Language Arts 12: Curse of the Chupacabra chapters 1 and 2

Writer's Journal entry:  Write about a time when you were RIGHT, but no one believed you, and everyone told you you were wrong, OR, when you were right but YOU doubted yourself and didn't believe you were right.

Annotations handout

Background on the book and its genre

Write some annotations together

Homework: 10 annotations on chapters 1 and 2 due Friday, if not finished in class.
Quiz on chapters 1 and 2 Friday.
Start bringing your planner to class!

Language Arts 9: River of Words Art Contest

With visiting artist Elizabeth, we created rough drafts of water web-inspired artwork for the River of Words art and poetry contest. Elizabeth will be back on Friday with watercolors!

Integrated Writing, section 1: "Dumbstruck"

Warmup:  word search

Visual observations: List everything you can observe about the photograph on the handout

Compare your observations to those printed on the back of the photograph. Do you have more observations? More specific observations?

Read "Dumbstruck" by Annie Dillard, along with the observations printed on the page

Define unfamiliar words

Transcribe

Homework: Dillard transcription due Thursday

Language Arts 11: Memes and News Satire

View memes found by classmates

Create your own meme (electronic or paper) with a social or political message

Define satire

Watch episode of The Colbert Report, and list as many satirized people, places, and things as you can find in the episode!


Homework: 

Meme due Thursday, if not finished in class

Language Arts 10: The Pearl, chapter 1

Writer's Journal entry:  Write about a time: 
When you were RIGHT, but no one believed you, and everyone told you you were wrong, or, when you were right but YOU doubted yourself and didn't believe it.


Handout: Ideas for annotating a text

Background info on John Steinbeck and The Pearl

Read chapter 1 of The Pearl aloud and do some annotations together

Continue reading and annotating independently

Homework: 
Complete chapter 1 and have 10 annotations on it for Thursday
Quiz on chapter 1 Thursday
Please make sure to start bringing your planner to class on Thursday!

Language Arts 12: Curse of the Chupacabra Anticipation Guide

Fill out the Anticipation Guide handout, marking whether you agree or disagree with each of the twelve statements. Take a stand--don't be wishy-washy!

On the back of the paper, write a paragraph about each of the TWO statements you feel most strongly about. 

These statements are all ideas used as themes in Curse of the Chupacabra. 

Graded class discussion. A nonvolunteer picks a statement to discuss. Volunteers then will be able to respond. When the statement is exhausted, a new nonvolunteer is chosen. 

Homework: None!

Language Arts 9: Blue Gold

Discuss how documentary films can be "read" as texts.

Define bias.

View a portion of the documentary Blue Gold: World Water Wars and complete viewing handout (questions about the argument, point of view, possible bias, and imagery of the film)

Homework: None!


Don't forget about the FREE screening of Watershed at The Loft (on Speedway at Country Club), on Wednesday, September 19, at 7 p.m.  Get background information, material, and imagery to use for River of Words.

Integrated Writing, section 1: "The Veldt" Text Detectives

Using your text detective skills, PROVE in writing your argument that the parents were killed by the lions at the end of the story. Use evidence in the form of quotations from the text, and explain (overexplain) how your evidence supports your argument!


Watch Deadmau5 video for their song "The Veldt," which is based on the story!


Homework: Text Detective writing due Monday.

Language Arts 11: Viral Marketing and Memes

Warmup: vocab check. Define the five words (from the last articles we read) listed on the screen.

Notes with definitions of viral marketing and of meme.

View examples of each.

Write your own "First-World Problems" meme.


Homework: For Monday, bring in your favorite meme. Print out a copy, or email it to me by Sunday
evening.

Language Arts 10: The Pearl Anticipation Guide

Fill out the Anticipation Guide handout, marking whether you agree or disagree with each of the twelve statements. Take a stand--don't be wishy-washy!

On the back of the paper, write a paragraph about each of the TWO statements you feel most strongly about. 

These statements are all ideas used as themes in The Pearl. 

Graded class discussion. A nonvolunteer picks a statement to discuss. Volunteers then will be able to respond. When the statement is exhausted, a new nonvolunteer is chosen. 

Homework: None!

Language Arts 12: Magic Realism with a Social Purpose

Writer's Journal entry: We talked yesterday about how "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" made a point about exploitation, and about how the inclusion of the fantastic element helps to strengthen that theme.

Now, brainstorm in writing another way that magic or folklore could be introduced to a realistic story in order to make a social or political point stronger. Explain in a paragraph what could happen in that story.

