Link Fixed
APELCers, I’ve repaired the link to the document I asked you to print, review, and bring to next class.
See you Tuesday and Wednesday.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to post notes from our last block before the long weekend, but on that Tuesday and Wednesday, we completed the excerpt of our text describing Odysseus’s time with Circe and the attendant study guide and graphic organizer. We also continued to view and discuss the documentary we’ve been using to inform our reading of The Odyssey.
Today we began with conventions error-correction and continued our epic poem. This week we’ll read of Odysseus’s and his remaining crew’s encounters with the sirens and Scylla and Charybdis.
Finally, below is the list of items CDO’s Sign Language Club is collecting for our armed forces personnel is serving in war zones this season. Of course, participation is voluntary, and if you choose to donate, you’ll receive no extra or make-up credit, but it’d be groovy if any freshman so inclined could bring in just two of the following by Monday, December 13:
- White socks (men’s and women’s with no markings)
- Light blankets and character-themed sheets
- Energy drinks and beef jerky
- Snacks like cookies, chips, and candy in sturdy packages
- Hand sanitizer, moist hand wipes, and medical gloves
- Sports magazines and Frisbees
- Flash drives
- Letters (none of your own personal information)
- NO PORK OR PRODUCTS AND NO COFFEE
All of these items can be purchased for cheap at Walmart, and if you’re feeling more generous, you also might try these services: Any Soldier and Treat Any Soldier.
More next time, kids.
APELC Class Notes
I’m sorry I wasn’t able to post notes before the long weekend, APELCers, but I’ll mention here what we did last the last Tuesday and Wednesday block before the holiday in addition to today’s activities. On the former two days, we tackled the Nye and Quindlen texts the first half of class and met in the liberry for the second half of class where you worked on your narrative argument drafts and I conferred with writers over their free-response revisions. Today, Monday, students that were prepared to do so responded to their peers’ preliminary narrative argument drafts and I continued to confer with students about their revisions.
Here’s the list of items CDO’s Sign Language Club is requesting for our armed forces personnel is serving this winter. As I explained, you’re obviously not obligated to bring items in, and participation, if you choose to donate, isn’t for credit, but it’d be neat if each APELCer could bring in just two of the following by Monday, December 13:
- White socks (men’s and women’s with no markings)
- Light blankets and character-themed sheets
- Energy drinks and beef jerky
- Snacks like cookies, chips, and candy in sturdy packages
- Hand sanitizer, moist hand wipes, and medical gloves
- Sports magazines and Frisbees
- Flash drives
- Letters (none of your own personal information)
- NO PORK OR PRODUCTS AND NO COFFEE
All of these items can be found relatively cheaply at Walmart. If you’re feeling even more generous this “giving season”, you also might try these services: Any Soldier and Treat Any Soldier.
Finally, the extra-credit note review is due before the end of this week (and please don’t wait until Friday to get your work in).
A VISIT. At the end of Wednesday, I was honored with a visit from Jordan Neerhoff, 2010 CDO grad, former student-body vice president, and one of the best and naturally gifted thinkers and writers I’ve worked with in my career. He’s currently attending the University of San Diego, and during our brief catch-up he humorously mentioned the frustration his peers expressed over the conduct of a political science class in which he’s enrolled, in particular, because they often leave class somewhat confused, thinking the professor’s a jerk. Jordan explained that his peers weren’t familiar with the Socratic method (and implicitly, though Jordan didn’t mention it specifically, divergent questioning) the professor uses to effect discussion. I do enjoy such despatches from former students.
Thanks, Jordan, and all the best to you.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, I presented you with a quiz over our last reading before we began conventions error corrections practice. After we tackled the corrections as a class, we began the next section of The Odyssey, which relates part of Odysseus’s interaction with Circe. We’ll complete this next class, and I hope we’ll have some time to experience more of the documentary on the historicity of the epic poem.
I’ll see you next class.
APELC Class Notes
Juniors and seniors, we tackled a photograph first and tried to infer sensory information from the analysis, what smells, sounds, tastes, and tactile sensations the image suggested, and we tried also to define the difference between a “house” and a “home”.
We moved on to the Ascher piece and discussed the issue of and our reactions to and interactions with people who are homeless. Many of you shared great ideas and asked great questions: What are the reasons for homelessness? Why do we assume most homeless are addicted to alcohol or drugs? How best, if at all, should we help those who have no homes? I suggested a re-examination of the Will piece from several weeks ago, when most agreed that to measure success failure must also exist, that to have winners, we must also have losers, and I took the idea to its logical conclusion as it perhaps relates to this piece: Isn’t it necessary for there to exist people with no home or means, so that others may? Really, don’t the homeless provide us a service in their indigence by reminding us how good we really have it? Things got quite heated in fourth when it was suggested that, very basically, we must avoid competition to ensure equality for all. (That’s a very rough sketch; the participants in fourth period’s discussion should feel free to correct me if I’ve misstated the controversy.)
