You have no idea how irritated I am to be sick on Halloween. The only upside is that I've been sick since getting home on Friday so I didn't waste any time this weekend making a costume that I didn't get to wear. Those who had me 8th period or (especially) in forensics know I was losing my voice Friday afternoon: that was the start. Terrible, awful, no good, very bad cold. And once again I have lost days to the Great God Sleep.
This is becoming an annoying habit.
I hope that you Halloween weekend and your Halloween Day have been enjoyable. And I hope to see you tomorrow when we shall, I trust, resume things as they stood last Friday...
WORD OF THE DAY*: JUXTAPOSE * Click word for information.
Tomorrow's Conferences: (sorry, I don't have the list at home with me!)
Some of you asked for something for extra credit. OK, here goes:
As you walk into Monday's class, hand me a poem, rhyming or free verse, using all of the current vocab words. Use them in such a way that I can see that you clearly understand what they mean and how they are used. Be sure that your name is on the poem. Be aware that I will share them.
This is a one-day offer, good on Monday only. If you will not be in class on Monday, email me the poem before class time. WORD OF THE DAY*: ANTITHETICAL * Click word for information.
CW: Today was Friday. Sometimes that's all that needs to be said. (We did share journals though.) :-)
E3H:
Today, using window notes, we worked our way through important elements of Book Two.
WW Monday
Finish the book for Tuesday
E2CP:
Today, we discussed imagery in "Meeting at Night" and "Parting at Morning"
Then we had RW
Monday is WW
Tuesday: Read the two poems dealing with spring (the next two in Chapter 4) and answer the questions following them on paper to be handed in as you enter the class.
Monday's Conferences: Jenna, Collin, Summer, Emma D, Adam, Cole, John, Claire J, Laura
This is your spider:
This is your spider on drugs:
Ever wonder what you're missing on "Conan"? Pretty much this:
Well, my daughter, despite my best efforts yesterday, did not get her driver's license. We just did not get to the DMV on time. O course she was bitterly disappointed (assuaged a bit by dinner at Jimmy's Charhouse). Still, I obviously have to do better this afternoon, so here I am before 7th period writing this so I can dive out of the building after school, rush to Stevenson, get her, and get up to the DMV.
BTW: When someone says that road tests end at 5, shouldn't that mean the last roast test goes out at 5? I certainly took it that way. But no...at the DMV it means that the last road test has to be back at 5.
grrr...
CW:
Today we (finally!) finished and hung the collages. Then it was workshop.
Tomorrow, we will be sharing journal entries, among other things.
E3H:
Today we discussed more of Asher, focusing on the Rebbe's decision to separate the family at the end and the boy's essential character.
Tomorrow, we will be in Book Two! Finish reading that tonight. (Maybe I will be kind enough not to give a reading quiz. Maybe.)
E2CP:
Today, we spent much time talking about simliarities between the two poems from yesterday.
After that, we discussed and played with what an image is.
Tonight, read the first three pages of Chapter 5 and answer the questions after "Parting at Morning" in your journals.
WORD OF THE DAY*: ASSUAGE * Click word for information.
If you have things posted on turnitin.com, try to access them. Log in and click on them; can you see what is attached? Can you see my feedback? Your peers' reviews? I need to know these things.
Check your grades on PowerSchool also; are they correct, as far as you can tell? Is anything missing or recorded incorrectly? I need to know that too. WORD OF THE DAY*: concomitant * Click word for information.
CW: We shared (most of) the collage poems today. We'll finish them tomorrow and then...move on!
E3H: Tomorrow we're back to Asher: Book One at least should be done (and there could be a quiz).
E2CP: We had some grade discussion today and discussed things that you'd like us to do in the second quarter, and then we looked at poems. Tomorrow, we will be looking at more poetry. (Very descriptive, right?) HW: Read the sonnet on p. 43 and the poem on p. 44; choose one and answer the questions after it in your journal for tomorrow.
You know, if these Mondays keep coming around I might have to give up my subscription to Weeks.
CW: We really will share and hang those posters tomorrow. :-)
E3H: I hope I can get through all of those turnitin essays tonight. (They are so much slower than I imagined they would be!) In any event: let's have a WW tomorrow and then back to Asher!
E2CP: We had a WW today; back to poetry tomorrow.
In this space there is usually a silly video. Instead, today I bring you a link to SEVEN of them because everyone should have the right to be a record-setter:
Yes, it is the end of the quarter today, folks. Haven't we had fun? Once more we appear to have escaped an apocalypse, so that's good. (Now if we just have this much luck with the Mayans...) And most of you are still here, and still here with your GPA's intact, so that's good too.