Discuss examples of magic realism used to make a social or political point. 

Assignment: In pairs, create a magic realism movie-ish poster to demonstrate your understanding of the genre. Your poster should include an image that clearly shows fantastic elements within an ordinary world, delivering a social or political message. Include a tagline or quote (make up the quote yourself) from the hypothetical story as well. Your story and its social message should be told through both the image and the line of text. 

Homework: Poster due on Friday, if not finished in class. 2 points.

Language Arts 9: River of Words poetry

Warmup: In your writer's journal, list as many water-related words as you can think of. Win a point of extra credit by having the longest list of words that no one else thought of!

Read poems from previous winners of the River of Words poetry contest.

Draft your own poem for the contest.

Homework: River of Words poem due Friday. It must be at least 15 lines long, and typed or written neatly in ink. Include imagery, metaphors, similes, and symbol to make your poem stand out from the rest! (3 points)

Language Arts 12: Magical Realism

Warmup:  On one half of a piece of paper, draw a picture of what you think of when you hear the word "angel."

"In My World" game, for extra credit. 

"In My World" concept attainment with examples and non-examples of magical realism. Based on what all of the examples have in common, how would you define magical realism? 

Notes on magical realism. 

Read Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings."  Reading strategy: 

• Find places where, in a single sentence, you have a magical detail and a realistic detail.

• Mark all of those sentences with a star.

• Underline the magical detail and double underline the realistic detail. MARK AT LEAST TEN. 

Revisit your angel drawing. On the other half of your paper, draw a picture of the angel from the story, using the passages of descriptive imagery to create your representation.


Homework: None!

Language Arts 9: River of Words, Arizona Water Web

Today we had a visit from Yajaira Gray, of the Pima County Natural Resources Department.

After discussing the sources of water and consumers of water in our local area, you participated in a hands-on demonstration. You created a model of what happens to our water resources when there are competing demands from a wide variety of water users.


Homework: None!  Tomorrow we will be working on writing original poetry for the River of Words poetry contest. How can you turn what you learned today into a poem?

Integrated Writing, section 1: "The Veldt"

Read "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury while listening to Stephen Colbert read the story.

Discuss the nature of imagination and reality in the story.

Discuss story vocab.

Boggle!

Homework: None.

Language Arts 11: The Internet and Your Brain

Writer's Journal entry: What is multitasking? Do you do it well? Give some examples of multitasking and how it fits into your life. Is it a valuable skill in today's society?

 

Take New York Times "task juggling" test to see how well you truly multitask.


Read two Wall Street Journal articles ("Does the Internet Make You Dumber?" and "Does the Internet Make You Smarter?") and answer questions about them on the handout.


Writer's journals were collected for a grade. 

Homework:  Wall Street Journal article responses due Thursday.

Language Arts 10: Corrido Writing

Writer's Journal entry: Write a long paragraph about an event, place, or a person that you believe deserves to be remembered, commemorated, or celebrated. This could be historical, political, or personal. If you were going to immortalize something or someone in song, what or who would it be, and why? What things would be most important to describe about them?

Read examples of corridos. Identify rhyme scheme and other features of a corrido.

Draft your own corrido for the Tucson annual bilingual corrido contest! 

Requirements: 

• 36 lines (either 6 stanzas of 6 lines each, or 9 stanzas of 4 lines each)
• approximately 7-10 syllables per line
• traditional corrido rhyme scheme (ABCB, AABB, or ABCBDB)

Homework: 

Corrido rough and final drafts will be due on Thursday.

Language Arts 9: Peer Editing

Warmup: sentence variation practice: Choose a topic to write about. Nonvolunteers will be chosen to roll a set of dice. Whatever number comes up, you will have to write a sentence about your topic using that number of words. You can NOT begin any of the sentences with the same word! 

Review the Six Traits rubric.

Peer edit TWO classmates' essay drafts for all 6 traits, using the rubric and the peer editing handout.

Homework: FINAL essay draft, with all rough drafts and peer editing sheets attached for full credit, is due on Tuesday. This will be graded according to the six traits rubric you worked with today and will be worth 25 points.

Language Arts 12: Peer Editing

Review the Six Traits rubric.

Peer edit TWO classmates' essay drafts for all 6 traits, using the rubric and the peer editing handout.

Homework: FINAL essay draft, with all rough drafts and peer editing sheets attached for full credit, is due on Tuesday. This will be graded according to the six traits rubric you worked with today.

Don't forget to have your copy of Anaya, Curse of the Chupacabra, on Wednesday!