You do have homework, and you’ll to access streaming media on the Intertubes to complete it. Check your class page for details.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, we began class today and yesterday with conventions error corrections practice, and then we moved to next excerpt, “The Cyclops”, from The Odyssey. The language is difficult, but we moved swiftly as I narrated the story mostly by myself and stopped frequently to clarify the action of scene. You completed study guides and a graphic organizer on dialogue and what Odysseus’s dialogue reveals about his character. Then we went over the homework for Monday before we watched a portion of History’s Clash of the Gods: “Odysseus: Curse of the Sea” episode “Odysseus: Curse of the Sea”. This took us to the end of class.
Have a nice weekend, and I’ll see you Monday.
APELC Class Notes
Juniors and seniors, yesterday and today we worked with the White text and discussed a bit the nature of time. These are the same links to posted to interesting resources on time last year over this same discussion which you might find interesting:
- “Time” at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- “Time for philosophers” and “The philosophy of the quantum spook”, both at The Philosopher’s Zone
- “A Brief History of Infinity: Space and the Universe” at BBC Documentaries
In third period we talked in circles about determinism and free will. These are heady concepts, but worth your time and mental energy.
We spent the second half of the block in the liberry where you continued to draft your narrative arguments, and I conferred with students over their free-responses.
You have homework; details, as always, are on you class page.
I’ll see you next week.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmen, yesterday and today we began a new set of sentences for corrections and we reviewed your reading of the first excerpt of The Odyssey. I had you read it on Monday and complete the handout, but I understand the sub didn’t deliver the instructions as I directed, so the review was warranted. I mentioned in particular your need to pay attention to certain figurative language as we read (and which I’ll point out as we go) including metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, and euphemism. There’s certainly more we could attend, but these’ll be more than sufficient. You turned in the completed study guides from this and last class (the one over the Greek gods).
We’ll continue the story next class.
See you then.
APELC Class Notes
Juniors and seniors, we met in the liberry today and yesterday to begin drafting your narrative arguments and to talk over your most recent free-responses. You signed up for conferences which we’ll begin next class.
Out.
English 9 Class Notes
As with the notes for my junior and senior students, I decided to wait until this afternoon to post notes due to the unusual schedule and jumbled activities this week. Each day we practiced conventions error correction, and we contextualized our next text, The Odyssey, with Before Reading notes and introduction to the twelve Olympians.
Very importantly, we were visited by Mr. Gutman, one of our counselors, who went over some graduation and credit requirement basics with you. He also covered goal-setting and achievement behaviors and attitudes. Armed with this information, the support of your family, friends, and colleagues at school, I hope you’ll make the right decisions over the next four years to your best success.
We’ll begin The Odyssey in earnest next week. See you then.
APELC Class Notes
Because of the odd schedule this week, I decided to wait until today to post for the entire week. We processed Huttmann and Kroll, and in both of our discussions I asked you what it meant to be a person: What conditions or properties determine personhood, what degree of control do we exercise over our bodies and minds and our actions and our thoughts, do we have the right or even the ability to determine our own ultimate fates, et cetera?
We also talked about making moral judgments as such related to the two texts. Many assented to the proposition “It is not possible to assert that any given action, behavior, idea, et cetera, is good or bad or right or wrong”, but many of the same then argued that the execution of Robert Harris was, in fact, wrong. I challenged those students to reconcile these contradictory ideas; thus was a brief, informal introduction to the concepts of cultural and moral relativism, not exactly the same, but related in that moral belief is subsumed by cultured.
Finally, in third period Wednesday, we briefly touched on truth, and when I asked for a definition, I suggested that truth is what best corresponds to and what coheres with reality.
Take time further investigate Robert Harris, and the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, the subject of one of the brief articles I handed out in class.
I’ll see you next week.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, we completed Of Mice and Men today, and we discussed George’s justification in shooting his friend. An ironic idea was suggested by students on both days: George had to kill Lennie to save him. I was dubious of this claim, but we worked with it and expressed yourselves in practice composition. We briefly reviewed the six traits of writing, particularly ideas, organization, and conventions, and I presented you with a paragraph template, a graphic organizer for controlling placement of your ideas. It looked very familiar to you because it mimicked the format you’ve been using to answer questions related to all of the reading we’ve been doing since August. Such paragraphing will be the main method of assessment next semester.
