This blog is a spot where a public educator reflects and shares thoughts, ideas, musings, and reflections as a nineteen year veteran of teaching now supporting instruction across a whole school.
Showing posts with label personal narrative. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal narrative. Show all posts
Thanks for spending my birthday with me today, y'all!
Fantastic day today to end our week together in English 11. We did a bit of everything today. We started off by discussing genres and sorting them into being generally fiction or nonfiction. I love the way that you all are engaged in reminding and remembering key ideas from earlier English classes. From there, we applied our literary devices and narrative elements to understand that generally reading nonfiction is a bit more straightforward than fiction because fiction has a lot of artistry and details involved in creating message.
The bulk of our class focused on reading and understanding "Go Carolina" by David Sedaris. We were able to see elements of irony, conflict, characterization, and theme in the story as he talked about his experiences in speech therapy. I'm so proud of the fact that we completed a whole article in our class today. We finished with five more vocabulary words to end the day together.
Remember to get your syllabus form signed. It's also important that you study your vocabulary words regularly. You'll need to know the words and their meanings. Check out the recordings and uploaded slide decks to help you with this. We have some graded work coming up soon, be sure to keep up and stay accountable. If you've missed anything, please reach out!
Really great day today everyone! We're crushing it. Today we started off class with our new norms and guiding principles before taking time for our journal and then some time to explore some key ideas. Remember that our word bank of narrative elements are super important - it's important that you're learning this information as we move through the next few classes together. We'll have a test at the end of the unit about these ideas.
The resources to learn about the various narrative elements and the practice assignment will stay open for you through the unit. Keep researching and accessing. We paid the learning forward while we read and studied Gloria Anzaldua and the way she uses different narrative elements to engage the author and create a message. I loved what we discovered through our close reading. We finished class with five vocabulary words. Remember, when we hit fifteen you'll have a quiz.
For tonight, keep reviewing Schoology. Review the recordings and resources that I've posted. If you missed class, be sure to follow up with what you missed. Next class we'll be reading something pretty funny. I'm excited to show it to you. All the best for the afternoon. See you Thursday!
Blue Day Students - Remember that Tuesday of next week I won't be available since I'll be back in North Carolina celebrating Thanksgiving in a garage at a ten foot distance from others. Since I'm traveling, I set up an asynchronous day for you. When you log in to Google Classroom on Tuesday you'll see a form to complete. After you complete the form you should take time to work on your project or any missing assignments.
English 10
We had a really rich day working through the final chapter of the first part of Persepolis. I really liked the conversation that we were having around choices and the mixed outcomes that choices can have. I also really enjoyed all of the participation as we shared ideas and insights about the end of the novel. From there we took time to plan out our stories and some of us even began to draw.
Over the weekend be sure to finish your planning of your project and be sure to check in on any of your missing assignments. Tuesday will also give you time to finish up work before the break. Don't forget to log in to Google Classroom and complete the form.
AP Language
Today's PearDeck was student paced - so you can continue to access your work and continue with our discussion questions or project workshop. Keep in mind that there is nothing assigned over the break and Tuesday will be an asynchronous day.
Over the weekend, I would suggest working on your project to finalize your close reading and annotation of your chosen "text". The first step in the project will be the rhetorical analysis, followed by the team essay and then compiling the website. Use the thesis model to break down your text and focus on the essentials.
This is also a good time to check in on any missing assignments you may have. Don't forget about the FRQ practice on AP Classroom as well as the Sedaris discussion post.
As always, reach out with any questions or concerns. I'll be available on Monday for Office Hours.
Russian I
That was a very productive class! I think that we did a great job reviewing on our rules around masculine, feminine, and neuter gender and then seeing how these ideas connect to the idea of possession and possessive words like my, your, and our. Tonight, practice with these concepts to reinforce the learning in class.
