Friday, August 30th

1. Review of Culture- Definition and characteristics. 

2. Thinking of our own culture. 

The original poem:  "Where I'm From"- George Ella Lyon

NPR example: NPR Crowd Sourced "Where I'm From" poem

I am From Project Poems- Examples

3. "Where I'm From" Assignment Handout

Project Directions and Due Dates: 

Directions:
1. Read through a few examples of the “Where I’m From” poems.  (Friday)
2. Complete the “pre-writing” form to start generating ideas. (Friday)
3. From your pre-writing, take a swing at the template. This is a preliminary
rough draft. (Bring to class with you on Tuesday, September 3rd)

4. Type up your poem, formatting it like the models we have reviewed. 

Print off draft for peer proof-reading. 

(Bring printed off draft with you to class on Wednesday, September 4th)

5. Clean up draft for final draft. On your final draft, you will need to add a picture

of yourself, and decorate as you like.

(Submit your color, final draft to SCHOOLOGY by 7:30 AM Thursday, September 5th)

Thursday, August 29th

I have left the plagiarism quiz open through today.  Remember you must get a 12/12 on this quiz. 

1. R&C

2. What is your definition of culture? 

3. Learn a New Culture- Ted Talk

Take notes on:

• The process of examining culture... the how to.. 
• The benefits of openness to other cultures. 
• Any examples that resonate with you.
• What you are learning about the study of culture.

Make sure the following definition and characteristics make it into your notes:

2. Culture: 
Sociology understands culture as the languages, customs, beliefs, rules, arts, knowledge, and collective identities and memories developed by members of all social groups that make their social environments meaningful. Sociologists study cultural meaning by exploring individual and group communication; meaningfulness is expressed in social narratives, ideologies, practices, tastes, values, and norms as well as in collective representations and social classifications.
http://www.asanet.org/topics/culture

Further distinctive descriptions:

• Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.
• Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people.
• Culture is communication, communication is culture.
• Culture in its broadest sense is cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person's learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social learning.
• A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.
• Culture is symbolic communication. Some of its symbols include a group's skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, and motives. The meanings of the symbols are learned and deliberately perpetuated in a society through its institutions.
• Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other hand, as conditioning influences upon further action.
• Culture is the sum of total of the learned behavior of a group of people that are generally considered to be the tradition of that people and are transmitted from generation to generation.
• Culture is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.

http://people.tamu.edu/~i-choudhury/culture.html

Wednesday, August 28th

1. Plagiarism instruction in the LMC.

2. Take plagiarism quiz on Schoology. You must pass quiz with 100%.

Tuesday, August 27

Today in class: 

1. Turn in sentence stems practice.

2. Critical response strategy- In Schoology, respond to the following prompt:

The singer and songwriter Bob Dylan once wrote, “A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.” Do you agree with this definition of success? Why or why not? Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.

3. Readying for tomorrow's presentation in the LMC, please read the following article:

The Ethics and the Crime of Plagiarism

After reading "The Ethics and Crimes of Plagiarism" post 5 takeaways from the article.

Takeaways are simply things you have learned... things you feel that are important to the meaning of the text... connections to other texts or examples.

Though you are working in groups, each student submit takeaways.

3. R & C when you are finished.

Remember: Wednesday we will meet in the LMC.

Monday, August 26th

Upcoming reminders: 
1. This Wednesday (August 28th), we will be meeting in the LMC for plagiarism review and instruction with our fabulous Media Specialists.
2. School pictures are on Friday, September 6th.

Today in class: 
1. R&C

2. With the aid of your close-reading annotations, your notes, and the texts, themselves, you will respond to the prompts using the following critical thought stem structure.  These stems in this particular order (“I think”... “For example”... “This means”... “Therefore”...) will help your thinking process about the prompt/the text… and parlay this thinking into your writing.

Critical Thinking Stems Practice

FYI- You will be given a prompt tomorrow without the stems.  Please know them independently for tomorrow.

Thursday and Friday, August 22nd and 23rd

1. R&C

2. Review...   Annotation. Literary Terms. Cornell Notes.

Annotation Strategies: (Make sure that these are in your notes)

• Notice the title. Thoughts? Any meaning?
• Any diction choices that stand out to you? Circle key words and phrases. 
• Possible multiple meanings of words? Phrases? 
• See any patterns? Images repeated? Words or similar types of words repeated?
• Connections to other readings? (YES.. there is a theme to previous readings) Connections to your world? 
• What is happening in the text? 
• Important ideas that the text is proposing? 
• What is the text implying? What can you infer? 
• What conclusions can you make? 
• What questions do you have?
• What literary terms/processes can you apply to the text? (Infer. Tone. Point of View. Diction. Summarize)

3. Putting it all together: Desiderata Poem (Desiderata means "things desired") (Duh-sid-drr-aah-ta)

• Read and annotate "Desiderata." Use the strategies that I have posted above to help you read through the poem. 
• When your annotations are done, you will move to your Cornell notes.

4. Cornell notes: You will make the following 6 headings in your notes....

1. NOTABLE PHRASES:
2. "DESIDERATA" Similarities with "Perfection" Article
3. "DESIDERATA" Similarities with "Grit" Ted Talk
4. "DESIDERTA" Similarities with "Man in the Arena"
5. LITERARY DEVICES/TERMS Examples: 
6. MY CONCLUSIONS: 

You will be collecting evidence from "Desiderata" and the other texts to put in your NOTES. Evidence means DIRECT QUOTES, and your FINDINGS. Each of the previous texts are available to you on previous posts, or you have copies of them. (We will be doing something with this when we are done doing the leg work)

We will be working on this in class on THURSDAY and FRIDAY. The goal is to have this done by the end of class on FRIDAY.