A note to those whose GPA's are in danger of not remaining intact:
If there is work you can make up, for goodness sake make it up before the weekend is over!!!Email it to me so there is a fragment of a chance that I can get it into this quarter's grade. I shall try to do so.
OK, now...
CW:
Today we had a workshop day.
Monday we will share the collage poems and hang up the collages!
E3H:
Today we saw more fantasias.
Monday we will see more of them still; any we do not see in these two days I will grade independently and show the class later in the week.
Fantasia written element is due on Monday.
Tuesday's assignment: Read through Book One of Asher; read ahead if possible.
Yes, Mr. Bill: it is sadly true. I actually did miss a day yesterday! I know, I know. I'm ashamed. It never should have happened.
I would excuse myself by saying that I left school early to take my daughter to her doctor's appointment, did not arrive home until after 6 PM, and (having lost the entire afternoon) was utterly lost and simply failed to find my way back to my ordinary and habitual pursuits. While the absolute truth, though, I suspect that would not be enough. I will just have to beg the forgiveness of my students and promise to endeavor not to have too many repeat performances of this sort of truancy.
* See Tuesday's blog for details; click word for information.
CW:
Today we were in the lab.
Tomorrow we will be finishing up the collage poems so that we may share them on Monday.
E3H:
Today we started sharing fantasias.
Tomorrow we will continue doing so, hoping to complete the process on Monday so everyone will get the opportunity to go during this quarter. Priority will be given on both days to those whose projects are not portable; that is to say students whose projects require them to be present to make them work. I can view others, should we fail to finish on Monday, on my own on Monday evening.
E2CP:
Today we discussed more of Billy Collins's "Introduction to Poetray" so that we may use it as a standard for our own reading of poems. Then, using Emily Dickinson's "There Is No Frigate Like a Book," we spent the bulk of the class discussing denotation and connotation.
Your assignment is to rewrite the poem using different words whose denotations are the same but whose connotations give the poem a very different feeling.
Ever wonder what it would be like if William Shatner sang "Bohemian Rhapsody"? These two teens didn't either, but here's a video answering the question anyway. I think it's sort of like watching a train wreck: you can't take your eyes off it as much as you might want to.
Today we are beginning something completely new! Yes, today Topham's Attic introduces Pain Free Vocab! Increase your usable vocabulary one word at a time! It is a concept whose time has come, and a time whose concept has found a place to be!
Here's how it works (and it is SO SIMPLE that it hardly needs any explanation at all!):
Each day I will post one new word to add to our Universal Vocab Lists. (All classes use the same lists. What the heck? Everyone can benefit from new words, right?) I'll link it to the dictionary.com site for that word, which will give your definitions, sentences, and someone pronouncing the word out loud: basically all that you need to know to make it yours. I will also add it to the Universal Vocab List on the left side of the blog. As the semester progresses, make a special endeavor to add these words to your in class conversation, to your essays, etc. Sprinkle them into outside conversations as well. Soon you will find that they have become your words.
And if at some point I decide to give a quiz about them or some such thing...it will be no problem for you because you will own these words!
So with all of that preamble, here is the first word:
Tonight, create a poem from the various images in your folders. When you make your posters, the poem as well as the images will be on it. Tomorrow, however, you will be workshopping the poems so that you can make them as strong as possible in a brief time. Bring pix and poems back tomorrow. (Glue sticks would help.)
E3H:
Good discussions today, especially 8th period. The mysticism (kabbalah) on which the sect was founded in Eastern Europe in the 18th Century (which, as you pointed out, seems to contradict the orthodoxy of their apparent behaviors) is very important to our understanding of Asher's dreams and struggles in the novel. For your next reading assignment: finish Book One (p.150) for Tuesday. (However, since we will be moving quite quickly, you might read further if the opportunity arises.)
As to the fantasias: we will be in Lab 356 tomorrow (just meet there) to finish your work on them. If you are already finished, bring WW materials to work on. Fantasias are due on Thursday. If a few people are not ready that will not be a problem; if a large number are not ready, that will be a problem. Your best bet is to bring your project on DVD or upload it to youtube. As to the written element of the project, it can be completed later; it need not be finished on Thursday.
Note: although I will not be in class tomorrow, I will be in school through 6th period, so show up for your conferences!
E2CP:
Nice conversation, folks! We talked about the Shakespeare poem and why you didn't like it and then about the more modern ones and what made them work for you. The assignment for tonight is to examine the poem "The Red Wheelbarrow" and find ways of explaining what is poetic about it. How do we justify that this little tiny slice of life is a poem? Write your thoughts in your journal, which I am going to collect tomorrow!
