English I students ran their first lit circles today. Most groups had chosen to complete their first chapter of Lord of the Flies. Some groups read a little more. We'll have our first writing...
Archive
What our classroom did in previous days, weeks, months, even years…
Allegory of the Cave, Anne Frank, and a Pep Rally
Acting allegories
Finishing Mockingbird, Practicing the TDA
English I students finished To Kill a Mockingbird, looking at the twist at the end of the book that most students miss: there were two knives involved. English 8 students had another practice TDA...
Diary, Play, and Close Reading
English 8 finished up some unfinished work, going first over last week's article of the week/diary entry. We went over a couple of elements that I was hoping students would pick up on. The first had...
Dialogue and Hypocrisy
English 8 students looked at The Diary of Anne Frank today, examining how dialogue propels the action and reveals the characters. We looked specifically at how Anne's character is developed in the...
TDA Practice and a Guest Speaker
English 8 students began a hopefully-weekly bit of practice planning and thinking through Anne-Frank-related TDAs in preparation for the actual state-administered TDA next month. Local attorney Jim...
Analyzing Dialogue and Subordinate Review
English 8 students worked today on analyzing dialogue to determine a number of things: First: Second: Third: We also created a timeline of the play thus far: English I students went over subordinate...
Reading Day
A big, long list
ELA Benchmark Test 3, Project Turn-in, and New Reading Skill
Testing, testing, and still more testing
First Diary Entry with Effective Readers’ Skills and Subordinate Clauses
Grammar and effective readers
Independent Clauses and Empathy
English 8 students began a new unit today on the Diary of Anne Frank, our final major reading selection for the year. We began with an anticipation lesson designed to get students empathetic to Anne...
Connective Tissue and Inferrences
English I students today went over how to connect songs in the Romeo and Juliet project. We made a brief summary of each of my example paragraphs to begin with: We then determined which paragraphs...