Monday, 11/16/2009

MODERN PROSE

• We read for about seventy minutes today.
• Several people typed book reports.
• We finished round 2 of the book quick-chats.

AP
Big Picture for the Week:  1)  Talk about the writing you all have done this term by looking at your individual writing as a class.  2)  Read the last three prose pieces from this unit, before finishing with Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily".  (Start Orwell's Animal Farm next week.)


Virginia Woolf's "Death of a Moth"

• We talked about our responses to the RJ questions, and we talked a lot about animal-vehicle collisions as well.

Writing

• I handed back the fate/free will/destiny essays that you all wrote millions of years ago.  I also handed out a packet of four essays that I thought we could all learn some things from, as writers.  We read Brad and Anne's aloud, and we talked about how to do the following:  make an argument, create smooth transitions, define your terms, and create a hook that you refer back to consistently.

Workshop

• We took vocabulary quiz #3.
• We read a short biography on Orwell, and some information on Burma/Myanmar.
• We started reading "Shooting an Elephant" (pp. 114-117).
• I conferenced with Cassey, Greta and Greg about their fate essays.

Homework

• Finish reading Orwell's essay, "Shooting an Elephant", if you haven't already done so.
• Answer RJ questions 2, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

CREATIVE WRITING

Homework Due

• Journal #2

Writing Tip #1--Paragraphing

• We read page 32, and then we paragraphed page 33 (a passage from a John Green novel that I'd removed all the paragraphs from).
• We pair-shared page 32.
• We finally looked at the author's version of this page up on the big screen, and we talked about how paragraphing helps organize our work, and helps readers understand our work.

Writing Tip #2--Connotations

• We finished discussing page 29--we filled in "noisy" words and "cool-sounding" words.

Writing Assignment (What we did in class during writing workshop--25 minutes)

• 1.     Pull up your Where Were You Last Night first draft.
• 2.     Read it over one time completely.
• 3.     Consider what you still want to add—then add it!
• 4.     Consider what you want to cut—then cut it!
• 5.     Give it a title, even if it’s only a working title (not “Where Were You Last Night?”)  J
• 6.     Check your paragraphs—are they effective and awesome!
• 7.     Check each word—does each word say what you want it to say?

Sharing Our Work (20 minutes)

• I explained what I wanted people to do when they listened to the WWYLN stories in their small sharing groups (blue handout).  I gave forms for asking questions about each other's stories.

Homework

• None