B° + C° - 7/10/2012

Hey B and C,

Sorry for my absence yesterday! Here is what we did today:

Vocab: 


Hyperbole (n.): an exaggerated statement
Lucid (adj.): clear or easy to understand

Homework: 


- Read chapters 16+17
- Fill in TWO body paragraphs in your essay outline
- High School Assignment due on FRIDAY!

ALL PERIODS: 7/6/12

Hey Students! 

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! 
Sorry for not updating recently, the website was having an error and wouldn't let me post. But now it is weirdly enough. Hemingway(anyways), you all did rather well on the vocab quiz and were very much deserving of our literary salon yesterday. Hope you all enjoyed it!

Homework for the weekend: 
Reading chapters 13-15 with 6 annotations!*
*please have all of your annotations on hand! We have some of them and will give them back to you Monday, but for those of you that said you forgot them or didn't know they were due, YOU NEED TO HAVE THEM ON YOUR PERSON ON MONDAY BECAUSE WE'LL BE STARTING ESSAY WORK! And they are critical for this coming unit!

- HIGH SCHOOL ASSIGNMENT DUE JULY 13th! You have had one week so far to work on it so if you have decided to not work on it this past week, use this weekend to start! 

Thanks for being brilliant! You are all capable of not only passing high school English classes, but also thriving! 

See you all on Monday!

ALL PERIODS: 07/02/2012

Great work today! You all succeeded in having your first analytical fishbowl! I know how awkward they can be but you all did amazing!

Dancing Definitions: 


Gumption (adj.): guts and spunk
Commiserate (v.): to pity or sympathize

Homework:

- Read Chapters 10, 11, 12 (awesome chapters!)
- 6 annotations
- Studying for vocab quiz
- Begin High School Assignment*


*9th Grade High School Assignment


This assignment(s) is meant to prepare you for high school level assignments! Both in content and length.
You need to budget your time to do your high school assignment well along with our other work in class.
You can do this!
Below is the 9th Grade High School Assignment description we passed out in class:
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9^th Grade English High School Assignment: Due Friday, July 13^th

Transitioning from middle school to high school necessitates a distinct adjustment period. In an effort to help you get a sense of this transition, we are assigning you a typical high school length assignment– in addition to your regular homework.

To begin to answer our guiding questions of ‘What is American Literature?’ and ‘Why is American Literature significant?’ we want to give you guys a two week, long term project to get some serious thoughts and opinions on these two questions. Though each assignment has its set of guidelines, each assignment should be focusing on how to answer the two guiding questions.

To achieve this, you must complete two parts.

Part A) Structured Assignment: What is American Literature?

A two page, 12pt, Times New Roman font, on:

What is your definition of American Literature? This definition should be based on your opinions and thoughts so far on the text as well as what we have discussed in class. The next part of this paper is: How does Their Eyes Were Watching God fit into your definition of American Literature? Use specific examples of themes and symbols from TEWWG to support your definition.

Part B) Creative Assignment: Why is American Literature significant?

With your definition of ‘what is American Literature?’ clear and definite, use one of the three creative assignments to explain why is American Literature significant? Again, using themes, examples, and characters from TEWWG prove why American Literature is significant through one of the creative assignments below:

1) For the spoken word/poetry enthusiasts – Choose a character from the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God and write a poem/spoken word piece to another character in the novel (from your original character). For example, if I chose Tea Cake, I might write a piece to Janie. Ensure that when you’re writing your piece, you’re writing it as if you were the character you choose. So with this example, I’d be writing as if I were Tea Cake writing to Janie.

2) For the creative writers and storytellers – Create another chapter for the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. The chapter can come before or after any of the chapters we’ve read. For example, I might write a new chapter 12 (to replace the one we read) or I might write a chapter that comes after chapter 16 (the last chapter we’ve read so far). Or you can write your own ending to the novel etc. Get creative with it. You could even choose to write a “modern day” version of one of the chapters in the book. Your only rules are that you maintain the original characters in the novel.

3) For the artists  – Create an art piece representative of your favorite component of the novel. Imagine your work will be displayed in a museum in Eatonville celebrating Zora Neale Hurston – in other words, ensure your work has work put into it. If you choose this option – your piece must be on poster board of some kind. Please talk with Carolyn or Julian if you need help getting a poster board or if you have some burning reason you’d like to use something else. You can use paint, markers, materials or anything you like. Your piece should be accompanied by an artist’s description of your work. i.e. a paragraph explaining why you created the piece and what it represents to you.

*Because of the time we are allotting you, your work needs to be nearly perfect! We will be able to tell right away if you did your assignments the night before! Please put in the effort to make these assignments as awesome as we know they can be! They maybe used in Celebration! preshow!!!

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Thanks so much!!!

ALL PERIODS: 6/29

Happy Spirit and Chapter Six Day!

All classes did a wonderful job discussing and analyzing this chapter! So proud of you all!
We are both well aware of how difficult and time consuming this chapter was/is and we understand that it took a lot of your time! BUT, this is exactly what high school English classes will be like!
You are all beginning to understand the concept of time management!


This Weekend's Homework: 


Reading Chapters 7,8,9 with 6 annotations

*When reading take note of themes and symbols you notice!

Have an awesome weekend!

ALL PERIODS!!! - 6/27 & 6/28

Hello all!

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes! You are all amazing students and I am so excited to work with you all this summer!

Hemingway (my way of saying 'anyway'), the definitions of the past two days have been as followed:

Mien (n): a person's manner
Saunter (v.): to slowly stroll
Boisterously (adverb.): noisy and loud

HOMEWORK:


Reading chapter 6! WE HAVE STRESSED THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS CHAPTER IN CLASS! Read this chapter carefully and come prepared with questions!
Also, five annotations in the new sheet!

Good luck and email us if you have any questions!!!!

ALL PERIODS: Additional Literary Term

Hey students!?!?.... Yeah???.... Hey students!!!!!.... Yeah....

Thanks for an awesome Monday and Tuesday! Based on what you've told us, you really like the blog and are finding it useful!

In our Period C class today we introduced a new term that we want to share with you all.

If you noticed, the novel begins with Janie coming back from somewhere. This strategy is called in media res. Writers use this strategy usually to engage their audience so they will continue to read. Also, so the reader can begin to formulate their own opinions of 'what happened?' to the protagonist.

You will see this strategy used a lot in all mediums of storytelling whether it is in written, auditory, or video form. THIS IS USED A LOT IN MOVIES!

See you soon!

Julian and Carolyn

B° and C° - Tuesday 6/26

Thanks for a great class today! You were all very receptive to learning how to embed quotes. 

Here were the definitions and the homework from today's class: 

Feel free to email Carolyn or myself if you have any questions! 

Dancing Definitions: 

Desecrate (v.): to violate something sacred 

Convention (n.): a large meeting 

Homework: 

1. Read Chapter 4 and 5 

2. Five annotations on chapters 4 and 5, altogether* 

3. Finish embedding quote worksheet (all three grey pages)

*Collecting all annotation sheets from chapters 1-5!!! 

ALL DUE BY WEDNESDAY!!!!