Complete exercise 11 and 12 at the end of Chapter One. For exercise 11, use your notes or the information in your textbook - you can find the chart we made in there too - and fill in the blanks. Make sure to look for and consider gender. In exercise 12 you'll be doing the same thing, but adding in a translating and writing step. If the words are in English, translate to Russian and then write a question and answer like the example. If it's already in Russian, just write a question and answer.
This will help you to do the other thing which is study your vocabulary! Remember our reflection today in class about applying better study habits outside of class. Spend time with this idea and practice. There's also a video you can check out here:
It goes into plurals and a lot of other information if you're interested. You just have to focus on singular.
Advanced Russian
Today we started moving into our new units! Yay! Russian II has a very interesting journey ahead as you start to move into aspect. You all should be focused on the new vocabulary that we used at the end of class today. Look at your verbs in the beginning of the chapter. Use them and learn them. Apply what you have learned about stems to the work you are now doing!
Russian II - You will find it helpful to locate the list of all aspectual verb pairs in Chapter Five. This is within the chapter. With it, you should analyze the poem in exercise one. Do you see an imperfective (one you already know) or perfective (new information) verb? What's the tense? What do you understand about the poem. This is exercise one at the end of Chapter 5.
Russian III - You will begin by looking at the first exercise too. This is a list of questions. Using your vocabulary list answer ten of these questions about yourself. Activate what you know. Analyze the question to think about the case you'll need in your answer.
Both groups should also review the reading at the beginning of the chapter. Mark unknown words and grammar structures. Try to summarize each paragraph, in English.
English IV
Next week is going to be a heavy week in terms of finishing our unit on The Canterbury Tales and personal writing. Make sure that if you want to revise your essay that you have done that. Way to go to those of you who already have. If you've made changes in Google Docs, please let us know via email. Also, we'll have the resume and the personal character project to finish. Make sure that you have done some work related to these two items (our planning sheet for the resume and graphic organizer for the characters).
AP English III
Good work today on getting through Act One and a bit with "A Narrative of the Captivity" - remember that we will keep working through The Crucible and Mary Rowlandson on Thursday. To take us on to Thursday, make sure that you have done the following:
Read and annotate Act II - as you do that take a look at the ideas we drew out today in class. Apply these to Act II as you are going through and annotating to see how this act builds upon the ideas we discovered in Act I.
Select and begin reading a play for your drama projects. Remember you have a performance aspect as well as two writing assignments with this.
Continue to work on essays and remember you have final drafts next week on Monday.
If you didn't submit vocabulary cards, be sure to get those in as soon as you can.
English IV
Make sure that you are continuing to work on your character projects or revise your essays based on the feedback you received today in on your drafts. Keep in mind that if you do a new version of your essay, you'll need to turn in the original along with the new version too.
English IV
Great class today! I was very happy with all of your progress on your essays, as well as your engagement during our discussion of Muhammad Ali, Beowulf, and professional writing. Over the weekend, continue thinking about your Canterbury Tales character project and make some progress on the RESEARCHpart of the assignment. Have a wonderful weekend, and see you on Tuesday!
Advanced Russian
Today, we watched the entirety of Battleship Potemkin. Over the weekend, complete as much work as you can on the accompanying packet. If you cannot finish it, there will be time built into Tuesday's class to complete everything. Have a wonderful weekend!
Russian I
Today, we spent the entirety of class watching the video about Russian geography and modern culture. Over the weekend, prepare to continue practicing your vocabulary and handwriting with Mr. Miller. Thanks for being on-task and engaged for your substitute, and come ready to learn next week! Have a wonderful weekend!
Almost the end of another week. Amazing how fast time is flying by right now... English II:
I'm very proud of the work that so many of you did today during our class workshop. Many of you left with a clear idea of what you need to do to finish your projects up. No matter what that is, make sure that your projects are complete next class. We'll collect them then. Remember that these projects count the same weight as your test.
Russian I, II, III, IV
Next class we have our semester exam! Be ready! Be studied. Be prepared! You should have a full idea of what will be on the test. See the post below for your reminders.