Integrated Writing, section 1

Warmup: Scattergories

Read Stephen King, "Myth, Belief, Faith, and Ripley's Believe It Or Not" while listening to recording of the author reading

Discuss the piece and vocabulary

Homework: None

Language Arts 11: Truth Ads

Writer's Journal entry: write a paragraph about a specific product you think currently has the most misleading, or even harmful, advertising. What is the difference between the reality of that product and the image the corporation tries to portray in its advertising?  

Finish rhetorical appeals ad presentations

Discuss examples of "truth ads"

Create a colorful, artistic, Adbusters-like (or even a Dove-like) “truth ad,” revealing the reality of something that is often misleading in advertising.

Your ad should contain:

•At least one of the rhetorical appeals

•Colorful, persuasive imagery

• Persuasive text

Your appeal should be STRONG, so you will need several sentences or points of text and images.

On the back of your ad, write a short paragraph explaining:

--which appeals you used

 --why you chose the images and words you used for your appeals.

Homework: Truth ad due Monday, September 10. 5 points.

Language Arts 10: Corridos

Review Star Wars Hero's Journey Tracker

Quiz on the Hero's Journey (10 points)

Discuss corridos and Poetry Center corrido contest

Handout with corrido examples and criteria

Homework: None

Language Arts 9: Autobiography Endings

Writer's Journal Entry: If the world were going to end in one week, what would you do? What is on your "bucket list"?

Brainstorm common and cliched endings to movies, books, stories, etc.

Discuss common, overused endings to five-paragraph essays

Discuss cliched endings to autobiographies

Notes on strong conclusions

Handout: Read example of a strong ending to a memoir about place, Helen Blatt's "Returning Home."

Answer the following questions in 1-2 sentences each:

1. What did Blatt learn from her trip? Summarize this in a sentence or two on the bottom of the page.

2. How did she manage to convey this information without sounding cliché or overly sentimental? Explain this in another 1-2 sentences. 

Homework: Your "almost-final" draft of your environmental autobiography is due on Friday! Add a new conclusion based on today's information. Use my feedback on your draft to improve the organization, and make sure to avoid overused words!

Your final draft will be due on Tuesday.

Language Arts 12: Apostrophe Fails (and Notes)

Warmup: What is wrong with these pictures?  View photo examples of misused apostrophes submitted to a blog.

Notes on and practice with the three major types of apostrophe use, and:

• your vs. you're
• there, their, and they're
• it's vs. its

Homework: A near-final draft of your name essay is due on Friday for final peer editing and proofreading.

The final draft, graded on all 6 traits, will be due on Tuesday.

You should now use apostrophes 100% correctly in your essay!

Language Arts 12: Endings, and More Deep Revision

Writer's Journal entry: What are some of the best movie and book endings you can remember? What made them memorable? What are the WORST endings you know of, and what was wrong with them? List some movie or book "ending cliches." 

Discuss endings and some famous last lines of novels. What makes them effective? 

Handout: "How to Craft a Great Article, Part II: Hooks, Leads, and Endings," by Dawn Copeman


Deep Revision:

Edit returned name essay draft for organization by adding new hook.

Edit draft for sentence fluency by marking ALL of your sentences that begin with the subject of the sentence. 

Using your notes on sentence starters, edit your sentences so that you have AT LEAST one example of each type of starter in your draft.

Add a new ending, perhaps one that "completes the circle" begun by your hook, or one that "unhooks your hook."

Homework: "Almost-final" draft will be due on Friday, for final peer editing. 

Language Arts 9: Voice

Writer's Journal entry: Choose one of the "totally radical" 1980s yearbook photos from the board. Write a paragraph as the person you choose, in what you imagine their voice to be like. Your classmates will guess which person you are. You are not writing ABOUT that person, you ARE that person.

Discuss voice trait

Using a voice trait rubric handout, assess three writing samples, giving each a score for voice.

Peer edit another student's environmental autobiography, marking places where voice is strong and places where voice could be improved. Mark AT LEAST 10 places.

Extra credit assignment(sentence fluency): For one point of extra credit, do the following correctly:

Write at least 10 sentences about any topic you choose, following the rules below.  

1.  Do not begin any sentence with a, an, or the.

2.  All sentences must begin with a different word.

3.  Do not begin any sentences with a common noun.

4.  Do not begin any sentences with I, my, or you. (personal pronouns)

5.  Do not begin more than two sentences with the same part of speech. (noun, adjective, verb, pronoun, etc.)

Homework: None!