1. Students have a sub today. There are several people who have not completed the formal paragraph assignment that was due on Friday. Those not finished have some time today to complete that and hand it in. Others will have opportunity to use the computers for their blogs. There will not be enough computers so others will have to journal their blog responses on paper to start. Students were going to switch using the computers half way through the class so others who had computer time will then go to journalling their responses on paper for a while. Hopefully, everyone will have found the time of use in some way or other.

1. There were only two performances shared of the poem “Porphyria’s Lover”. They both put a good deal of effort into their preporation and performances.
2. Once back in the classroom, a few students joined me for a little social simulation where I described a relationship between three people leaving one of them very uncertain of what decision to make in their future. Because of that indecision, they don’t make a decision and end up hurting as a result. The class got very involved in this discussion and generated a lot of energy and excitement.
3. This carried through when the students wrote out a character map as I drew it on the board. We discussed each of the characters of the Shakespeare play Hamlet and how they were related to each other. We drew hearts or crosses beside each name to indicate whether the character was well-meaning or had bad intentions. Some characters were both and we’ll read how that plays out in the performance.
4. We discussed a few lesser-known facts about Shakespeare himself. The idea that he was never formally schooled, that there are so many spellings of his name with the original literature and no actual signature on one of his works are all indicators that have led conspiracy theorists to believe he is not actually the author of the literature. We talked about the reality that so much of what is included in our daily media comes from lines from Shakespeare. When we are already influenced by the ideas from this writing, it is definitely worth it to study it and check it out.
5. In the end, the story of Hamlet is one of the most intense and well-developed. It is just a great story! I promised the class… they’ll enjoy it!

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/IwbB6B0cQs4" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

1. Students were given this class to work on their posters that are due on Tuesday. (It was productive but loud! lol)
2. They were also given a peek at their report card marks at the end of class.

1. Students were given a handout that has a checklist for them to use when completing their blog entries. They were reminded that the majority of the mark comes from their effort in their own writing and the comments they add to peer blogs.
2. Students were divided into two groups: half were freed to go find room in the school for them to practice the performance of their version of “Porphyria’s Lover” while the other half used blog time. Then, at approximately half-way through the class, they were asked to switch.
3. Students returned to the classroom at the end of class to get a peek at their report card mark.
4. The performances will begin on Monday. I look forward to your productions!!

1. Today was a very quiet day for class. Instead of a lot of discussion of work together, students were asked to read a short story individually and respond to eight questions attached. They did a fantastic job. Everyone was reading carefully and there was no whispering or talking, for the majority of the class. The questions were required to be handed in by the end of the class, or the end of the day for those who hadn’t started them (to avoid doing them)!
2. Tomorrow, students understand they will have half the class to work with their group preparing for their dramatic monologue and the other half of class will be for blogging. They should come to class prepared accordingly.
3. Also, their formal paragraph is due tomorrow, typed!

1. We continued yesterday’s discussion of elements of the novel. Once done, we read through the rubric for the poster assignment and talked about the example posters on the wall for students to understand clearly what the assignment entails.
2. They drew numbers from a hat and were able to pick which theme / conflict / symbol / destroyed plan from the novel to do their poster on. Each of the options had to be chosen before anyone was able to double up. They’ll have part of tomorrow’s class to work on the poster and the other portion will be to continue with their blog work.

1. Students haven’t been asked to do any formal essay writing for a while and will have a formal essay to complete coming soon. Before doing that, though, we reviewed the structure for the formal paragraph, the six functions of each sentence in their order so that the paragraph has all the necessary parts and reads smoothly for the reader. To review this, students were given a handout that lists the six sentences and has three examples of paragraphs that follow that structure. We also viewed a powerpoint I made that showed three other student-generated paragraphs and we went through the sentences step-by-step. Hopefully, it helps to focus on the purpose of each of the sentences.                                  formal-literary-paragraphs.ppt
2. Once done, I explained the formal paragraph assignment. There are three essay questions on the handout for students to choose from. They have to pick one, brainstorm how they “would” respond to that essay, and then write only “one” of the body paragraphs for it. They can choose whether their paragraph would be the first of the three body paragraphs in the essay, the second or the third. (This would be made clear by the use of transitions in the topic sentence, like “The most important …. ” or “Another example…” . They had to focus on their summary sentence, as well, as many students forget this sentence but it is as essential as any other.
3. Students had about twenty minutes or so to work on writing their paragraph before I allowed them to get together in their groups to do some planning for their monologue presentations on Monday.
4. The paragraph is due Friday and needs to be typed.

1. We finished our discussion of the questions from the middle of Ch 3 to the end. Once done, we began to discuss the other handout students were given yesterday. We talked about each of the themes present in the novel and students did a great job of generating examples of those themes from the novel.
2. We’ll have to continue the discussion of the handout with the Symbols and Conflicts portions tomorrow.