Category: - *thomasson morris instruction

Week 10 Spring (Morris, rhs) 3/19-3/22

4/4/2013

American Literature:
This week, we did a collective close-read on the first page of the book. That is in the playlist for this unit. We also set up blogs and completed Blog Post #1. This week, we got through chapter 3 in The Great Gatsby.

Humanities:
This week, we made our first Video Reaction for Looking for Alaska. We read all of packet 1 and completed reading journals (you have one reading journal per packet).

SF Stories:
This week, we worked on character profiles and watched Apocalypse.

Week 9 Spring (morris, rhs) 3/11-3/15

3/12/2013

SF Stories
On Monday, SF Stories read chapter three in Crown of Dust, and on Tuesday (3/12) we read chapter four - both of those chapters are covered in Reading Journal #1. Wednesday (3/13), we read chapter 5 and on block day, we read chapters 6-7; those chapters (5-7) are covered in Reading Journal #2.

Humanities
In Humanities, we wrote this essay in class on Monday (3/11), and on Tuesday (3/12) we read pages 1-19 in Looking for Alaska. On Wednesday (3/13), we read to page 36. All of those pages are covered in Reading Journal #1. On Thursday (3/14), we read to page 64 and did Reading Journal #2. The Night Essay was due on Thursday.

American Literature
In American Literature, we started the week with a discussion of how we write essays, and what we want to do differently in the next unit to make sure we’ve all read and understood the book. Then watched the entire movie version of Gatsby in 1st period (the 1974 version), and we read chapters 1-3 in 4th period. All of those chapters are covered in Reading Journal #1. The final DOAS Essay was due block day.

Week 8 Spring (Morris, Rhs) 3/4-3/8

3/4/2013

Monday & Tuesday’s lesson plans can be found here.

SF Stories:
On block day, we had a discussion and worked on our BWP blogs. The first project is due the week before Spring Break (April 1-5). On Friday, we read the end of chapter 2 and chose project groups.

Humanities:
On block day, we worked on the Night Essay. On Friday, we selected the book for the new unit and decided how we were going to read it.

American Lit:
On block day and on Friday, we worked on the essay for Death of a Salesman.

Week 7 Spring (Morris rhs) 2/25-3/1

2/25/2013

American Literature
This week was mostly spent finishing the play and preparing for the essay. All the essay instructions can be found here. We did a sample set of claims with Linda. That document is here.

Humanities
This week was mostly spent finishing Night and starting the collaborative essay. We did a close read with evidence that could be used in the essay, and we spent a lot of time writing in the computer lab. Here is the essay instruction/topic document.

SF Stories
This week, we read chapter 1 and the first part of chapter 2 in Crown of Dust and annotated pages from it. We are keeping track of the things we don’t understand.

Week 6 Spring (Morris RHS) 2/11-2/15

2/11/2013

This week, American Literature and SF Stories spent the week finishing their projects (character videos and podcasts respectively) and creating rubrics to grade them. Then we watched/listened to all the finished projects and graded them on the rubrics we designed.

Here are the podcast instructions. Here are the 3rd period podcasts.Here is the 6th period rubric, and here’s the document we used to score the first one. Here is the 3rd period reflection.

Here are the character video instructions (1 2). Here are the 1st and 4th period videos. Here is the rubric for 4th period.

Humanities spent the week reading and finishing reading journals (see below). On Friday, we talked about essay topics and selected groups for collaborative essay writing.

Humanities Night Reading Journals

#1: Chapter 1, Pages 1-20, 1/25 My Example
#2: Chapter 2-3, Pages 21-32, 1/28 My Examples: 1 2
#3: Chapter 3, Pages 33-54, 1/31 My Examples: 1 2
#3.5, Chapter 4, Pages 54-62, 2/1 My Example
#4, Chapter 5, Close Read pg 63-65, 2/4 Instructions Examples: 1 2
#5, Chapter 5, Pages 65-80, 2/5 Instructions Example
#5.5, Chapter 5, Pages 65-80, 2/11 (This is for anyone who did not finish to pg 80 in RJ 5)
#6, Chapter 6-8, Pages 80-106, 2/11 (This is due by Thursday at the start of class)

Week of 10/29-11/2

11/5/2012

American Literature:
This week, we did the following things:

Watched The Crucible (available on Netflix)
We took a quiz on The Crucible - see me to make it up if you missed class that day
We watched In Search of History: Salem Witch Trials (available on Netflix)
We had a Socratic Seminar on each of these topics:

1. "What possible motivations would you have for framing your best friend of a crime they didn't commit?"
"What methods would you use to frame them, assuming people think they're a good person?"

