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Quarter 3 a.k.a. The Beginning of Semester 2 Hello one and all to another quarter with the Language Arts Team. First off, we would like all students and parents to know that they can locate grades at www.mygradebook.com. Student IDs are different on this system than district ids so if you do not have your mygradebook logon id, please get it from your language arts teacher. Second, we would like students to know that all assignment due dates are permanent unless the student talks directly to a teacher. The late policy is as follows: late assignments will be docked 10% each day after the due date until a maximum of 50% is reached. At this point, a student can only earn up to 50% of the original value however, a student can turn in late assignments up until the last grading day in the quarter. So students, please, please turn your assignments in on time and keep up with your due dates. Poetry We are continuing on with the poetry unit that the students started last quarter. The goals of the unit are for students to: 1. Appreciate different forms of poetry from a variety of different poets 2. Be able to analyze a poem using standard literary vocabulary 3. Write original poetry with thoughtfulness As we know, students can be their own worse critics and for this unit, we are trying to foster a spirit of exploration as well as appreciation. 2/9/04 Students were given a work day to work on their Adopt a Poet unit. Students were informed that rough drafts are due tomorrow. 2/10/04 Students turned in rough drafts. Due today, 50 points. Then students went to Riverfront Park to begin writing poetry. Requirements for the original poetry can be found at this page. Students were graded on their work effort, 10 points. 2/11/04 Students went to Wilson Park to write their second poem. 2/12/04 Students continued writing and working on their portfolios. The finals are due on Friday. 2/13/04 Final copies due, 110 points. These complete portfolios should contain the final copy of the Adopt a Poet assignment and 3 original poems. Bowling for Columbine This dynamic series of lessons is going to use the documentary, Bowling for Columbine, as a basis to launch into a documentary unit. Reviews and a synopsis of this movie can be found at www.bowlingforcolumbine.com. Students are only viewing the film with parent permission slips as it is rated R for some violent images and language. We feel that this is one of the best contemporary documentaries out there, and we are very excited to show this film. 2/17/04 Students were given permission slips to be returned on Thursday. The topic for today was how does the media spin the information we receive. Students watched CNN for 30 minutes keeping track of all the news headlines and then created sentences at the end of the period that encapsulates the essence of the today's news. 2/18/04 Students did a one day assignment called Found Poetry. They cut out interesting articles from recent newspapers and by only using the words in the article, each student created his or her own poetry. The poems were due at the end of the period. Due, 25 points. 2/19/04 Students began watching Bowling for Columbine. 2/20/04 Students continued watching the film. 2/23/04 Students completed watching the film and answered the following 3 questions and turned them in at the end of the block: 1. What was the topic of the movie? 2. What was the driving question? 3. What were the mini-questions in the movie? Due at end of block, 10 points 2/24/04 Half of the class went to Starbucks and read their poetry. The other half stayed in class and had a discussion about hot topics for their upcoming documentaries. 2/25/04 Switched back. The other half went to the Governor's Cup and the other half had their turn at discussing. 3/1/04 Students had a discussion about Michael Moore's film and how documentaries are made. Bias was explored and discussed. 3/2/04 Students were introduced to the documentary project. They are working in groups of 3 at the most and producing their own. Today they received the documentary information sheet and the research questions. 3/3/04 Students were given the interview portion of the assignment. The documentary needs to include at least 3 types of people in it. 3/4/04 Students were given their scene summaries. These included directions for writing the script and the options for the final outcome. 3/5/04 - 3/11/04 Students continued working on their documentaries all week. The following needs to be turned in tomorrow for full credit: 1.) Final outcome, 2.) Documentary Info Sheet, 3.) Research Facts, 4.) Script, 5.) Interview questions, and 6.) Scene Summary. Worth 80 points 3/12/04 Final Documentaries due!!!! 100 points 3/15/04 - 3/18/04 SWIP Part II Enjoy Spring Break!! Welcome Back 4/8/04 Students today wrote in their journals about what they did over Spring Break and then did a Pass it on Story in class. This was turned in at the end of the break. 25 points If absent, please contact teacher. LA Homework if you missed 4/8/04 Write a 1 page creative short story. The first line of your story must be: The cloud was definitely following Adam and Rita. You must also include each of these elements: Setting, Description of Adam and Rita, Conflict that causes a problem, Fortunate event, and an Ending. 4/9/04 Students watched documentaries and had a Q & A session after each one. 4/12/04 - 4/16/04 Students will begin CIM testing in reading. Those who do not need the test will be doing an alternative assignment with Ron. These students include all freshmen and any upperclassmen who have passed their CIM reading. This assignment is worth 75 points. Please refer to the assignment here and see Ron if you have any questions. Research Paper! We love research paper! 4/16/04 Today we introduced the first part of the research paper. This year we are focusing on the process of citing sources and in an effort to spark students' interests, we are having them create their own sources. These will be a book source, a magazine source, and a personal interview. The form to fill out for Part I is here. 4/19/04 Students were introduced to Part II. The form to fill out is here. 4/20/04 Work day 4/21/04 Students were introduced to Part II. The form to fill out is here. 4/22/04 Students had another work day. 4/23/04 All parts are due. 15 points each or 45 points total. 4/26/04 Students did a great job last week and earned a day at the park today. 4/27/04 Students started a Shakespearean unit. Today we looked at sonnets.
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