AP English III
If you have anything left for the monologues or Drama Project - that needs to get turned in ASAP. If you didn't do your monologue (2B) because of the time constraints, please make sure that's settled today or tomorrow.
Tonight we need to keep reading. Take the learning we've done around transcendentalism and apply it to Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham City Jail." You can find it in 50 Essays or at this link. As you read, look for the five tenets of the philosophy. Look for how Dr. King is appealing to his audience. Rip this piece apart - it's really productive. It's pretty long too - make sure you've read through to around paragraph twenty for next class.
We also have our previous readings (Truth and poems). We'll touch on those as we discuss Dr. King.
English II
Hopefully with today's workshop you're feeling finished or near finished with your graphic novel projects. We're going to collect those next class, so make sure that if you didn't get it done today that you have it ready for us next class.
Also, since we started a new unit it's important that you study your vocabulary and notes every day!
With who knows what going to happen over the next few days I'm going to describe things in terms of how many classes from today things will be happening. Adjust and prepare accordingly. AP English III
I hope that you felt prepared and successful on the test on The Crucible today. You have some online and group collaborating to do over the weekend to prepare for next class's priority - the group allegory presentation. Remember, make a point through the art of allegory. The thing you have to remember is that you have to be specific; a point to point comparison is needed so that the audience can make sense of how they line up and what the point is. You should prepare a script, I'd share a Google Doc, and prepare for about 3-5 minutes of length. One scene or two short scenes.
In two classes we're going to have our monologue presentations and collection of rhetorical analyses on the monologues. You have the rubric, and if you don't come get it tomorrow while we're at school or email. Remember that in the rhetorical analysis you're focusing on explaining how the author is conveying an argument through this monologue. That argument should be one of the main ones of the whole play too. Look at language - get your hands dirty - and remember that these are plays. They've been spoken and presented. YouTube it. Tone is a key element of how authors make arguments. You have a day before we collect, so come in for a conference!
English II
Lots of fun today for the review game - there was only one question that couldn't be answered! Tehran! Remember to use your study guides and prepare for what we have next class. The Persepolis unit exam is going to have everything that we did today - characters, plot, culture, vocabulary, and writing.
Please do keep looking at your personal narratives and working on them (especially if we have some time to do it). We'll build in a bit of class time to do that too, and soon!
Happy Break! I'm so excited to sleep in tomorrow and have a real breakfast! That's how I know break has begun. Here is what you need to accomplish over the time away from school. Advanced Russian
Soon after we return we will have our semester exam. The exam will cover everything that we've learned in the first semester including the one-stem verb system, review of case declensions, and vocabulary from Chapters One through Four for all students. Beyond that, Russian 2 students will have information related to counting, numbers, and time expressions in Russian. Russian 3 students will see elements related to modal expressions, imperatives, elements of vagueness and sentence combining. Russian 4 will need to be skilled about the new information related to verbs of placement, the interrogative particle, and other information from Chapter Twelve.
Spend this time over the break preparing and studying daily. I've been doing a lot in these last classes to point out a lot of the gaps you have in your knowledge. Now that you have the time, it's important to focus on these gaps.
Also, if you are missing your writing project or any other grades (other than the viewing on Night Swallows) then make sure that's ready for me when we return.
Use these resources to help you study and prepare over break:
Russian I
Over the break you should focus on finalizing your learning of verb conjugations and case declensions. This is so important to the rest of your learning in Russian. Use the online resources above to help you study and review. There's some great stuff up there to help you review.
You should be able to complete the declension chart I'd given you today in class as well as any of the exercises left. We'll also have our exam on Unit Two after we return from break.
English II
Over the break if you would like to work on your hero narratives or on the extra credit project for Persepolis then please do. We'll be finishing the hero narratives and the larger unit on Persepolis soon after we return from the break.
Happy Solstice Everyone! It's the longest night of the year tonight. From here on out winter is only ending. Here are your reminders as we are going into the break.
