Monthly Archives: April 2014

4/30/14

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I made sure that I explained the extra credit to everyone today (Othello Journals). It’s five prompts – in order to get the credit, do all five. I’m looking for QUALITY THINKING here rather than QUANTITY.

Then, we talked about the assignment for today: the Othello character chart. I don’t care whether you do this on the computer or on paper, but if you do it on the computer, please make sure that you turn it in as a PDF.

character chartHere is a brief explanation of each column:

  • Relationship – what is his/her role and relationship to the other characters.
  • Strength – what does this character do well
  • Weakness – what is this character’s downfall
  • Defining moment – What is the moment when we get to see this character’s TRUE colors – who she/he REALLY is.
  • Essential question – What is the one MOST important question to ask the character.
  • Symbol – draw a quick symbol that represents an aspect of that character’s personality, role, or importance.

Here is a sample chart you can look at for a different book:

sample character chart

4/29/14

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We finished Othello today! As promised, we read an act a day.

First Block thought it was hilarious that Porfiro, who was reading at Iago, got to call me a “notorious whore” (multiple times, actually) and a “piece of trash.”

The Othello haikus will be due tomorrow. The haikus will be half a major grade (75), and the character chart will be the other half (75 points).

haikuAlso, I have provided an extra credit opportunity for you if you’d like. Just know that I am not allowed to give you over a 100 on your final grade, so if you end up with a 102, I can’t give you what you actually earned.

In Othello, there is a discussion board named Othello journals that you can do for some extra credit – I’d suggest doing this especially if you have LATE points taken off of your Marrow Essay.

othello extra credit

4/28/14

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Today, we read Othello Act 4. This is what I call “vegetable peeler act”.

veggieHere are a few of my Othellos hiding under the desk from Cassio:

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We then had about 30 minutes to work on the haikus. We will have a little bit of time to finish them on Wednesday, but if you aren’t around Act 3, I’d suggest working on them outside of class.

If you haven’t turned in your YOLO/Carpe Diem paper in yet, turn that in!

4/22/14

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Good luck to the TAKS testers today! (and the rest of the week!) We miss you! The good thing is that out of all the days to miss, this is probably the easiest week to make up on your own. Yes, you will have some make up work, but it’s all pretty easy.

Today, we talked about Jersey Shore and why people were upset with it. We watched a clip and tried to identify offensive stereotypes that the show promotes about Italians and people with Italian ancestry.

Then, I had you choose an article about the Jersey Shore (there are six to choose from) and answer the following questions on a Word document.

Jersey ShoreDrop that like it’s hot, and then I gave you the rest of the class period to finish your Marrow essay (Carpe Diem or YOLO).

Progress Report grades are due today, so the grade that is in Gradespeed will be the grade that is printed (and what Ekster and Gras see!).

4/21/14

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We started a new unit today: Othello! I had a hard time in English classes as a student when we read Shakespeare because I hated all the “research” we did about his life. When Shakespeare was born, when he died, how many kids he had, and all about the Globe stage. BOR-ING.

Part of my job is to make the stuff we read RELEVANT, so that’s what today is all about. You might not realize what this article today has to do with reading Shakespeare, but I promise it will make sense when we finish reading the play. 🙂 I’m a tricky teacher!

20140421_093507[1]So, today we did a Socrative seminar over An American Honor Killing. I highlighted the essay for names and also had a chart in the wall showing the relationships between people.

20140421_093521[1]The grades were pretty easy – you got points for reading and for participating in the discussion. If you needed help, I had “Say Something” cards around the room to help as prompts.

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The plan was that after we finished the discussion, I would give you time to work on your Marrow essay from Thursday, but only B1 got around to that. So… I’ll squeeze in some time for you guys to work on your essays tomorrow. I also won’t put the zeros in until tomorrow.

Mrs. Ekster also came in my third block, and we used up the entire time talking. We even had a few people draw on the board to explain a concept to the class.

20140421_134304[1] 20140421_134251[1]Love it!

4/17/14

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It’s the end of our carpe diem unit! Huzzah!

Yesterday, we did the six stations around the room, and today,w e are using tha tinformation to write a paper over carpe diem and YOLO. You can find instructions in BB in the Carpe Diem unit in the Dead Poet’s Society folder.

The big thing to remember is have a CLEAR THESIS and make sure that you are using the information from yesterday’s sessions – that was the WHOLE reason we did that – what’s the point of pre-writing if you don’t actually USE IT for your writing???

Have a great three day weekend and I’ll see you on Monday when we start our new unit! 🙂

4/16/14

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Marrow QuoteToday was a really easy day! This was a guinea pig assignment, so please, if you find any mistakes or have suggestions for me to make, TELL me! I’m not insulted – I make suggestions to your work all the time – you can make suggestions to mine, too!

Tomorrow, we are going to write an analysis essay explaining the difference between Carpe Diem and YOLO. We did that by doing stations. If you weren’t here, just do the stations on your own. I put all the material in your folders for you already.

Station 1

Pretty easy. We just worked on connotative and denotative definitions. For the first two boxes, copy what I wrote down about the word “bitch”.

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Station 2

Highlight carpe diem quotes in the two songs. If you are stuck, look for places where the songs talk about time.

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Station 3

Pretty simple. Follow the instructions.

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Station 4

Okay. This one is a little weird. I had to change this one mid-class, so the instructions don’t match up with what we really did. Read the article and write a one sentence summary of it on the back of the article

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Station 5

Read the article and choose one of the colored sheets to fill out over the article. If you were absent, I just chose a sheet for you and stuck it in your folder.

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Station 6

I took what I considered to be the most important quotes from the literature that we have read in class during the carpe diem unit and put them on this sheet of paper. Color them!

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The Big Picture: What is the difference between sucking the marrow out of life and choking on the bone? What is the difference between carpe diem and YOLO?

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