10.31 - Harrison Bergeron

We started today's class with the following writing prompt, which everyone responded to in their writer's journal:

In general in society, do you think it is better if people have a lot of differences or if they have a lot of similarities/things in common. Explain your response.
If you finish early, write about a time that you experienced where diversity or similarity was a strength.

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

We then read the story "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut in which everyone is made to be equal to everyone else. I read the story aloud while everyone else paid attention to a particular character looking at how they were described, what they said, and what they did. Characters that the class focused on were: Harrison Bergeron, George Bergeron, Hazel Bergeron, Diana Moon Glampers, and the ballerinas. After reading the story, everyone took a moment to describe their character over all. Groups of students with the same character then shared out their impressions which I took note of on the board.

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We will continue to work with this story next class.

Homework:

Prepare for the set 5 roots and prefixes quiz tomorrow.

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

First quarter assignments must be turned in by 3:30 p.m. tomorrow (in person or online) to be included on the first quarter grade report. While people may still revise and work on first quarter work after this time, assignments received after 3:30 p.m. tomorrow will not make it on to the first quarter eligibility check.

 

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

10.30 - College Visit (individual conferencing)

Today, there was a college visit trip which most of the class participated in. I met individually with the students who were in class to review their progress in the class and answer questions. Everyone then had the period to work on these assignments.

Homework:

 

Prepare for the set 5 roots and prefixes quiz on Friday.

Set 5 Roots/Prefixes - List

Set 5 Roots/Prefixes - Practice

 

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

 

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

10.29 - Revision

In today's class, we were focused on revision of assessed assignments. To more effectively and efficiently approach this process, I returned assignments in batches and then everyone had about 15 minutes to work on their revisions for that assignment.

If anyone finished before the next assignment was handed out, they were able to work on their set 5 roots and prefixes.

The assignments which we specifically focused on were:

Animal Farm theme and character development outline
"The Smartest Man in America" and "The Case Against High School Sports" article responses
Roots and Prefix set revisions and various assignments

I was on hand while people were working on their revisions to answer questions.

Homework:

Prepare for the set 5 roots and prefixes quiz on Friday.

Set 5 Roots/Prefixes - List

Set 5 Roots/Prefixes - Practice

 

 

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

 

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

10.28 - Language Ninja

We started today's class with a review activity for the set 4 roots and prefixes. This activity is based on the group game "Ninja." We first went over how to play Ninja and then I introduced the modified rules to play "Language Ninja." These rules were as follows:

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During Language Ninja, I kept track of root/prefix definitions and words used.

After playing Language Ninja, we had the set 4 roots and prefixes quiz along with the formal diction quiz. 

See Mr. Collins if you were absent and need to make either of these quizzes up.

In the last part of class, everyone received the set 5 roots and prefixes. We will have a quiz over these roots and prefixes on Friday.

Set 5 Roots/Prefixes - List

Set 5 Roots/Prefixes - Practice

Homework:

Prepare for the set 5 roots and prefixes quiz on Friday (resources available above)

Homework:

10.25 - Set 4 Roots and Prefixes

We started today’s class with the following writing prompt for everyone to respond to in their writer’s journal. To set up this prompt, we discussed themed restaurants like “The Roadkill Cafe” and “The Rainforest Cafe” where items on the menu are named for and described with a specific theme.

Choose three roots/prefixes from this week’s set of roots/prefixes.
Imagine that you are designing menu items for the “Root/Prefix Cafe.”
Using the roots/prefixes you chose; create, name, and describe three dishes that could be served at this cafe.

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, several people shared out their response.

We then continued working with the set 4 roots/prefixes sheets handed out yesterday in class. Working with a partner, everyone completed the roots and prefixes sheet.

Set 4 Roots/Prefixes - List

Set 4 Roots/Prefixes - Practice

Homework:

Prepare for the set 4 roots and prefixes quiz on Monday.

Prepare for the formalized language quiz on Monday.

