First period continued with Anne Frank, completing the first scene of the second act. Things are heating up for the Franks, the Van Daans, and Dussel. We’ll be finishing up the play early next week and then working on a compare/contrast essay.
Second period continued researching for their own compare/contrast essay. Today was the last day [...]

First period began a small project on the effect of point of view. Working in pairs, students took an episode from The Diary of Anne Frankthat affects all characters and looked at it from a different point of view. We did this in two ways: first, students wrote diary entries from another character’s point of [...]

Second period continued working on the To Kill a Mockingbird newsletter. After students completed that work, we began researching the Scottsboro Boys trial, supposedly the inspiration for Harper Lee as she wrote Mockingbird.
First, fourth, and sixth periods continued working on The Diary of Anne Frank. First period completed act 1 scene 3; fourth and sixth [...]

Second period began one of two culminating To Kill a Mockingbird projects. We began creating a newspaper for Maycomb County that deals with the significant events in the book. Students are working on advertisements, obituaries, editorials, news articles — you name it.
First period continued with Anne Frank. We made it through a great deal of [...]

First period began the project we’ll be working on while reading Anne Frank. Students will create a 10-12 entry diary modeled on Anne Frank’s diary. Today, they chose one of the following locations/historical events as their setting:

Rwanda (Jean Kambanda, 1994)
Cambodia (Pol Pot, 1975-79)
Uganda (Idi Amin, 1969-1979)
Yugoslavia (Slobodan Milosevic, 1992-96)
Chile (Augusto Pinochet)
China (Mao Ze-Dong 1958-61 and [...]

First period worked on proofreading, including an eight-step checklist. Final drafts due Monday.
Second period did group work on a few questions:

Miss Mayella’s motivation
An important part of understanding any character is understanding motivation. Re-read chapter 18. Take notes on what you learn about Mayella. They may be things you are told directly (direct [...]

First period worked on leads. We looked at six examples:

The Dramatic Lead: I wouldn’t make it through the night without it.
Starting In the Middle Of a Scene: I was sure we’d find the blanket ripped and dirty.
Leisurely Lead: When I looked into my Grandma’s linen closet, I was amazed by the patchwork of color. [...]

First period worked on revising their initial memoir drafts. We looked for content holes and/or loaded content–places where the writer didn’t give as much detail as he/she could.
Second period discussed the use of a socially offensive word in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Fourth and sixth periods began the first drafts of their memoirs, crafting thesis statements [...]

First period began working on their first drafts. We looked at the nature of a thesis statement and how it can guide writing. We also talked about how it can change. Then we began writing!
Second period worked on the beginnings of a graphic organizer that will show how much Scout has changed over the course [...]

First period worked on a simple question: how is writing an essay (especially a memoir) like a treasure hunt? We used a graphic organizer to work out our thoughts, working in pairs and then as a class. We then addressed three pre-writing strategies:

Free writing
Brainstorming
Clustering

Second period looked at the question of point of view and its [...]

First period began looking at what makes a memoir a memoir: it’s short-story-like quality, its highly-charged emotional feel, etc.
Second period began working on To Kill a Mockingbird. We started working on an anticipation guide and talked about the basic plot. We finished with a reading and discussion about the Jim Crow laws of the late-nineteenth [...]