English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, we met with counselors today to discuss registration for next year; here’s the link to the Course Descriptions Handbook so you can review your options over the break. The last half of the period, you had the option ofo working out your course choices for 2010-2011 or reading your liberry books.
Have a nice break. Enjoy your time off as much as Russian crooner Eduard Hill seems to be enjoying himself singing “I Am Very Glad Because I’m Finally Back Home”:
See you in a little over a week.
APELC Class Notes
Second and fourth APELCers, you did the same your first and third period peers. I’d ask you to read their notes from yesterday regarding performance on the exam.
I said I post these reminders again regarding your worldview drafts due the day we get back so there’d be no excuse for misunderstanding my expectations for your work. The closer you follow these, there better I’ll be able to assess your work and help you craft a suitable final product.
Your four page (minimum) worldview drafts/outlines are due Monday, March 22 in the form of a paragraph outline; that is, it should resemble an encyclopedia article of your own creation from your various sources of topical paragraphs that explain content and ideas, written with complete sentences and punctuated appropriately. Focus on worldview facts and your evaluations; include narrative elements if you’re able.
Include a rudimentary Works Cited page with your work; group your sources by type (Books, Articles, et cetera) so I can check them quicker. For quotation and citation purposes, refer to the MLA Formatting and Style Guide at the Purdue OWL. Know and use the following pages:
Details for content and sign-up for presentations will be available when we return. Final drafts due and presentations begin Thursday, April 22, and Friday, April 23.
Have a fine break, kids.
APELC Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers 1) completed a critical reading assessment, and 2) assessed their thinking, reading, and writing skills.
First and third period, you completed the multiple-choice section of the practice exam today and you calculated your overall scores. As I suspected, there were plenty of fours and threes, with some a handful of scores on the top and bottom ends of the scale. If you’re disappointed in your score, I encourage you to think more positively: This was the first full exam you’ve completed and the testing session wasn’t authentic as it was spread out over the week. We will continue to prepare throughout the fourth quarter; I have every faith that you’ll do as well as you’ve prepared and you’re intended to do.
Your four page (minimum) worldview drafts/outlines are due Monday, March 22. I expect a paragraph outline, essentially, again, an encyclopedia article of your own creation from your various sources of topical paragraphs that explain content and ideas, written with complete sentences and punctuated appropriately. Focus on worldview facts and your evaluations; include narrative elements if you’re able.
You should include a rudimentary Works Cited page with your draft, and I’d like to you to group your citations by type (Books, Articles, et cetera) so I can check them quicker. For quotation and citation purposes, as I’ve mentioned repeatedly, you’ll find no better free resource than the MLA Formatting and Style Guide at the Purdue OWL. Know and use the following pages in particular:
Final drafts due and presentations begin Thursday, April 22, and Friday, April 23. Details for content and sign-up for presentations will be available when we return.
On a last, more serious note before you go into the break, I was stunned to discover so few students were familiar with Pearl Jam, who, along with Nirvana and Soundgarden, formed the (popular) triumvirate of grunge rock in the early 1990s. This is your cultural heritage; here’s work from all three:
Have a restful but productive break.
English 9 Class Notes
Objectives: Freshmen identified and explained literary concepts in autobiography.
We completed the short Angelou piece today, freshmens, and you had time to begin your homework based on the reading.
Here’s more on “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, also known as the Negro National Anthem: The song was featured on an NPR broadcast several years ago as part of a series detailing American cultural icons. After you listen, check out the following videos of two versions of the song, the first by the Soul Children of Chicago and the second by Marvin Gaye’s often-partner Kim Weston’s.
And here’s a video of “Graduation” author Maya Angelou’s reading her poem, “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. (And here’s the text.)
You have homework. Check details on your class page.
APELC Class Notes
Same as yesterday, kids. Have your work highlighted for next class so we can figure your composite scores after the multiple-choice practice.
APELC Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers wrote a rhetorical analysis and an argument.
So did you as the objective states, first and third. We talked over your impressions of your own work with the little time we had before you were dismissed. Highlight and score your essays for next class when you’ll figure your overall score after completing the multiple-choice section of the practice exam.
