- Poem Of the Week: Teaching Sonnets
- Work in pairs today to TEACH the sonnet you have selected to your partner. This is not a copying assignment- you are not to just copy over what your partner has for their analysis. Teaching means you help your partner discover important elements of the poem for themselves through discussion, questions, and dialogue. Make sure you help each other annotate by:
- Clarifying the meaning of unfamiliar words, ideas, and allusions
- Noting the way the structure of the poem helps us understand its meaning
- Identifying and theorize about the use of various figurative language devices.
- Thinking about and noting possible topics and poetic ideas
- Turn in all four of your papers (yours and your partner's) stapled together. THEY SHOULD NOT BE IDENTICAL because the notes that you made will be different in some ways than the way your partner experienced the poem.
- College Admissions Essays:
- Final drafts will need to be completed no later than Tues. 11/6/18.
- Remember that you need to conference one-on-one with me at some point in your college essay process. Please see me to sign up for a conference if you have not already had one. I have already entered grades for those who have completed their conference. You can have more than one conference if you like.
- POW:
- HW due Wed. 10/31/18: Locate an English or Italian sonnet that you enjoy and make TWO copies. On one copy, complete a 1-2-3 analysis of the poem. Bring the analysis and the other fresh copy of the poem with you to class on Wed.
- College Admissions Essays:
- I have read, responded to, and returned your essays. We used class today as a workshop to conference and continue to improve these essays.
- Remember that you need to conference one-on-one with me at some point in your college essay process. Please see me to sign up for a conference if you have not already had one. I have already entered grades for those who have completed their conference. You can have more than one conference if you like.
- POW: Petrarchan sonnet study- Sonnet XV by John Barlas
- HW due Wed. 10/31/18: Locate an English or Italian sonnet that you like and make TWO copies. On one copy, complete a 1-2-3 analysis of the poem. Bring the analysis and the other fresh copy of the poem with you to class on Wed.
- College Admissions Essays:
- I will begin looking at your submissions. Watch for the return of your essay with feedback. When you receive it, you will have one week to complete a new draft and turn it in to me.
- Remember that you need to conference one-on-one with me at some point in your college essay process. Please see me to sign up for a conference if you have not already had one. I have already entered grades for those who have completed their conference. You can have more than one conference if you like.
- 2019 Sejong Writing Competition ($1000 and $500 prizes)
- Root of the Week: TRIB (pay or bestow) Make a sketchnote page in the terms/vocab section of your notebook for this root.
- POW: Petrarchan sonnet study
- Due Thurs. 10/25/18:
- Research the qualities of a Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet and how it differs from a Shakespearean sonnet. Analyze and annotate Sonnet XV by John Barlas
- College Admissions Essay:
- Today we had Q&A for the drafts that are due tonight.
- You will need to conference with me at some point in your work with the college admissions essay. Make sure you sign up for a conference time before/after school.
- Due Tues. 10/23/18: Submit a new, improved draft to me on Google Classroom by the end of the day, 11:59 pm. I will take off points for:
- Late essays (points accumulate by the day)
- Grammatical errors of any kind (points off for each error)
- Incomplete essays
- Essays without the proper MLA formatting
- Other college essay/planning resources:
- Root of the Week: VERI (true, genuine) Make a sketchnote page in the terms/vocab section of your notebook for this root. Check out more info here.
- Review charts (theme & genre) for Beowulf were returned. They were graded together for completion. See below for grading:
- POW: Shakespearean sonnet QUIZ. If you were absent, see me ASAP to make up this quiz.
- Short Fiction Study: We will read a new story next week.
- College Admissions Essay:
- Today we had an in-class workshop for our first drafts of the college admissions essays. On the paper copy of your draft, complete these self-editing tasks.
- Due Tues. 10/23/18: Submit a new, improved draft to me on Google Classroom by the end of the day, 11:59 pm. I will take off points for:
- Late essays (points accumulate by the day)
- Grammatical errors of any kind (points off for each error)
- Incomplete essays
- Essays without the proper MLA formatting
- Other college essay/planning resources:
Check your Beowulf test here
Root of the Week: VERI (true, genuine) Make a sketchnote page in the terms/vocab section of your notebook for this root.
POW: We will have a Shakespearean sonnet QUIZ on Fri. 10/19/18. You can review and prepare by doing the following:
Review your notes on the structure of a Shakespearean sonnet and how that helps us determine meaning in the poem.
Review your annotations on the two Shakespearean sonnets we have covered in class.
Review the process we have practiced for analyzing the sonnet.
Watch the following videos:
My walkthrough of our process using Sonnet 130 (video) (copy of poem)
Tutorial
Crash Course video about sonnets
- College Admissions Essay:
- Seniors went with counselors to work on FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) during class today.
