September 21

ELA 20: Sept 21 Homonyms and Commonly Misspelled Words…

  1. With students starting their blogging and submitting the first of their assignments, I’m noticing some common errors with the ‘typical’ words that many students struggle with. We want to curb this at the beginning of the year and have students put an effort into carefully choosing the correct spelling of their words for the context the words are used in. A lot of those errors start with Homonyms.
  2. We reviewed several groups of them: there/their/they’re; its/it’s; to/two/too; where/wear, etc. They did a quick test on their words, too, and did fairly well. This test was more elementary. Evan seemed pretty confident with it all, though, and challenged me to really test his abilities. Well… game on! lol
  3. We then started looking at the next piece of literature we are going to study called “How to Battle with Grown Ups”. We discussed two aspects of the article – that it is a satire and meant to mock the relationship between adults and their children and that it alludes to characters from the Bible, David and Goliath, in creating a drama between extreme competitors. It’s actually quite a well-written article. We’ll study it in more detail tomorrow.
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September 21

ELA A10: Sept 21 Figurative Language practice…

  1. We’re starting some poetry now and will be looking to find the figurative language hidden away in the poems. Before analyzing the literature, though, we reviewed the figurative language we’re going to identify. Some of the terms were fairly familiar to the students while others seemed new.
  2. To help them practice identifying the figurative language, we looked at a practice sheet of phrases or stanzas from a collection of poems. We looked through them together line by line to identify all the types of F.L. present in each.
  3. Students were told to do a little studying or reviewing tonight as there is going to be a quiz on it all tomorrow.
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September 18

ELA A10: Sept 18 Top Ten Unexplained Phenomenas…

  1. Today we were supposed to go hard-core through some poetry to find the speaker, the tone, the author’s purpose, and other aspects. Specifically we were going to focus on pointing  out the figurative language. Unfortunately, it was driver training day so there were only five students. Instead of covering content the others would have difficulty catching up on, they watched the video about the Top Ten Unexplained Phenomenon that they were going to watch as a class next week.
  2. While they watched it, they had to create a list in their binders with point form proof of the phenomena and proof against it. We’ll discuss it next week with the rest of the class, later in the week. We’ll have to get on the poetry at the beginning of next week, with a figurative language exam on Tuesday. There’ll be a unit exam, as well, at the end of the week to test your skills developed so far in answering questions about the elements of literature for poetry and short stories.

Google crop circlesOne of the top ten phenomenas was crop circles. Strangely enough, the image on the google website earlier this week was a play on the Google title, created with crop circles. As students learned from the video, the grain molecules are structurally changed. Explain that, will ya?

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September 17

ELA 20: Sept 17 Class time for Paragraph and Blog entry…

  1. Yesterday, students were given the assignment to write a body paragraph proving the symbolism in the short story “The Rink”. I made it clear they would have computer access today, but they would have to be prepared to use that computer time, meaning possibly take it home to complete as homework. They were also going to be given their first blog entry topic for the semester. It seemed reasonable to ask them to type their paragraph and their blog entry in the hour-long class.

    Now, I admit I made a mistake in booking the wrong period for the Elevens, so we actually had to leave the computer lab after a few minutes. However, the point to focus on was that all of them were busy writing out their paragraphs in their binders before we had to leave – no one was ready to type their paragraphs or their blog entries.

    Back in the classroom, they continued trying to create their paragraph while three used my computers to type their work and blog entries.

    This led to a frustrated talk on my part – I’m making it a priority this year to offer students as much computer access as is necessary for them to develop their blog entries or assignments. Me offering that time (that resource) does them little good, though, if they come that day unprepared and unable to use that resource.

  2. Tomorrow is supposed to be their writing period 3 of 3, set aside for Friday so they could be finished writing their essays and use the computers to type them. We’ll see if they come ready for that.
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September 17

ELA A10: Sept 17 Gift from Ms. W…. a study class!

