09.30 - American-Japanese Experience of WWII (Sub)

I was not in class today as I was out on a NEASC school visit. The instructions for today for the class were as follows:

Students in this class, have been learning about WWII and The Holocaust. For the next two days we’re going to focus on what life was like for Japanese Americans in America after Pearl Harbor.

Have students read the reading labeled “Reading 1” and respond to the associated questions. If they finish before the end of class they can work quietly on other work for English or their other classes.

Everyone should have been given the following document:

Japanese Internment Camps - Bulletin


Homework:

If you did not finish the reading and questions today from the Japanese Internment Camps - Bulletin , do so for homework.

09.27 - Roots and Prefixes, NWEA Wrap Up

Today we had the set 1 roots and prefixes quiz. After the quiz, I returned the rest of the Creeper or Keeper essays on healthy relationships. Then we had time where those who had not finished their NWEA tests could work on those while the remaining people revised their Creeper or Keeper essays or continued to research their question about WWII/The Holocaust from yesterday's class.


Homework:

Continue researching the question that you came up with today in class.
After you have found a number of answers, write up an official answer to the question citing at least two sources. 
A full explanation of the question should be a solid paragraph.

09.26 - Research Questions

In today's class, we organized all of the facts from our class on 09/23 onto the knowledge wall that we created for WWII and The Holocaust. Once these facts were on the wall, we talked about how new information brings up new questions. Everyone then had a few minutes to review what was posted for information and generate new questions based on what we have learned so far.

Each person then picked one of the questions that they came up with that seemed the most intriguing and like it would be something that could be researched. Everyone had the rest of the period to start researching this question. I also returned some work that people had the opportunity to revise if they had not yet met the standard.


Homework:

Continue researching the question that you came up with today in class.
After you have found a number of answers, write up an official answer to the question citing at least two sources. 
A full explanation of the question should be a solid paragraph.

09.25 - NWEAs (Language)

We had our second round of NWEA testing today. Today's test focused on language skills. We will have some available make up time in the next couple of days for anyone who did not have time to finish their test.

Homework:

Study the roots and prefixes quiz for tomorrow.

09.24 - Roots and Prefixes, Knowledge from Night

We started today's class working with the root or prefixes set that we had begun working on earlier. Everyone filled out the front of the sheet and then shared out and recorded our answers as a class. The chart we filled out in class is available below.

(click image to enlarge)

Everyone then identified and recorded the most significant pieces of information that they had learned from Night about The Holocaust. We then went through a process of consolidating these pieces of information and will get them organized onto our knowledge wall around WWII/The Holocaust tomorrow.

Homework:

Study the roots and prefixes we went over today for a quiz of them on Thursday.

09.23 - NWEA Extension

We started today's class with everyone responding to and then discussing the following prompt in their writer's journals:

What do you think about Elie Wiesel's relationship with his father? Was it a close relationship? How was it affected by The Holocaust?

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt and contribute to our discussion around it, we went down to the library to resume (and ideally finish) the reading portion of our NWEA tests. We were in the library doing this for the rest of the period. People who completed their test could read from Night if they had not yet finished or work on the roots and prefixes set that we began, but did not finish earlier. We will be resuming our work with these roots/prefixes this week.

Homework:

Complete the front side of the roots/prefixes sheet if you have not done so already.

Finish reading Night if you have not done so already.

09.20 - Creeper or Keeper Final Essay

At the beginning of class today, everyone looked through the last two thirds of Night and identified new information that they had gained from the reading. We will use this information next week in expanding our knowledge wall around WWII and The Holocaust.

We wrapped up our "Creeper or Keeper" game today with an in class essay on what defines a healthy relationship. Evidence for what is healthy and unhealthy in a relationship came from our analysis of tone and diction in the seven songs that we analyzed (six songs as a class, one song free choice).

Before writing the essay, I handed back the assessed "Marigolds" essays with their rubrics. We used a doc cam to look at good examples of essay writing from these selections of essays and reviewed some basic good habits of essay writing (see below). Everyone then had the rest of class to respond to the writing prompt about healthy relationships.

