Weeks of November 17th and November 24th, 2014

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeats

The goal of this English class is to produce critical thinkers. Students are not only reading for comprehension but for meaning and relevancy of the work as a whole. Literature is also an example of good writing. The writing improves when a student reads. Vocabulary also improves because the student is learning to read in context. We want successful students who can think critically and communicate effectively.  
 Academic English 9: Students will complete the Grammar Portion of the Vocabulary Unit 3 Test.  They will be responsible for identifying subject and verb in the independent clause.  Ideally, students should be able to identify subordinate clauses and phrases as well.  They will use the phrases and clauses charts, the notes, and the Warriner's text to help them identify, differentiate between the two,  and label each  phrase and subordinate clause.  Students will begin work on the Poetry Project.  They will be responsible for identifying poetic elements/devices, applying the poetic elements/devices, and creating two poems.  The students have been given a prompt/requirements, a rubric, and a list of the required poetic elements/devices.  The due date is November 26th.

Practical English Literature 10: Students are working on reading, analyzing, responding, and identifying and applying literary devices in Friday Night Lights.  They will also specifically work on responding to literature questions in preparation for the Keystones.

Public Speaking: Students are working on the Persuasive/Argumentative Speech.  They will be required to use reliable/valid sources in a logical organization.  Speeches will commence in mid-December.

SAT Prep: Students will be practicing strategies and skills to help them succeed on the SAT:  identifying words/ vocabulary in context, agreement (pronoun/antecedent, subject/verb), parallelism, sentence structure, and identifying key words in the questions.

Weeks of November 3rd and November 10th, 2014

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeats

The goal of this English class is to produce critical thinkers. Students are not only reading for comprehension but for meaning and relevancy of the work as a whole. Literature is also an example of good writing. The writing improves when a student reads. Vocabulary also improves because the student is learning to read in context. We want successful students who can think critically and communicate effectively.       
                
Academic English 9: Students will be working on the literary analysis.  They will be required to identify literary devices, show how they support the message of the novel/movie, create a thesis, show relevancy, and apply critical thinking skills through the analyses.  Students will experience the writing process:  brainstorming/freewriting, outline, rough draft, editing/proofreading, and final copy.  They will be completing 2 literary analyses.  The final drafts need to be uploaded to edmodo.com.  The Night essay is due November 3rd and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is due November 10th.  Students will be responsible for Vocabulary Unit 3 Positive Judgments, Agreements:  identifying affixes, origin/root, synonym, antonym, creating sentences, and completing a review sheet.  They will need to identify subjects/verbs, and they will be introduced to subordinate clauses, phrases.  There will be a Vocabulary Unit 3 Test on Friday, November 14th.

Practical English Literature 10: Students are working on reading, analyzing, responding, and identifying and applying literary devices in Friday Night Lights.  They will also specifically work on responding to literature questions in preparation for the Keystones.

Public Speaking: Chapters 16 and 17 are due by November 7th.  Students will be working on the Persuasive Speech.  They will be required to identify statements as fact, policy, or ethic to help them create a purpose statement for the speech. Students will critique JFK's Inaugural Address.  They will be responsible for identifying rhetoric skills.

SAT Prep: Strategies and skills will be applied to practice tests.  Analysis of answers through review.