2. "Are people born good, born bad, or born as a blank slate? What did the Puritans believe?"
Note: 1st period will have this seminar on Tuesday, 6 November.
To make either of them up (i.e. you were absent), write one page on the subject and you will get credit.

In 4th period, we started this project (1st period will start this on Wednesday):
Using your assumptions about human nature (whether we are born good, bad or as a blank slate) and the impact that has on your view of the Salem Witch Trials, consider how the conditions could be created for this kind of situation to happen again:

Friends and neighbours turn on each other. Best friends give each other up to authorities for punishment. Everyone is suspicious of others. All hell breaks loose.

Construct that scenario and describe how it plays out. And since accusing people of witchcraft is currently out of fashion, what crime is likely to replace it (but keeps the same connotation and impact witchcraft had in Salem)?

You may complete this project in any medium you want. Be creative. Go crazy.

We also began our first Derren Brown Experiment. 1st period started with The Gameshow, and 4th period selected Assassin to start. We finished the episode on Monday, 5 November.

SAX:
This week, we worked on building our MentorMob playlist. Here is the assignment description. It was due Monday, 5 November. We also watched Derren Brown's Assassin in class on Friday.

This week, we are working on the assignments on this playlist. Everything through Step 5 should be done by the end of class on Monday. Make sure you sign up for a writing conference with Ms. Morris (this will focus on the piece of writing of your choice, in a one-on-one conference where we figure out how to make your writing MOAR AWESOME).

Language of Humour:
This week, we worked on building our MentorMob playlist. Here is the assignment description. The playlist is due by the end of the day on Tuesday, 6 November. We also watched Derren Brown's Apocalypse. In 6th period, we wrote our own Food Reviews and List Narratives.

If you are in 3rd period and missed class on Wednesday, here is your make-up assignment for the activity we did in class:
Read this. Write about how the author develops the humour in the text. 1/2 page minimum.

Week of 10/23-10/26

10/28/2012

American Literature:

We watched the video of Mr. Thomasson reading Chapter 20 in Their Eyes Were Watching God and we started working on Close Read #5. It is due Friday by midnight.
We also started watching The Crucible. It's available on Netflix streaming if you need to see it. 1st period finished to just over an hour, and 4th period finished to 1:14:00.

SAX:

We wrote a Review of New Food and read some examples (on this playlist). Your review was due Tuesday.
We started the musicology project. It is due next week.
We read a list narrative and then wrote an observation piece. I shared my example. Yours is due Monday, and can be on anything you've seen. It should be short.

Language of Humour:

3rd period: We wrote a Review of New Food and read some examples (on this playlist). Your review was due Friday. Then we wrote list narratives, and yours is due on Monday.
6th period: We read examples of Review of New Food, wrote the Style Alike Essay #2 and turned it in. Then we had a Socratic Seminar on the question, "Why do we have humour?"

Week of 10/15-10/19 (Morris)

10/16/2012

American Literature:
Playlist

On Monday, we worked on the Activity Menu and wrote a collaborative close read (1st 4th).
On Tuesday, we turned in the Activity Menu work, had a reading quiz over chapters 11-14, and watched this video and talked about how to prepare for the Socratic Seminar on block day. We also did DOL 4.
On block day, we will do CTA #6, have two Socratic Seminars (one on Jody, one on Tea Cake), and some time to finish the book.
On Friday, all students should finish chapters 1-19 and come ready to discuss the events leading up to the ending for our final reading quiz. We will read chapter 20 (the last one!) in class, and discuss Close Read #5 - your final project for the unit.

