APELC Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers processed texts from multiple genres.
Third juniors and seniors, we tackled “Natural forces stalling global warming” before heading onto the Rachels piece. I closed the hour with the same prom night counsel I offered yoru fourth period peers yesterday.
Attend the homework details on your class page.
English 9 Class Notes
Too few students did the assigned reading for today, and those who did read were too reticent to share because they’d not read carefully. The reading circles I attempted to institute for the enrichment of each student in class I don’t believe will work because it seems too many students are happy to let others do their work for them and those others are happy to oblige or at least unwilling to say “No”.
I asked you to answer several questions in class and to complete them by the end of the period. They’re posted along with the homework that’s due when you walk through the door on Monday.
APELC Class Notes
Period 4 juniors and seniors, we tackled the problems posed in the handout describing the connections between TV programming and viewing and rates of teen pregnancy. Some very good points were made by all, and then we connected the issue raised in the article to our friend Stacy.
We were going to move on to the Kolata piece but Jordan and Tony interrupted us with the report of a crime I thought was in progress, but which turned to have occurred in the past, thus making my righteous charge to justice look more like a lumbering walk to the restroom.
I ended the day with a message to be kind to those serving you food on prom night. Among the admonitions I offered:
- Don’t take up all the tables in a server’s sections; keep your groups to six and no more.
- Order more than appetizers and water; don’t split meals and desserts.
- Don’t ask for separate checks, and don’t camp at your tables.
- Tip kindly.
Peace.
NOTE. All APELCers can begin signing-up for revison conferneces for our most recent (and final, kind of) timed-writing tomorrow at 8:30.
English 9 Class Notes
Periods 2 and 6, good job today in your reading circles. Check yesterday’s notes I left for your first period peers for details, and check your class page for homework instructions.
See you Friday.
APELC Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers processed texts from multiple genres.
Third juniors and seniors, you tackled first the article “Study links sexual content on TV to teen pregnancy” and a scintillating discussion of pop media, social responsibility, and parental capability ensued. We moved to the Kolata piece, which itself engendered great talk, and I finished the period offering you a few questions to keep in mind while reading Things Fall Apart regarding the Ibo worldview and its realization in Okonkwo’s life.
Please attend the homework on your class page, and I shall see you in a couple of days.
Peace suckaz!
English 9 Class Notes
Objectives: Freshmen identified and explained character, setting, idiom, plot, imagery, irony, foreshadowing, point of view, motif, symbol, and theme in a novel.
Period 1 freshmen, today we tried something, a type of reading/literature circle in which I separated you into groups where you assigned yourselves roles for reading and listening to the first chapter of our novel. We’ll use the work you do to review the literary concepts I’ve noted in the objectives, which many of the questioners and organizers, in particular, did today. It was a good first attempt at the task, and we’ll use it for the remainder of the semester to get through book.
Check your class page for homework details, and remember that you’re responsible to your group members to have read your assigned chapters and to bring all of your materials with you to class.
See you in a couple of days.
APELC Class Notes
Objective: APELCers processed an editorial cartoon.
Periods 3 and 4 APELCers, we processed the Thompson cartoon that introduces our current chapter in our text in class today, which took longer than I’d anticipated but, as usual, resulted in really meaningful discussion.
See you next class.
English 9 Class Notes
Objectives: Freshmen argued moral questions.
Periods 1, 2, and 6, today I asked you to question your deeply held assumptions about equality, behavior, and life in preparation of our reading To Kill a Mockingbird. The answers to the questions seemed obvious, but when I asked you to explain why, for example, you believed “All men are created equal” you found that definitions of terms was difficult and and you couldn’t explain the reasons behind your beliefs. I’ll encourage you to pay close attention to what and how you know as we proceed with the text.
I asked you also to copy down information about the 6th, 14th and 15th amendments to our Constitution.
APELC Class Notes
Period 4 APELCers, check your peers’ notes from yesterday for objectives and details and please attend your class page for homework details.
English 9 Class Notes
Second and sixth freshmen, you did the same as your first period peers. Once again, I was stunned at the number of students who decided to come to class unprepared, that is, students who hadn’t worked on their paragraphs on their own or in the two tutoring periods since last class to make sure they turned-in their best work. That meant too many students rushing through to find evidence and craft suitable explanations. I guess I’ll see how you did when I assess the papers.
Bring To Kill a Mockingbird to class on Monday.
APELC Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers 1) wrote a rhetorical analysis, and 2) processed texts from multiple genres.