UPCOMING: School pictures are on September 6th.

Interested? Let me know! 

Wednesday, August 21st

Independent reading book check out... Read and Chill Day in the LMC.

Tuesday, August 20th

1. Terms quiz- Schoology

2. Written response- (Wo)Man in the Arena response due to Schoology by the beginning of class.
     Proofreading checklist:

• Do you have the MLA heading? 
• Do you have 2 direct quotes? 1 from Roosevelt? 1 from Strauss Cohen?
• Are these direct quotes cited with an in-text citation? (Roosevelt)?
• Do you have 1 specific reference from pop culture? 
• Have you answered and explained all three parts of the question? 

3. R & C.

4. Cornell notes.  Cornell Notes Handout

5. Cornell note taking practice.

Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals; courage and resolve. 

6. Watch Angela Duckworth's Ted Talk "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance"
Angela Duckworth "Grit" Video

Practice taking Cornell notes while watching.


TOMORROW (WEDNESDAY): Meet in LMC.

SCHOOL PICS SEPTEMBER 6th

Monday, August 19th

1. R&C- Read and Chill.

2. Annotation of the "Perfection" article by Strauss Cohen is due at the beginning of class.

Today in class:

You will be constructing a written response to the following prompt: 

In what ways can you attempt to become the "(Wo)Man in the Arena" this school year, and why is this absolutely necessary as a learner, as an individual? 

Requirements: 

1. Open up Schoology... Create an assignment- MLA Heading (MLA Heading Example found under "important links")

2. Reference specifically the Roosevelt quote, Strauss Cohen, and a pop-culture example.  This is 3 specific references in your response. Think about how you introduce and integrate a quote. 
Cite Roosevelt and Strauss Cohen with your specific quotes.  Ex: (Roosevelt) or (Strauss Cohen)

3. Answer the three parts of the question. 

4. DUE to Schoology by class on Tuesday. 

REMEMBER: Term quiz on Tuesday! (Definitions are found under last Thursday's post. "Man in the Arena" handout) 
Text
Annotation
Summarize
Diction
Tone
Point of View
Infer

Friday, August 16th

1. R&C- Read and Chill

2. Discussion: "Man in the Arena" quote.
- Classroom discussion expectations
- Turn in questions
     
Are you familiar with the following terms:
Summarize, Diction, Tone, Point of View, Source, Infer?  Make sure definitions are in your notes. (They are on the handout from Thursday's class. The electronic copy is on Thursday's post) TERMS QUIZ ON TUESDAY!

Homework for MONDAY:

For Monday, August 19th, please read the article, "How to Let Go of Trying to Be Perfect." I gave you this in hard-copy form for a specific purpose. I want you to interact with the document by annotating as you read. This means write on it. You will also want to transfer ideas onto your notes so you can access them easily for Monday's discussion.

 Here is a digital copy for you, just in case. Nevertheless, make sure you have a hard copy when you come to class.  How to Let Go of Trying to Be Perfect article

REMINDER TERMS:

ANNOTATION: Taking notes or marking a text in a exploratory and meaningful manner. 
TEXT: Anything and everything

Some suggestions in annotating this article..

• Look at the title. What do you think of when you read it? What stands out to you?
• What ideas do you find intriguing? What haven't you thought about before? What do you agree with? Disagree with? 
• What terms are important to understand the meaning of the text?
• What words spark more dimensions than just the basic denotation (dictionary definition). More emotions? More meaning? Specific perspective/bias? 
• What can you relate with in this article? What other sides/perspectives do you recognize? 
• What connections can you make with the ideas expressed in this article with Roosevelt's quote, "Man in the Arena"
• Identify two points that come from your annotations that you can share in discussion on Monday. Make sure that these are clearly written down.. and findable for class on Monday.

Thursday, August 15th

1. Syllabus electronic signature due to SCHOOLOGY.

2. READ and CHILL.

3. ANNOTATION: Taking notes or marking a text in a exploratory and meaningful manner. 
TEXT: Anything and everything

Annotation examples:

What do you notice?? What things are being annotated? Jot down a few things that you notice that the annotator is doing. (i.e. they ask questions.)

4. "The Man in the Arena" quote annotation. (Handout)

5. "The Man in the Arena" quote analysis. Man in the Arena Handout

DUE FRIDAY:
1. "Man in the Arena" questions. You will turn in at the beginning of class.

 

August 14th! FIRST DAY OF SCHOOl!

Hey Titans!
Welcome back to school!
I know. . . I know.  We weren't ready for summer to end, quite yet.
However, I am excited for a BRAND NEW YEAR! I'll be excited enough for all of us this first week, and then maybe, just maybe, it will catch on...

This website is where I will post our daily agenda. . . handouts . . . funny memes . . . etc. To aid your success this school year, I would check this site DAILY. It is more productive to spend your time HERE... than on PowerSchool.

TODAY IN CLASS:
1. First Day Stations. These stations will give you a preview of what English 10 will be like this school year.

FOR TOMORROW (Due by class time):
1. Electronic signature for syllabus ON SCHOOLOGY.