AP English III
Make sure that you have completed your reading and annotating of The Crucible by this point. You should spend time over the break reviewing your notes and your reading to prepare for our final unit exam on this play. That assessment will happen not too long after we return from break.
The major priority that you have over break is to work on your drama projects. You should decide on your play (don't forget to make your post in the previous post to answer that question), read your play thoroughly, and select a monologue to study. With your monologue, you will need to memorize, annotate, and analyze. Put forward all of the skills you have learned with analysis as you do this work.
Ms. McCormick and I will be available when we return to review your work and give you feedback.
English II
Over the break if you would like to there is some extra credit that you can complete. We have not read many chapters of Persepolis. Over the break you can read these chapters and complete a writing assignment for extra credit. For the extra credit you'll be either doing a pamphlet on Persepolis or writing a letter to the author, Marjane Satrapi. Follow the instructions for this assignment and have it ready the day you return.
You can also spend time over break working on your hero narratives. We'll finish these when we return from the holiday, but it may be a good idea to finish your rough draft of your comic now.
Advanced Russian:
Tonight I want you to get ready for our final class of the year. Prepare your exercises on new grammar for Thursday's class. For Russian II, this is exercise five, filling in the blanks. Think about the types of verbal action that you've learned today. For Russian III and IV this is a translation activity. Make sure that if you need to look up a word that you make a vocabulary card for those words.
On Thursday we'll finish collecting projects, watch some holiday movies, and work on our New Year tree!
Russian I:
Tonight you have case work to do which reviews all of the cases. Work through the words and fill in the blanks for the proper cases. Be able to translate the sentences that you create. Hopefully on Thursday we'll finish Doctor Zhivago and make some ornaments for our tree.
English II:
A lot of you got some good work done in class. Keep going. If you want to, keep working on your narratives. Plan and write! These will be due after break!
AP English III
Happy Monday! Tonight you have two things to do, and one of them is right here. First, read Act IV of The Crucible. As you read, finish the tracking of your character and consider the end of the play. Is it satisfying? How does it finish the allegory? In what ways is symbolism used at the end?
Also, please post a comment to this post which states which play you've chosen for your project as well as a reason why. Your comment may not show up immediately, but that's okay. You should start reading for your Drama Project.
English II
For homework tonight you should do one of the following tasks. First, you can choose to work on your hero narrative. Keep putting together your rough draft and make sure that you've finished the planning sheet as well as the paragraph in your journals. You should finish the rough draft so that we can start putting together the final draft soon.
The second thing that you can work on is your essay revisions. You received back your final drafts with feedback. If you would like to, you can work on these further in order to earn back points and make your writing even stronger.
Welcome back everyone! I hope that your Thanksgiving break was restful and that you were able to spend some time on yourself. Here are your reminders as you move forward to Wednesday.
Russian II/III
For homework you should finish the viewing guide for Служебный Роман - remember that one question needs to be answered in complete sentences in Russian. The other questions can be answered in English. Make sure that this is complete as it will be entered in to reassess on your previous viewing guide for the film.
Outside of this you should review the grammar and new verbs in your units. Make sure that you are preparing yourself in advance of your assessments before Winter Break.
Russian I
For homework tonight you should add in a sentence about your family members which uses the accusative case. For this, I would recommend going back to the hobby sentence. Tell me what the person reads, or what the person watches, or what the person cooks. Remember to add in an appropriate direct object after the verb. Remember the requirements:
sentence which introduces the person, states the relationship to you
sentence which states where the person lives, uses the verb "to live" and the prepositional case
sentence which states a hobby the person has/what the person does
a sentence which uses the accusative case
You'll end up with anywhere from five to six sentences for each family member.
English II
For homework tonight you should make sure that you are studying your grammar notes and your vocabulary from Persepolis. You'll have a quiz before winter break on both of these things. Additionally, if you are missing your graphic novel/memoir project you will want to get that turned in either Tuesday or Wednesday to get credit before the progress reports come out. There are also some of you who are missing the paragraph on comparing Marji's life to your own life - make sure that all missing work is settled!
