25 March - End of the Quarter

English 11

An easy day to end the quarter today, everyone! I hope that you had a great day getting the time that you needed to finish up major assignments, presentations, and extend your knowledge and skills around poetry. If you were absent, we do have next week to finish up this quarter. I'm available on Wednesday, April 2, to complete any last assignments for Quarter Three. Please be in touch and make an appointment if needed. I'll continue to accept work submitted online.

Next class we'll be starting our work on Drama and Character - Unit 4. I've got some videos for you to explore, author research, and some discussion boards. I won't be with you, so you'll need to complete all of your tasks online. I posted your video to go over your tasks for Thursday's class on Schoology. I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of the plays we have coming up! As always, if you have questions, please reach out!

21 March - End of the Week/Quarter

English 11

A simple day in English 11 as we took our Poetry Unit Exam today. In the examination I gave you a poem and asked several questions about literary devices to include the themes of the poem. I'll be returning your work to you soon. This weekend is a great weekend to submit your major assignments. Tuesday is the last day for us to do this work. Many of you were absent today, so I would recommend coming to Lion Time on Tuesday to make up the work you need to do. 

I'll have progress reports ready for you on Tuesday. This will give you the chance to take care of any missing assignments or retakes on Tuesday. Reach out with any questions. I'll be working this weekend, so I'll respond fast. Have a great weekend, and, as always, Go Tarheels!

19 March - Another Wacky Wednesday

English 11

A great day in English 11 as we started our conclusion with poetry and with our third quarter tasks. We did a quick grammar review at the beginning of class - mostly focused on commas and sentence structure - before going into our review for our poetry exam on Friday. 

The most important thing to focus on learning before Friday are the literary devices. Reviewing our slides and our recordings will help with this. I would also recommend reviewing your theme checklist. Remember that theme is the message or whole statement about the topic. What does the author want the audience to know about the topic? What is the author's opinion on the topic? My best advice to prepare is to review your devices from our unit, read more poetry, and consider the topics and messages. 

The end of class was all about our final tasks - presentations and book projects. I'm glad that each day more and more final tasks are submitted for me to review. Remember that the final day for presentations is next week on Tuesday. We'll be transitioning to our new unit on Thursday. I'll have all grades updated next week for you. As always, reach out with any questions or concerns. I'll be available Thursday (March 20) after school if you need that.

17 March - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

English 11

Today was a really fun start to the week in English 11. You all gave me a lot of energy to recover from almost no sleep last night. Now I can go home and crash out on the couch. The class for today was all about poetry, poetic devices, and the way in which authors use them to shape messages. We did some learning around new literary devices (use the slides and recording to review) and we practiced by looking at some songs. I looked over your work and updated scores - if you didn't have the chance to finish during class, please get your chart and/or discussion board post in as soon as possible.

All of this practice and collaboration will take us forward into Wednesday and Friday. On Wednesday we're going to do a replacement of the quiz we took last week. A few of you who missed it will get the chance to replace the missing score, others will raise their scores, and some others will confirm mastery before the test on Friday. Friday's test is almost all multiple choice. It's meant to be very similar to the SOL. In order to prepare, study your devices and practice with theme statements.

We ended the day with vocabulary and choice working time. Remember that presentations and book projects are due by the 25th. Make your appointments, submit your tasks, and let's get everything settled with style. We'll take a bit more of class on Wednesday to work on these major grades. The vocabulary words are all posted in the slide, sorry for missing them with the recording. We won't take the quiz on List Six unitl April.

As always, reach out with questions. I'm here to help!

13 March - End of the Week

English 11

Solid end of the week today in English 11. We are focused right now on finishing up our independent novel work with our research based presentations and our creative book projects. Today was a day for us to start (and in some cases finish) our reading projects. Remember that the goal of the project is to demonstrate your ability to read and comprehend a text. No matter the choice of project you're focused on demonstrating those key skills. Think about the evidence that you'll use from the book and what you'll say about that evidence. Feel free to use your previous resources and work that you've done to support you with this. Note that projects are due by March 25.

After that we did a review on our most recent poetry quizzes. Next week we'll have more feedback in the form of a lesson and activity. For now, we looked at the idea of the right answer versus the best answer and how to tell the difference. Don't get tricked! After lunch we did some vocabulary and then ended class as we needed with choice working time.

