We’ll do a quick homework update today — it’s Friday and we’re all tired.
First and sixth periods continued working on their Schaffer model essay on ballads. We’ll finish them up on Wednesday. Second and fourth periods finished 1.3, looking at various ways in which characters view love. Seventh period reviewed chapters 1-4 of Hatchet by looking at cause and effect in the text before moving on to chapter five.
Paris and Capulet
First and sixth periods returned to the Schaffer model and the ballad. We added second chunks to two of our existing paragraphs.
Second and sixth periods examined 1.2 for various characters’ views of love. Students worked in groups to generalize about Paris’s, Capulet’s, Benvolio’s, and Romeo’s view of love.
Seventh period returned to sensory descriptive language in Hatchet.
First and sixth periods returned to using the Schaffer model to organize writing about literature, specifically ballads. We’re going to be writing a fairly impressive essay about ballads, and we began planning and writing that today. First period’s notes are below, and sixth period’s notes were virtually identical.
Second and fourth periods looked at act one, scene one from Romeo and Juliet. We examined Shakespeare’s use of puns, and we focused on the EQ, dealing with the bawdiness of the play’s opening and speculating on Shakespeare’s motivation for writing something so relatively crass.
Seventh period continued with Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet, using the Say Something engagement to work through chapter two in groups.
First and sixth periods worked on the ballad, determining some of the qualities of a ballad. We’ll be using this information to begin an extended writing using the Schaffer model.
Second and fourth periods went over the prologue to Romeo and Juliet.
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,
And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
We made a few observations, including the fact that this is a sonnet.
Seventh period used the “Say Something” engagement with the first chapter of Hatchet.
First and sixth periods continued working on the poetry unit. We looked at ballads, specifically “Boots of Spanish Leather.” We’ll be finishing it up in the next couple of weeks.
Second and fourth periods began Romeo and Juliet by watching a brief biographic video on Shakespeare. We’ll begin the play proper tomorrow.
First and sixth periods completed yesterday’s work with Schaffer paragraphs about alliteration in “Silver.” We’ll be continuing the poetry unit after the break.
Second and fourth periods completed the poetry unit. All that’s lacking is the final project: the sonnet.
Seventh period worked on their own poetry.
Unfortunately, I’m not kidding — not for second and fourth periods, which have three things to complete over the break, maybe four, conceivably five:
First Period at Work
First and sixth periods worked on using the Schaffer model to help organize and plan our writing about alliteration in the poem “Silver.”
First Period Partner Work
Sixth period, not having read it before, had to spend a bit of time going through the steps we’ve been using to understand poems, but by the end of the respective class periods, the two groups came up with something rather similar.
First Period's Work
Sixth Period's Work
We’ll complete the work tomorrow.
Second and fourth periods worked on ballads, doing inductive reasoning from the ballad “Boots of Spanish Leather.”
Seventh period had a test on the poetry unit.
First period worked on paraphrasing as part of the process of understanding tricky poems. We paraphrased the poem “Silver” in class.
Second and fourth periods had a quiz on tone words and then looked at the role ambiguity plays in poetry.
Sixth period went over the paraphrasing homework, only to discover we didn’t quite understand paraphrasing. We spent the majority of the class working out what we need to do to paraphrase.
Seventh period reviewed for tomorrow’s test on the poetry unit after doing a bit more work with paraphrasing.
First period worked on sound devices in “Cat!”, noting in particular the use of rhythm (the definition we included: a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in writing), onomatopoeia, and alliteration, all added to our revised graphic organizer. I’ve simplified it from what I used last year, and students created their own based on my model:
| Term | Definition | Examples |
| onomatopoeia (sound device) | words that imitate the sound of the thing they’re describing | “psfts” in “Cat!” |
| alliteration (sound device) | repetition of initial consonant sounds | sleeky spitfire spatter |
| rhythm (sound device) | a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in writing | Catch her! Get her! (stressed-unstressed) |
We also worked on paraphrasing the poem “Silver.”
Second and fourth period continued the poetry unit, looking at figurative language after our detour into sonnet-ville and a day learning some tricks on how to write a sonnet. We focused on metaphors with their tenors and vehicles.
Sixth period also worked on sound devices and paraphrasing, though they worked with “Ring Out, Wild Bells.”
Seventh period worked on paraphrasing with the poem “Annabelle Lee.”
| Row | Stanza |
| 1 | Stanza two |
| 2 | Stanza three |
| 3 | Stanza four |
| 4 | Stanza five |
| 5 | Stanza six |
| 6 | Stanza seven |
| Row | Stanza |
| 1 | Stanza one |
| 2 | Stanza two |
| 3 | Stanza three |
| 4 | Stanza four |
| 5 | Stanza five |
| 6 | Stanza six |
First and sixth periods looked at sound devices in poetry. First period examined “Cat!“, which is positively loaded with devices; sixth period looked at “Thumbprint” and “The Drum.” We’ll continue tomorrow.
Second and fourth periods spent the day working on the final project for the poetry unit: an English sonnet.
Second Period's Sonnet (Beginning)
Fourth Period's Sonnet (Beginning)
Seventh period came close to completing the poetry unit, revisiting sound devices with some new poems.
Everyone was working on poetry today: sound devices for most classes and sonnets for second and fourth periods.
First, sixth, and (ironically) seventh periods all worked on sound devices today. First and sixth did so after finishing the poem “Because You Asked about the Line Between Prose and Poetry”; seventh period completed the work after a few days working on narrative poems.
Second and fourth periods finished up meter and began looking at the dreaded sonnet.
First and sixth periods began the poetry unit. We looked at how to read a poem — not as straightforward as some might have thought. Second and sixth periods learned about the difference between trochees, iambs, dactyls, anapests, and spondees — meter, in other words. Seventh period read one more narrative poem in the quest for answering the great Essential Question: What is a narrative poem?
First and sixth periods took a test on the short stories unit. We’ll begin the poetry unit tomorrow.
Second and fourth periods looked at tonal shifts in poetry. We examined two poems by Billy Collins (“Forgetfulness,” available here, and “The Lanyard,” available here) and “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” (available here).
Seventh period completed “The Highwayman” (available here), looking at all the ways the poem is similar to a short story. We’ll read one more narrative poem tomorrow.
The Highwayman Inn – geograph.org.uk (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
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