Happy Vacation!

I hope you all have as much fun as these guys!

Murambi genocide memorial--Juliette's story

Folks in Honors English 11.

Here is the link to the short video interview of a Rwandan genocide survivor. Please be advised that there are some graphic images and disturbing content.

Also, apologies for the annoying commercial that might play before it. Ugh.

Homework: December 19

Have a great break, everyone! Enjoy some much-needed rest...

Honors English 12 (G)

• Finish up your map of "The Body"--we'll come back to our discussion when we return from break.
• Read your independent reading book!

Honors English 11 (A)

• Finish up your work for chapter 9, if you're not done yet.
• Read chapter 10 (due on Friday when we return from break). Use the reading road map that you received in class today to guide you; jot down answers/notes.
• Read your independent book!

English 12 (B)

• Finish up your work on "The Body." Remember, it's due tomorrow! I'll come down at the beginning of the senior breakfast, or you can put it in my mailbox. You should have:
• Your annotated copy of the story
• Your 4 responses
• Make sure your name is on everything!
• Read your independent book, and have a great vacation!

Honors English 11 (D)

• Read chapter 10 (due on Thursday when we return from break). Use the reading road map that you received in class today to guide you; jot down answers/notes.
• Read your independent book!

Homework: December 18

English 12 (B)

• You have your schedule! You'll have time to work in class tomorrow, and then it's all due on Friday. Put in some time tonight--some of you are behind...
• Read your independent book!

Honors English 11 (D)

• Complete the Article of the Week assignment.
• Complete the writing and vocabulary exercise handout I gave you in class.
• If you need to, get caught up on your Strength in What Remains work.
• Read your independent book!

English 11 (F)

• You have your reading and writing schedule for Frederick Douglass. Keep reading and writing! You have a lot to do, so make sure it's all done for Friday.

***Note for folks in block A***

Tuesday, you got some handouts to help with chapter 9. To clarify: 

• Your mind map is just for chapter 7. You should have it to refer to, in case things get confusing as you read the rest of the book.
• The MAP map is for chapter 9. Deo moves around the country (and, even, into a different country) in this chapter, so the physical map is there to help you track his movement. You should ignore the part of the directions where it says "You can: 1. use the one you already started..." Those instructions are relevant to D block, but not you. You should start with the part that says, "2. use the one provided..."
• All references to the MAP through the rest of that handout are to the physical map of Rwanda/Burundi.

Homework: December 16

English 11 (F)

• You have your schedule...hopefully you're completing your tasks! Remember to keep the final goal in mind--finish the book, and write 3 responses, before break. It's a lot to do, but you're all capable! Make sure you put in about half an hour of work tonight; you'll have time in class tomorrow to keep going!
• Read your independent book!

Honors English 12 (G)

• Your task tonight is to mark up those close reading passages--I mean, really mark them up! Remember how much we wrote today? All of the little details we noticed? That's your goal for tonight. Tomorrow in class, you'll do some writing, so...make sure you find all kinds of interesting things! You might look for: 
• repetitions
• patterns
• anomalies
• images
• Read your independent book!

Honors English 11 (A)

• Write out: 1 sentence, each chapter...what's going on? What is this chapter about? (This process will help us understand purpose and organization later on...)
• Read chapter 8. Keep your focus question in mind as you read.
• Read your independent book!

English 12 (B)

• You have your schedule...hopefully you're completing your tasks! Remember to keep the final goal in mind--finish the book, and write 4 journal entries, before you leave for break. It's a lot to do, but you're all capable! Make sure you put in about half an hour of work tonight; then, you'll have time in class on Wednesday to keep going!
• Read your independent book!

Also, because it's Friday...

...an adorable animal video to kick off your weekend.

Homework: December 13

Happy Friday the 13th!

Honors English 11 (A)

• Complete your Chapter 7 map--pull out all of that information and organize it all. It's complex...there's a lot going on here, and there's no way you could remember it and keep it all in your head. But, it's important to understand! So, here are the categories for the mind map:
• Hutu/Tutsi—Deo’s understanding (and how it changed)
• Burundian history—Deo’s understanding (and how it changed)
• Rwandan history—Deo’s understanding (and how it changed)
• Memory
• Education
• Contrasts and contradictions
• Tough questions—Deo's
• Your questions
• Read your independent book!

English 12 (B)

• Today, I gave you our working plan for the rest of the week--you're going to be reading and writing about "The Body" by Stephen King. You know what you need to do, and when you need to do it by, so....do it! This weekend, you should spend at least 20 minutes working.
• Read your independent book!

