21 November

English 11

A good end to the week today as we worked in English 11 to review our writing skills. We took a look at grammar and then we dug into outlining an argument. It is so important to remember that all of your paragraphs need to focus on proving your main idea / the thesis is true. You'll use evidence and explain the evidence in order to do this.

One main takeaway from today's class was the idea that assertions should clearly link to your thesis and they should NOT be evidence. Consider this sentence starter for your assertions: A main reason why...is because... Then you can follow with evidence. After the evidence, we have commentary. Sentences that start like This is important because... or This evidence proves... can help to reconnect to your main idea. Remember that key words and phrases from your thesis will be crucial to use throughout your essay.

We completed a quick outlining activity before moving into vocabulary and independent work. Remember to submit your outline assignment by the end of the weekend. Use the example in today's slides to help you out. I look forward to seeing you after Thanksgiving! Enjoy your film study on Monday. 

19 November

English 11

Wowza! Great day today in English 11. We were on total fire. We started out our class today with time for learning conferences and understanding where we are with our research process and letter development. Remember, your letter is going to be written before the end of December. We'll have this unit finished BEFORE Winter Break. If you need to resubmit Part 1 or Part 2 - Please do so! I'll get feedback to you as soon as possible. Thursday's class should have everyone working on Part 3 and beginning to plan the letter. We'll be doing a lot of work on writing next class. Don't forget that there's also a vocabulary quiz.

After lunch we did work with Plato. I loved our discussion! You all got it right off the bat. Take some time to keep reading and thinking about this text. It's all over the place. We'll keep diving in to what it means as we move through the rest of our unit. All the best! Thanks for a great day!

13 November - Middle of the Week

English 11

Today was a great day in English 11 because we were working on speeches and arguments. I loved the way that you were making connections to other authors and texts in this unit and the concept of responding to conflict. We focused on Booker T. Washington and ideas like conformity and appealing to audiences. It's also good that we see that there are two different approaches to the same idea in the same time period. There was a multiple choice review to get us ready for next class (we have a quiz) and we did some work on understanding writing and writing structures.

The end of class looked at preparing for future tasks. We've got a vocabulary quiz coming next week on List Three words, and we'll keep working with our research work as well. Remember that the goal is to find multiple sources that you can use in your letter. We'll be moving into the planning and writing phase soon.

Next class is a substitute day - you'll have time to work on your Research Write-Up, focus on vocabulary development, and then you'll take a quiz on reading non-fiction. Follow the rules of the classroom and support our guest in the classroom. I look forward to a good report. I look forward to seeing you all next week!

8 November - End of the Week

English 11

Really good end to the week today in English 11. We started off with a review of the rhetorical situation to understand that we are now writers and responding to the rhetorical situation in which we find ourselves. This is a great exercise for us to come back to as we keep writing and delving into our research work. We also took time to revise and refocus our research topics. Remember the main takeaway from our class today - the more focused the problem, the easier the writing. There is such a thing as being too focused, but it's easy to take a step back if you think that happens. Over the next few classes we'll be spending time with our Research Write-Up and Redefining the Research Question. Don't be worried if you didn't finish that work today.

At the end of class we did our vocabulary work to finish off List Three. We did an activity focused on context clues and word hunting to review our words and review the skill that we have to do on our upcoming vocabulary quiz. Over the weekend, continue to consider your research questions and the evidence for your letters. We'll take a look at another speech next week in order to review the components of an effective argument.

6 November - Welcome to Quarter 2

English 11

It was really great to see you all today and work with you. On hard days, I really enjoy spending some time with you and hearing your thoughts and ideas. Today we had a class focused on letters and our central idea of American problems and possible solutions. We started the class with a bit of a review - there was the review of MLA structure for citations and the review of the elements of a letter. From there we looked at a letter by a famous American, Helen Keller. From our reading, we located the elements of the letter and discussed Keller's use of imagery, irony, and tone. We also discussed the problem that Keller was exploring in her letter as well as a possible solution.

In the second half of class we had time for conversation. We collaborated, listened, and presented our ideas about the various texts we've been reading so far. I'm sorry that the conversation was short - we'll focus on this for longer next time.

Before I see you on Friday, make sure that your research topic is submitted. I've provided feedback in your document, so you might want to start addressing that feedback. We'll be developing our topics further next class through some revision. Also, we'll take a look at another piece of writing to help us understand constructing an argument.