At the start of the passing period between 6th and 7th periods, I finished up in the women's room at the far end of the second floor, exited, made my way through the crowds on the senior hallway to the other end, went down the stairs to the basement, and stopped at the bookstore to procure a copy of My Name Is Asher Lev, which required time to fill out forms. From there I proceeded through the Lower Commons to the music wing--the farthest one can get in this building from Room 305. Having achieved this distance, I turned around and walked back, up four flights of stairs, down the full third floor hallway, and back to my classroom, arriving in time to hold the door for a student on crutches who was arriving just slightly after the clock showed that class had begun. Four students entered behind us.
I was not even winded. And I am in crappy shape.
I noticed the clocks throughout the building as I walked, too: they are all in near-perfect synchronization. Interesting. So, besides that, here is what I now know: one can, during a passing period, walk two lengths of this building including a bathroom stop and another significant stop (like a stop at a locker or the bookstore) and still get to class on time. And no one has to walk two lengths of the building in one passing period.
Conclusion: Everyone should be on time, having concluded all of their "business" before arriving.
Interesting, isn't it? :-)
Weekend stuff:
CW:
Today we discussed things to consider when starting to write fiction. As one of the key things to consider is, of course, characters, one of your weekend assignments is to amass a collection of characters. Go forth and find them! Collect them! Search the world for them! They might be people you know, or they might be people you only see once in passing. But if someone is interesting enough either in personality or in physicality (or both!), write them down. Build a small journal collection of people that you can play with: colorful characters who might be of use to you. Describe them, and as you do so try to let each one come to life at least a bit; that will keep them from remaining generic.
Your other assignment, of course, is to bring magazines, scissors and glue sticks!
E3H: Today was RW, but we started with a couple more fantasia examples. Next week we will have WW on Monday, Asher Lev on Tuesday (your assignment: bring in information from more than Wikipedia on Hasidism and read the first 50 pages of the book), a day in the lab to finish the fantasias on Wednesday, and then we begin presenting them on Thursday. So HW this weekend is the reading and the fantasias (though don't forget to have a draft for WW on Monday!).
E2CP: Today was RW. Your HW this weekend is twofold, and both relate to WW:
For the first quarter process grade, bring in Monday a folder on which will be your name and the name of your piece, and in which will be: your yellow sheet, your black draft, and each draft thus far of the piece.
For Monday's WW, bring in a new piece to conference. Your second WW prompt is to work on a poem!
Had enough of adorable flower girls yet?
What about a little boy who just wants to listen to heavy metal?
I hate it when the unseasonably warm and sunny weather comes to an end. I want that weather to last until, oh, next June. But it's gone: vanished with yesterday's sun into today's cloudy and drizzly skies. Tomorrow's 61 is the warmest day on the ten-day forecast, and next Wednesday's high won't even reach 50.
Have I mentioned how much I hate the cold?
CW: Lab time today. Are you getting you magazines ready for Monday? Are you where you should be on conferences?
E2CP: Lab time today for the Our Town essay, which is due tomorrow. (Email it or hand it in.) Reading Workshop tomorrow!
E3H: Lab time today for fantasias. Tonight, if you have not selected a poem, do so; bring that selection with you tomorrow. (Print it out if it is not in the book.) Also tonight: spend some time (at least half an hour) getting to work on your own fantasia. Take a look at the rubric for scoring located at the lower half of the assignment page. Also tomorrow: bring a book for RW and money for Asher Lev if you have not yet bought it.
I don't usually put actual commercials here, but this is a great one:
I'm not even sure that was worthy of a blog entry.
I mean...23 minute classes? Wha...?
So anyway...
CW: We beat on, boats against the current... Lab tomorrow. Get Travel Writing!
E2CP:
E3H: We showed examples of fantasias and discussed more of what they are. Choose your poems from "Poems for Further Reading" (S&S) or email me with the poem you're interested in.
This was the video from today's journal song. Totally cool fan video!
So, let's see: today is a Tuesday that acts like a Monday but thinks it's a Wednesday because tomorrow, which in fact is a Wednesday, is actually a bizarre little day of 25-minute class periods, so it hardly seems like a day at all, or maybe it's a Thursday, which will still be a Thursday so I don't know what to do with that, and Friday is Friday is always Friday and then it's back to a weekend again.
Right?
Isn't that the way that just how Rebecca Black taught it to us?
CW: Tomorrow is Check-in Day!! Bring the latest copy of All Prompts as well as other unprompted pieces in some sort of neatly organized presentation. (Dare I say a binder?)
