defining an allegory in comparison to a fable. Both are fanciful stories made up to teach a lesson and entertain people. While everything in a fable is fictional, allegory has characters, places, and events that are based on or are intended to represent real people, places and events. Animal Farm was written as an allegory for the Russian Revolution in 1917 and rise of Soviet power.

In discussing how Animal Farm is an allegory for the Russian revolution we looked at which characters aligned with which people or elements of the revolution. We made connections between all of the characters that we have been looking at through our character analysis in the book and used these characters to study their corresponding historical figure/element in the Russian revolution. Everyone used the Allegory Fact Sheet to record information they found about their subject.

Directions for filling out the fact sheet and the character/allegorical subject match up is listed below.

 

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To review the discussion on allegory v. simile and allegory in Animal Farm check out this document which summarizes these points: Allegory in Animal Farm

(In class, we reviewed slides 1-11 and 14).

Homework:

If you did not finish it in class, complete the Allegory Fact Sheet

Continue to read Animal Farm according to the class schedule.

09.19 - Challenging Rules

At the beginning of class, everyone responded to the following prompt in their writing journal:

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After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, we discussed everyone's answers.

We then had the Unit 1, Set 1 roots and prefixes quiz for the words we had been going over. If you were not in class to take this, please see me and I can get you set up with it.

After the quiz, everyone had at least 10 minutes to read in Animal Farm. People could either work on keeping pace with the assigned reading or, if they were caught up, were asked to help find the spots in the book where the commandments of Animal Farm are altered. We discussed these moments at the end of the reading time and talked about how all of the shifts were made to better serve the pigs.  Our notes form this discussion were as follows:

 

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We then had our third writing assignment related to people's personal utopias which was:

Write a scene that takes place in your utopia where one of the rules of your utopia is challenged. Show how the rule is challenged and what happens as a result. Feel free to use characters you have already mentioned or to introduce new characters.

In class we clarified that the rule that is challenged does not have to be changed. This piece of writing is simply designed to show how the people within your utopia deal with enforcing their rules.

Homework:

If you did not finish writing the scene for your story in class, do so for homework.

Continue to read Animal Farm according to the class schedule.

09.18 - NWEA Testing

Today's class was dedicated to taking the NWEA test for reading so we did not have regular class activities.

Students who did not complete the reading test today will have an opportunity to complete the test at a later time. I will have more information on these dates in a few days.

We will be taking the NWEA language test on September 25th.


Homework:

If you did not finish tracking your character through page 89 yesterday and/or did not get to finish your response to the question above about your character's evolution, please do so for homework.

Continue to read Animal Farm according to the class schedule.

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09.17 - Character Analysis in Animal Farm (Part II)

We started today's class with ten minutes of reading in Animal Farm. We then picked back up with our tracking and analysis of characters in the book. Everyone kept the same characters that they had before (on 09/11 and 09/12).

Working individually, people noted where the character continued to come up in the book from pages 44 to 89 and summarized what the character was doing or how the character was being talked about in those sections.

You can use the Animal Farm Character Analysis Sheet - cont'd to track these moments.

When each person had found, noted, and summarized these moments of action or references to the character, they responded to the question below:

How was your character or your character's role on Animal Farm evolved in the book? Have they changed for the good or for the bad? Explain your response using examples from your notes today.

Homework:

If you did not finish tracking your character through page 89 today and/or did not get to finish your response to the question above about your character's evolution, please do so for homework.

Continue to read Animal Farm according to the class schedule.

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09.16 - Reading Animal Farm, Roots and Prefixes

At the beginning of today's class we read for ten minutes in Animal Farm with everyone keeping track of the number of pages that they read in that time. This gave everyone a chance to get into the book a bit more and will help me plan pacing for future books.

We talked a little bit about doing some free choice reading after this book as well. We were interrupted by a fire drill, but when we returned we revisited our roots and prefixes work. We finished our work with the unit 1, set 1 sheet and then put our knowledge around that sheet to use with a practice sheet for the vocabulary set.

We will have a roots and prefixes quiz over this set this Thursday 9/19.

Here is the roots and prefixes work we did in class:

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The practice sheet we used in class can be found here.

Homework:

Prepare for Thursday's roots and prefixes quiz on unit 1, set 1 words.

Continue to read Animal Farm according to the class schedule.

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9.13 - Utopian Story Development

At the beginning of class today, everyone responded to the following prompt in their writer's journal:

Look at the character you created for your utopia story in class on September 9th, develop a description of that character (how does this character look, act, what is the character's personality and history, etc.).

