Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Reminder for Freshmen!

When you come to school on Thursday/Friday please remember to bring your final draft, rough draft, and planning guide with you to English. Also, remember that the "breakdown" is part of your story grade. Instructions for completing the breakdown can be found on your short story project assignment sheet.

Finally, Honors students, remember to complete the Honors Enrichment assignment. Instructions for this can also be found on your assignment sheet.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Homework, English I and III

First, the freshmen:

Your homework is to complete the final draft of your short story projects. When you come to class on Thursday/Friday you will need to turn in your final draft, rough draft, and planning guide. Please do not put any of the work in the box. Bring it all with you to class.


Now, the juniors:

If you have not done so, please select a play to study for your out of class project. I will collect the titles from you next class.

Friday, September 25, 2009

English III and English I Homework

English III:

You should begin researching to find out what play you want to read for your project. Remember that you are locked in after Tuesday. If you find a play that is not on the list and would like approval, please e-mail me or leave a comment.


English I:

Your homework is to study! Get ready for your test!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Short Story Project Reminders

Freshmen - Remember that your rough draft of your short story needs to come with you to class on Friday/Monday. Your final draft is due on 10/1 for A day and 10/2 for B day. On the day you turn in your final draft you will also turn in your rough draft as well as your planning guide.

English III Homework - 9/24

No homework tonight! Rest!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Homework - All Classes, 9/23

Your homework for tonight is as follows:

English III: Study for your test. You will have to be knowledgeable of the following pieces:

All poems by Phillis Wheatley
Anne Bradstreet's "Verses Upon the Burning"
Oluadah Equiano
Native American Literature
Mary Rowlandson


English I:

Come to class tomorrow with a copy of your rough draft of your short story. Be prepared for Peer Editing.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

English III Homework - 9/22

Your reading for tonight are the selected passages from Phillis Wheatley. I would like for you to read the following:

1. Her biography.
2. The preface and letter written by her master, Mr. John Wheatley.
3. The poems "To Maecenas", "To the University of Cambridge, in New England", "On Being Brought from Africa to America", "On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitfield", and "To His Excellency Gen. George Washington"

Make sure that with all of the poems you use the footnotes to better understand the text.

Monday, September 21, 2009

English I Homework - 9/21 and 9/22

Your homework for tonight is to finish the story, "The Most Dangerous Game" which starts on page four in your textbook. You will need to answer questions three and four at the end of the story. This is the last story that we will study in our short story unit. Your final test is coming soon!

English III Homework - 9/21

Tonight for homework you have a few things to do:

1. You have to edit your papers and turn in your final drafts tomorrow along with your rough drafts tomorrow.

2. You need to read Oluadah Equiano's narrative tonight and complete a list of similarities and differences between Mary's narrative and Equiano's. Be sure to read and pay attention to a lot of the details contained in the text. Be sure that you pay attention to both parts of the narrative.

That's all - I hope that you enjoy the reading tonight.

Friday, September 18, 2009

English III Homework - 9/18

Over the weekend you are going to begin your first position paper. These are an important genre of writing to get downpat because you will often write these in English and Social Studies classes. The purpose of a position paper is to state a clear position on the topic (thesis) and then prove that.

Your question is as follows:

Do you think that Mary Rowlandson shows an englightened (educated, rational, free from predjudice) attitude toward Native Americans? Why or why not? State your position in a clear thesis at the top of the page and then complete two body paragraphs filled with examples that prove your point.

Be sure that you review Mary Rowlandson's narrative as well. This will be helpful to you as we move forward.

If you have any questions - please leave a comment. If you need your login for the online textbook, please e-mail me as I don't want to give out this information publicly.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

English I Homework - 9/17 and 9/18

Your homework for the weekend is to answer questions related to "The Cask of Amontillado". The questions that you need to answer are numbers three, seven, nine, and twelve on page 181. Honors students will also answer questions ten and eleven. You will need to turn this in on Monday (A-day) and Tuesday (B-day). When you turn in this homework, make sure that you're also turning in your paragraph about revenge.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment.

English III Homework - 9/17

Sorry about the depressing reading about genocide and Christopher Columbus this morning. I think it's necessary to get some real context for the literature and the history that we're going to be exploring. Anyway - your assignment for tonight is to read pages thirty-five to forty-two in your textbooks. Be sure that you read all of the related information - not just the narrative of Mary Rowlandson. We'll be discussing this in depth tomorrow in class as well as finishing up our excerpt from People's History of the United States.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

English III Homework - 9/16

Tonight you are starting with the earliest American literature - Native American Myths. Begin by finishing the reading on page twenty-three. As you read this article by Joseph Bruchac, focus on what you are learning about Native American literature. What are some of the elements of Native American literature that are indicative of the genre? In what ways does the literature reflect the culture? After that, read the three pieces on page twenty-four and twenty-five. For the myth called "The Sky Tree" focus on the idea of creation as this is a creation myth. For the myth called "Coyote Finishes His Work" focus on the idea of destruction.