Nothing else, but here’s something interesting, I guess: “The goat woman: Chinese grandmother, 101, grows mystery horn on forehead”.
English 9 Class Notes
Objectives: Freshmen identified and explained literary concepts in autobiography.
We continued with “Graduation” today, freshmens, and we discussed a bit about the differences between the “black” and “white” schools in the text and Mr. Donleavy’s expectations of the different groups of students. I asked if expectations of young minority men have changed much since the time of the excerpt. Here’re two texts to read and think over: “Cool-pose culture’ hurts young black men” and “Hip Hop War”.
You’re not required to read the articles, and I know many of you are loathe to do more than required to make the grade, but I heartily encourage you to examine these articles. By engaging them you’ll be connections outside of our text and begin to see how authors work out their ideas in answer to questions posed by our cultural context and how the latter inspires authors’ work.
See you Wednesday for the last day of rigor for the quarter. Friday we’ll meet with your counselors who’ll advise you about registration; bring your independent reading book both Wednesday and Friday.
Peace.
APELC Class Notes
Objective: APELCers completed a synthesis essay.
You did as stated in the objective. Highlight and score the essay yourself; bring it Thursday or Friday. You’ll bring the highlighted and scored rhetorical analysis and argument you’ll complete tomorrow then, too.
You have a process due next class.
See you then.
English 9 Class Notes
Objectives: Freshmen identified and explained literary concepts in autobiography.
Freshmens, we began a new short piece today by Maya Angelou. We did with this much as we’ve done in the past, read and listened to the narration and studied the passages closely. These’re familiar tasks and will take us to the end of the quarter. We’ll continue on Monday.
Have a great weekend.
APELC Class Notes
Periods 2 and 4, we did the same as yesterday. What would Malcolm X think of the situation of black in America today? How would he regard our President? Here’s a brief piece about how one personality and activist is approaching State of the Black Union in 2010: “PBS host Smiley calls meeting to urge black agenda”.
McDonald’s apparently has a solution to issues of race that continue to plague us by appealing to its customers in their own communities: See 365 Black, McDonald’s Black consumer site, and its Asian consumer site, Myinspirasian.com. I kid you not.
Remember, the first draft of your worldview paper in the form of a four page (minimum) paragraph outline is due Monday, March 22, the day we get back from Spring Recess. Write your outlines in complete sentences, punctuated appropriately, to create topical paragraphs that explain content and ideas. Focus on worldview facts, for what will essentially be an encyclopedia article of your own creation from your various sources, and your evaluations; include narrative elements if possible.
For quotation and citation purposes use MLA Formatting and Style Guide at Purdue’s Online Writing Lab; in particular see:
Details for content and sign-up for presentations will be available when we return from our week off.
See you Monday.
APELC Class Notes
Objectives: AEPCLers 1) processed an autobiography, and 2) researched their worldviews.
We finished The Autobiography of Malcolm X today with little fanfare, first and third. Cody asked a question about race, pigmentation, and designation when he entered class that was relevant to our reading and connected to our discussion of identity last week nicely. It made me think of the following article “‘White African-American’ Suing N.J. Med School for Discrimination”. I’ve not been able to find any more on the story since it broke, but I did find the article that Serodio wrote that apparently escalated his trouble at AllaboutRace.com: “Africa 102: A more colorful view than black and white”. For even more, see the Wikipedia entry “African American”.
See you next week for the practice exam; don’t forget your Brady process.
English 9 Class Notes
Objectives: Freshmen wrote expository-analytical paragraphs about theme.
You did as the objective states, freshmen, bringing to close our long conversation with creeper William Shakespeare and his obsession with teen love. Well done, boys and girls. We’ll begin to tackle non-fiction next class; it’s time we spent some time in the real world.
See you Friday.
APELC Class Notes
Periods 2 and 4, we did much the same as your peers in 1 and 3 yesterday. Check their notes for objectives and details.
