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Monday, November 29, 2010

Quick notes....

Grade 12
  • Analysis of Chinese creation myth due tomorrow.
  • Students read and annotated Greek creation myth today.
  • Team work on Greek myth tomorrow
Grade 10
  • Journal: Describe a moment you spent with someone important to you. Be descriptive.
  • Checked HW: character analysis of the father in "The Wreck of the Hesperus." (Absentees from last tuesday have to do it for tomorrow.
  • Analyzed the poem through line 28.
  • HW# 8 on page 604
Grade 9
  • Journal: Same as Grade 10
  • Check HW (quest. 4 and 5 on pg. 33 of story packet.)
  • Answer quest. 7 in notebook with attention to a strong thesis statement and specific details from the story.
  • HW: Quest. 10.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Chinese Creation Story / "The Wreck of the Hesperus" / "The Cask of Amontillado"

Grade 12
  • Read another version of the Haudenosaunee creation story to the classes. (This is a version told by a personal friend, Kay Olan, Deer Clan, Mohawk.) We compared versions.
  • Collected story analyses.
  • Reread Chinese creation story: seperate the story into discreet parts, identify individual elements and consider symbolic/metaphoric meaning. Share in groups if time.
Grade 10
  • Journal: Recall a memory from when you were young. Write it down as if it were a story.
  • Read the intro to Longfellow's, "The Wreck of the Hesperus."
  • Discuss the title.
  • Read through the poem individually, annotate with particular attention to suspense and foreshadowing.
  • Discuss the first two stanzas; identify irony between "wintery sea"of line two and the description of the daughter in the 2nd stanza.
Grade 9
  • A Part of the Sky, 5 minutes.
  • Journal: same as Grade 10
  • Continue Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado," middle of first column page 32.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Haudenosaunee Creation Story / "La Belle" Final Discussion/ "Cask of Amontillado"

Grade 12
  • Reviewed Haudenosaunee Creation Story elements from yesterdays group work. Put some of it together on the board.
  • HW: Write a short analysis of the major elements of the story, tying them in with their possible symbolic/metaphorical meaning.
  • Note; Chinese creation Myth should have been read and annotated
  • Pd 4: Graded journals were returned. Next due date: 12/7. Should be a total of one hour of writing (twelve, five minute entries.)
  • Pd. 8 journals are due 11/30. Same amount as pd. 4.
Grade 10
  • Journal: Lines 3 and 4 and the last two lines describe a "wasteland." What may this be a metaphor for?
  • Discuss.
  • Finished discussing Keat's "La Belle Dame Sans Merci." Last night's homework was: What is Keats
Grade 9

  • Journal: Summarize "The Cask of Amontillado"
  • Continued reading and discussing the story to the middle of the second column on page 31 of the short story packet.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Wordworth, Haudenosaunee Creation Story / How to work a Metaphor / Quiz

Grade 12
Grade 10
  • Review definition of metaphor.
  • Discuss various types of metaphor. Example:
  • Encapsulation: The enclosure of a "location".

    A blanket of snow fell through the night.

    The detective had wrapped up the mystery.

    He had become a shell of a man.
  • How to work a metaphor: identify the metaphor--> associate literal qualities to the context --> choose figurative meaning.
  • Read "Sadie." Try to determine what it is about:

There is a little hole in the house;

Here on the bed,
There on the chair.

There is a little hole in the house;
On the floor’s windowlight;
Before the winter fire.

There is a little hole in the house;
On the stair,
Soft foot thumping.

There is a little hole in the house;
Warm and rumbling,
Near my ear.

There is a little hole in the house;
Where the dogs worry,
And the children sigh.


Grade 9
  • Read A Part of the Sky for five minutes.
  • Finish quiz
  • HW: Do vocabulary for "The Cask of Amontillado."

Monday, November 15, 2010

Yeats / Vocab / Short Story Quiz

Grade 12
  • Reviewed class averages for the 1st marking period. Averages for the second five weeks are significantly lower than for the first five. Now is not the time to run out of steam!
  • Read and discussed W.B. Yeats' "The Lake Isle of Innisfree." Connected the theme to the essay by Jewkes in Man the Mythmaker. (Note: The poetry done now is in prearation for the myth unit.)
Grade 10
  • Returned and reviewed The Silver Kiss exam.
  • Added the following vocab in preparation for the poetry unit:
  • 16. Poetry: the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts.