E3H: Today was an intro to Asher Lev/WW day. Don't forget to buy Asher Lev tomorrow! Also tomorrow: we will be talking a bit more about the fantasias.
E2CP: Today we had Writing Workshop; tomorrow we will be discussing the thesis paragraphs of your Our Town essays; be sure to have them with you or to have emailed them to me!
for you, some bears:
do you wonder sometimes whether headline writers even see the front pages of their newspapers?
So we have finally made it to the end of a long countdown. Yes! As you might have been able to tell from my "the school year is almost over" speech, the next countdown will be to Halloween, so it will begin at 20 on Tuesday...not as long as this one was.
This weekend has the following weather report:
Sat: 80 and sunny. Sun: 75 and sunny. Mon: 72 and sunny. Do you see what these have in common? No? I will give you a small hint...
I'm not giving much HW to anyone this weekend other than this:
Do not spend all of your time cooped up in your rooms huddled over a computer or video game. Get outside and enjoy what might be the last great weekend of the year!!!!
In the actual reality there is this, but (as I said) it is not much:
CW: If that outside time spurs you to write something, then write something.
E3H: If you did not complete your essay on figurative language (see last night's blog post for details) in class today, get it finished and submitted totii by Monday. Start looking for a poem for your fantasia project as well. (If you feel like beginning the project, clear the poem selection with me and then go ahead, but that is not necessary. This project will not be due for about two weeks.)
E2CP: If you have not cleared your thesis and five quotation with me, you must do so via email this weekend, the earlier the better. Then you should start drafting the final Our Town essay, a 1.5-2 page essay based on your thesis, using your quotes (and others too if you wish) as support. Be careful to start with a strong thesis paragraph. In fact, that's the first thing I want to see. When you finish writing it, send it to me by email so I can give you feedback. It will really help your final grade! The actual essay is not due until next Friday, and I will invite you to bring it in to discuss it in conference. The thesis paragraph, however, is due on Monday. (The thesis + five quotations were due today.)
So...the results on turnitin.com are still coming in... If you have comments to make, let me know.
Calling all technophobes!
If you are unnerved by the online stuff, don't be afraid to let me know. [Half the time it unnerves me too. :-) ] I've spoken to a couple of you about it, and I've tried to be clear in class:
What we have done in the last two weeks is experimental. If the class does not like the site, we will not use it. If the class likes it enough to use it but someone has real issues with doing work online, there will be alternative methods of doing assignments. No one will be left behind. Do not fear. In any case, the internet is just another tool in our toolbox. Our best tools are still each other, face to face.
E2CP: We finished Our Town today and discussed potential themes. Your assignment tonight is to select a theme for a possible essay and find five strong quotations from various locations in the play that you would use to support it if you wrote this paper. This will be turned in tomorrow.
CW: Don't forget the new "After Art" prompt; see yesterday.
E3H: We discussed allegory at length today, spending a lot of time on "Fire and Ice." For tomorrow: Choose a poem from the "Poems for Further Reading" chapter that contains significant figurative language. Compose an essay of about one page that explores the poem's meaning and how the poet uses figurative language to get that meaning across to the reader. We will be in a lab tomorrow so you'll have time to work on this in class. When you finish, upload it to turnitin.com as the assignment "figurative language."
About Google Groups: the Mrs. T's E3H group will be discontinued. It was a failed experiment. As such, after much consideration, I have decided to convert all grades into extra credit points. C will get one point, B will get 2, A will get 3. A+ will get a bonus point. I'll try to take care of this over the weekend. (At this stage, a single point represents about 0.3% of your grade.)
Let me get this straight: technology is supposed to save us time, right?
E2CP: Now that we are all on turnitin.com, be sure to submit those essays! Today we talked about the relationship between our lives on earth and eternity. I read the description of eternity from Portrait of the Artist (an E3H novel) for comparison to out short lives. Tonight: compose in your journals your own version of Emily's goodbye" speech, in which you say goodbye to your own life.
CW: We discussed the ups and downs of turnitin.com as a peer review site for writing workshop. Lots of downs at this point but it does hold some possibilities. The jury is out. One intriguing possibility: use the site's Discussion boards to start review discussions about individual pieces. NEW PROMPT: "After Art" piece. Write a poem in which you react to a piece of art (a painting, a piece of classical music, etc.). Here is an example:
scream
(after munch)
what rawness then
whatorange blue intensity
what whirling winding nightmare
infests your soul
when like a man possessed
you turn your back on
the sweetness of the day—
the harbor rich with spreading sails
thesunset rolling waves across the sky—
and staring into empty space
or at some demon gnawing at your mind
you lift your hands to your face
hold tightly to your melting
frameless form
and wait to hear
the heavens
when they scream
E3H: We discussed symbols in poetry today (along with synecdoche and metonymy). I also told you how way leads on to way. :-) For tomorrow, read (from p 99) about allegory and focus on the poems "Fire and Ice," "Ulysses," and "Curiosity." If you have not done your turnitin reviews, keep on trying!
