October 29 and 30- Begin reading Night

We began reading the autobiography of Elie Wiesel, Night. Students should finish chapter one in preparation for a quiz.

October 27 and 28- Adding descriptive writing-rubric for "Who am I"

I explained to the students about showing vs. telling and then we continued working on our "Who am I" paper. Here's the rubric for it:

RUBRIC

(10 points) Story shows development in your character. Does this story tell others about WHO you ARE? (This is a story about you!)

(10 points) Story shows a smooth sequence of events that creates a coherent whole.

(5 points) Highlight FIVE times the story contains Showed not Tell.

(10 points) Story uses correct punctuation, capitalization and has a title

(10 points) Story is at least 1-2 pages, typed, double-spaced, and “Times New Roman” 12 font.

(45 points total)

The paper is due by tomorrow night.

October 23 and 26- continue writing Who am I paper

We used our time today to work on our paper more.

October 21 and 22- begin "Who Am I?" paper

Here's the outline for the "Who Am I?" paper. We worked on it today and will continue working on it the next two days.

IT’S TIME TO WRITE YOUR OWN SHORT STORY!

Task: Tell a personal story that helps explain an aspect of your developing identity. In other words, share something that happened in your life or something you went through that has shaped who you are or taught you something.

Checklist:

o Your story must show development in your character. You must have a reflective component - WHAT did you LEARN from this? How does this story tell others about WHO you ARE?

o You must create a smooth sequence of events that creates a coherent whole.

o You must include sensory language and lots of DETAILS to paint a picture in the reader’s mind. (Show, not tell)

o You must use correct punctuation, capitalization, and homophones in your writing.

                                                                                   

o You must have a title

o Your final work should be 1-2 pages, typed, double-spaced, and “Times New Roman” 12 font.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Read through each of these. Put a check mark in five that you could possibly write about.

• A best or worst day
• A time you struggled or made a mistake
• A “first” in your life
• A moment from a complicated relationship
• A time you moved
• A time death affected you
• A time you were ashamed of or proud of a relative
• A time you supported a friend
• A family tradition or ritual that matters
• An anecdote about your name and why it makes you who you are
• The day you met a friend
• A strong belief you have and how you got that belief
• A moment when you found yourself admiring someone in your life
• A time an illness or injury taught you a lesson
• A time you had a run-in with the police

Words that might describe you:

 

Choose 6  words that describe you 

1.                                                                                            2.

3.                                                                                  4.

5.                                                                                  6.

Now for three of them, write down a time where you showed this quality (a couple of sentences each).

1.

2.

3.

October 15 and 16- Independent Reading

We read our independent reading books in class and then began discussing our next unity, Night. We watched the first half of The Boy in Striped Pajamas.

October 13 and 14- Lady or Tiger reflection

Create a Google doc and make sure to put the document in your English Portfolio.

Answer the following questions on the doc:

1. What was your grabber sentence? 
2. Why did you pick that as your grabber? 
3. Find someone else's grabber that you like and copy it down. 
4. Why do you like it?
5. How do you feel about your paper overall? 
6. What was your grade?
7. Are you happy with your grade? 
8. If not, what do you think you could have done differently?

Then, copy the following onto an email to me:

e.c.                                             /0        

First                                          /10        

Edarg                                        /20         

Book                                         /5          

Reflc                                         /5          

Short                                          /20         

Ain’t                                          /10        

Pick                                          /10        

Tiger                                        /25         

Total Grade                               /105        

Fill in your scores for each assignment.

Work on one of your missing assignments or one that you did poorly on.

October 9 and 12

Today we watched another video of an Obscure Sorrow... Zenosyne... and then did a quick write on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNgyEmYyQF4

October 7 and 8- Type out Lady or Tiger paper

We typed out our paper today using the outline we worked on yesterday.

The format for typing out the paper is:

1st paragraph (Grabber and then Thesis)
2nd paragraph (Two quotes from the book that support your thesis with an explanation for each quote)
3rd paragraph (Two reasons from the real world that support your thesis with an explanation for each)

Then place your paper into your English 1 Portfolio that we created a couple weeks ago.

October 5 and 6- Begin Lady or Tiger paper

We focused on the following worksheet that will help us write the Lady or Tiger paper.

You've just read The Lady or the Tiger?  So, look at the last question that the story asks you.  What do you think came out?  The lady or the tiger?  Think about that princess.  What clues might help us know which door she picked? 

Also, think about human nature and how we act.  Are we generally jealous people and make decisions based mainly on our own selfish interests?  Or are we pretty generous in our actions and put the desires of others ahead of our own. 

Based on what you think, circle what came out.

THE LADY                                THE TIGER

Give me two quotes from the STORY that support your answer.  Include the paragraph number as well.  Then explain how this quote supports your answer.

1.  _____________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________Paragraph #:_____________

Explanation: _____________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

2. _____________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________ Paragraph #:____________

Explanation: _____________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Now think about human nature. Write down two examples of how people act towards each other that help support your answer from above.  Then give a specific example.

1.      _____________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Specific example: _________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

2.      _____________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Specific example: _________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Now that you’ve got an idea of what came out of the door, and how you are going to go about proving this, let’s work on your first paragraph-the Grabber sentence and the Thesis statement.

Grabber sentence:  Think of an interesting way to begin the paper.  You want to grab the reader’s attention.  Maybe ask the reader a question, or make a dramatic statement about the nature of love.  Or jealousy.

Write a possible grabber sentence here.

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Now that you have your reader’s attention, you have to let that person know what the paper is going to be about.  You need a THESIS STATEMENT.

Thesis statement:  Your thesis statement is a one- or two- sentence statement that tells your reader what your paper is going to be about.  You want to convince your reader what came out of the door and why.  A good thesis statement might follow this template:

In “The Lady or the Tiger,” the (lady or tiger) came out of the door on the right because (give a brief statement about either the princess’ personality or human nature in general).

Now write your thesis statement here.

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Take a look at these two sentences, the Grabber and the Thesis statement.  This is your first paragraph.  Do they work together well, or does it sound wrong?  Your thesis statement should flow nicely from your grabber sentence.  Read it as a paragraph to someone else and brainstorm a way to make it a nicely flowing paragraph.

___________________________                                          ________________________

October 1 and 2- Who am I questions and Lady or Tiger story

We discussed our upcoming narrative paper that will answer the question "Who am I?"

Students will:

Write a compelling story about a meaningful experience that answers the question "Who Am I?"

Then we:

Wrote how each of the following stories answers the question "Who am I?"

So I Ain't No Good Girl (Girl with abusive boyfriend waiting for the bus)

Beauty Lessons (Girl who thinks she is unattractive watches her aunt take off her makeup)

Coming Attractions (Girl works at a movie theater, prank-calls people and sleeps with her teacher)

Then we:

Now write on one of the following:

So I Ain't No Good Girl - how your insecurities stopped you from being the best you can be

Beauty Lessons- How you realized something about yourself that made you much happier with who you are

Coming Attractions- How a quality of who you are is a result of your family or friends' influence on you

Lastly, we read the short story The Lady or the Tiger. Here's a link.