SAX:
Playlist

On Monday, we finished the Open Letter assignment and read three lists (1 2 3). Then we wrote narrative lists. We also completed the Mastery Form and the Cookie Day Form.
On Tuesday, we did DOL 4 and wrote a collaborative narrative. You can submit yours here.
On Thursday, we wrote CTA #6, completed our class collaborative narrative and started our own atypical narrative.
On Friday, we finished our atypical narrative and worked on making them as awesome as possible.

Language of Humour:
Main playlist (6th period playlist for Friday)

On Monday, we filled out the Mastery Form and talked about the New Rules. We also agreed to respect the Quiet Coyote.
On Tuesday, in 3rd period, we did DOL 4 and started our collaborative narrative. In 6th period, we worked on finishing some assignments from Friday, and then started our collaborative narrative.
On the block day, we worked on writing our collaborative narrative, and completed CTA #6.
On Friday, we started our own narrative.

Weeks of 10/1-10/5 and 10/8-10/12 (Morris)

10/9/2012

All Classes:
The Do Nows, DOLs and CTAs we've completed can be found on this playlist. Every Monday is a Do Now (for SAX and American Literature), every Tuesday is a DOL, every block day is a CTA, and Fridays are various activities.

SAX and American Literature:
After the Unit 1 Assessment, we talked about how to revise it. You can just re-do any questions in Steps 3-4 that you missed, and you'll get the points back. For the Proficiency Scale, you need to compare your answers to the ones we develop in these videos - how were your answers similar/different from ours? What did you learn about the text from watching the videos?

We also viewed this video in some classes to help define what this class is all about.

American Literature:

We read "How it Feels to Be Coloured Me" and completed this assignment.
We read the first chapter of Their Eyes Were Watching God and found examples of archetypes of how women were view.
We have had two reading quizzes so far (chapters 2-4 and 5-6).
Videos for chapters 2-9 are available on this playlist, where I read the text for you.
We watched Close Read #1 and Close Read #2.
You will be choosing any passage from Chapters 5-6 and doing your own Close Read (#3), following these instructions: Choose a passage and write it out (you may write it abbreviated: "Firstline...lastline" (page) instead of copying it word for word). Then develop a question that is asked in this passage or that can be answered through a close reading of the passage (like, Does Janie do the right thing? What is Janie's motivation for leaving Logan?). Finally, use evidence from the story to answer the question. You may directly quote, but it is not required. This is due in class on 10/10 (1st) or 10/11 (4th).
We will be having our first Socratic Seminar in class next week, using the question: "Is there love in any of Janie's relationships?". You will choose either Tea Cake or Jody
The final major assignment in the unit is to record yourself and a small group doing Close Read #5. More instructions to come.

SAX
All of the assignments we completed are on this playlist. We also had a Socratic Seminar on the three texts so far: "How to Become a Writer," "Under Water," and "In the Ruins of the Future."

Then we developed a toolkit for Narrative Technique. The list is as follows:

relatable to reader and to "real life"
emotional impact is in the content, not the tone/style
descriptive, vivid imagery, and unique metaphor and similes
tone becomes emotional when reflecting on the significance of the event and reactions to the event
balance between fact and emotion
leaves the reader with a clear impression, often of hope, possibility for change, or a greater appreciation of life
the impression the reader gets is the one the author intended (you feel what the author wants you to feel)
clear stance on an issue that is balanced and rational
there is an underlying/deeper message, but it is subtle and/or does not have a clear/right answer

Using that list, we created Blog Post #3, where you re-read your definition essay from Unit 1 (the Life Changing Event) and evaluated its narrative according to this criteria. Click here to log in to your blog.

Language of Humour
The main playlist for this unit is here.

We finished Unit 1 with an assessment, using David Sedaris' "City of Angels" and the South Park episode of the class' choosing. If you missed the test, see Ms. Morris immediately.

Main Assignments:

Read Chapter 1 of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (H2G2)
Listened to the first radio drama of H2G2
Wrote a blog post about both texts
Did CTA 4 and compared the funny stories to the non-funny stories.
Wrote a monologue about an inanimate object (due to Edmodo on 10/9)
Analysed several examples of those monologues
Revised our monologues