10.24 - Theme and Character Development

In the first part of class today, we wrapped our discussion of theme and character development in Animal Farm. We completed the outline on Napolean and the theme of selfishness wrecking things for good people. Our work is included below. On the back of their sheet, everyone wrote outlined what they would write for the conclusion to this paper. We reviewed that a conclusion should achieve the following points:

Conclusion -
Reviews/restates the thesis.
Explains how the main points of the essay relate to the thesis.

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We then had round three of "Celebrity Say What!?" which featured Justin Bieber. Bieber's tweets and our formalized translations of them are included below.

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Formalized Version:

I am beyond excited for my new album, "All That Matters" to be available on iTunes tonight at midnight. There are only nine hours to go! Are you ready?!

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Formalized Version:

I am not feeling well today. I am very congested.

At the end of class, I handed out roots and prefixes sheets for set four roots/prefixes.

Set 4 Roots/Prefixes - List

Set 4 Roots/Prefixes - Practice

Homework:

Complete the Set 4 Roots/Prefixes - List for tomorrow.

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

10.23 - Essay Outlines

We started today's class with another round of "Celebrity Say What!?" Today's round featured Lil Wayne. The sampled tweets and our formalized version of them are below.

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Formalized Version:

I am proud of the Red Sox! Lets play aggressively!*

*Formalizing the "Let's man up!" phrase was difficult as we had to interpret what Lil Wayne meant by "man up." "Lets" is still a bit informal, but was the closest we were able to get to what we feel he intended.

 

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Formalized Version:

Hello! My show in Nebraska was the best show yet! They are true fans there! It was refreshing. I was tired before the show, but they woke me up gracefully! I will love you all forever. I would like to gratefully thank you for your support.

Next, we returned to looking at theme and character development in Animal Farm.

Today, we were looking more at how Napolean changed throughout the book and how this relates to the theme of "Selfishness can wreck things for good people." We gathered evidence for how Napolean changes throughout the story and then used this evidence to complete an outline for an essay exploring how Napolean's character relates to our theme (Selfishness can wreck things for good people). The work we did today is available below.

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Homework:

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

10.22 - Celebrity Say What / Animal Farm Character Analysis

We started today's class, by playing a new round of a game called "Celebrity Say What!?" In this game, we look at tweets from a celebrity and then translate them to formal English. Today's celebrity was Ke$ha:

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After everyone had a chance to translate these tweets on their own, different people came up to write their translation. These translations were critiqued by the class and at the end I added any final notes about full translation into proper English. Our results were as follows:

 

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Final Translation: 

"I am very sad that our Australian tour was canceled! Australian fans, I love you very much and I am working out a way to come and see you again as soon as I can!"

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Final Translation:

"Everyone should watch my friend Miley Cyrus on MTV tonight! She is the best and my “My Crazy Beautiful Life” (“MCBL”) trailer is going to be on television! “MCBL” will be on at 10:30 p.m. on October 30th."

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Final Translation:
Do you all like my new hair style?
You can view a picture of my new hair style at: [URL].

Next, we returned to working with themes and character analysis in Animal Farm. We selected the theme of "selfishness can wreck things for good people" as the one most closely tied to Napolean. Everyone then started adding evidence for what Napolean was like in the beginning of Animal Farm.  We will continue working with this tomorrow.

Homework:

Finish filling out the description for what Napolean is like in the beginning of Animal Farm. Make sure to put specific evidence in after the "because he..." part of the sentence.

Complete/revise work as necessary.

10.21 - Revision Day

At the beginning of class today, I handed out grade report sheets that showed assignment grades and missing assignments. Several people helped me to return work and rubrics.

In their writing journals, everyone wrote down what they needed to do for revision work (anything graded below a 92) and missing work (anything marked with a "Z").




Next, we talked about the difference between the prefix "soph" (wise) and "sci/scientia" (know). We then looked at the work associated with the reading of The Smartest Man in America article from 10.02. This was an assignment that most people need to complete or revise. Everyone had the rest of the period to revise/complete this assignment. Upon completing this work, individuals could then go on to revise or complete other assignments as necessary.




While people were working on these assignments, I met individually with students to answer questions and check in on their progress.