Honors English 11 (D)

• Read Chapter 9, to the end of page 119. 
• For this chapter, you'll be mapping out the events literally. You can find a map of Rwanda/Burundi here. As you read, write down important events/quotations, and track Deo's progress. You can print out the map that's linked here, draw your own using this one as a guide, or, if you really want to get crazy, create something online using Google Maps.
• Read your independent book!

Homework: December 12

Honors English 11 (D)

• Finish your chapter 7 map, if you haven't already done so. Your map should include information about: 
• Deo’s background
• Hutu/Tutsi—Deo’s understanding (and how it changed)
• Burundian history—Deo’s understanding (and how it changed)
• Rwandan history—Deo’s understanding (and how it changed)
• Memory
• Education
• Contrasts and contradictions
• Tough questions—Deo's
• Your questions
• Write a 3-paragraph response to chapter 8.
• Summarize
• Respond: I notice, I think, I wonder
• Connect: Make connections between this text and your schema (prior knowledge--might be literary, historical, current events…)
• If you are all set with those two things, start studying your vocab, or work on your Article of the Week--Learning How to Learn.
• Read your independent book!

English 11 (F)

• You have your working schedule for Frederick Douglass. So, use it to do some work! You should spend at least 20 minutes between now and Monday doing some work--that might be reading, annotating and/or writing. We'll check in on Monday, and we'll continue working.
• Read your independent book!

Honors English 12 (G)

• Read Chapters 18-24 in "The Body." Annotate the text, keeping a close eye on how Gordie's role as storyteller. Because he's the narrator, this is essentially Gordie's story...right?
• Read your independent book!

Homework: December 11

English 12

Read and annotate chapters 15 and 16 in " The Body."

Honors English 11

Read chapter 8 in Strength in What Remans.

Homework: December 10

English 11 (F)

• If you didn't complete the homework assignment due today, please do so for next class (Thursday). If I gave your assignment back to you, work to add the detail requested, so you're ready for class on Thursday.
• Take a look at this site to map your "Slavery Footprint." We'll discuss this in class on Thursday,
• You may also check out these sites for more information:
• Polaris Project
• Slavery Map
• The World Counts

Honors English 12 (G)

• Today in class, we talked about Gordie as a narrator and a storyteller. You pulled some evidence from the text, and analyzed patterns and anomalies that you found. Now, your job is to write up your observations into a formal 1-2 paragraph response. The "big" question is: Who tells the story, and how? Include specific evidence and language to support your idea. The clear answer is "Gordie"--but what do we learn about Gordie, and what do we learn from him? How does he tell the story of "The Body"? You might consider: language, order of events, intertext, point of view, time...
• Read your independent book!

Honors English 11 (A)

• Read chapter 7 by Friday. Keep an eye out for those vocab words, and pay attention to the way Kidder provides background information about Deo's life in Burundi.
• Complete a 3-paragraph reader response--
• Summarize
• Respond: I notice, I think, I wonder
• Connect: Make connections between this text and your schema (prior knowledge--might be literary, historical, current events...)
• Read your independent book!

English 12 (B)

• Write a paragraph comparing the treatment of the train scene in the book v. the film version of "The Body." You might write about things like the way Gordie "directs" Vern in the film--is the treatment the same in the book? Use language from the book to explain!

Homework: December 9

Honors English 12 (G)

• Finish reading chapter 16, and read 17, too! Keep an eye on the storytelling aspects of the text--what kind of storyteller is Gordie? How and why does he tell the stories he does?
• We'll talk more about FEAR and its role in the story tomorrow in class.
• Read your independent book!

Honors English 11 (A)

• Read Chapter 6 of Strength. 
• Finish up your Article of the Week assignment--it's due tomorrow!
• Read your independent book!

English 12 (B)

• Read Chapters 13 and 14 in "The Body." Some important things happen, including a significant character moment for Vern. And, there's a huge event! We'll talk about it tomorrow, and we'll compare it to the film version.
• Read your independent book!

Honors English 11 (D)

• Read chapter 7 by Wednesday. Keep an eye out for those vocab words, and pay attention to Deo's experience as Kidder relates his earlier life in Burundi.
• Read your independent book!

