Projects, To Kill a Mockingbird, Short Stories

Hello everyone. In my classes right now we are in the midst of several bigger projects.

In Modern Media we are working on our media projects in which students will create their own form of media. The choices that I gave them are as follows: a website, PowerPoint presentation, podcast, or video. Each of these projects is very involved and we will be spending the rest of this quarter on them. One of the things that I have encourage my students to do is to use their imaginations and creativity to create well developed projects. I will be helping them with every step so there should not be any reason anyone does not succeed unless they choose not to. These projects will all be published in some format usually online. This is a great hands-on project for these students and you should see some great work very soon.

In English 10 we are currently reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Throughout the course of the book we will be taking comprehension quizzes, vocabulary quizzes and completing study guides. We are currently on Chapter 7 and will be taking our next quiz on Thursday.

Creative Writing is finally doing some real writing. They are creating a short story, 10 pages in length. We have been building up to this since the beginning of the school year so hopefully we will have some good stories.

To Kill a Mockingbird

This week English 10 will be starting the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. On Tuesday they got 12 vocabulary words over chapters 1-2 which they will be quized over on Friday. We started reading Chapter 1 in class and will continue that tomorrow. During this unit, homework will be required in order to keep up with the class. On Wednesday, students have an assignment due in which they will be infering the setting of the story through the inaugural address of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Students will also need to complete the study guide for chapters 1-4 as we read the story.

Creative Writing will be starting their short stories on Thursday. I will post the requirements on Thursday after giving the assignment. On Wednesday students will be turing in a dialogue exercise.

Modern Media is about to finish their film unit and having a test on Friday. Wednesday in class we will be watching a video called Mickey Mouse Monopoly about the way that the media industries work.

Long time, no blog

Hello all,
I know it's been awhile since I've posted, but I'll try to catch you up. This week is a short week so we haven't had to try to get as much done as possible in a short period of time.

In Modern Media we have been studying film and the filmmaking process. Last Friday we took notes over the process of creating a film. Monday students got a handout on the history of film as well as questions over it. Tuesday we did bookwork over film and Wednesday and Thursday we have been watching "The Birds," a classic by Alfred Hitchcock. Next week we will continue and finish our film unit with a test on Friday.

In Creative Writing we have been leading up to the writing of our short story. We talked about point of view and how that effects the telling of a story. We read "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson and now have 4 blog entries. On Wednesday we started to take a section of "The Lottery" or "Hills like White Elephants" and write it from a different point of view. That's due on Monday at the end of class.

English 10 students have spent the week writing their first real paper; an autobiographical narrative in which they take an incident from their lives as a starting point and tell the story. We've been typing this in class and will be finishing at the beginning of next week. Once that is done, we'll be starting the novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

Week of tests

This shortened week is going to include tests in two of my classes.

Modern Media finished their Internet search worksheets on Tuesday. Wednesday we will be reviewing and wrapping the unit up and Thursday is our test over the Internet. This test will be completely based on notes and discussions from class. On Friday there is a media summary article due in which students need to find a media relevant article and write a three paragraph response. The first paragraph should be a summary of the article; the second, an explanation of why this topic is of interest; the third, predictions, evaluations, opinions about the topic discussed.

Creative Writing is currently wading through a variety of different stories in preparation for the writing of their short stories. We will be talking about characters and using point of view effectively in their stories.

English 10 will have a test on Wednesday over plot and setting as well as the four stories that we have read in class: "The Pedestrian", by Ray Bradbury; "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket", by Jack Finney; "The Rockpile", by James Baldwin; and "The Love Letter", also by Jack Finney. On Friday we will also have a vocabulary quiz over the following words.

Chronic
Commence
Discipline
Famine
Orthodox
Ration
Rearrange
Slovenly
Vague
Voracious

Good Day to you and good luck this week.

Sick kids, blogs and the net

This was quite a week. If you hadn't noticed, I haven't done a lot of blogging this week because Monday and Tuesday I was absent because one of my twins was sick. Sick isn't so bad, but I got a little concerned when his temperature reached 104. But, after 3 days of being at home, he's back at daycare and feeling good. Anyway, on to this week.

In Modern Media we've been talking about the Internet and how to be safe online. Today in class we started a search worksheet to practice finding things on the Internet. We will finish that on Tuesday.

Creative Writing students have created a blog to respond to different things in class and interact on the web. Blogs have many different uses in education so we're going to tap into some of those things. We've just started so there aren't too many entries yet but I will post the blogs as soon as we get started.

In English 10 we took a vocabulary quiz today and will be taking a test over plot setting and 4 different stories next Wednesday.

Have a great 3 day weekend.