English 1 - Manic Monday

Tomorrow should be a rather busy day in English 1.  My two classes will be doing different things, both requiring lots of energy and preparation.  I hope I can handle it.  To help you follow what is happening and what students needs to bring, here's a brief preview.

Period 2 - Dust Bowl Gala

The early class is going to the cafeteria for a 1930s party, wrapping up our latest benchmark on that time period.  Students need to dress up in character of their choice and have the following:

1. Business Letter: Set in the 1930s, students wrote a letter to a friend or relative about the topic they researched.  The situation is imaginative, but the facts should be accurate.
   
2. Placemat: Students should have a decorated placemat, a collage of the 1930s era.
   
3. ID Card: For the role students choose, they must create an ID card.  This card can be for an invented person, or an actual historical figure from the 1930s.
   
4. Costume: Students should dress in the role of a person from the 1930s.  Extra credit and prizes will be given to the best dressed.

Period 4 - Winter Wonderland

The later English 1 class will have more of a Christmas tone to it.  Students will participate in a gift exchange, and it is important that they attend and have their gift.  I don't want others to go without.  Here is what they need to make tomorrow a memorable event.

1. A giving attitude.
   
2. A gift: The gift can be something they make, something bought, or something they bake.
   
3. A hat: Something Christmasy, if you have it.
   
4. A memory or tradition: Students will be sharing memories of Christmas or traditions in their family and culture from this season.  Even if they don't celebrate the holiday, most have traditions and memories connected to the season.

On Tuesday, we will switch activities.  The early class will enjoy a Winter Wonderland Gift Exchange, and the later class will experience the 1930s.

English 1 - 1930s Business Letter

Today was Samantha's funeral, and above I have included a few more pictures.

In class, we are wrapping up the Guided Research Benchmark on the 1930s.  Today, students began writing a business letter, reporting on the facts that they gathered from the articles.  By now, students should have one source card per article and a total of at least 15 note cards.  In the letter, students imagine that they are living through the depression and are writing to either a friend or relative who lives far away, explaining to them either what is happening, what they have seen, or whom they have met, depending on their research topic.  We began the rough draft of that letter in class.  What was not finished should be completed for homework.  Tomorrow, we will type these letters, thus concluding the benchmark.  Next week, students will attend a 1930s party for which they should dress up and during which they will present their research and learn about others' work, all in character.  That should be a fun event.

Homework and Reminders

1. Works Cited page for the research is due tomorrow.  Students should use www.easybib.com to help them.
   
2. Vocabulary/Grammar 11 homework is due on Friday.  We will have our last vocab test then.
3. Friday is the last day to turn in make up or late work.  Please talk to me before then if you want to make up any work.
4. 15 AR points are due by next Wednesday, 12/17.  This is worth 10 percent of the student's grade.

Life is hard.

And makes no sense.

Today was a hard day at Redwood.  Not everyone knew.  Not everyone noticed.  But I'm sure everyone felt the unspeakable grief that settled on our campus over the weekend.  On Friday, a Redwood student committed suicide, which made today a very dark and somber day, at least for the teachers, and most of the juniors and seniors who actually knew the student.  While I kept teaching as usual, or at least close to it, most of my day was spent thinking over this incident, how it must affect family and close friends, and what it exposes about our school and society at large.

I did not know her.  My only connection to her was through water polo, but we didn't really interact.  Regardless, the fact is inescapable and incompatible with our commonly flippant attitude toward life.  What do you do with this information?  What shelf do you put it on?  What file cabinet drawer do you open?  We have no categories for suicide.  Especially not like this.  A beautiful girl, active in sports, good student, well-known on campus, well-liked.  And it is this girl that goes home for lunch on Friday afternoon, leaves a note for her family, and takes her life.  No warning.  No signs.  No one saw it coming.  What do you do with that?

As the day wore on, the burden heavied.  I was reminded again and again that life can be so hard.  I kept thinking about her family and friends.  How do you handle something like this?  And I kept rehearsing the need to be oh so sensitive and compassionate.  Unnoticed words and inadvertent actions extend in influence far beyond the immediate fallout and often act like innocent drops in a still pond that ripple out into tsunamis years down the road (how you like that mixed metaphor?).

Our society works very hard and does a good job keeping us busy enough to keep us from thinking about life seriously.  The overwhelming drive is for the immediate and for the superficial.  We want now, now, now.  We are promised change right now.  We want better lives, more money, skinnier bodies right now.  And we are fed the lie that it is desirable and it is possible, and we have sunk our teeth so far into this juicy steak that when we are confronted with the harsh realities of life like we were today, we prefer to just take another bite and simply ignore the abyss over which we hang.  Somehow, that is troubling.

