Monthly Archives: February 2009

Antigone, the Giver, and Charlie

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First period continued with The Giver. We looked at all the ways the community tries to eliminate pain from the community. In the end, we determined that all the major differences between our society and theirs has to do with the elimination of pain.

Second period looked at the differences between modern drama and Greek drama. We went over the basic background knowledge necessary for an understanding of Antigone and cast the few characters.

Fourth and sixth periods went over the work from yesterday, then completed the “frequently confused words” in conjunction with Flowers for Algernon.

Homework
  • First period: read chapters 16-18.
  • Second, fourth, and sixth periods: none.

The Trial and Words Often Confused

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We had more ITBS testing today, which means we didn’t have first period.

Second period held the trials for Ralph and Jack. Ralph’s Dream Team came through for him, convincing the jury to return a “not guilty” verdict. When we meet again on Thursday, we’ll be starting Antigone, the classic (literally) Greek play by Sophocles.

Fourth and sixth periods worked on a quick review of words often confused:

  • Accept/except
  • Advice/advise
  • Affect/effect
  • Break/brake
  • Choose/chose
  • Hear/here
  • Its/it’s
  • Loose/lose
  • Passed/past
  • Peace/piece
  • Principal/principle
  • Quiet/quite
  • Than/then
  • There/their/they’re
  • Threw/through
  • To/too/two
  • Weak/week
  • Who’s/whose
  • Your/you’re

For the most part, students are doing this individual and in pairs. It should be a review, but a few of them keep popping up in student writing.

Giver Review, ITBS, Apostrophes

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First period had an unplanned Giver review discussion. I hadn’t realized that there were some fundamental issues about the book that some weren’t comprehending, and the questions at the beginning of class illustrated that we needed to process as a group a bit.

Second period didn’t have class today due to the ITBS testing.

Fourth and sixth periods worked on a quick (theoretically quick, anyway) review of apostrophe use. It was intended to take less than a whole period; it will end up taking about 1.25 periods.

Homework
  • First period: read through chapter 13 of The Giver by Thursday (the next time we’ll have class).
  • Second: complete court case (will present/try the case tomorrow).
  • Fourth and sixth periods: none (possible quiz tomorrow).

Rites of Passage and the End of Innocence

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First period looked at the various rites of passage in The Giver and worked together to come up with an answer to the day’s essential question, “What is a rite of passage.”

Second period finished up Lord of the Flies. We began working on two trials that will be held Monday the next time we’ll have class together.

Jack's Defense

Jack's Defense

In separate trials, we’ll be trying Ralph and Jack for the death of Simon. Those who chose to work on Jack’s case will receive a bit of extra credit, as they had no materials to begin with.

Ralph's Defense Dream Team

Ralph's Defense Dream Team

Prosecution At Work

Prosecution At Work

Initially, I only planned on the trial for Ralph, but we talked as a class and decided to do two trials, with the understanding that those working Jack’s trial — especially the defense — would have a much harder assignment.

Dream Team II

Dream Team II

Prosecution Team for Ralph

Prosecution Team for Ralph

“Defending Jack is a little like defending Osama bin Laden,” said one of Jack’s attorneys to me. Of course, the truly difficult defendant from Lord of the Flies would be Roger.

Prosecution and Defense for Jack

Prosecution and Defense for Jack

Fourth and sixth periods returned to Flowers for Algernon. We took a break from reading to watch a bit of the film version, Charlie.

We’ll be having ITBS testing next week, so theoretically we won’t have class for first and second periods until next Thursday. I’m hoping we can, as a team, make some adjustments so that we’ll have class with first and second periods at some point during that three-day testing block.

Homework
  • First period: read chapters 9-11 of The Giver.
  • Second period:
    • finish up preparation for trial;
    • answer essay question on the forum.
  • Fourth and sixth periods:
    • re-read Charlie’s first diary entry;
    • correct the spelling and punctuation mistakes..

PASS Overview

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Mrs.Weaver-James, an instructional coach at Hughes, was a guest teacher in all classes today, giving students some important information about the upcoming PASS test.

Tomorrow, we’ll be going to the book fair, with Mrs. Weaver-James taking the few minutes of class time beforehand to finish up what we started.

Homework

None.

Scheduling

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We took a break from the regular schedule today to do some scheduling for next year. It was difficult for the students who hadn’t gone to their high school’s curriculum night to make decisions about courses, but overall, it went well.