Homework: December 6

English 12 (B)

• Read and annotate chapters 10-12 of "The Body." On Monday, we will have a reading quiz, so make sure you're prepared! You should know information about each of the characters, and you should know important events about the plot.
• Read your independent book1

Honors English 11 (D)

• In class today, we started doing some brainstorming/prepping for writing about Strength in What Remains, and now you'll write about it! Write a one-pager this weekend, in which you focus on and explore something interesting you've noticed in the text. Below, you'll find my in-class brainstorm--remember, this piece was a very quick, and rough, initial session of brainstorming. It's all over the place, and jumpy, and shows the way my mind works. (Yikes!) In order to write my one pager, I'd choose a point of focus, and "write to explore"--remember the one-pager is all about figuring things out. It should be one page, typed, single spaced. If you can't type it, just make sure that you make up for the length when handwriting.
• Read your independent book!

English 11 (F)

• We had a great discussion today, about your independent reading books, and about Frederick Douglass. For homework tonight, complete the front side of the chart. We brainstormed some potential purposes Douglass might have had for writing. They were:
• to share the horrors of slavery with those in the North
• to show how horrible/disgusting some people (slave owners/overseers) were within the system
• to advocate for slavery's end
• to show how strong/smart slaves (Douglass) can be
• Over the weekend, on the chart, you'll choose two of the purposes listed above, and you'll examine the story to find evidence that fits. We'll use the evidence we find to decide if all of the ideas we had are accurate, or if they can be fine-tuned. Then, we'll use them to guide our reading as we move forward.
• Also, read your independent reading book!
• Here's that relevant quotation that Luis brought up in class; RIP Nelson Mandela:

Homework: December 5

Honors English 11 (D)

• Read Strength in What Remains, chapter 6. Keep taking notes. We'll plan out some writing tomorrow.
• Read your independent reading book!

English 11 (F)

• Read Frederick Douglass, chapter 2. Mark it up--identify observations, connections, and questions.
• Read your independent reading book!

Honors English 12 (G)

• Read "The Body," chapters 13-15. Be ready for a reading quiz on Monday!
• Read your independent book and enjoy your weekend!

Honors English 11 (A)

• Write your one-pager for Strength in What Remains. We did some freewriting in class today to generate some ideas. Mine's below--remember, I talked to you about my process of idea-generating. This freewrite isn't edited, and it isn't organized yet...it's just part of the writing process. I would pick one idea to really focus in on to write my one pager...
• Read your independent book and have a great weekend!

Homework: December 4

English 11 (F)

• Read Chapter 1 of Frederick Douglass's Narrative. Annotate it, making note of your OBSERVATIONS, QUESTIONS and CONNECTIONS.
• Read your independent reading book!

Honors English 12 (G)

• Complete your one-pager response to this question:
• What does King want readers to understand about the experience of growing up, for these four boys, in 1960 (PURPOSE)? How does he help readers understand (STRATEGIES)? 
• Remember, focus on the whole section (chapters 1-12). Find an angle, or a lens, to view the text through. Use specific language from the text!
• Read your independent book!

Honors English 11 (A)

• Read Chapter 4 in Strength. Make notes on your organizer for the categories of Memories, Questions, and contrasts/contradictions. You established a focus of your own, too, so make notes about that!
• Read your independent book!

English 12 (B)

• Read "The Body" chapters 6, 8 and 9. Make notes about characters, setting and adventure. Fill in your character chart, too!
• Be ready to write about the story tomorrow in class!!!
• Read your independent book!

Homework: December 3

Honors English 11 (A)

• By next week (Tuesday, I think we said?), complete the "E-cigarette" Article of the Week assignment.
• For tomorrow, read chapter 3 in Strength in What Remains.
• Read your independent reading book!

English 12 (B)

• Read "The Body," chapters 1-4. As you read, keep an eye on how Stephen King establishes: Characters, Settings, and ADVENTURE! Make notes on the text. We'll talk tomorrow.
• Read your independent book.

Honors English 11 (D)

• Check yesterday's post--it's there! :)

 

Homework: December 2

Honors English 11 (D)

• For Tuesday, complete the Article of the Week assignment on E-cigarettes.
• For Thursday, read Chapters 4 and 5 of Strength in What Remains. Remember, in class today you chose a focus, so focus on it!
• Read your independent book.

English 11 (F)

• Complete a 3-paragraph response for the biography of Frederick Douglass. 
• Paragraph 1: Summarize the biography.
• Paragraph 2: Respond to the biography: "I notice...," "I wonder...," "I think..."
• Paragraph 3: Connections...to "The Yellow Wallpaper" and other stories you've read...
• Read your independent reading book.

Honors English 12 (G)

• Read chapters 8-12. Make sure you keep focused on the details--the ways that King establishes the characters, the setting, and the adventure.
• Read your independent book.