Over the weekend, focus on your book tasks. This is a great time for your projects and presentations. Go ahead and make your appointment pass for your presentation slot (if necessary). I'm so excited to see the outcomes from your learning! Have a great weekend!

11 March - Thankful for Tuesday

English 11

Wonderful version of a Tuesday today in English 11. We got so much done and really worked through items related to our upcoming presentations and our study of poetry. Let's do a quick review and recap of the day.

We started with presentations. Remember that these presentations are going to count as EIGHT grades for you. We've got THREE for Oral Communication and FIVE for writing. We reviewed the rubrics and scoring guidelines for each element. Remember that if you're working on a team, you'll share the Writing: Central Idea score as the thesis should be owned by all members of the group. Consider the most approachable type of presentation for you. Will you record yourself? Do a video? A slides with a recording? Or will you do it live? Think about what you'll write and what you'll say. We'll keep prepping and working through this into next class and next week.

From there we did our quick poetry study of Phillis Wheatley and then our quiz to check for understanding. Sorry for the error with Question 2 and 3 - that's what happens with Performance Matters, sometimes. I'll review your work and we'll review for our test. The main thing that I'm seeing is that I need to teach some more literary devices related to poetry.

We didn't get around to vocabulary today because of the time constraints, so we'll do that next time. Remember that we'll also start working on Book Projects next class. If you need special materials, I'd recommend bringing them. As always, reach out with any questions or concerns.

7 March - End of the Week with Emily Dickinson

English 11

And with that, the week is complete. Great work this week, y'all. I'm really excited to see these presentations that you all are putting together based on your books. I appreciate the way that you're focused on presenting your own argument, digging into source material and information, and putting various viewpoints together to support your overall idea. Each team/person is in a slightly different place, and that's totally okay. Next week we'll focus on taking some time to finish our planning and put the final product together. We'll start presenting week after next - remember that you can sign up for any date you'd like - but all presentations must be completed by March 25th.

After our start with our presentations, we moved into reading and studying poetry. We looked at a famous American poet - Emily Dickinson - and we discussed diction, imagery, and figurative language. These poems stretch our brains a bit because they read like riddles, but using the clues the author provides, we were able to figure it out.

We ended the day with vocabulary and began our study of List Six. If you missed the vocabulary quiz, please make an appointment to get that settled. At the end of the quarter, it's important that we settle missing work as soon as possible. 

I look forward to seeing you next week. We'll be finishing our book study next week, so if you have a missing quiz or need to finish reading, make that the priority for the weekend! You may also want to begin to pull together any materials that you'll need for your project.

5 March - Happy Spring!

English 11

Happy Wednesday Everyone! It was great to be back with you all today. Today was a bit of an everything class, but we were focused on assessment of learning and improving our skills for the future. We started things off by completing our vocabulary review and studying before our quiz. I've updated the grades in the gradebook based on your most recent demonstration of your skill. Remember, if you didn't complete the review activity then the quiz will count for both. If you missed today's quiz or you'd like a retake, just make an appointment for Friday, and we'll settle it up.

After the quiz we rolled into some feedback and review on our upcoming presentations. We did a great lesson on the different types of argument because I see a lot of you needing to extend your skill to meet a new need. Think about the flavor of argument that you're presenting and be sure to include key language related to that. We also focused on the idea of defining key words and phrases with specificity and the important distinction between EFFECT and AFFECT. 

At the end of class, we took time as we needed for questions and concerns and to develop the ideas of our project. I'll begin presentations starting March 17. You can come during lunch, Lion Time, or we can do it during class. When you're ready, we'll complete the task. Remember you're getting writing grades and oral communication. Next week we'll be focused on our creative book projects - this is your reading score. If you're missing your quiz, please get that turned in by Friday to avoid a zero. The last major grade we have for this quarter is our Poetry Test. This will happen in the last weeks of the quarter. We'll do a bit more study and review before.

Let's keep crushing our goals as we move to the end of the quarter. Come visit at Lion Time for the extras you may need.

Tuesday the 25th - See Ya Next Week

English 11

Today was a busy day in English 11. We were starting a few tasks which we'll continue to work on and finish over the next few days. Remember that I'll be out for the next two classes, so today you started some of the tasks that you'll be finishing up. Let's review what we did and talk about what we have coming up.

