Monthly Archives: February 2013

2/27/2013

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We finished the prologue today – and we had a few people sing some songs together. In first block, Carlos and Tanner were wonderful singers. In second it was Cris and Aaron. Third block singers Jordan and Adonnis made a beautiful harmony together!

Thank you singers! 😉

After we finished we worked on five short answer questions: You don’t *have* to use the OER format, but it would make things easier if you did.

Make sure that if you turn in any work that you want to get graded before the progress reports that it gets turned in before Monday. My grades are due Monday at 8:00, but if you turn in a major grade on Monday, I will grade that in time for the progress report.

2/25/2013

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As the pirate adventurers left King Arthur, we noticed that we ere being followed by the Frenchies! We opted to hide out by going on a pilgrimage with these random 30 people who were on their way to Canterbury Cathedral. We have to make sure we know who these people are in case we have PROVE that we are PILGRIMS.

Today, we read The General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales (go download it from the Canterbury Tales folder). First block read up to the Franklin, and 2nd and 3rd read up to the Friar.

If you take notes, you will be able to use those notes on the final exam next month. Remember that the notes and the highlighting are where I get the questions for the final exam.

Here’s a picture of Aly looking very sad because she was EXCOMMUNICATED and doomed to go to Hell. Sad Aly.

2/22/2012

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Arrrgh!

Today, we had another quest: to write an analytical essay over leadership in Beowulf and King Arthur.

What is an analytical essay. you ask? Well, when you analyze something, you are examining it detail, breaking it down idea by idea.

You are going to be explaining leadership in this essay. Don’t just give me a summary of the leadership in these two stories: DISCOVER something about leadership. If you need help, use the Training Wheels that I gave you as a printout (you can also find these Training Wheels in the Writing folder in LMS).

So when you look at the essay topic, don’t just address the leadership from the title characters – look at how other characters show positive and negative leadership characteristics.

There are many ways that you can approach this essay, but here are two that Riley talked about:

Or here is another one:

If you have a different way of organizing your essay, feel free to use it. These are training wheels – if you don’t need the training wheels, feel free to ride that bicycle all by yourself!

The last thing we talked about before we started writing was the formatting of the paper.

When you write your essay, you will need the following:

  • a header
  • a heading
  • doubled spaced
  • indented paragraphs
  • a centered title – this should NOT stand out in any other way other than the centered formatting. No bold, no italics, to underline. Just. The. Title. Centered.
  • a normal font (try Calibri, Arial, Times New Roman)

Remember – if you want to see how this will be graded, check LMS for the rubric.

2/21/13

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In an effort to give you guys some time to get LATE WORK done, we are watching snippets from Excalibur today.

While watching (or after watching the movie), you will give me:

  1. THREE major differences between what we read in class and the movie
  2. TWO ways Arthur is a hero
  3. ONE question that you have over the story

Remember – you need to be using your time WISELY in class!

All the grades that will be counted for the rest of the term are in the Gradebook – remember, we will have a total of 1500 points. You can always find out how many points you need in order to earn the grade that you want for my class.

In order to pass the class, you will need to be a Sailing Master (1050 points give you a 70 BEFORE the final).

2/20/13

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Our reading today? 39-54. Infanticide and incest aren’t things you normally talk about in school – Welcome to British literature!

After we read, we chose an envelope for a MYSTERY ASSIGNMENT – you are creating either a WANTED POSTER or a HERO MONUMENT for King Arthur.

The instructions are on the sheet of paper, but here are a few significant notes for each assignment:

WANTED POSTER

You are going to write two chunks. On the front, you will write the wanted poster information (description, crimes, and reward). On the back, write your six sentence explanation of what he did and why he is wanted.

HERO MONUMENT

You are also going to write two chunks. It does not matter where this is. Paragraph 1 is why this would be a good monument. Paragraph 2 is your six sentence explanation of what he did any why he is a hero.

You may need to research more on King Arthur to complete this assignment – try Wikipedia or a summary of Le’ Morte de Arthur.

2/19/13

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The first thing we did was create a list of qualities that we would want for our boss. Each person wrote one quality down on a post it note. Our perfect boss so far:

  • understanding
  • humorous
  • nice
  • responsible
  • patient
  • awesome
  • funny
  • caring
  • awesome
  • funny

Then, we read about King Arthur becoming king on pages 12-22.

Afterwards, we did the Pro/Con Foldable.

You can find the template in LMS. On the first page, give me a title, a picture, and your name. On the second page, give me five reasons why Arthur SHOULD be king, a title, and a picture. On Page three, a title, five reasons why Arthur should NOT be king, and a picture. On page four, give me a title, a picture, and paragraph with your opinion. When you write your paragraph, I am asking for three clauses:

  • a noun clause
  • an adjective clause
  • an adverb clause

2/18/13

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Today, we did an anticipation guide for “The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights” by reading ten statements and then holding up a sign with whether we agreed or disagreed with them.

We started reading The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (pages 7-12). It’s pretty easy to read, so if you missed it, it’s not confusing at all.

After we read, did a One Pager. The one pager instructions (and a sample) are in LMS.

Basically, you are going to create a poster (can be on Powerpoint, on paper, or whatever you wish) with the following items:

  • a picture/clip art in the center of the poster
  • four brainstorms
  • the two most important quotes from pages 7-12 (cited correctly)
  • 2 thought-provoking questions
  • 2 answers to those questions
  • 1 personal connection

If you do this on paper, make sure that you turn it in the Old School Dropbox and leave a message in the LMS dropbox.

If you need help with figuring out questions or making a personal connection, you can use my Say Something cards to use as sentence starters. Just remember that if you use the prompts to ask a question, make sure it’s a deep question.

2/15/2012

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Today, we took our quiz with our partner and created the quilt.

Sadly, QUITE A FEW PEOPLE WERE ABSENT TODAY.

Look at poor Colin, saddened because his partner – AARON- is absent today. He failed because you were absent today.

You can take the quiz as many times as you need – just make sure that you LEARN the material rather than just trying to get a 100.

After the quiz was over, we made the quilt and worked on the name quilt patch:

Afterwards, we watched Terry Jones’ The Peasant. Let me know if you want to watch more of this series.

 

2/14/13

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Yeah. That’s how I roll.

Today, we just worked on our quilt patches. We have spent two whole days on this, so your patches need to be ready to go for the quiz tomorrow.

And here is Josh. He is currently cheating by selling his physics project to another student: