Week 6: October 1-5

What you miss if you miss this week:

Reading Workshop
We will continue to read our literary nonfiction selections, while keeping an eye out for the traits of a successful personal narrative.

Writing Workshop
We will use the interview process to uncover the seeds of our own personal stories.

Vocabulary
Thesis Statement/Implied Thesis
Paragraph/Paragraph Unity

Reminder!  Friday is the end of the six week grading period.  Eligibility will be checked on October 5th.  Please be sure to turn in all test corrections, make up work, and extra credit by Thursday.  

"Books are smart and brilliant and wise. Love what you do and do what you love. Don’t listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. You do what you want, what you love. Imagination should be the center of your life."  ~Ray Bradbury

Week 5: Sept 24-28

What you miss if you miss this week:

Writing Workshop -
Kiosk Presentations - Group Project/Major Grade
Compare and Contrast Assignment - Partner Project/Major Grade (PreAP Independent Writing)

Reading Workshop -
We will begin our Literary Non-fiction unit on Thursday
All Classes will read "Fish Cheeks" by Amy Tan
Students will choose 2 more selections from the following list (PreAP students will choose 3)

"Salvation" by Langston Hughes

"A View from the Bridge" by Cherokee Paul McDonald

"Ike" by Gary Paulsen

"Josh" by Gary Paulsen

"The Great Mouse Plot" and "Mr. Coombs" by Roald Dahl (together these count as one selection)

"Mrs. Flowers" by Maya Angelou

"The Street" by Richard Wright

Common Assessment Test Corrections

How to -

Using the question you missed as a model, create your own multiple-choice question using one of the reading selections from the same unit.  Remember that your answer choices can be true without being correct!  You will be awarded half the value of the question for writing an imitation of your own.  Fully understanding the question will help you earn a higher score on future assessments!

Kiosk Presentations

(also known as “Presenterless” Presentations)

•    The purpose is to communicate the essence of a novel, short story, or poem by revealing the impression that it left on you. People will know by looking at your presentation what kind of reading experience they could expect if they read that same piece.

•    Most of the message of your presentation is contained in the passages from the literary piece and the images you use. (Each presentation has a minimum number of both passages and images, and that number could change with each assignment.)

•    Your presentation should include the following:

·        exact passages—words or phrases or sentences—from the piece that communicate its essence/theme/meaning (minimum for any assignment: 4)

·        images which enhance and expand the meaning of the selected passages (minimum for any assignment: 4)

·        the author’s name and the title of the literary piece

·        any “instructions” the audience needs as they look at your presentation; for example, if you want the audience to read one specific passage before reading another, you’ll have to provide direction (i.e., arrows or numbers)

•    And here are a few other things you need to keep in mind:

·        The ONLY words that can be used on the visual presentation are the direct quotations from the literary piece.

·        The “images” can take any form: drawings, pictures from print sources, shapes cut from colored paper, etc. Use whatever you have available!

·        No matter whether you are doing an individual or group kiosk presentation, do NOT talk to other individuals or groups about your passages and images. Let them look at your presentation and figure out what you are communicating without talking about it. Discussion will come after everyone has had a chance to look at all the visual presentations.

Week 4: September 17-21

What you miss if you miss this week!

Reading Workshop -
Analyze figurative language within a text

Writing Workshop -
Identify and analyze the use of intentional fragments
Create a Kiosk Presentation

Common Assessment - Wednesday - Thursday
Be sure you understand and know how to apply the following terms
theme
conflict
characterization
conflict resolution
climax
point of view
narrative
inference
dialogue
figurative language
simile
metaphor
imagery
intentional fragment

Week 3: Sept 10-14

What you miss if you miss class this week -

Reading Workshop -
Conflict, Theme, Figurative Language

If you have already finished both of your first selections, please choose two of the following stories to read next:   Two Kinds, The First Day, Mother and Daughter, The Veldt, I Stand Here Ironing

Writing Workshop -
Story Circle

Open House! - Thursday, September 13.  If you cannot be here, please give your parents your id number. 

PreAP
You should be making significant progress on your independent novel!

Week Two: September 4-September 7

What you miss if you miss this week -

Reading Workshop -
We will begin reading the short stories we selected last week.  By the end of the week you should have collected some great of examples of characterization from your reading.

Reading Selections - Harrison Bergeron, The Lottery, The Monkey's Paw, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, A Sound of Thunder

Writing Workshop -
We will practice writing what we learned with our own fictional characters.

Library Orientation

PreAP - Don't forget to choose a novel for your independent assignment!