 Grading for this essay is focused on making a clear argument and using evidence. Making a clear argument involves having an introduction, at least two body paragraphs, and conclusion that all work to show what you are trying to say. Using evidence well involves integrating and discussing analysis of tone or diction from the songs to back up your points.

Good Essay Habits

1 - Assume that your reader has read and understood everything that you have, but that you have understood things on a deeper level that you are going to share with them.
2 - Clearly explain what your writing is going to prove or show (this is the thesis) and how you will go about it.
3 - Make sure each paragraph is focused on proving a specific part of your overall argument.

Creeper or Keeper Essay Prompt

What makes for a healthy relationship?

In your response, identify behaviors from your analysis of tone and diction that model emotionally mature and appropriate behaviors (keeper behavior) and contrast those with emotionally immature and inappropriate behaviors (creeper behavior).

Rubric:

(click image to enlarge)

Homework:

If you did not finish your Creeper or Keeper essay in class, do so for homework.

If you did not finish reading Night, do so for homework.

09.19 - The end of Creepers and Keepers

We started off today's class with a "Creeper or Keeper" song that set us up for our final "Creeper or Keeper" song. The song we looked at first was "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye. After listening to the song, everyone had one minute to analyze the speaker's tone and diction and determine whether or not he was a keeper or a creeper. The notes and video for the song are below.

 (click image to enlarge)
Green Text = arguments for a keeper
Red Text = arguments for a creeper
Blue Text = Mr. Collins' discussion notes

In my discussion of the song, I admitted to having presented the song with a well-established bias towards a creeper. As shown by the blue text in the analysis, this was based in the woman's perspective on him and his own way of describing the relationship and talking to her. Several people did make a good argument for keeper though in saying that we can't be sure of the woman's behavior in this relationship even if this guy was a creeper.

My discussion of the speaker in "Somebody That I Used to Know" was put forward to make the following point:

Having feelings doesn't mean you are a good person.

(The speaker in the song sounds very sincere and emotional, but what he says and what we hear about him don't indicate that he is a very good person).

This lead to our second song, "Konstantine" by Something Corporate. When listening to this song, I asked the class to consider whether he was an emotionally sincere, keeper kind of person or an emotionally reckless, somebody-that-I-used-to-know kind of person. The class notes are below. We will finish discussing this song next class.

 (click image to enlarge)

(click image to enlarge)

Homework:

 

Finish reading Night for tomorrow's class (according to the class reading schedule).

09.18 - NWEA Testing

Today's class was dedicated to taking the NWEA test for reading so we did not have regular class activities.

Students who did not complete the reading test today will have an opportunity to complete the test at a later time. I will have more information on these dates in a few days.

We will be taking the NWEA language test on September 25th.

Homework:

Continue to read in Night according to the class reading schedule.

09.17 - Tone and Diction in Night

Today we talked about the use of tone and diction in Night and how these elements help serve Elie Wiesel's purpose in writing the book. The notes from our discussion are below.

Blue Text = purpose

Green text = tone

Black text = diction and other elements that show that tone

 

(click to enlarge image)

 

We then returned to our game of "Creeper or Keeper" from yesterday where we were looking at the song "Dilate" by Ani Difranco. We recapped that this was more of a song about a break up (like "Don't Stand So Close to Me") and therefore had to be looked at from the perspective of how emotionally mature and respectful the speaker appears to be in the song. 

Instead of having people come up individually and point out specific parts of the song to help us come to a conclusion, people read out their responses explaining why the speaker was a creeper or a keeper. While people read their responses, I annotated the song covering their main points. These notes are included below.

Green Text = Evidence for a keeper

Red Text = Evidence for a creeper

(click image to enlarge)

We did note in this discussion that the line "and you're mine" at the end of the first stanza refers to the previous line which says "and everyone has a skeleton & a closet to keep it in." We talked about how "having a skeleton in your closet" means you have a big mistake or embarrassing secret hidden from everyone so "you're mine" means "you're my mistake" not "you're my true love."