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, we discussed the character types from yesterday and the roles they played in the story. Then, I asked everyone to identify what "type" the protagonist of their story was (it could be one of the types we identified in Animal Farm or a different character type).

I then asked everyone to choose another character type (different from their protagonist) and do some writing in their writer's journal where your protagonist interacts with another character type. The two characters could just have a conversation or there could be some sort of conflict or interaction taking place. Scenes should be at least 1 page long in the writer's journal.

Notes from class:

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Character Types in Animal Farm

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Blue text = Example of a protagonist character type (Harry Potter/Leader) and another character type (Snape/Helper)
Green text = Example for a students' story for the protagonist, "Flynn" a leader and another character, "Stanley," a follower.
Red text = character types that appear in Animal Farm.

After everyone had time to work on this scene, we returned to our vocabulary from earlier in the week and checked in to see what words people had found. We will continue working with this on Monday.

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Homework:

If you did not finish the scene from your utopian story in class, do so for homework.

Continue to read Animal Farm according to the class schedule.

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9.12 - Character Analyses (cont'd)

Today, we began working with the character analyses we conducted in yesterday's class.

Students met back up with their partner and reviewed the actions that their character had taken so far in the book. Partners then wrote their character's name on a large piece of paper and drew their character surrounded by adjectives that describe them based on their actions so far in the story. The posters that these groups produced were:

Click on any poster to enlarge the picture.

Partner groups then shared out their posters discussing why they chose the adjectives they had and then using those to determine what social role their character plays in the world of Animal Farm. The roles we identified were as follows:

Everyone then worked independently to respond to the final question on the Animal Farm Character Analysis sheet. 

The sheets and responses were turned in at the end of the class.

Homework:

If you did not finish responding to the final question on the Animal Farm Character Analysis sheet, do so for homework.

Continue to read Animal Farm according to the class schedule.

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If you have not  yet typed and submitted your utopian story on Google Drive, do so for homework.

09.11 - Character Analysis

We started today's class with a focus on Mr. Jones, the farmer kicked off his farm in Animal Farm. Everyone responded to the following question in their writer's journal:

Were the animals right to kick Jones off of his farm? Why/why not? Explain your rationale.

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, we discussed students' answers.
The majority of students felt that it was right for the animals to kick Jones off his farm because he was abusive towards them and negligent (often because he was out drinking).

We then shifted our focus to discussion and analysis of individual animal characters in the book. I paired students up with a partner and assigned them a character from the book. Working with their partner, each person used their book to complete the Animal Farm Character Sheet for their character.

If you were not in class and did not have a character assigned, use Napolean as your default character.

If you were in class and have forgotten who your character was, see or email Mr. Collins.

I handed out sticky notes to everyone so that each person could mark the pages on which they found information about their character. On the sticky note, everyone should also write a brief summary of the action that is being summarized. This makes returning to the section later and figuring out what the note was for much easier.

Everyone should use the sticky notes to continue to track and take note of what their character does in the book as we continue to read.

We will work more with the Animal Farm Character Sheet tomorrow.

We did not get to answering the question at the bottom of the sheet today.


Homework:

If you did not finish finding the description or actions for your assigned character, do so for homework.

Continue to read Animal Farm according to the class schedule.

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If you have not  yet typed and submitted your utopian story on Google Drive, do so for homework.

09.10 - Vocabulary and Story Typing

In today's class, everyone was typing up the stories they wrote in yesterday's class about their utopia (see yesterday's post for more details).

We talked about how typing the story out from the writer's journal is a good opportunity for revision (fixing any spelling or grammatical errors and adding to or changing elements of the story).

Typed stories were to be shared with me (caleb.collins.lhs@gmail.com) on Google Drive.

If people were not engaged in typing their story, they were completing our first root/prefix sheet for this year. We will be studying roots and prefixes as a way of improving vocabulary and word recognition so that when people come across new words when they read they have some background on how to figure out what the word means from its word parts.

An extra copy of this sheet is available here: Unit 1, Set 1 Roots and Prefixes


Homework:

If you did not do so in class, finish the Unit 1, Set 1 Roots and Prefixes sheet.

If you did not finishing typing and submitting your utopian story on Google Drive, do so for homework.

Continue to read Animal Farm according to the class schedule.