Bailey in fourth handed me this opinion by George Will (”The Equity of Inequality”) the other day: “Lack of character often is just that, not a disability”. She astutely connected it to our discussion of identity last week; it’s very easy for us to become wrapped-up in our real and imagined deficiencies debilitaties and focus on them as a structure for our identities often dismissing behavior as a consequence of mere being. Thus do we explain to others, “Well, that’s just the way I am. I can’t help it”. Have a read.
See you Friday, kids.
APELC Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers 1) processed a correspondence, and 2) processed a correspondence.
We completed the process of the King text today which led to our continued examination of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which we will complete next class. Several of you asked about the differences between theology of the Nation of Islam and that of true Islam: Dig this comparison at the Nation of Islam entry at Wikipedia and the chart at Beliefnet.
Trevor opened first period with a narrative of his visit to the Guggenheim with his folks over the Rodeo break. What he described defies logic (and, I would add, aesthetic or educational quality), and so I found this review that you might look over as you consider the questions “What is art, and what service does it provide in culture?”: “Tino Sehgal’s work proves that talk is cheap”.
We briefly discussed the epistemological and metaphysical consequences of the post-modernism that informed the art installation Trevor experienced, and later in the day I happened to come across this article which might inform the brief back and forth we enjoyed this morning in class: Warning: Your reality is out of date”.
See you next class. After we conclude our conversation with Malcolm X, we’ll head to the liberry for research.
Peace.
English 9 Class Notes
Objective: Freshmen began writing expository-analytical paragraphs about theme.
We reviewed your potential themes for Romeo and Juliet today, freshmen, and it appears that many of you were closer to the target than not. You worked in pairs to work your themes into topic sentences and began searching for evidence to support your argument. You’ll finish your paragraphs next class. Keep looking for evidence over the next couple of days until then, maybe come into tutoring tomorrow and go over some ideas?
Hope to see you then.
APELC Class Notes
Objective: APELCers framed a correspondence.
APELCers of all periods, we did as the objective states with the King text I assigned over the break and that some of you read. We’ll finish proofing it next class, and we’ll begin to close out The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
Since we didn’t finish examining King today, I’d combine today’s notes with those you take next class and just make them one set. And since I collected notes and reviews for periods 1 and 2 today, I’d place good money on my collecting notes for 3 and 4 next Monday. And, since we’ll be in the liberry half of the hour on Thursday and Friday, you should be able to guess which day I’ll be collecting notes for.
I did some looking and found the following article on the theology of Martin Luther King: “Writings show King as liberal Christian, rejecting literalism”. It’s worth reading, I think, if we’re to understand King’s ethos.
Read the letter for next class, and be through chapter 17 of our longer text.
REMINDER. Comments are now open, again. Use only your first name and the initial of your surname if you decide to comment.
English 9 Class Notes
Objective: Freshmen 1) differentiated between theme and motif, and 2) generated their own themes for movies.
We did as the objective states, freshmen. Remember that a motif is a recurring element, idea, image, et cetera, that appears throughout and/or helps structure a text. A theme is an independent clause (a sentence, a declarative statement), not a single word or phrase, that explains a text’s insight about humanity, culture life, and the world. It’s not a “moral” or a “lesson”, and doesn’t name characters or plot details. We’ll continue to practice this idea for the rest of the school year.
Because of the short period, we were unable to begin the composition as I’d planned, and so we’ll commence writing on Monday. Remember that you should have two of your own themes for Romeo and Juliet then.
Have a great weekend, and if you can’t get to the rodeo, you can enjoy Whiplash the Monkey Cowboy!
Ride Whiplash! Ride like the wind:
Happy Rodeo Days!
APELC Class Notes
Second and fourth APELCers, we did the same as your peers yesterday. Again, discussion was robust and interesting. Really phenomenal effort with plenty of strained brains at the end of the short hour.
I looked for clips from Spike Lee’s Macolm X, which I mentioned was on BET the other night, and I found this dance scene from the beginning of the film. It’s wild and acrobatic; think back to our reading of Langston Hughes and Malcolm’s description of life in Harlem
And here’s an authentic piece of text from Malcolm X’s time, a clip from 1941’s Hellzapoppin’ with a groovy swing dance.