After four people shared their analysis (there were two for and two against) we voted. Seven people voted for creeper and four people voted for keeper.

With the remaining time, we prepared for the next song which will focus more on experiences of young people in love. In their writing journal, everyone responded to the following question:

What is difficult about relationships when you are young? Explain your response.

In class we clarified that relationships can always be difficult, but tend to be difficult in different ways at different ages. We also decided that this question could apply to relationships with friends or romantic interests.

Homework:

Continue to read in Night according to the class reading schedule.

9.16 - Cultural Discussion of WWII and The Holocaust

We started today's class with the following writing prompt:

Look at the prior knowledge wall at the back of the room that we have created for WWII and The Holocaust and identify some clarifying questions that would help you better understand the facts we have identified about this topic.

Everyone had 5 minutes to look at the back wall and generate questions. We then shared out the questions and noted them. A former student of English 09 who knows a lot about WWII and The Holocaust is going to look at our list of questions and respond to them. The questions we generated were as follows:

These questions lead to a discussion of the causes of The Holocaust and how the subject is addressed in modern day Germany. We will address these subjects more with some of our coming topics.

We then transitioned to our round of "Creeper or Keeper" for the day. We briefly reviewed what people chose for songs and whether or not they felt the speaker of their song was a creeper or keeper.

Today's song was "Dilate" by Ani Difranco. This song, much like "Every Breath You Take," is told from the perspective of someone who has just broken up with the person they were dating. This means we were deciding whether or not they were dealing with their emotions in a creepy way or in an emotionally responsible way (the way a real keeper would). Since our discussion of our background knowledge around The Holocaust went a little longer than expected, we only had time to listen to the song. Everyone should complete their annotations and responses for homework.

Homework:

Finish annotating Ani Difranco's song "Dilate" and write your "Creeper or Keeper" response for tomorrow.

ontinue to read in Night according to the class reading schedule.

9.13 - Finding a Creeper or Keeper Song of Your Own

We started off today's class with a discussion of the homework for the weekend which is to find a love song that is worthy of the keeper/creeper discussion and to analyze the song as we do in class. For this assignment, everyone should turn in the following:

1 - Annotated lyrics for a keeper/creeper song we have not covered in class.
2 - Discussion (1 paragraph/half a page) analyzing tone and diction in the song to determine if the speaker is a keeper or creeper.

In class, we talked about how a possible "4" or "Exceeds" for this assignment would be writing and recording your own keeper or creeper song and then writing an analysis/explanation of how the song uses tone and diction to communicate whether the speaker is a keeper or creeper.

Helpful tips that came up in our discussion were:

Programs like Apple's Garage Band or the shareware program Audacity could be used to record a song.

People who would rather not sing, could write a song and then use background music and autotuning to produce the song electronically. The example of autotuning we looked at in class was one of the "Symphony of Science" songs/videos (which features some advanced electronic editing).

Responses can be submitted via Google Drive. In class, we talked about how songs can be annotated on Google Drive. I explained this process in class and made the following screencast so that anyone interested can check it out and do this.

Any work done on Google Drive should be shared with: caleb.collins.lhs@gmail.com

We then had our Creeper or Keeper game from the day which was with the song "Meg White" by Ray Lamontagne.

After everyone had a chance to individually annotate and evaluate the song, we looked at it together as a class and produced the following annotation:

 (click to enlarge)

The overall opinion of the class (10 to 1) was that the speaker of the song was a keeper.

Homework:

Find a "Creeper or Keeper" song of your own, annotate it and analyze it looking at the speaker's tone and diction to determine whether or not s/he is a creeper or a keeper. Submit your annotations and analysis to Mr. Collins (share Google Drive documents with: caleb.collins.lhs@gmail.com)

          Anyone may seek to exceed the standard for this work by writing, recording, and analyzing their own song.

A sample song annotation for today's song is available here. See the screencast video above on how to annotate a song in Google Drive if you'd like to submit everything electronically (it's quite simple).

Continue to read in Night according to the class reading schedule.

9.12 - Tone and Diction in Night

We started today's class with another round of the tone and diction game "Creeper or Keeper."