Not only do we want the immediate, but we also crave the superficial.  The two look rather alike.  We want to be happy.  We want what feels good.  We'd prefer the proverbial instant high rather than spend hours mulling over the "hard questions" of life.  Because, after all, life is short.  "Come on, live a little."  Sure, we live.  But then we die.  And when will we start thinking about those "hard questions" that we keep putting off?  Oh, I can already hear the answer, "Later.  Come on, we're just teenagers.  When we get older, we'll think about all of that then."  But if a 16-year-old is old enough to commit suicide, when is it too early to think about life seriously, to face the hard questions, to wrestle with moral conundrums, to struggle, to lose sleep, to be honest enough, to be real enough, to look into the abyss and deal with it?  The reason we don't have categories for events like this is because we are intellectually too lazy to think through the issues and come to terms with the reality.  Although it is the most certain and universal reality in the world, we avoid thinking and talking about death at all cost.  And if we do think about it, we usually take the cop-out view that death ceases existence.  We die, and that's all.  While this is a viable position, too often it is based on laziness, not conviction.  We simply refuse to come to terms with death, what it is, and what to do with it.

That is why I believe events like this are so helpful in shaking us up from the nausea of immediacy and superficiality.  Events like this force us to think about death.  Events like this force us to think about life seriously, and deal with it.  Unfortunately, however, as I saw today, too many of us are too numb that we will not be distracted from putting on our make-up and we will not be deterred from stampeding for the latest Wii game, even if we must trample our neighbors.  What will it take for us to wake up?  To see that life is just a tad bit more than stuff and me?  This incident has definitely shaken up many, and has forced many of us to deal with life honestly and seriously.  How long, though, will it take for us to forget?

My freshmen noticed little different about today.  My upper class-men were heartbroken.  Many wore black ribbons in her honor.  We held a vigil for her toward evening by the pool.  A video student expressed interest in creating a memorial video for her.  It has been a hard day.  A somber day.  But necessary to wake us up to the realities of life. 

English 1 - Let's Go Armenia!

Yes, it does have Me in it.

Today we were privileged to enjoy a presentation from our foreign exchange student from Armenia, Inesa, about her culture and heritage.  It was truly a great experience.  Although I know a few things about that part of the world, it was great to have a first-hand source come and tell us about that country.  I think we all learned a lot.  It showed us a different culture and people from our own, and that there are more than one way to do life.  Probably the biggest shock was how strict the education system is in Armenia.  Students stand when a teacher walks in.  They must sit up and fold their hands on their desk.  Talking back is unheard of.  Misbehaved students do not exist.  Maybe we can learn a few things from them.

I think the biggest lesson that we can draw from this experience is how different their values are in Armenia.  Although, yes, as Zac pointed out, Me is in the name, that is probably the only place where you can find it.  From everything that Inesa told us, you could see that the people were not concerned about me, about how I will look, about how I can get ahead and achieve, about what I will get out of a situation or a person.  The emphasis is overwhelming on the family and the people as a whole.  The preoccupation is with what is best for us, how will others benefit from what I do.  I even have a sneaking suspicion that they hardly think about themselves as individuals.  It probably doesn't even strike them to consider themselves first and then everyone else.  That would be foreign for them.  And while individualism can be a great thing, it is rather sad to see how narcissistic our society has become.  Although we have never technically seen our own faces, we consider nothing but what will please that face and how best to dress it up.

I am very glad that Inesa was able to come and talk to our classes.  I hope the students gained as much from it as I did.  And hopefully, just a little, they are able to understand and appreciate a world and life that is not their own.

English 1 - Shaping the Essay

I apologize for not having posted for a while, but I hope someone is still reading this.  I think it's a great tool to communicate between school and home.  I hope someone agrees.

Today, we continued to work on the Of Mice and Men benchmark, which is a literary analysis essay.  Students were to complete an Essay Map as their prewriting activity for this essay, which was due today.  Most remembered.  Some forgot.

Shaping the Essay

I introduced and explained the second step of the writing process for this essay, Shaping the Essay, which is commonly called the rough draft.  To help students structure their thoughts, I have a form that takes students step by step in the writing process.  It is somewhat formulaic, and therefore I allow some students who feel too confined to work in the manner that best fits their needs.  What students need to remember from today's conversation is the notes we took about the various parts of the essay.  These are basic, but important for all to have a comfortable handle on.

Class Notes

• Possible hooks: Anecdote, provocative question, shocking statement.
• Introduction must include: Title, author, and clear thesis.
• TS: Topic Sentence, which includes an opinion statement about the main point of the paragraph.
• CD: Concrete Detail, this can be either a direct quote, fact, or other specific example from the story.  There is no opinion here.
• CM: Commentary, also called interpretation, explanation, or inference.  This is where the writer must comment on the Concrete Detail and explain how that Detail correlates with the Topic Sentence and ultimately with the thesis.  Show how the CD supports your main argument.
• CS: Closing Sentence, reiterates and elaborates on Topic Sentence. In between body paragraphs, may also serve as a transition sentence.

The Shaping the Essay form is due on Monday, November 17.  The final draft, which will be typed, is due on Wednesday, November 19.

Grades for this grading period went in today, and students will bring home a Grade Report for parents to sign tomorrow.