Dig!
Once again, your revisions for timed-writing 6 and cover sheets are due Monday by 3:30 pm.
- Writers must have conferred with me over their initial paper to submit a revision;
- Papers must be accompanied by a cover sheet detailing its writer’s revision process (under Class Materials)—no cop-outs;
- Papers must be typed and formatted according to MLA style guidelines (I mean it)—use the template (under Class Materials)—and should be no less than two and half pages and no more than three pages long;
- Cover sheets are to be attached to the revision, former on top of the latter, with one staple, horizontally, in the upper-left hand corner;
- Papers containing more than four obvious errors in conventions and usage for formal, written, academic English or that deviate from MLA style (including not embedding quotations) will lose 7% from the final grade (I have several style books you can reference.);
- Writers who did not confer with me over their initial drafts or who chose not to revise their essays must still submit a cover sheet, blank except for name, date, title, and initial score and “I choose not to revise timed-writing X” in number 4, signed;
- Revision scores will replace initial in-class scores if merited.
Finish The Autobiography of Malcolm X for next week. Otherwise, enjoy your weekend.
NOTE. Comments are now open, again. I didn’t realize they’d been closed, but if you decide to post, use only your first name and the initial of your surname.
APELC Class Notes
Objective: APELCers analyzed and evaluated concepts of identity.
Period 1 and 3 APELCers, we engaged the text from The Star today, and I asked you to focus on what the commentators had to say about Malcolm X and identity. First period was quite lively with numerous voices arguing various ideas with many questions unasked and comments unheard because we ran out of time.
Below’s the billboard we discussed at the beginning of class and the accompanying report from ABC News I referenced: “Abortion Billboards: Strong Words Spark Debate in Atlanta’s Black Neighborhoods”.
The Endangered Species Project (as it’s called TooManyAborted.com) is sponsored by The Radiance Foundation. It’s opposed by SisterSong, a group that promotes what it calls reproductive justice for women of color; this unrelated critical commentary appeared in the Indiana Daily Student: “Pro-lifers co-opt race”. You might read the following article from The New York Times with more stat data: “Anti-Abortion Ads Split Atlanta”.
What more do you think? Is the project racist? Sexist? How would our current subject of study react to this effort? (I’ll get Comments working again. I didn’t realize they were off.)
Don’t forget: Your revisions for timed-writing 6 and cover sheets are due Monday by 3:30 pm.
- Writers must have conferred with me over their initial paper to submit a revision;
- Papers must be accompanied by a cover sheet detailing its writer’s revision process (under Class Materials)—no cop-outs;
- Papers must be typed and formatted according to MLA style guidelines (I mean it)—use the template (under Class Materials)—and should be no less than two and half pages and no more than three pages long;
- Cover sheets are to be attached to the revision, former on top of the latter, with one staple, horizontally, in the upper-left hand corner;
- Papers containing more than four obvious errors in conventions and usage for formal, written, academic English or that deviate from MLA style (including not embedding quotations) will lose 7% from the final grade (I have several style books you can reference.);
- Writers who did not confer with me over their initial drafts or who chose not to revise their essays must still submit a cover sheet, blank except for name, date, title, and initial score and “I choose not to revise timed-writing X” in number 4, signed;
- Revision scores will replace initial in-class scores if merited.
We’ll complete The Autobiography of Malcolm X next week, so please read on over the long weekend.
Enjoy the Fiesta de los Vaqueros!
English 9 Class Notes
Objective: Freshmen differentiated between theme and motif.
After your final quiz over Romeo and Juliet, we began preparing for your next writing by discussing the concepts of motif and theme. We listed several of what many might commonly call themes for the play: fate and free will, young love, et cetera, and I argued that these are not themes. I introduced you to motif, or images, events, or ideas that reoccur and inform the theme of a literary or visual. I’ll define theme for you next class and help you apply to your writing.
Remember to bring a paragraph template to class Wednesday.
See you then, kids.