Russian Students - You should be practicing and working on Russian content everyday over the break! Don't slack.
Russian I: By this point in the course you should know the following concepts -
nominative and prepositional cases
possessive pronouns
gender
subject pronouns
verb conjugation
basic sentence structure "This is..."
vocabulary in Chapter One
Make sure that you have studied and reviewed these concepts so that you are solid and sure coming back from the break. If you haven't done your family writing, you should take care of that. When we come back from break we will move through the other cases - know the prepositional so that you are able to learn the others quickly.
Also, practice your singing.
Russian II/III: I identified skills or objectives for each of you to practice/study over the break. Make sure that you are using these cards to follow through on your studying and practice over the long break. Verbs and cases are good to review for all of you since those foundational skills are so important. Make sure that you have notes on the first questions which we watched today in our film - we'll finish the rest of the film at the end of Thanksgiving break.
English II: If you did not turn in your project today make sure that it gets in to me tomorrow. If you need to email it, please send it to daniel (dot) miller (at) dpsnc (dot) net. I'll confirm that I got your project. Make sure that you don't miss the chance to turn in this project since it's a major grade for the quarter.
Outside of this, you will want to make sure to finish any make up work that you may have. Many of you are missing the paragraph where you should be comparing your childhood to Marji's childhood. If you don't have that, get it to us after the break or email it in. Lastly there is the extra credit which is also due after Thanksgiving - make sure to complete that if you want those points!
Happy Thursday everyone! Here are your reminders for the weekend -
Russian I, II, and III
We will be reassessing on standards from the previous quiz on Monday. Make sure that you are reviewing and preparing to earn back points and show mastery of concepts. Russian I Students - Focus on your cases, possessive pronouns, and your vocabulary in chapter one, especially the nouns. Russian II Students - Focus on your counting rules and the spelling of your numbers. Russian III Students- Focus on your use of modals as well as vocabulary in chapter nine.
Russian II/III
Other than preparing for your reassessment on Monday I would like for you to complete your journal writing this weekend. The phrase for the week is "кому/чему не удалось" meaning "it didn't work out for whom/what". Remember that this phrase uses the dative case for the person/thing it didn't work out for. Think about this as you use this phrase.
Russian I
You have your reassessment to prepare for this weekend. Additionally, you can spend some time working on your family writing. Next class we'll likely get started on our next case - the accusative case, so be ready for that excitement!
English II
You all have your extra credit assignment to work on over the weekend and on through Thanksgiving break. Remember that the assignment can be turned in early or not at all since it's for extra credit.
Your required work for the weekend is to finish your project - the personal narratives focusing on a moment in your life. On Monday we'll have our presentations of the projects, finish discussing "The Passport" chapter and then likely work on the film.
Happy Half Day! Here are your reminders for tonight.
AP English III
Your resubmissions of quarter one's argumentative essay are due on Friday to me. I will then process grade corrections for the first quarter and you will see these reflected on your next report card. Do not miss this deadline as you will not have the chance to turn it in again. Outside of this, make sure that you have been working on your outline for Ms. Ginocchio as that assignment is due from you all on Tuesday, before Thanksgiving Break. Lastly, make sure that you have yourself in a good place to be able to finish The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn over Thanksgiving Break. We'll be finishing the book quickly after that.
English II
Your Persepolis personal narrative projects are due on Tuesday, the class before we have Thanksgiving Break. Many of you were able to use the workshop to get a lot done on your projects; try to finish them tonight so that you are ready going into the weekend. Remember that one of the largest parts of this grade is your presentation - think about this clearly. Be sure to explain how your use of graphic elements helps you to enhance the story you are telling.
