9/29/2016

We pulled out the little books that we made in class yesterday and wrote down a sentence about the characters that we read.

The skill we are working on is identifying and analyzing author’s viewpoint. You’ll see this on the test next week with quotes and phrases like “From this quote, one can tell that the author feels…” or “This quote shows…”

authors-purpose

Notice that I *gave* you the sentences in purple. Just copy those down. Notice that I started the sentence fr you in yellow. You’ll finish those sentences off today on our own. Tomorrow, you are going to write your own sentences that show how Chaucer feels about the characters.

We read The Wife of Bath, the Parson, and the Plowman today. In 4th period, we also talked a little about the Nun (or the Prioress). If you weren’t here, go back and read those three sections, either in the textbook or on No Fear Canterbury Tales.

Our test is next Thursday, so please make sure you are keeping up with what we are doing in class.

I know that Skyward isn’t showing you your 1st 6 weeks (MP1) grades right now – I don’t know how to fix that, bu I can tell you that I haven’t put the two grades that I’ve collected in the grade book yet. I’m hoping to do that this afternoon for at least one!

1/30/2015 – A

We reviewed what we read yesterday by adding information to the foldable that we made yesterday. We added information about Hrothgar and Beowulf.

Hrothgar

  • King of the Danes
  • helpless against Grendel
  • he “wept”

Grendel

  • Descendant of Cain (1st murderer)
  • doesn’t follow Anglo-Saxon values
  • Comes out at night
  • Can’t touch Hrothgar’s throne
  • hell-forged hands (kenning)
  • kills for fun

We read The Coming of Beowulf today – wow. What I can I say about Beowulf? He’s pretty awesome.

He really represents the values of the Anglo-Saxons. We talked about the difference between being COCKY and CONFIDENT – and that Beowulf was confident.

We also discussed why it was significant that Beowulf asked Hrothgar for permission to kill Grendel rather than busting in and kill stealing.

Then, I gave you some flex time to either work on missing assignments (MSG = a zero in the gradebook!) or to work on the Metaphorical Response.

1/29/2015 – A

We started out making a foldable – just making it. We will add little bits to it each day after we read.

20140911_093132[1]

Today we started reading Beowulf. We will read just one section a day, so that means if you find the poem boring (I didn’t write it – it doesn’t hurt my feelings!), I won’t commit readicide on you by making you read for all 80 minutes of class. You can thank me later.

Today, we skimmed the background notes and read The Wrath of Grendel.

We spent some time talking about mead, the mead hall, and Bass Shandy soda.

If you weren’t here, you missed watching me jump on desk growling and you missed me harassing students with “Grendel”. Read this on your own and be familiar with it.

Then, we played a game called Tribond. We were given 3 different pictures of unrelated objects and we had to figure out what they all three had in common. If you liked playing this game, here is a new puzzle for each day!

Then, I explained why we played that game: the Metaphorical Response! A metaphor is a comparison between two UNLIKE things.

From Metaphor Examples:

A metaphor is a comparison between two unlike things not using the word “like” or “as” to make the comparison.  The greater the difference between the two things being compared, the better the metaphor. For example, if one were to say that “Football is baseball,” that would not be a good metaphor, because football and baseball are both sports.  However, if one were to say that “football is chess,” that would generally be considered a better metaphor because there is a greater difference between football and chess than football and baseball.

That webpage has fifty good examples of metaphors, like this: The typical teenage boy’s room is a disaster area.

So, you’ll be finding a metaphor for the ten elements on the worksheet and explaining it. If you need help, check out the example in BB.

You only need to have ONE quote – not two or three like the example shows.

Just make sure that you use good metaphors.

For example (and don’t use this one), Grendel is nasty. No one likes him. No one wants him around, but no one can stop him.

Column 1:  Grendel is like a SBD (silent but deadly fart).

Column 2: SBD farts are silent and sneak up on you. They are very powerful, and take down everyone within sniffing zone. The only way you can survive a SBD is if you run away! Not only are they silent, but you can’t see them.

Column 3: Grendel is very strong, and no one can defeat him. No one likes him, no one wants him around, but no one can figure out how to deal with him or get rid of him. Anyone who goes up against him, is destroyed. Just like a SBD, the only way you can survive an attack with Grendel is if you run away. Because Grendel hunts at night and the only survivors are those who flee, no one has ever seen Grendel, either!

Column 4: One quote that proves your comparison. Since we used a PDF file for Beowulf, you can’t copy and paste, so you’ll need to type it manually.

We also talked a little about what the name Beowulf means. This is what I found:

12/3/2014

Today, I made sure that you guys knew the word SECULAR.

Then, we read three short pieces from the KJ Bible: Ecclesiastes 3, Psalm 23, and the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

Make sure that you know that Ecclesiastes is a MAXIM. We also listened to the Byrds song Turn, Turn, Turn.

Ecclesiastes

psalm23

We also talked about how prevalent this Psalm is in our every day life by looking at how often it has been used in music and movies.