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9.09 - Utopia in Action

We started today's class with the following writing activity to be completed in everyone's individual writing journals:

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After everyone had a chance to write their seven commandments, we began an activity that would show what those commandments would look like in action in the utopian world for which they were designed. Specific details for this writing task were:

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In class, I clarified that the list does not have to be read nor each item explored in the story. It just has to appear in full in the story in some way (as a poster, written on a coffee cup, tattooed on someone's arm, printed on paper leaflets that are dropped over a city from a helicopter, etc.)

Everyone had the rest of the period to work on this story.

The story should be at least one full page in a writing journal. Stories can definitely be longer.

Homework:

If you did not finish your utopian story in class, do so for homework.

Continue to read Animal Farm according to the class schedule.

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09.06 - Utopias through Commandments

To start today's class, everyone was asked to consider the following list of rules:

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This list of rules (from the movie Fight Club) was designed to make the fight club into an ideal community. Everyone was asked to respond to the following question in their writing journal:

What can you tell about the values of this organization based on its rules?

After everyone had a chance to respond to this question, we discussed everyone's answers.

Next, I handed out a commandment comparison sheet and gave students a list of commandments/rules. All of these rules/commandments were designed for a group of people with the idea that following these rules would help to make life better. With this in mind, students were asked to use the comparison sheet to evaluate and compare these lists. 

If you are making this assignment up, feel free to choose any two lists.

After everyone had compared their lists, we reviewed the lists in general and identified what the original name of the list was.

Homework:

Read in Animal Farm according to our class schedule (see below).

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09.05 - Ideal Worlds

Everyone started class by responding to the following prompt in their writing journal:

What is one key element or ingredient for having an ideal world?

Before everyone responded to the prompt, we discussed how really a perfect world requires that a lot of things be in place. However, this question was asking people to simply identify and describe one of those things. Elements that people came up with were:

happy at work

no religion

lots of food

people aren't jerks

stable economy

social equality (class, race, sexuality, gender)

no politicians

sports/physical activity

everyone has good clothes

Next, we did a visualization activity in which everyone took a moment to relax and picture themselves in their own ideal world. The activity asked that everyone try to envision all of the information they would take in from their senses in that place (sight, feel, sound, smell, taste). At the end of the activity, everyone was asked to respond to the following in their writing journal:

Describe the ideal place that you just envisioned in this activity. 
Be sure to include as much detail as possible.

After everyone had a chance to do this, I had everyone share out their responses. We then looked at what these different ideals had in common. Similarities that people noticed included:

People are alone or with only a few people.

In their place, everyone is happy.

There is nature.

There are trees.

While not all of the ideal places had these features, these were elements that came up in most of the visions.

Everyone then got copies of Animal Farm which we will be reading and which brings all of our discussion about what it takes to make an ideal world into play.


Homework:

For next Monday, read through page 26 in Animal Farm.

09.04 - Marigolds (Writing)

For today's class, everyone had time to write their response to the short story "Marigolds" that we read in class yesterday. Everyone had the period to write their response. These essays will be assessed to help me plan and structure our work in English this year by showing me what people can already do well and what areas we should focus on improving. These essays will not be entered into the grade book. 

Materials for this writing are available here:

"Marigolds" by Eugenia Collier
Essay assignment and prompts
Essay assessment rubric

Additional information on this assignment is available through yesterday's post.

Homework:

If you did not do so in class, finish writing your essay for tomorrow.

09.03 - Marigolds (Reading)

At the beginning of class, everyone responded to the following prompt in their writing journal:

Have you moved from childhood to adulthood yet? How do you know or how will you know? Explain your response.

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, students formed groups based on their general answer (yes, no, it's complicated). Groups discussed and then shared out the reasons they had for their choices.

We used this discussion to prepare us for our reading of the story "Marigolds" by Eugenia Collier in which a young woman transitions from childhood to adulthood.

We will be writing an in class essay using this story next class. Before reading the story, we looked at the assignment, prompt choices, and rubric that will be used to assess students' responses. This essay will not go in the grade book as a formal grade. The essay is an opportunity for me to see where everyone is at in terms of their essay writing.


I read the story aloud with the help of some students volunteers.

Handouts from today's class:

"Marigolds" by Eugenia Collier
Essay assignment and prompts
Essay assessment rubric


Homework:

Think about which essay prompt you would like to respond to next class.

Revisit the story to firm up your understanding of it and how you can use it to respond to one of the essay prompts.

If you do not have one already, be sure to get a writer's journal for class. See the posts on 08.29 and 08.30 for details.