First and seventh periods concluded their research for the persuasive essay. Second period began planning and drafting their essays. Fourth period began watching the film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird.
A painless day.
Homework

Fourth period: answer discussion question on forum.
First, second, and seventh: continue planning persuasive essay.

All classes did research today. It was a relatively painless day for all involved.
Homework
None

First and seventh periods completed notes about persuasive techniques. We’ll be applying those techniques next week as we begin our mini-project on persuasive writing.
Second period began researching for the project.
Fourth period looked at issues of organization for compare/contrast essays and began organizing their own essay.
Homework

First, second, and seventh periods: complete poetry portfolios (due Monday 12/14).
Fourth: [...]

First, second, and seventh periods spent most of the class in the library. It was a fairly successful day: I was able to consult with individual students about their poetry projects.
Fourth period continued research. Some students might need to do additional research as homework.
Homework

First, second, and seventh periods: work on poetry portfolio.
Fourth period: read materials [...]

First and seventh periods presented their persuasive presentations to see who would win the bit of free time at the end of their class on Monday. We also watched a clip of Derren Brown, the absolute master of persuasion.
Second period went over persuasive techniques.
Fourth period began researching the Scottsboro boy’s trial in preparation for a [...]

First period completed a second round of MAP testing. We were unable to do anything else today.
Second period began the Odyssey. We looked at elements of the epic form and discussed the background to the Odyssey.
Fourth and sixth periods worked on creating “Works Cited” pages.
Homework

First period: none
Second period:

vocabulary work;
study for quiz.

Fourth period: create “Works Cited” [...]

First period began revising their research papers. Fourth and sixth periods applied yesterday’s lesson to their own papers.
EQs were the same as yesterday.
No homework.

First period began working on their second draft by examining the second indicator of the PASS writing rubric and breaking it down into its individual parts. We did this for the first indicator some weeks ago; now we’re adding a second indicator: organization.
It’s always helpful to break down rubrics as far as possible, though, and [...]

First period began organizing for a “Works Cited” page. We took our original source cards and worked with our books and a partner to re-create them with the proper MLA format. Once we’re ready to make our actual “Works Cited” page, we’ll only have to alphabetize our newly re-organized source cards and copy them.
Fourth and [...]

Today, first, fourth and sixth periods went to the library for some more research. We concentrated on using encyclopedias and, more importantly, documenting them.
Tomorrow we have a big assignment due: the Anne Frank diary project. Hopefully everyone will turn it in.
Homework

Diary project

First, fourth, and sixth periods are still doing research. We’ll be going to the library tomorrow to finish up, then Friday, we’ll be starting our first draft.
Second period (English I) update coming later.
No homework.

First, fourth, and sixth did more research today. The goal was to leave the class with at least 5 note cards completed; most students accomplished that goal.

Students in first, fourth, and sixth periods worked on research for their research project. Things are slow going because everyone insists that note cards are something completely new to them. I’m skeptical, but we work around it nonetheless.
For the next week or so there will be no homework other than additional research any students want [...]

Today we had Career Day, and as such, several classes were altered and/or disrupted. First period worked on documentation. We determined how to document a book and practiced with our text book.
Second period eagerly read their dystopian novels, and then we learned how to update Our English Class.  We learned a little about the best [...]

First period began doing a bit of research. Since a significant amount of our research will be online, we had a presentation from our media specialist about evaluating websites.
Second period continued with the poetry project presentations. The second group looked at imagery as well as some specific types of poetry.
Fourth period and sixth period did [...]