And before we started our LAST bit of the day, we watched a short movie based on this parable.

Prodigal Son 1Prodigal Son 2

Lastly, we did a foldable. You’ll need to make sure you have summary of each one on top and answer the change in perspective both all three selections.

12/2/2014

Today, we talked about sin and how the word didn’t start as a religious term. It started out as an archery term that meant you “missed the mark” or “missed the target”.

Then we worked on the Sin/Virtue foldable.

Title each tab as a sin and then write your information inside the flap. You will need the following information for each sin:

sin virtue

The Contrary or Heavenly Virtue is the OPPOSITE of what you should do if you are avoiding that particular sin. Look for the CONTRARY VIRTUES and read the paragraph about the Contrary Virtues in order to find the information.

Suggestion: Don’t use Wikipedia to find out the Deadly Sins (too much information), but Wikipedia had pretty good information about the Heavenly Virtues.

4/3/14

Today was a pretty interesting day that showed a great amount of maturity in my students. I honestly was really impressed with the comments that people made.

First, we printed the lyrics to Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get in On”, listened to the song, and highlighted persuasive language in BLUE and highlighted references to TIME in yellow. Answer the three questions and drop off your highlighted lyrics (if you were absent so I can give you credit for highlighting).

Let's Get It On

We talked about the speaker and his audience (a girl) and analyzed that relationship. We highlighted evidence of carpe diem (time) in the poem, highlighted IRONY in the song, and highlighted references to LOVE in the song. We also specifically talked about how the song was contradictory and how it related to TIME (“stop beating ’round the bush”, and “this minute”).

We talked about consent, and how the audience in the song has obviously NOT given consent.

Students then sat there puzzled as to why we listened to that song, so we read “To His Coy Mistress” to explain. It’s the original “Let’s Get It On”, just much creepier.

Coy Mistress Coy Mistress2

Lastly, we did the Syllogism Pyramid foldable. You can find the template in LMS.

For each triangle, create a text box and write the following:

  • If… (1st stanza – lines 1-20) + image
  • But… (2nd stanza – lines 21-32) + image
  • So… (3rd stanza – lines 33-46) + image

You will need to ROTATE the text box. Grab the little green ball and turn it. Make sure that the text box faces the hypotenuse. Don’t worry about the text that is already on the pyramid – that will be hidden when you fold it up.

2/3/2013

Phew! I sure wish that there was ONE day when all of my students show up for school!

We started out today by answering some questions over Death and Devil Surprising Two Maidens in LMS.

After that, we worked on a foldable translating the source for Carpe Diem. It’s a PowerPoint in LMS called Tower Translation.

You will read the four sentences, and then translate each sentence in your own thought. Add some clip art.

Make sure you have a clip art! You may need to resize the font. Then cut thusly:

And then fold/glue.

And lastly, we download the Carpe Diem poems into OneNote.

Today, we read To The Virgins, To Make Much of Time. Make sure that you get the notes here:

Gradespeed is still down, so these are the following grades that are in the grade book (or, they WILL be):

  • Character Sheet – 10 pts
  • Creative Coloring – 20 pts
  • What You Heard – 10 pts
  • Adjectives – 20 pts
  • Post-It Note – 10 points
  • Pre-Writing – 20 points
  • Death and the Devil – 20 pts
  • Carpe Diem Tower – 20 pts

IV – 11/14/2012

We read Psalm 23 today – make sure that you get the notes from another student.

Afterwards, we listened/read Gangsta’s Paradise and did the foldable – Folding Venn Diagram. You are are going to compare/contrast Psalm 23 with Gangsta’s Paradise. Make sure you have three differences and three similarities. Print, cut, and fold and turn in to Riley.

We read the Prodigal Son (copy/paste the definition of prodigal into your copy of the text). Get the notes from another classmate. We can easily see the difference between the Bible as Literature and theology with this story.

Riley then explained that tomorrow, we are writing a parable to explain/prove a maxim or a proverb. She has a list of proverbs to choose from, and you need to find a proverb that you like/find insightful, and explain it (in the drop box entitled Maxim for Modern Day Parable).

 

IV – 10/30/2012

Today, we used our Gaggle e-mail accounts to create an account with Bucketlist.org. Make sure that you are opening the link in its own window – if you try to open this inside the frame of LMS, you won’t be able to login.

We checked out the discussion board over Death and Devil Surprising Two Maidens – we had a great discussion over it! It’s amazing the things you guys identify and notice.

Riley showed us a clip over carpe diem from Dead Poet’s Society, and then we did the Carpe Diem tower translation. For each sentence, write a translation in the bottom square. Throw in an appropriate piece of clip art – you may have to resize the font. Print it for yourself – keep it in your folder, but drop off the PDF in teh Drop Box so Riley can grade it.

Some people started the Bucketlist pre-writing, but Riley said she’d give us time tomorrow to work on this.