English II
Your homework for tonight is the same that it will be for Thursday. You have your graphic novel projects due on Monday which means that you need to finish them tonight and tomorrow night. Many of you got some good work done today in class on these projects - keep that momentum going and finish it when you get home. Remember that you can turn in your work early if you finish it early and it's complete.
Please pay attention to the rubric as you are finishing this project. Your explanation of your art and how you used graphic details to add to the meaning of the work is important - make sure that you can answer this question clearly.
Russian I
For homework tonight you have reading to do in Russian. I want you to be able to identify all of the verbs in this text - you have twenty since I gave you the first one. You also want to be able to identify any cognates (words that are the same in English and in Russian) - try to be able to translate these words.
After you have read the text remember to do your Interpretive Reading work - What is the main idea of this text? What are three supporting details? Remember to do this work in English.
Russian II/III
II's - You need to complete exercise 5.2 and 5.3A - Remember to spend time using your verb list in chapter five to help you learn the different imperfective and perfective verbs. That list will be invaluable to you. I would also recommend continuing to study the examples in the textbook with the translations. The only way to understand aspect is to experience it and to work through it; try to get as much exposure as you can.
III's - You need to complete exercise 9.9, write out all of the sentences and form imperatives in the perfective of the imperfective verb in the beginning of the sentence. Focus on forming your imperatives and selecting the proper pair for the imperfective verb.
II's and III's - Make sure that you complete your cheat sheet (шпаргалка) focusing on the different grammar we've learned today. These will be very helpful as we learn and review these concepts.
And just like that it's Friday. Here is what you need to accomplish for tonight as we move forward to next week.
English II
If you didn't have your planning work from our workshop to show me in class today then please have that to show me next class. For the planning you need to take your event that is the focus of your narrative and break that into (at least) five specific points or smaller moments (what happened first, second, third, and so on). Then, account for all of your characters and their emotions through your story. Select a graphic element you will use in the creation of your narrative, and lastly draw your first frame.
We'll be spending some more time next class working through these assignments more. Remember that they will be due on the 23rd and 24th of this month.
AP English III
Over the weekend you have your next major chunk of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to read, Chapters Thirty to Thirty-Eight. Continue to think about your essay topic and plan - now that you've determined your topic and general idea, you should read the rest of the text with this idea in mind.
Don't forget that on Wednesday you will have your first timed writing of a rhetorical analysis. Remember that we are basically doing this all of the time, you're now being asked to formalize it on paper for us.
Lastly, if you have any missing work in PowerSchool (namely vocabulary cards) get those turned in ASAP! And 3B students, don't forget your permission slips.
Remember that tomorrow we have a day off for Veterans' Day. Thank a veteran for his/her service to our country; if you don't know a veteran, then find one and say thank you. Here are your reminders to take you to Friday.
English II
For Friday's class make sure that you have a completed personal narrative plan where you have sketched out your plot into distinct moments, planned for your characters, thought about graphic elements in your art, and then drawn your first panel. Many of you didn't have this and said it was at home - that's fine. Make sure that I see it on Friday.
In addition, if you have missing work, now is a great time to take care of that. You may be missing your writing on Marji's childhood in comparison to yours, the dramatic reading, or the test. See us to check on this.
Russian I
For Friday you have your exam on vocabulary, prepositional case, and grammatical gender rules. Make sure that you have studied and that you are ready. Many of you still need to work more on verb conjugation and complete another retest - please see me to complete this sooner rather than later.
Russian II
For Friday you also have an exam that you'll be completing. Make sure that you can discuss various time expressions and that you can explain at what time a particular event happens. In addition, you should know your numbers from zero to sixty as well as the rules for counting items like seconds, minutes, hours, weeks, etc.
Russian III
For Friday you have your exam too - I try to give all the Russian tests on the same day. Your exam will focus on the food vocabulary in chapter nine, the use of modals, and then aspect rules when working with можно/нельзя. From what I saw in our review today many of you are confusing some of the modals with each other - try to understand what idea each of the modals controls and the particular case ideas that work with each modal. That will help.