We started the day by doing some vocabulary review. Your quiz will be next week on Wednesday. Your review assignment is due on the day of the quiz. It's a formative grade, the quiz will be a summative one. After our vocabulary time, we worked on analyzing non-print texts. I really liked the outcomes that you all were getting to related to the images, the way to draw details from them, and the connections that can be built. After that, we went to the work on our presentations.

The presentation work will be the main work for you on Thursday and into next week. It's time for you to find sources, finalize your research question, and consider your argument. If you're working in a group, each person needs to have ownership of a part. On Thursday and Monday you'll continue to find and process sources to contribute to your final presentation. You'll also be focused on reading so that you can get finished with your books. 

I'll keep up with you the best I can while I'm away. Be respectful stewards of our space and welcoming to our guest. I look forward to seeing where your presentations are going and to wrapping up our unit in the coming weeks.

21 February - Happy Friday!

English 11

A good day to end the week today in English 11. I'm really excited to see what you all did today for your reading quizzes, and I was so happy to see the great thinking related to Gloria Steinem's article. Here's our review of class.

We started the day by reflecting on our central question for the year - What are some American problems? Why are they important? Whom do they effect? We had some very vibrant conversation and drew a lot of connections between problems, their impacts, and the various texts we've read this year. From there, we looked at "Women Are Never Frontrunners" by Gloria Steinem. In the article she discusses sexism, misogyny, and the impact that this has on women no matter who they are in America. Steinem takes a political approach, but we can see the reality of her words in every day life. 

To end class, we completed our quiz on our books. If you didn't have time to finish, please be sure that it is turned in by Monday morning so that I can score it. In the quiz, we focused on a key passage and demonstrated our ability to understand and interpret the passage. The quiz was open book. If you were not in class, you can feel free to complete the quiz on your own, or we can meet at Lion Time.

Be in touch with any questions or concerns that you may have. We're going to be pivoting to focus on our projects here at the end of the unit, so be ready for that! Keep reading and making progress through your books. That's the best way to prepare for what we have ahead.

Have a great weekend!

19 February - WorkKeys, Done!

English 11

Great work today, everyone! We did the WorkKeys test. I'm so happy from looking at the data that so many of you felt prepared from our practice and focus on writing over the last few weeks and the year so far. If you were absent, don't worry, there's a retest opportunity. I should know your results soon, and I'll communicate them with you as soon as possible. 

After our WorkKeys test today, we took time for ourselves. There was our reflection form (you can't do it if you were absent because it relies on the test), and then we cleaned out notebooks or just relaxed a bit. Next class we'll be focusing solely on our books and research based presentations related to the books. Be ready to do some work related to your book on Friday, so read in order to prepare. We'll have our presentations in mid-March, which isn't too far away. Looking forward to seeing you on Friday, unless of course this snow that's falling has other plans for us.

14 February - Happy Valentine's Day!

English 11

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! It was a space full of love today as we did so much fantastic work. We had a bit of a split class with half focused on writing and half focused on reading. Here's our overview.

We started, as we often do, with some grammar. The grammar corrections were based off of some of the errors that I saw in your last letter practice. The major things are comma usage, capitalization, and run-on or fragment sentences. I hope that the feedback and practice was helpful for you. From there, we moved into developing our Game Plan for WorkKeys on Wednesday. Turn in your plan. Take a picture and upload that or show it to me when we're in class on Wednesday. I want you to each have a plan for the night before, your packing list, and what you'll do with your time when you write.

After our writing preparation, we moved into reading. We looked at two texts today - "New York Day Women" by Edwidge Danticat and "Anchorage" by Joy Harjo. I loved sharing a piece about my hometown in Alaska. The readings are posted as are the read-alouds. We didn't have as much time as I would have liked with the texts, but we did come to some good understandings.

If you were absent, be sure to review the post and the recording. I do want your Game Plan for Wednesday, even if you were absent today. Over the weekend, focus on preparing for your writing test. If you need more help, I'm here during Lion Time on Wednesday for it. Enjoy the long weekend!

10 February - Monday and Snow in the Forecast

English 11

Great day in English 11 today. I loved watching you all collaborate together as you discussed your books and the future presentations that you'll put together related to your novel study. Remember some of the major ideas of this project as you're working and planning:

1. The goal is to have ownership of the project, even if you're working as a group. Each person needs to have a particular portion. You can share an introduction and conclusion, but each person should have their own evidence.