- Get your FAFSA ID here
- Tues. 10/16/18: FAFSA ID Event, Library, 4-6 pm
- Tues. 10/23/18: Financial Aid Night for students and parents, 6-8 pm
- Beowulf tests returned & discussed.
- New unit: Short Fiction
- HW due Wed. 10/17/18:
- Complete a terms inventory for short fiction terminology
- Read "Born Bad" by Sandra Cisneros. Annotate as you see fit, but especially focus on making physical notes that help you answer the following question:
- How does the author use literary techniques to illustrate the complex relationship between Esperanza and Aunt Lupe?
- College Admissions Essay:
- Root of the Week: HYPO (sub, under, less)
- Poem of the Week: In-class assignment (notes only!)
- MAKE NOTES ON THE POEM FOR EACH STEP
- Read the poem through
- Step 1: Ask questions for clarification
- Mark off the quatrains and couplet
- Reread the poem
- Step 2: Ask questions for figurative elements and their effect
- Determine the main concept of quatrain 1
- Examine quatrain 2 to see how it responds to the idea presented in quatrain 1
- Examine quatrain 3 to see how it responds to the idea presented in quatrain 1
- Identify repetition of ideas / phrases / words and comment on the connections
- Reread the poem
- Summarize the couplet
- Note how the couplet reflects the 1st quatrain
- Step 3: Ask questions for meaning by looking at the pattern of ideas in the poem
- Note a key topic at the bottom of the page
- Write a poetic idea that explains the point the poem is making about the topic
- Turn in your annotated poem.
- College Admissions Essay:
- The following assignments were turned in:
- College Admissions Essays
- We will start writing college admissions essays next week. For Thurs. 10/11/18, please research the schools to which you plan to apply and come to class with ALL of the essay topics you plan to complete. Here are some resources:
- Root of the Week: -IC (suffix meaning "nature of" or "-like"). Note that -IC turns a noun into an adjective.
- Create a sketchnote page in the vocab/terms section of your notebook for this suffix. Remember to include:
- image reminder
- definition
- color
- basic, advanced, and super words using the suffix (and their definitions)
- Poem of the Week: Shakespearean sonnet notes / discussion. Poems were turned in.
- College Admissions Essays
- We will start writing college admissions essays next week. For Thurs. 10/11/18, please research the schools to which you plan to apply and come to class with ALL of the essay topics you plan to complete. Here are some resources:
- Tues. 10/9/18: Final Beowulf test. Here are the details:
- The test will cover the entire book.
- There will be multiple choice and written portions. You will be allowed to use your annotated book on the written section.
- The test will be similar to the first test, except that it will include passages from the epic poem and questions from our wrap-up activities (Halverson article, themes, genres).
- For the passage-based questions, you will need to identify things like vocabulary, the speaker in the passage, who is being addressed, the importance of the passage to the narrative as a whole, whether or not the passage is a digression. The written sections will come from the passages as well. Here is a sample passage-based series of questions.
- Background information will appear on the exam. Review:
- Root of the Week: -IC (suffix meaning "nature of" or "-like"). Note that -IC turns a noun into an adjective.
- Create a sketchnote page in the vocab/terms section of your notebook for this suffix. Remember to include:
- image reminder
- definition
- color
- basic, advanced, and super words using the suffix (and their definitions)
- Poem of the Week: Shakespearean sonnet
- HW Due Thurs. 10/4/18: Sonnet 97 by William Shakespeare Research the qualities of a Shakespearean (English) sonnet and apply them to your assigned poem. Fully annotate the poem & identify a topic and poetic idea.
- Beowulf:
- Discuss your notes on the main points of article "The Struggle Between Order and Chaos in Beowulf" by John Halverson. Add anything new from group members to your own notes.
- Look deeper into the article and add these details to your original summary notes.
- HW due Thurs. 10/4/18: Complete the Beowulf and Genre sheet
- Tues. 10/9/18: Final Beowulf test. Here are the details:
- The test will cover the entire book.
- Wed. 10/3/18 @ 8pm: We will have a live stream study session. Subscribe to my channel or check Twitter/weblog for notification of live status.
- There will be multiple choice and written portions. You will be allowed to use your annotated book on the written section.
- The test will be similar to the first test, except that it will include passages from the epic poem and questions from our wrap-up activities (Halverson article, themes, genres).
- For the passage-based questions, you will need to identify things like vocabulary, the speaker in the passage, who is being addressed, the importance of the passage to the narrative as a whole, whether or not the passage is a digression. The written sections will come from the passages as well. Here is a sample passage-based series of questions.
- Background information will appear on the exam. Review:
