Friday, March 23, 2018

Extra Credit Over Spring Break

Students may earn up to 80 points in the vocabulary section of their grade by completing Membean vocabulary drills.

One point will be earned for each minute completed up to eighty minutes.

Periods 1, 2, 5, and 6 must completed these minutes between March 26 And April 1.

Period 7 must complete these minutes between March 27 and April 2.

Dubious minutes will not count.

Nonfiction Terms Test

Thursday 22 March 2018 for Periods 5 & 6 and Friday 23 March 2018 for Periods 1, 2, & 7

Membean Vocabulary Drills:  10 minutes

Nonfiction Terms Test
Students took a test over fifty nonfiction literary terms. The questions were presented in five matching sections.

How-to-Tell Essay
Students submitted the final draft of their how-to-tell essay both in hard-copy and electronically.  The hard-copy packet included the following:

Final draft (on top)
Peer edit check sheet
Revised draft
Peer critique sheet
Rough draft (on bottom)

Note:  The final draft should be printed on only one side.

Students also needed to turn the final draft of the how-to-tell essay into Turnitin.com.

Process Journal Entry
Students submitted "On Writing Three Definitions" that was described in the last blog post.

Homework:  Have a great Spring Break!

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Editing How-to-Tell Essay

Wednesday 21 2018 for Periods 5 & 6 and Thursday 22 March for Periods 1, 2, & 7

Membean Vocabulary Drills:  10 Minutes

Vocabulary Test
Students took an individualized 20-question test through Membean of words they have studied.

Submitting Three Definitions Paper
Students printed out a final draft of their three-definitions paper if they had not done so at home and stapled to the other papers completed in the process of writing the paper:

Final draft (on top)
Peer edit sheet
Revised draft
Peer critique sheet
Rough draft (on bottom)

Students also uploaded their final draft to Turnitin.com.

Editing How-to-Tell Essay
Students swapped how-to-tell essays with a partner and completed a peer edit sheet for their partner's essay.

Students began any necessary changes to their how-to-tell essays.

Process Journal Entry
Students reflected on the process of writing the three-definitions paper in an entry titled "On Writing Three Definitions."

Their entry should consider the following:

--What did you learn by writing this paper?

--What part(s) of the process was/were most helpful to you?

--Which part of writing this paper was most difficult for you?

This journal entry should be one-half-a-page long in MLA format.

Homework:
Complete any further changes needed to create the final draft of your how-to-tell essay.   Finish writing the process journal entry if not completed in class.   Study for the nonfiction terms test.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Editing Three Definitions

Tuesday 20 March 2018 for Periods 2, 5, & 6 and Wednesday 21 March 2018 for Periods 1 & 7

Membean Vocabulary Drills:  10 minutes


Peer Editing
Mr. Stone reviewed the use of dashes and noted how they were more than likely inappropriate for the three-definitions paper.  He shared excerpts from a column on dashes by the noted American columnist and presidential speech writer William Safire.

Mr. Stone distributed a model paper and a peer editing sheet. Student swapped papers with a classmate and completed the peer editing sheet.

Mr. Stone stated that students should bold their subheadings in this paper.

A hard copy of the paper is due in class tomorrow and the assignment must be submitted to Turnitin.com by midnight that evening.

Homework:  Complete final draft of three-definitions paper and continue to study for the nonfiction terms test.




Monday, March 19, 2018

Learning Nonfiction Terms

Monday 19 March 2018 for Periods 1, 2, 5, & 6 and Tuesday 20 March 2018 for Period 7

Membean Vocabulary Drills:  10 minutes

Quizlet:  Nonfiction

Mr. Stone was disappointed to find many students had not been putting in the time last week on studying the nonfiction set on Quizlet as assigned

Students spent the bulk of the class period working in the "Learn" function of Quizlet on the Nonfiction set in the LLA English Fall 2017 class.

Students should have achieved 100% in the learn function before they move on to playing other games to study the nonfiction terms.

Homework:  Spend twenty minutes studying the nonfiction set in LLA English Fall 2017.  The test over these terms will be the last class this week.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Revising the "How to Tell" Essay

Thursday 15 March 2018 for Periods 5 & 6 and Friday 16 March 2018 for Periods 1, 2, & 7

Membean Vocabulary Drills:  ten minutes  (Students should have completed 40 minutes minimum for the week.)

Peer Critique
Students who did not complete their peer critique of the "How to Tell" essay yesterday needed to completed before the end of the period or receive reduced credit.

Drafting a Revised Draft
Using the feedback from the peer critique, students make changes to their "How to Tell" essays.

Nonfiction Terms
If students had extra class time, they were directed to study the nonfiction set on Quizlet for next week's test.

Homework:  Finish a revised draft of the "How to Tell"  essay.  Be sure you meet the two-page minimum length requirement.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Peer Critique of "How to Tell" Essay

Wednesday 14 March 2017 for Periods 5 & 6 and Thursday 15 March 2017 for Periods 1, 2, & 7

Membean Vocabulary Drills:  Ten minutes

Peer Critique
Students swapped rough drafts of their "How to Tell" essays with a partner, read the partner's essay and offered suggestions to improve their partner's paper by completing a peer critique sheet.

Homework:  Spend twenty minutes in the learn function of Quizlet on the nonfiction set.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Process Analysis (Directions) Essay

Tuesday 13 March 2018 for Periods 2, 5, & 6 and Wednesday 14 March 2018 for Periods 1 & 7

Textual Analysis
Mr. Stone worked with students to annotate Rosenberg's "How to Tell a Mother Her Child Is Dead" to indicate her used of transitional words to show chronological order, her use of you and imperative sentences for directions, her inclusion of what not to do as what to do, and her use of one single-sentence paragraph for emphasis.

Mr. Stone also discussed the texts primary and secondary audiences.

Writing
Students are to write their own "How to Tell a ______________ ______________" essays.  

Mr. Stone gave several examples:

How to Tell Your Girlfriend You Want to Breakup

How to Tell Your Father You Broke Your Phone

How to Tell Your Brother Fashion Tips

Requirements

Minimum two pages double-spaced type in MLA format

Clearly anticipates the reader's needs

Uses Chronological Order

Includes warnings of what not to do

Includes one one-sentence paragraph for emphasis

Membean Vocabulary Drills:  ten minutes

Quizlet:  Study nonfiction set.

Homework: Complete rough draft of "How to Tell" essay.

(If you have some extra time, study the Quizlet nonfiction set for next week's test.)



Monday, March 12, 2018

Nonfiction Terms

Monday 12 March 2018 for Periods 1, 2, 5, & 6 and Tuesday 13 March 2018 for Period 7

Membean Vocabulary Drills:  10 minutes

Quizlet
Students received a printout from the class Quizlet set of nonfiction terms.  In class, they were to begin studying the terms using the "Learn" function of Quizlet.

Commonplace Book
Students should be selecting one quote from each of the readings assigned so far during the nonfiction unit:  "How to Tell if You Are a Jerk," "How to Tell a Mother Her Child Is Dead," and "In Which I Try to Become a Swift."

Students should select quotes that "speak to them" in a meaningful way, exemplify a rhetorical or literary device (i.e. a parenthetical definition, repetition, simile, etc.), or information they may want later.

Place an indexing tag word in the left column next to your selected quote.

Homework:  Spend twenty minutes in the learn function of Quizlet working on the nonfiction set in our Quizlet class.

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Process Analysis

Thursday 8 March 2018 for Periods 5 & 6 and Friday 9 March 2018 for Periods 1, 2, & 7

Membean Vocabulary Drills:  10 Minutes

Commonplace Book Check
Mr. Stone continued checking commonplace books while students read.

Process Analysis
Students read Naomi Rosenberg's "How to Tell a Mother Her Child Is Dead" and took a quiz after they finished reading the essay.

Description
Students began reading Charles Foster's "In Which I Try to Become a Swift."

Homework:  Finish reading Charles Foster's "In Which I Try to Become a Swift."  Be prepared for a quiz over this essay.