2. Evidence can be shared. Even if you're working on your own, I would hope that you still collaborate with your group about the work you're doing.

3. Your presentation can be in a variety of formats. You can do a slide show, a TikTok video, a speech, or another option. Remember that you can also present to the whole class, to me, or to a small group. Consider what is the most achievable for you!

As we're now starting to wrap up our preparation for our writing test next week, we'll be focused more on this project. Coming in during Lion Time or after school is also a great way to make some forward momentum. 

The main focus for us today was beginning our projects, we also had reading time, and did our next five vocabulary words. Hopefully I'll see you on Wednesday, but if school is canceled because of the snow, then I'll see you on Friday. Be sure that if you missed your vocabulary quiz on List 4 or your practice letter (either one) that you see me to make this up! It's important that you get the letter practice and feedback before you write next week for the state.

6 February - End of the Week

English 11

Phew! What a day! I'm sorry that I almost missed your lunch; we were just so wrapped up in the work that we were doing! Thanks, Casey for the reminder.

Today, like most of the days right now, we focused on writing. With the winter weather in the forecast, today may be one of our last practice opportunities before our state test. I'm really happy with what I'm seeing with your writing. We reviewed some feedback for the class and did some more practice. I hope that you enjoyed this moderately creative writing assignment. Remember, if your author is still alive, you might want to share what you wrote with them. Who knows, maybe they'll write you back!

We also took a bit of time for vocabulary at the end of class today. The words have been posted in the slides. Remember that we'll have two more quizzes before we have our major grade. If you need to take care of your List 4 Quiz from last week, please make an appointment for next week. I'd recommend that we do Monday the 10th because of the weather warning for next week.

4 February - Tuesday is for Writing

English 11

Pretty easy day for us on a Tuesday in English 11. We started the day with some time to read and then meet with our groups to discuss our novels. We updated our slides and discussed our research topics. Remember that right now the goal is for you to continue reading and to be ready to finish these book projects after we take our state writing test.

After that, we did some practice for that writing test with a mini-letter today. If you were absent, I'll want you to make up this assignment. You do not need to come to Lion Time, but you can if you'd like to. To end our day, we completed a reading and study of a poem - remember that you'll see poetry on your reading test, so we'll keep preparing for this eventuality.

For tonight, keep reading! We'll be working a lot with our books next class. We'll also take a look at another few poems to discuss the differences, challenges, and the beauty that poetry can provide. Please be in touch with any needs you may have. Your next Lion Time is Thursday, and I'm available to work with you.

31 January - Ending January and Beginning Quarter Three

English 11

Happy Friday, everyone! There were a lot of absences today. I hope that if you were away that you are doing well. Know that you're very much missed in A101. Today's class focused on preparing for our upcoming writing test and setting up some vocabulary work. 

We started the day with our List 4 Quiz. These grades have been put in the gradebook. If you were absent, or if you need a retake, please see me next week during Lion Time to get this done. After our quiz, we rolled into our review of the WorkKeys exam. Remember that this exam is your credit for writing, and you need to pass this test in order to graduate. Thankfully, we're in a good place when it comes to writing. You all did very well on your letters. The main issue is time and the fact that we don't know the question. Over the next few classes we'll focus on preparing for this by quick thinking and quick writing.

Over the weekend, keep reading your books. It looks like a few of you are stuck in the beginning. Meet your goals! Be true to yourself and what you set out to do. Next class will focus on writing and reading, like most of our classes, and we'll be diving forward a bit in our WorkKeys preparation.

Have a great weekend! As always, be in touch with anything that you may need. 

28 January - Registration Day

English 11

Easy day today - it was course registration day. We met with counselors to decide on classes for senior year. There was no official lesson for today's class. If you were missing an assignment, it was a final chance to get caught up and submit work. Grades are finalized on Friday. If you were absent today, please check in about how you can still complete your tasks and get credit.

Right now the goal is to keep reading and to prepare for your upcoming quiz. On Friday you'll have your List 4 Quiz. If you're signing up for the Honors option for English 11, you'll see a new type of question. Make sure to stay focused on learning definitions of the words. We'll also be diving more into writing on Friday and in the first part of Quarter 3 since we have our state writing exam soon. 

As always, be in touch about how I can help. I'm here to support as we cross into second semester.

24 January - The Return of Mr. Miller

English 11

It was so absolutely wonderful to be with you all today and finish this week. Given how I spent last class trapped in a metal tube on the Atlanta airport runway, this was a marked improvement. We did a few different activities today - note that these are grades for Quarter 2, so if you were absent, you need to complete them.

First we had our vocabulary practice. See the slides and the assignment posted in Unit 3. I want you to work on a few words to review their meaning to prepare for next week's quiz. The quiz will be on Friday. Focus on learning meaning of the words and using them. The practice assignment was aligned to this. After vocabulary, we went into book work. The quiz is a bit of a different beast - see the discussion board and reply to your group's thread if you were absent. Remember that this is just temporary for now - you can change your topic/idea down the road. The main thing is to keep reading! Get your content down and behind you. We'll keep working with these books more and more over the next days.

Next class will be our registration meetings with counselors. If you're interested in moving to the Honors English option for second semester, you'll have that conversation with them on Tuesday. If you have any missing major assignments, these are due by Tuesday. We're moving to third quarter, so we need to finish up our residuals. Please make your appointment for Lion Time on Tuesday! I really appreciate those of you who came in today and so far.

17 January - End of the Week

English 11:

We had a really great day today in English 11 to finish out the week. It was a filled day where we worked on a few different skills. We also took some time for reading and group meetings. Some of you were absent today, and you were missed! Your groups will be waiting to submit the group contract until next class when you're with us.

We started the day with a bit of grammar and talked about combining sentences. We reviewed the ways in which we can combine sentences and the sticky bits about some pieces of punctuation and their usage: Remember that colons are only used when the second sentence directly adds on to the first. Try applying some of these strategies as you're writing. We'll keep working more on this soon. From there we did some review of narrative elements and then began to apply them to our books. These are the terms that you'll be asked about on your Virginia Reading SOL, so it's important that we learn them now!

I'm really enjoying watching you all collaborate and read in your groups. It warms my heart! Next class you'll have a quiz on your books, so the best thing to do is to read in order to prepare. Weekends, especially long ones like this, are great for us to read. At the very end of class, we finished our last five vocabulary words. We'll practice and review next class.

Remember that the end of the grading period is right around the corner. If you're missing your letter or reading test from Unit 2, please make a Lion Time pass to settle that up. You can submit your vocabulary project whenever you'd like. All grades will be finalized on January 29, so don't wait! 

15 January - Wacky Wednesday

English 11

Welcome to Wacky Wednesday, y'all! Today was a great day because we were collaborating, critically thinking, and communicating a lot about our books and elements of their rhetorical situation today. I really enjoyed seeing you all do your author research, read further into your books, and engage in some analysis of political cartoons. We did some feedback today as well on our recent writing assignments. If you would like to revise your letter, or if you need to complete it, please make an appointment for LT on Wednesday the 22nd. Remember that you have until the 28th to complete any redos or missing assignments.

We took a bit of time for reading before lunch and then kept going through our vocabulary for this list. We'll likely have a vocabulary quiz to open up Quarter 3, so be prepared! For tonight, keep reading so that you can meet your goals. I've posted audiobook versions in our unit folder, and I'm looking for more. Next class we'll be spending more time with our books so that we can start to understand how they do what they do and what narrative elements the authors are choosing to employ. See you on Friday!

13 January - Happy New Year

English 11

Great day today, y'all. It was so good to see everyone and reconnect after the extended winter break. Today we had a bit of a strange class because we divided at the beginning, but then we came back together and finished strong as a whole group. The main focus of this unit will be our book studies. We'll be doing a lot of reading, thinking, discussing, and processing of these books and what they're telling us about the United States. Today we looked at the major assignments that we'll be completing related to this book and began to make our group contract. We finished class with some vocabulary work.

I also gave out progress reports today for the end of the quarter. If you are missing a major assignment, it's important to get that in as soon as possible. If you are interested in retaking the reading test or in revising your letter, these are also available to you to raise your scores at the end of the quarter. I'm available for Lion Time on Wednesday and Friday to help with retakes, revisions, or with dropping zeroes. Please put in a pass as soon as you can. Enjoy your books! Enjoy your day! I'll see you on Wednesday!