The Giver, Algernon, and Sociology

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First period began The Giver. We’ll be reading it in class for a day or so to settle everyone into sometimes-disorienting world of Jonas.

Second period began looking at five principles of sociology in order to understand better Lord of the Flies and the challenges facing Ralph and the boys on the island. The first two principles we looked at today

  1. People behave differently in groups than they do as individuals.
  2. People obey rules that are socially constructed.

After checking the starters,

Checking Starters

Checking Starters

fourth and sixth periods began Flowers for Algernon. We read about Charlie’s Rorschach test, and made a few of our own.

Bulletin Board

Bulletin Board

Homework
  • First period: none.
  • Second period: quiz (vocab) online.
  • Fourth and sixth periods:
    • essay due tomorrow;
    • read through page 313.

Anticipating The Giver and Algernon

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First, fourth, and sixth periods began on units today.  First period will be doing The Giver, and we discussed several issues related to the theme.

Questions on the anticipation guide included (though I realize now it was too much!):

  1. Sometimes it is OK to lie.
  2. Memories play an important part of your life and who you are.
  3. It is better to never experience cold or hunger.
  4. The past repeats itself.
  5. People in society accept things they usually would not if they were on their own.
  6. It is better to be part of a group than to be alone.
  7. It is better to remain ignorant about some aspects of life.
  8. It is better to be in a safe environment and never feel fear.
  9. In an ideal society, everyone is equal.
  10. It is better to be ignorant and happy than to be aware and upset.
  11. The government knows what is best for us.
  12. Rules exist to help us live our lives properly.
  13. The police should be allowed to do whatever they need to to protect the community.
  14. You shouldn’t have to be around people that you don’t agree with.
  15. It is all right to upset some people as long as you’re doing what is best for society.
  16. If you know you are right, you shouldn’t listen to anyone else.
  17. Parents should not be allowed to have more than two children.
  18. It would be much better if all bad things were forgotten.
  19. Families would be closer if they ate supper together every night.
  20. People who are born handicapped and very old people should be quietly put to death.

We’ll begin the novel tomorrow.

Second period worked on their Romeo and Juliet quiz.

Fourth and sixth also worked on an anticipation guide. Their discussion questions were:

  1. Sometimes, it’s better to remain ignorant about certain things.
  2. It’s fair to treat people differently based on their intelligence.
  3. It is better to be smart and lonely than unintelligent and happy.
  4. Our relationships with other people, not our achievements, are what fulfill us.
  5. It is important to have empathy for others.
  6. It is better to accept your fate than to try to change it.

Students also wrote about the following prompt:

Imagine you had an experimental operation that made you gradually become more and more intelligent. In fact, you become so intelligent that you’re among the top 0.01% of the most intelligent humans on Earth. How do you think this would change your life?

Homework
  • First period: persuasive essay due Tuesday (tomorrow).
  • Second period:
    • finish open-book/open-note portion of the test;
    • read chapters 4-6 from Lord of the Flies.
  • Fourth and sixth periods: persuasive essay due Wednesday.

Editing Maslow

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First, fourth, and sixth periods used the sentence revision techniques we’ve worked on during the week to revise their persuasive essay on capital punishment. Additionally, students began double-checking that they’d supplied three arguments in their papers, and that two of the argument methods (from authority, reason, emotion, etc) are represented.

Second period began Lord of the Flies, looking at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a portion of the framework we’ll be using to understanding the novel. We’ll also be looking at sociology and theories of society as well as Freudian theory to round out our understanding of LoF, but I’m getting ahead of myself a bit.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Homework
  • First, fourth, and sixth periods: finish revision of capital punishment paper.
  • Second period:
    • The Romeo and Juliet test is Monday;
    • The Romeo and Juliet soundtrack project is due Monday; and
    • The first vocabulary quiz for Lord of the Flies must be completed online over the weekend.

Discussion and Editing

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First period did some small group work to complete the mini-unit of sentence revision that we’ve been working on this week. We’ll be applying all we’ve learned to our essays on capital punishment tomorrow.

Second period had a guest teacher, and we wrapped up Romeo and Juliet. I was not anticipating the activity to last the entire class period, but it did. So we’re a day behind, but it was worthwhile activity.

Fourth and sixth periods are working on the same thing as first period, but they are a couple of days behind them.

Greenville County Dress Code

Greenville County Dress Code I

Greenville County Dress Code II

Greenville County Dress Code II