  1. For some reason, the students were pretty unsettled by the idea of their impending forensics exam in the  next See full size imageperiod. We made a pact that if I gave them the period to study more for their test, they’d give me the hour back during a lunch period sometime next week. (We will watch a movie that suits our unit, but it’ll help if we don’t have to use class time to do it!)
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September 16

ELA 20: Sept 16 Symbolism in literature…

  1. Yesterday, we read and discussed the short story “Penny in the Dust”, focusing on the use of symbolism. We reviewed the story today, reviewed their understanding of what symbolism is and how it was developed in that story, and then started their independent assignment where they have to find the object of symbolism from a new story themselves.
  2. Students are to read “The Rink” and find the example of symbolism (there are actually two). Once they’ve found it and decided which parts of the story they will use as reference in their paragraph, they are to create a body paragraph that would be part of an essay discussing the use of symbolism in literature. They can decide to make their body paragraph as the first, second, or third of the essay, but it would be indicated by a transitional phrase in the first sentence.
  3. I showed them some examples of the same project and gave them the assignment handout sheet that listed, once again, the functions of the six sentences for the paragraph. We studied last year, just before summer, the format to follow for these body paragraphs so they are uniform and consistent.
  4. They had thirty minutes to read the story and find their reference sources.
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September 16

ELA A10: Sept 16 Writing class 3 of 3…

  1. Students are well on their way to writing their stories, for the most part!! Some are still filling in their story planning charts, which means they are going to have to put a lot of work in at home for homework. This is the last of the class periods they’ll have to work on their writing.
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September 15

ELA A10: Sept 15 Writing period 2 of 3…

  1. The kids got right to their writing, though some were looking somewhat haggard. We won’t set the deadline for the project for a short while to allow for time at home to work on developing it. It takes practice to easily find a way to let inspiration flow naturally and translate into the written word. Little things can sometimes get us very distracted, like Taron’s dilema of figuring out a good “bad guy’s name”. Chase added in a reference from Austin Powers that nobody sinister is ever named “Scott”. lol
  2. I introduced them, as well, to the next upcoming assignment – to orally narrate a poem or song that fits our genre and subject. They’ll have to try to memorize it and practice delivering it. They’ll be given more information soon.

Extra: They got off track a bit and were talking about David Blaine. I promised to let them watch a video of him (or about him) if they continued working so carefully, but they lost their focus for the last ten minutes. Here’s a link so you can watch it on your own time.

September 15

ELA 20: Sept 15 Symbolism in “Penny in the Dust” story…

  1. ... like the one my dad found that day!

    ... like the one my dad found that day!

    The students asked to arrange it that they used their third (of three) writing periods for their essay on Friday. (They are to continue working on developing it on their own time and either use Friday to write more or use Friday to type out their good copy.)

  2. Today, that meant we continued on with the literature. I introduced the story by explaining that in it a father who is slightly uncomfortable expressing his affection for his son makes a gesture, instead, to try to show his love for his son. The token given symbolizes the relationship the father would “like” to have with his son. In the same way, I shared with them how my own dad gave me a gift, a tiny plastic army figurine he found while we were out for a walk one morning together. He dusted off the toy soldier and passed it to me, somewhat jokingly. I’ve kept that figurine, though, as a token of the bond I share with my dad, and to remember that special day he let me come along to share with him his time when he goes out for his walk every morning alone with their dog, Dougie.
  3. We read the story together, and as I did I asked them to add comments or underline parts of the story. Once finished, we discussed the gesture, what the penny represented to the father when he first gave the gift and what it represented at the end when it was left for the son to discover. The ending of this story is an especially touching one.
  4. Students worked on questions individually that we will discuss tomorrow.
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September 14

ELA 20: Sept 14 Writing class 2 of 3…

  1. Students have done their brainstorming for their reflective essay and were told they would have three writing classes to develop the essay and / or type it.
  2. Some who were still struggling in finding body paragraph topics had a look at the booklet of student examples of the same assignment from other years.
  3. They asked and it was decided to hold off the third period of writing until Friday when they can develop more of their essay at home on their own time and be given computer time for typing. That means we’ll continue on tomorrow with literature from out course.
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