You composed a practice paragraph in which you argued whether George acted in his and Lennie’s best interest by shooting him in the back of the head at the base of his skull and spine. You completed this by the end of the period, and some had time to do homework and read independently.
I was very pleased with the discussion the novella engendered. Many of you made great points. if you’re interested in reading and learning more, I’ll direct you to the “Euthanasia” , “Friendship”, “Honor”, and “Sacrifice” at Wikipedia.
We’ll begin The Odyssey next week, kids. I’ll see you then.
APELC Class Notes
APELCers, yesterday and today we tackled the Alexie text, an important and well-crafted piece of work. Among other things, I challenged fourth period to tell me why we assume those who consume drugs are “on the wrong path”, why we assume they must be seeking refuge from reality: Mightn’t people exist who lead fine, happy lives who just like to get high?
I asked all classes about the significance of hair in various cultures, too, and we discussed how hair style affects and even effects identity. I was reminded of the Post Secret slide from Wednesday’s presentation that said “I change my hair because I can’t change my self”. Since I’m writing about hair, here’s the trailer for the movie I recommended by Chris Rock, Good Hair:
Our discussion also made me think of the film Thunderheart, starring Val Kilmer. I recommend it, as well:
In the second half of the hour, we began to go over the rough details of the narrative argument you’ll write for the end of the semester, and we engaged in a limited free-writing exercise that was fruitful and fun. In the history of APELC, most students have enjoyed this activity, and I’ve used it variously in my classes. The exercise has a way opening kids’ minds and hearts in very powerful ways, sometimes to humorous ends and other times to more poignant ends. So, I want to thank Kristen in fourth, Jordyn in third, and Emery, Kate, Monique, and Zach in fifth, in particular, for unselfishly sharing their stories, the results of their free-write, with us these last two days. And, I’m ashamed I failed to do this in the last post, I also want to thank Stephanie and Maddie in third for sharing as they did in class after the presentation on Wednesday.
Please use the ideas you generated in class, or another if you like, to begin growing an story and argument for the text you’ll write. Further, attend the homework detailed on your class page. Remember that from now on, if you’ve not read assigned texts or answered assigned questions related to the texts, you’ll not be permitted to participate in discussion.
Have a great weekend.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, on Tuesday, second period practiced correcting conventions errors in consultative, Academic, written English and completed chapter 4 of our novella. We reviewed the Guided Reading questions as we read, and I assigned you After Reading questions over chapters 3 and 4 for homework. The questions are listed on your class page.
Seventh period was able to do none of what I’d planned because of the presentation by R5 Productions. I asked you to read the remainder of the fourth chapter and the rest of the text on your own, and I did go over in some detail how to answer the questions I assigned over the middle chapters. Check your class page for details.
We’ll wrap up our discussion and work on the story next class.
APELC Class Notes
Juniors and seniors, because of the presentation by R5 Productions today and the wonky schedule, each class was different. Tuesday, fourth period worked on campaign rhetoric and watched the same hour from The Story of English about Black English Vernacular third and fifth viewed previously. Wednesday, third period discussed the presentation and did a little work on the same campaign rhetoric, and fifth period, at only 30 minutes long, had little time to accomplish anything at all but talk a bit about logoi in the presentation and their ethical and pathetic effects.
We’ll go over the Alexie piece next class and go over details for the extended narrative argument you’ll commence and that you’ll turn in at semester’s end.
That’s all kids.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, we began with conventions errors correction practice as is now our practice, and then we talked over the elections tomorrow and did some math. We also began chapter four of our novella.
What did our discussion of the election have to do with English? Remember that the classes I conduct are about critical thinking more than anything, drawing conclusions from and assessing information, the material is incidental. But there is a connection: Of Mice and Men encourages us to think about social and economic issues, and the vote tomorrow is entirely about these. Our story takes place during the Great Depression, when many had little in the way of shelter, food, and work, and in today’s recession many Americans are dealing with want of those same things. I hope the fact that the conditions of many are decided by only a few, as we saw when we compared the total population of the nation with the number of eligible voters and actual voter turnout, might inspire you to learn more about how our democracy works and motivate you to begin to participate now even though none of you are of the age of majority yet. You can start by watching the local or national evening news, maybe. It’d be a good use of 30 minutes of your time.
Here’re links to the information we talked about today from the US Elections page at Infoplease: “National Voter Turnout in Federal Elections: 1960–2008″.
See you next class, kids
APELC Class Notes
Juniors and seniors, we met in the liberry today to revise and edit your free-response revisions. Be very mindful of your conventions of consultative, Academic written English, and formatting. And answer the questions attached to your cover sheets in a detailed, but not exhaustive manner.
See you Tuesday and Wednesday.