    17. Prosody: study of poetic meters and writing verse; the particular system of verse in a poem.

    18. Prose: the ordinary form of spoken or written language

    19. Metaphor: A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily means one thing is used to mean another, thus making a comparison, as in "a sea of troubles" or "All the world's a stage" (Shakespeare).

    20. Simile: a figure of speech in which two unlike things are compared using ‘like’ or ‘as’, as in “she is like a rose.”
Grade 9
  • Read A Part of the Sky for five minutes. (If students come in and get ready promptly, I will read the book to them for 5 minutes each day.)
  • Finished the outline for "The Interlopers."
  • Started the quiz on the two stories.

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Quick Catch Up...

The end of the marking period is upon us and busy just isn't strong enough a word....

Grade 12

College app essay season is ending. No more rewrites after tomorrow. I still have period 8 Samurai essays , and a pile of sophomore papers to grade before I can get to the rewrites. Students have been told that if I don't get to them until after the deadline, I will still be able to modify the 1st quarter grade and send a note home if the grade changes.

We're starting the myth unit in earnest. Today and tomorrow will be discussions on essays by Prof. Jewkes in the book, Man the Mythmaker.

Grade 10

Silver Kiss is done. We are working on practice critical lens essays. First three paragraphs will be done by tomorrow, and we will write the conclusion at that time. Essays will be rewritten and handed in for a grade on Monday.

Grade 9

Finishing up "The Interlopers." Students have to complete roman numeral 1 of the story outline for tomorrow.

Thursday, November 04, 2010

The King Must Die, Chapter 3 / The Silver Kiss Exam/ The Interlopers

Grade 12
  • Continued chapter 3, up to Theseus trying to lift the stone
  • I'm getting App essays back by priority. More tomorrow.
  • Get rewrites to me as soon as possible. Marking period is running on fumes! 
Grade 10
  • Silver Kiss Exam. Continued tomorrow
Grade 9
  • Distributed the vocab for "The Interlopers" by Saki, went over the words.
  • Gave students a focus for annotating the story: setting, tone and characterization early, then developing theme, conflict, etc.
  • Started reading the story.
  • Finish reading and annotating for HW

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

The King Horse VI / The Silver Kiss XIII / The Most Dangerous Game VIII

Grade 12
  • Collected essays and journals (pd. 4)
  • Went back over the story and connected each scene to the appropriate function(s) of myth being addressed.
  • Lively discussion on the nature of our own rituals and how the functions relate to them.
Grade 10
  • Journal: Starting on page 194, analyze the author's language to note shifts in tone through the last few pages of the story.
  • Continue checking reading logs.
  • Discuss journal entry, the story's conclusion and the over all construction of the tale.


Grade 9

  • Question 10 on page 14:  How does Whitney’s conversation with Rainsford on the first two pages reveal the theme?
  • Begin story outline.

Monday, November 01, 2010

The King Horse V / The Silver Kiss XII / The Most Dangerous Game VII

Grade 12
  • Review Functions of myth: pedagogical/psychological, metaphysical, sociological, cosmological
  • Review "The Horse God" relative to these functions. Begin identofying parts of the story with the functions. Go over the question answered on Friday.
  • Pd. 4: Hand back essay #5.
  • Tomorrow: Pd. 4 journals due. Essay #6 due. Finish up "The Horse God" and distribute chapter 3.
Grade 10
  • Journal: Discuss the resolution of the story's primary conflicts and the primary theme. (10 minutes)
  • In teams: Compare literary elements for Chapters 14 and 15.
  • Check reading logs 13-15.
  • Tomorrow: Final discussion before the exam.
Grade 9
  • In teams: Generate a summary for the last two pages of the story. If done, work on questions 1 and 2 together
  • Check annotations for pages 8 through 13.
  • Tomorrow, final discussion on story.