Third juniors and seniors, you began by completing your tenth timed-writing-for-a-grade, and then took a look at the text before moving on to Things Fall Apart. We discussed Okonkwo’s character, his strengths and weaknesses, and the role of proverbs in Ibo society. Pay close attention to the details of his worldview as it’ll be a topic of our discussion and analysis as we proceed with the short novel.
I’ll have your final timed-writings returned to you on Monday and I’ll post the revision conference sign-up sheet at the end of that day.
Attend the homework on your class page and have a great weekend.
English 9 Class Notes
Objective: Freshmen completed drafting an expository paragraph about theme in autobiography.
That’s it first period. You worked hard to get your best work in at the end of the period, and many of you finished with plenty of time to spare. I’ll begin scoring and logging these drafts as soon as I complete the previous. Expect updates next week.
Begin reading To Kill a Mockingbird for Monday. With only 17 more class days left (after today) let’s make the most of the rest of the semester.
Girard out!
APELC Class Notes
Period 4 juniors and seniors, since you’re a larger class than your third period colleagues, you were able to effect the critical theory jigsaw with a pretty good degree of success. Neat discussion of the wild and, as you assessed correctly, terribly contradictory theories of textual interpretation. It’s difficult to label oneself an adherent to a particular critical approach; as Nora mentioned, we seem to incorporate aspects of all of these theories to some degree in our textual encounters. I think it’s safe to say though, even though some might be loathe to admit it and if we really think about it, most of us are significantly structuralist. It’s difficult to argue the influence and function of cultural signs, but perhaps we’re not completely products of consensus.
We will look later at psychoanalytic, feminist, and Marxist theory, but as you begin Things Fall Apart keep post-colonialism at the forefront of your minds.
See you next class.
English 9 Class Notes
Periods 2 and 6, alternately I felt like a teacher and a dentist today. While many of you struggled coming up with a common theme for the stories, eventually most of you came to some understanding of what you might write and argue in your paragraphs, something along the lines of unexpected teachers passing on important lessons to the people in their lives. Now your task is to find evidence and craft explanations to fill out your paragraphs which are due at the end of the
next class period.
Don’t waste tutoring opportunities to work on your writing; don’t wait until next class to continue your work.
See you on Friday.
Your paragraph is due
APELC Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers explained and applied critical approaches to a variety of texts from multiple genres.
Third juniors and seniors, you tackled very complex issues of literary theory today. Formalism, structuralism, deconstruction, et cetera, as I mentioned, will be ideas that you encounter in academia and even in popular press to at least some degree, and, therefore, are worthy of your attention. We’ll explore them more, particularly post-colonialism and New Historicism, as we proceed with Things Fall Apart.
English 9 Class Notes
Objective: Freshmen began drafting an expository paragraph about theme in autobiography.
First period, despite your odd confusion about how Venn diagrams work and your initial recalcitrance to think about theme, you began drafting a paragraph about a common theme that the three autobiographical pieces we’ve been reviewing might share. The final product is due at the end of the next class period.
See you then.
APELC Class Notes
Objective: APELCers responded to their peers’ process analysis drafts.
What more to say, juniors and seniors? Special thanks to Ben for a particularly fun piece of text; I look forward to reading all of your work.
See you soon.
English 9 Class Notes
Objectives: Freshmen identified and explained character, setting, idiom, plot, imagery, irony, foreshadowing, point of view, motif, symbol, and theme in autobiography.
Freshmen, we tackled “When Heaven and Earth Changed Places” in various ways depending how we left the text last class. We reviewed and listened to the story and the audio in first and second periods and we completed the audio and reviewed answers to the questions that guided our reading. Remember that you need to print and bring your paragraph template to class, but the answers to the assigned After Reading questions are due at the end of the tutoring that same class day.
APELC Class Notes
Period 4, we did much the same as your period 3 colleagues did Tuesday. Great discussion as always. Please check your peers’ notes for objectives and details.
If you’ve not already started, begin reading Things Fall Apart. We’ll take it slowly.
English 9 Class Notes
Period 2 freshmen, you completed the math portion of the Terra Nova today which left us no time review “When Heaven and Earth Changed Places”. Please read it and be ready to review Monday.
Period 6, you did much the same as your first period peers yesterday but with me guiding you through the reading. (check yesterday’s notes for objectives if you’re interested.) We’ll continue Monday.
All classes, including first, should be ready to quiz on Monday.