Monthly Archives: January 2017

1/17/2017

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I hope you guys had a nice, boring, weekend. My condolences to all of you football fans. I am going to miss grocery shopping during football games!

Today we watched Act 2 and did our Cloze Reading activity – remember, I am going to grade this TODAY so that I can give these back to your tomorrow for the quiz. 🙂 If you turn this in late, the highest grade you can get is a 70.

If you weren’t here, I pulled you into my (or Ms. Miller’s) Panther Den, so check your schedules in Enriching Students!

The only grades that I need to put in Skyward are late/missing grades and the Brain assignment from Friday.

1/13/2017

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Image result for martin luther king quote injusticeI hope that you guys take a few minutes this weekend to remember why we have off.

Today, we read Act 2.2 and 2.3.

Afterwards, we created an outline of Iago’s brain. Think about Iago (or Othello) and decide which facts might play a small part in his thinking and what thoughts occupy much of his time. For example, a Roman centurion might really be concerned about his family back home, but in the interest of flip-flopping facts for humor, I might choose to make him really focused on a small concern and have him be more worried about his uncomfortable shoes.

We created a brain cartoon (you can use clip art or just draw a picture like the example). When you create your pie chart of the brain, make sure you make on of the slices bigger than the others. This is the punch line of your joke, and making it funny might involve picking a fact that isn’t really true or a funny truth you have uncovered. Whatever you choose, your cartoon should include key bits of legitimate information to ground the joke in reality.

Turn a paper copy is the old school drop box, and if you did it digitally, turn it in the drop box in Blackboard.

 

1/12/2017

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Thank you to those students who legitimately did the cloze reading guide for Act 1. I spent a lot of time reading what you guys wrote and leaving feedback/notes, so I really appreciate it when you do what I ask. 🙂

Today, we went over the correct/tested answers on the reading guide. This is why they have to be on t day I assign them – it’s not fair if you don’t do anything the day they are due and just copy the answers down and get full credit.

After that, we took the quiz over Act 1. You can use your reading guide.

Then, we read Act 2.1. We will finish Act 2 tomorrow. See you guys then!

1/11/2017

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Image result for othello movieToday, we watching the first part (Act 1) of Othello. It took about 20 minutes, and we worked on our Cloze Reading Guide (on paper). This is a major grade and we will do it in class. Since this is a major grade, I am keeping this legitimate and this will be due at the end of class. If you need extra time to finish it, you can come by my Panther Den or Ms. Miller’s Panther Den, but it has be be done.

I did not find this Cloze Activity online – I made it. If you want to double check your answers with me before you turn it in, I have no problem with that.

The play is in the original language, but I have the subtitles on.

Tomorrow, we will be taking a quiz over Act 1. We are taking it first without the notes, but you can retake it using your notes if you want. I want to see how effective my teaching is and what, if anything, I need to change before we take our Othello test on February 9th.

1/10/2017

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Today, we read 1.3. Some of the words we talked about today included:

platitudes – don’t worry, there are other fish in the sea. Or the worst that was told to me: Don’t worry, you can get pregnant again!

infidelity (why was cheating considered treason)

Tomorrow, we’ll be watching Othello (the movie) and working on the first part of our major grade (the cloze reading guide).

1/9/2017

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Today we started reading Othello. The play starts out in Venice, Italy. We are reading the modern text in No Fear, but I will point out some of the original text on the left hand side occasionally.

Image result for othello mapWe read 1.1 and 1.2. A few words we have talked about:

Some words/concepts that we talked about while reading:

ensign

instigate

consummated

elope

natural/unnatural relationships

monologue

soliloquy

1/6/2017

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What better way to torture you guys on a Friday than by making you watch Jersey Shore?!?! Okay, maybe not a whole episode, but we watched a trailer and then and discussed why people were upset with it because of racist stereotypes.

Then, I gave each group an an article about Jersey Shore and each group did a 3-2-1 summary of it. We also answered some independent questions in Blackboard (Grading Period 4: Othello > Setting > Independent Questions).

The big reason we did this today is because the same stereotypes that Jersey Shore encourages are the reasons that Shakespeare chose Italy as the location for this play. There no way that a good, obedient English girl would disobey her father and have an unnatural relationship, but an Italian girl? They’re cray cray!

setting

We are going to start to read Othello on Monday – have a great weekend!

1/5/2017

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Today is our first day of academic work. We are going to read Othello this term. The other English IV teachers are doing Macbeth, but you know me – I have to be different. 😉

In order to make sure we all have the same vocabulary when talking about this play, each group has five words to define with a drawing. We then presented the images to the class. If you need more “drill and kill” practice, here is my Quizlet that I made for these words. As you can see, some of them are very basic, and some you may need to study.

If you were absent today, here is the make up activity. I just took a few of the terms that will be tested and created a few visuals for you to fill in about the word.

I am going to put these up around the room so that they can help jog your memory while reading and during quizzes. 🙂

1/4/2017

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Today we did some group work to create a espirit de corps. We created a guild flag, motto, and a few other things. Remember – we all have the same common goal: graduation on June 3rd!

I hope that this helps with communication, team work, a positive attitude. We are all in here for a few more months – let’s make it as fun as possible! 🙂

I really want to use Classcraft to its full extent this semester and I want to reward the guilds that work together well.

1/3/2017

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Happy New Year, Panthers! We started out with a little reflection from 2016 and then did a little planning for 2017.

This is not goal setting: goal setting is specific and is measurable. This usually is what people do BEFORE they set goals. We talked a little how 2016 was a rough year for a lot of people and that we are usually prepared for one unexpected catastrophe, but how do we develop resiliency to overcome when life just keeps handing us lemons?