Preparing, Cross-Referencing, and Revision

First period worked on revision — deep revision versus surface revision.

Second and sixth periods had their first of two days preparation for their Diary of Anne Frank project. We’ll be spending one more day before

Fourth period looked at the parallel structures in Romeo and Juliet that develop between Romeo’s earlier words and Juliet’s later words.

Homework
  • First period: continue working on final draft (and weekly writing).
  • Second and sixth periods:
    • re-read your scene;
    • practice your lines a third time.
  • Fourth period: read 894-901.

Project Overview, tableaux vivants, and writing

First period, having a choice for the day’s writing workshop mini-lesson, decided to continue working on sentence variety

Second and sixth periods had a quiz on last night’s reading. We then went over the project: I introduced the Double-sided Journal format we’ll be using for notes (which students will use in conjunction with the reading skills list I provided a couple of weeks ago).

Fourth period finished up Romeo and Juliet 3.1. The screw tightens just a bit.

Homework
  • First period: final draft due next Thursday.
  • Second and sixth periods: none (significant homework coming tomorrow).
  • Fourth period:
    • read 3.1;
    • create a chain of events diagram/list to document the events that led up to the tragedy now facing Romeo and Juliet.

A Perfect Record

Sometimes it’s hard to bat close to a thousand. I’ve updated this site daily for so long that it’s a habit which follows me home. I arrive home and think, “Oh my, I forgot to update.” And while the temptation to skip a day is strong, a nearly overwhelming urge forces me to sit down and recount the day — and keep up the almost-perfect record.

First period evaluated and revised their literacy memoir. It’s the first of many self-assessments. I’d planned to bring them all home and get started evaluating them myself — and I promptly forgot them. So, note to first period: don’t ask if I graded the papers. I was absentminded.

Second and sixth periods are getting ready for a final draft.

Fourth period went over Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy as an introduction to infinitive phrases and as a practice for the approaching study of Romeo and Juliet.

Homework

None. (“Really?! Two days in a row?” asks fourth period…)

Prewriting, Revising, and Participles

First period worked on revising. The class is starting to fragment according to where they are in the creative process. By the end of the week, it will be entirely individual work: that’s the irony of a writing class, I suppose.

Second and sixth periods worked on more prewriting, this time doing some clustering about their literacy memoirs.

Fourth period did a quick overview of participles and participial phrases before heading back to project planning.

Homework
  • First period: complete second draft.
  • Second and sixth periods: do second clustering.
  • Fourth period:

Final Group Work

We completed the final day of group work for the memoir today. We’ll be spending two more days polishing it up, and then turn it in Monday.

English I began verbs today. We’ll finish up tomorrow, testing willing.

The testing in question is the Explore test. We’ll be taking that test Thursday and Friday.

Homework
  • First and seventh periods: none.
  • Second period: complete second draft.
  • Fourth period: none (if second draft of Antigone analysis is complete).

PASS Overview

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.

Editing Maslow

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

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

Linguistic Change and Drafting

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 and digging into the work of writing a memoir.

Homework
  • First period: complete second draft.
  • Second period:
    • read chapters 12-15;
    • answer discussion questions on web site.
  • Fourth and sixth periods: finish first draft.