If you are not on turnitin.com, get there. Current assignments depend upon it. Remember that we are in an all-class experiment here; alert me to problems and don't get bent out of shape about them. I'm aware that they will happen and I'm not going to let you fail.
If you are behind on conferences, get moving. One thing that all classes from the past have agreed upon as "advice for next year" is this: Don't fall behind in Writing Workshop!
If ever you do not understand an assignment, email me! I may not answer right away, but the odds are I will answer; I check email several times a night. (If emailing late, use @ktsunspark.com as the address, where = e2cp, cw, or e3h.)
Please tell me if I ever assume too much; it's a fault I have. If I think you "get it," I don't explain it enough. Ask questions!!!
CW: By tonight, review four pieces on turnitin. We will discuss the website in class tomorrow.
E3H: Bring Sound and Sense again tomorrow. By the end of the week (note this change!), review four pieces on turnitin.
E2CP: All Wedding papers should be uploaded by now to turnitin. We read Act Three in class today; we'll discuss its themes tomorrow.
Calling all bands out there. Need a place to play? Why not build your own? This guy did...on his motorcycle!
You may not believe me about the school year being almost over, but it's true. Ask those who have heard my little speech in the past; they know. :-)
Anyway...
Everyone:
If you are not on turnitin.com, get there. Current assignments depend upon it.
If you are behind on conferences, get moving. One thing that all classes from the past have agreed upon as "advice for next year" is this: Don't fall behind in Writing Workshop!
If ever you do not understand an assignment, email me! I may not answer right away, but the odds are I will answer; I check email several times a night. (If emailing late, use @ktsunspark.com as the address, where = e2cp, cw, or e3h.)
CW: By Tuesday night, review four pieces on turnitin.
E3H: We'll have a full WW tomorrow. By Wednesday night, review four pieces on turnitin.
E2CP: All Wedding papers should be uploaded tonight to turnitin. We'll be in Act Three tomorrow.
Hi, everyone, and welcome back to another (or your first) year at LFHS.
What you have heard is true. The English teacher has lost her ever-loving mind and is not going to be giving any grades at all in her classes this year. Not. One.
There will be no percentages, no numbers, no scores, no letters, no anything that will count toward anything that will end up being averaged for a final grade. But before you call in the men with the white coats, let me explain:
As I hope you have read in the doc your son or daughter (I have always hated the phrase "your student" when addressed to a parent) should have showed you, there is a wealth of research that indicates that grades--or the need to achieve them--are the single greatest thing that stand in the way of a great education. Studies show that the most influential thing a teacher can do to help a student grow academically is to allow him or her to self-grade. Most teachers would rather climb Mt. Everest dressed only in a swimsuit.
But the thing is: our academic system is severely broken. We say that our goal is to get our students to master Common Core Standards, and that is all well and good. But if that is truly the goal, then why do we care how long it takes them to master them? I'm serious. Think about it this way:
Try to remember back to when you were learning how to ride a bike. Oh, it was scary. You needed all kinds of support at first, lots of help from Daddy or Mommy. Then they let go and you were very, very wobbly. Probably you fell off, maybe several times. It took quite a while before you completely mastered the skill. But when you had...you had it down perfectly for the rest of your life.
Now imagine if you were being graded on that learning experience the way schools grade you. We would not score those first scaffolding attempts with Mommy and Daddy, but then...oh, you failed those quizzes when you fell off. And those wobbly rides? C's at best. Then a bunch of B's probably before you finally settled into 100% forever. But if we graded you right at that point, you'd probably average, oh, 83% or so. Why?You've mastered the skill perfectly. So why do you not get 100% if that is what we say we care about? Why on earth do we care about all those earlier times when you didn't have it down yet?
That will be what we go for here. Students will know what the goals are. They will understand what an "A" student looks like. And they will know when they have mastered an objective. Those who do so earlier than others will become tutors to those who have not yet done it: everyone gains from this and the newly learned skills, instead of being quickly forgotten as things studied for a test usually are, will continue being applied as masters tutor their classmates.
That is an awful lot to imagine will happen because I don't give grades this year, but what the heck: if you don't dream big, you never win big, right? The research is behind this, as is the school administration. I'm happy--well, actually I am excited--to pilot this concept at LFHS. As always, I'm glad to discuss this or anything else with you.