Homework:

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

10.18 - Theme in Animal Farm

We started today's class with the following writing prompt which people responded to in their writer's journal:

Choose three roots or prefixes from the set 3 words and do one of the following for each:
Identify a superhero or villain whose power is inspired by the root/prefix (describe their power)
OR
Create and define a new word (not one that is new to you, but one that did not exist before until you created it).

After everyone responded to these questions, we shared students answers and then had the set 2 quiz over these roots/prefixes.

We then did a short activity in which we looked at translating slang and colloquialisms into formal language (examples of this below). Everyone created their own example and shared it with someone nearby.

Next, we returned to our discussion of theme in Animal Farm and focused our work through a sheet on theme and character analysis.

Themes we identified and discussed were how Leadership can change people, Power can corrupt good and turn it bad, Selfishness turns good people bad, and Leadership is bad when it turns violent.

We will look at how these themes are reflected in the character Napolean next week.

Homework:

If you did not do so in class, be sure you have completed the theme section in today's work with theme and character analysis.

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

10.17 - Theme

We started today's class with everyone responding to the following prompt in their writing journals (in preparation for our roots and prefixes quiz tomorrow):

Choose two roots and prefixes and describe a made-up place that is dedicated to the idea of that root or prefix. Word your description like it is an advertisement from a travel brochure.

Ex for the prefix "pre":
Preland - Coming into this fine city you'll notice what a beautiful runway we have with plenty of fountains and bright green lawns. This is one of the great things about Preland, entrances and all other before times are elegant and beautiful. Step into any restaurant and you'll notice that the appetizers coming before your meal are the greatest part of the meal. After dinner, feel free to take in any of our sports games where we will let you know the final score of the game BEFORE the game so you don't have to spend the whole time worrying about who will win.

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, students shared out their responses while the rest of the class did their best to guess what root/prefix the land was dedicated too.

Next, we returned to looking at the essays we started on Animal Farm where people were struggling with what to write. To break this process down we talked about theme. We defined theme as follows:

Theme: The big idea/message that an author is trying to send through their work.

We looked at theme in the movies Open Season, The Goonies, and The Little Mermaid.

Tomorrow we will focus on theme in Animal Farm.

Homework:

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

10.16 - PSAT Testing (No Class)

Class did not meet today due to PSAT testing.
We'll be together again tomorrow!

10/15 - Formal Language

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

Identify and define some slang terms that are currently used by high school students (all terms must be rated no more than PG 13).

Examples (from the 90s):
word - an affirmative used by itself like "yeah" or "that's good"
wack - something that is dumb or doesn't make sense
poser - someone who imitates other people and isn't really authentic

We then went around and shared out the slang terms that people had written down.

Next, we started working with a formal diction packet. In introducing this, we talked about how formal written language is often different than our spoken language. The intention is to make what we are saying more clear and easy for our audience to understand (especially where they may be reading the writing in a different time or place or from a background where they are not familiar with our informal language).

We worked on the first two pages of the packet and then shared out responses. The work we completed and discussed is below.

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At the end of class, I handed out extra copies of the set 3 roots and prefixes. We will be having a quiz over this material on Friday.

Homework:

If you did not finish the work we were doing today with slang and colloquialisms, do so for homework.

Complete the set 3 roots and prefixes sheet. Our quiz for these words will be next Tuesday.

10.10 - Animal Farm Character Analysis Essay

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

Could a political situation like Animal Farm, where good intentions turn out to be terrible, happen in the US? Explain why or why not.

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

Next, we returned to working on the Animal Farm Character Analysis sheet that we started yesterday. Today, everyone was working on the writing piece of this, with the rubrics being used to assess the writing.

Homework:

If you did not finish writing today's essay in class, do so for homework.

10.09 - Changes in Animal Farm

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

Should the United States intervene in countries like North Korea where a leader is committing human rights abuses against their people.

To develop our understanding of this question, we talked about how intervention could mean a military conflict in which US troops would lose their lives and we would be paying for the effort through our taxes.

Once everyone had responded to this prompt, we discussed students' answers.