Common Place Book Check & Peer Critiquing Definitions

Wednesday 7 March 2018 for Periods 5 & 6 and Thursday for Periods 1, 2, & 7

Membean Vocabulary Drills:  10 Minutes

Common Place Book Check
Mr. Stone distributed a rubric for the evaluation of the student's "commonplace books" and began evaluating students' books.  Mr. Stone will continue checking books during work time in class until he has evaluated all the students books.  Students should have their commonplace book materials in a three-ring binder.  Their commonplace book should be brought to each class period.

Definition Peer Critique
Students exchanged papers and used three separate peer critique sheets, one for their parenthetical definition, a second for their sentence definition, and a third for their extended definition.

As students received feedback, they were to begin making revisions to their definitions.

Homework:  Complete revisions of your parenthetical, sentence, and extended definitions.


Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Identifying Types of Definitions & Drafting an Extended Definition

Tuesday 6 March 2018 for Periods 2, 5 & 6 and Wednesday 7 March 2018

Membean Vocabulary Drills:  ten minutes

Annotating to Identify Types of Definitions
Students worked in small groups to compare their annotations they made on Eric Schwitzgebel's "How to Tell If You're a Jerk."   Mr. Stone asked students to circle the words for which they had bracketed the definition.

Homework:  Complete a rough draft of your extended essay. Use the paragraph on the Types of Definitions sheet you should have placed in your notebook as a model.

Make sure you begin your extended definition with the sentence definition you wrote earlier.  Then include at least four of the following:

etymology/word origin

history of the word

synonyms

antonyms

negation/additional differentia

stipulation

quotations/examples


Your extended definition for this assignment should be at least eight sentences long.




Monday, March 5, 2018

Drafting Definitions and Annotating a Definition Essay

Monday 5 March 2018 for Periods 1, 2, 5 & 6 and Tuesday 6 March 2018 for Period 7

Membean Vocabulary Drills:  ten minutes

Project Display Tour
Students walked into the hall and spent time viewing the two display cabinets filled with their class Odyssey projects.  They were also encouraged to view more of the projects inside the classroom.

Drafting Definitions in MLA Format

Mr. Stone reviewed the basics of Modern Language Association formatting with students as he directed them on how to type up and format the definitions they wrote out by hand over the weekend.

Students title the document with the word they were defining (the definiendum).

Mr. Stone directed students to make a subheading against the left margin for "Parenthetical Definition" and "Sentence Definition."

Students printed their typed rough drafts and submitted them to Mr. Stone.

Homework:  Use a pencil to annotate a printed copy of "How to Tell if You Are a Jerk."  Re-read the essay to identify the different types of definitions Schwitzgebel uses in his essay.  Place bracket marks [  ] around the definitions in the text.  Write the type of definition Schwitzgebel is using in the right-hand margin next to where you have bracketed it in the text.

Schwitzgebel's essay includes several examples of a parenthetical definition, several examples of a sentence definition, and an example of a stipulative definition and definition by example/ostensive definition.

Note, Schwitzgebel uses parentheses and dashes to set off his "parenthetical" definitions.

Schwitzgebel uses a stipulative definition when discussing the work of another scholar.

His use of definition by application is found when he discusses the application of the term "jerk."




Thursday, March 1, 2018

Types of Definitions

Thursday 1 March 2018 for Periods 5 & 6 and Friday 2 March 2018 for Periods 1, 2, & 7

Membean Vocabulary Drills:  Students completed the remainder of their minimum of forty minutes for the week.

Quiz:  Eric Schwitzgebel's "How to Tell if You're a Jerk"

Lecture:   types of definitions 

Students placed a handout on types of definitions in their commonplace books.

Homework:  Select a word you wish define and write a parenthetical and a sentence definition.

Mr. Stone suggests students use a more specific word from one of the following categories:

food
instruments
animals
plants
sports
equipment/tools
moves/plays
vehicles

Students should consult sources while they create their own definitions.  Students can consider information common knowledge when they find the same information in five different credible sources.  They should express this information in their own manner.

Students will later be created an extended definition for this same term.  They should keep track of the sources they consult for future use.