Finally, review the questions on page twenty six, you are not required to write anything down, but we will be using these questions tomorrow in our discussion of these three pieces.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

English I Homework - 9/15 and 9/16

Your homework for tonight is to write a one paragaph response on the following topic:

Do you have any experience with revenge? Have you gone to get revenge? Why do people do this?

Your homework isn't due until Monday/Tuesday. You may turn it in early - but I won't be grading it until next week.

English III Homework

Your homework for tonight is to login to the online textbook and make sure that it works for you. If you have problems using the online textbook, please let me know so that I can get you a real textbook. You can leave me a comment here on the blog or send me an e-mail letting me know that you had a problem with the textbook. Remember that the book is located at http://my.hrw.com - login using the username and password that I gave you today in class.

Monday, September 14, 2009

English III HW - 9/14

Your homework for tonight is to study for your test on The Catcher in the Rye. We went over a lot of the things that you will see on this test tomorrow today in class. Be sure that you're ready!

If you have any questions about studying or anything that we've gone over in class please leave a comment. I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

This thread is OPEN!

Friday, September 11, 2009

English III HW

Your homework for the weekend is to finish your projects. You'll be presenting part of your projects on Monday as a part of your overall grade. Also, you need to be sure that your final dialectical notebooks are ready to go! I'll be collecting those from you on Monday as well.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Homework 9/10

English III:

Juniors, your homework for tonight is to finish The Catcher in the Rye. As you finish your reading make sure that you keep up with your dialectical notebook. I will be collecting your final entries with your dialectical notebooks on Monday. As you finish your reading, be sure that you review the second half of the Seng article as you are about to read what Seng thinks is the most important aspect of the book.


English I:

No Homework! Relax!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

English III Homework

Your homework for tonight is to read the critical article that I gave you today in class by Mr. Seng. If you are behind in your reading of The Catcher in the Rye you will want to get caught up and also get caught up with your dialectical notebooks. Your final dialectical notebook will be due on Tuesday for chapters sixteen through the end.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

English III Homework

Tonight you need to keep reading! You need to read chapters twenty one, twenty two, and twenty three. Make sure that you maintain your dialectical notebook even if you don't have the handout.

Tomorrow we'll finish our discussion of today's reading and we'll go over the reading for tonight.

Friday, September 4, 2009

English I Homework

Your homework for the weekend/Tuesday night is to study for your first quiz. Your quiz will cover the two stories that we have read as well as the notes on short stories that we took a few days ago. Focus on the literary terms that you have been learning as well as the characters and events in the stories.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. However, I'll probably not get back to you until Monday as I'll be celebrating all weekend.

Have a good, restful three days off!

English III HW - Labor Day Weekend

Your homework over the long weekend is to read chapters sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, and twenty. This is a lot of reading but this section of the book cannot really be broken up in any other way. As you read, think about the excerpt of Freud that we discussed today in class. Furthermore, you will need to maintain your dialectical notebook. One entry per chapter.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

English III Homework

You don't have any reading homework tonight. You should spend the time making sure that your dialectical notebooks are caught up - you should have fifteen entries. Also, be sure that you work on your projects tonight!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Homework for English III and English I - 9/2

Another pretty fantastic day. The DPS e-mail account seems to be back to functioning normally, so you can feel free to e-mail me there. Let's go ahead and talk about homework.

English III

Your homework for tonight is to read chapters thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen. Tomorrow we are going to spend a lot of time reviewing the first half of the novel. So you may want to take some time to go back and look over any trends that you have begun to notice throughout the text.


English I

Your homework is to read the story "The Necklace" in the textbook. It starts on page 160. If you are using the online textbook, you will go to http://my.hrw.com. Use the login and password that you received in class today. At the end of the story, answer the following questions: Honors will answer questions two, three, four, five, and six. Standard will answer only questions three and four. When you answer the questions, be sure that you answer the questions completely and that you do your homework in pen. The answers to the questions are due to the box by 7:30 on Friday/Tuesday.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

English III Homework - 9/1

I was really happy with what we were talking about today in class. Tomorrow we'll finish up our discussion of Catcher to the end of chapter twelve. Tonight, you should be sure that you're done reading up to that point. Also, be sure that you are keeping up with your dialectical notebooks!

See you tomorrow morning.