Next, I handed out the Animal Farm Character Analysis sheet. Working with this sheet, everyone filled out the top part for today looking at how a character was in the beginning of the book and then how that character was represented at the end of the book.

We will take care of the writing piece of this assignment tomorrow.

Homework:

If you did not finish filling out the Animal Farm Character Analysis sheet, do so for homework.

10.08 - Revision Day / Roots and Prefixes Set 3

At the beginning of class today, I handed out grade report sheets that showed assignment grades and missing assignments. In their writing journals, everyone wrote down what they needed to do for revision work (anything graded below a 92) and missing work (anything marked with a "Z").

After this, I explained how to do the roots and prefixes revision for sets 1 and 2. Next, everyone helped return work that had been assessed and I handed out the set 3 roots and prefixes sheet.

Everyone then had the rest of the period to work on the set 3 roots and prefixes sheet, do revisions for roots and prefixes sets 1 and 2, and work on completing or revising other work for class.

See Mr. Collins if you need any revision materials for sets 1 and 2 of our roots and prefixes work.


Homework:

Complete the set 3 roots and prefixes sheet. Our quiz for these words will be next Tuesday.

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

10.07 - North Korea and Animal Farm

Today, we finished watching the video on North Korea that we started last Friday (see below).

After finishing the video, everyone had several minutes to complete filling out the venn diagram including shared spaces between the Soviet Russia and Animal Farm sections. Once everyone had a chance to complete this, we went around the room and each person shared out a fact or comparison that they had made related to North Korea. On the back of this sheet, everyone then responded to the following question:

Do you believe that Animal Farm could also serve as an allegory for the political situation in North Korea? Explain why or why not with at least three examples from the video.

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, we discussed everyone's answers. This discussion moved us into a discussion of whether or not the United States should intervene in cases like North Korea where a dictator is making life miserable for it's people.

Homework:

If you did not finish your venn diagram or the written response question in class, do so for homework.

10.04 - North Korea

To start our discussion off today, everyone responded to the following in their writer's journal:

What do you know or have you heard about North Korea?

After everyone had a couple of minutes to respond to this prompt, people shared out their responses and we built up some general background knowledge on North Korea. The main points we covered were where North Korea is, US involvement in the Korean War, and who Kim Jong Il is.

Everyone then got out their venn diagrams from yesterday and we talked about how we are going to watch a video on North Korea to see how it compares to Soviet Russia and Animal Farm as a place run by a dictator. While watching the movie today, everyone should take notes within the "North Korea" section of the diagram without worrying about any of the places of overlap.

We will continue watching this video tomorrow.

Homework:

Be sure to write down any notes about North Korea that you learned from the video.

10.03 - Animal Farm and Soviet Russia Comparison

We started today's class out with a review of class on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday when everyone was working with the substitute. From here, we moved into a discussion of bringing our perspective with Animal Farm into a modern context. To start this off, we used a venn diagram to summarize and compare the information that we had around Animal Farm and Soviet Russia (following the Revolution of 1917). We used the comic below to talk about how venn diagrams are used to illustrate the points that topics share as well as show how they are unique.

We then looked at what information to plug into the venn diagram we are doing for class. We filled in two of these circles today (10/03 - noted in green) and will be filling in the other circle and shared information tomorrow (10/04).

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After filling out these three sections (the summary of Animal Farm, information around Soviet Russia, and the similarities between the two), we went around and had everyone share out one fact that they had recorded.

We will continue working with this diagram tomorrow.

Homework:

If you did not finish filling out your venn diagram in class, do so for homework.

10.02 - The Smartest Man in America (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 Smartest Man in America” 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.

Materials:

The Smartest Man in America - Article
The Smartest Man in America - Processing Questions

Homework:

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

10.01 - Guidance Talk / Utopian Allegory

 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:

Guidance will be in during this period to present a talk.
The talk should take about half the period. For the other half of the period, have students follow the directions for the “Utopian Allegory” writing assignment.

If there ends up being no time for this assignment, that’s fine. Just leave me a note.

Materials:

Utopian Allegory Story Prompt

Homework:

If there was time in class to start the Utopian Allegory story, but you did not finish it in class, do so for homework.