Before playing the game today, we also discussed how the term "mood" may be helpful in discussing these songs.

Mood - How the tone (the speaker's attitude) makes the reader feel about the action in the story.

We then listened to Bjork's cover of the Frank Sinatra song "Like Someone in Love."  (Video below)

Everyone then had a chance to respond to the following "Creeper or Keeper" game question in their writing journal:

Based on the speaker’s use of tone and diction do you feel he is a creeper or a keeper?

Explain your response by referring to and quoting specific parts of the song.

We then discussed and annotated the song as a class. Our results were:

(click to enlarge)

With a result of 12-1 the class decided that the speaker of the song was a keeper.

We then returned to looking at the Elie Wiesel quotes students posted on the wall last class. In looking at these quotes, students place a sticky note on a quote indicating what they thought the tone of the passage was. 

Then, each person chose a quote that they felt was really powerful (it could be the one they contributed or another quote) and responded to the following prompt in their writer's journal:

Analyze Wiesel’s tone and diction in this passage.

Talk about how they relate to his purpose in writing this book (see the writing in your writing journal from Tuesday about purpose).

Evaluate how succesful he is (does he achieve his purpose)?

Everyone had the rest of the period to respond to this prompt.

Responses should be about half a page and should include discussion of tone and diction (just like we've been doing in "Creeper or Keeper").

Homework:

Finish responding to the prompt about tone and purpose in Night for homework.

Continue to read in Night according to the class reading schedule.

When you come across a new fact / piece of information / perspective, summarize it on a sticky note and put the note in your book.

09.11 - Tone and Diction

We started today's class with a discussion of tone and diction. We defined these terms as follows:

Tone refers to the author’s attitude towards their subject. (Feeling)

Diction refers to an author’s choice of words and how those words are spoken.

(Word Choice)

We then played a game I invented called "Creeper or Keeper."

That's Kreacher as The Creeper and Keifer as The Keeper

In this game, we listened to a love song and then analyzed the speaker's tone and diction to determine whether or not s/he was a creeper (a sketchy person with whom to have a relationship) or a keeper (someone to keep around in a relationship, a real catch).

The song we listened to today was "Every Breath You Take" by The Police.

Click the song title for lyrics (video and song below).

Everyone responded to the following prompt in their writer's journal:

Is the speaker of this song, a creeper or a keeper?

Explain your response by referring to and quoting specific parts of the song.

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, we discussed students' answers. We kept track of opinions and analyses by annotating the song with the SMART board. Our annotations were as follows:

(click image to enlarge)

In the end, ten people decided that the speaker was a creeper, two people were undecided, and no one thought the speaker was a keeper. We'll play again tomorrow with a new song.

As our final activity in class, everyone opened up to the passage from Night that they felt was really powerful. We talked a bit about how a powerful passage meant a strong tone and then everyone wrote their quote in large print on a piece of paper which was posted on the wall.

We will work with people's quotes from Night tomorrow in class.

Homework:

Continue to read in Night according to the class reading schedule.

When you come across a new fact / piece of information / perspective, summarize it on a sticky note and put the note in your book.

09.10 - Learning from Night

We started today's class by finishing the two group presentations that we did not get to yesterday. These two groups shared the information that they categorized from our group brainstorm of background information we had on WWII/The Holocaust. These cards were posted on our knowledge wall about WWII/The Holocaust.

Everyone then returned to their seats and catalogued the information that they had learned so far from Night in their writer's journals. This involved writing down the page numbers and information learned while leaving space for more information in the future (what was written today should be about a third of the full list). We then had a discussion about Elie Wiesel's purpose in writing the book and how well that purpose was being served based on what information people had learned in the book so far.

I also handed out a copy of a map of Eastern Europe from the time period of the story so that we could see where the places Wiesel speaks about were located.


Homework:

Continue to read in Night according to the class reading schedule.

Find a passage from what we have read so far in Night that you feel is particularly meaningful or powerful.

When you come across a new fact / piece of information / perspective, summarize it on a sticky note and put the note in your book.

09.09 - Prior Knowledge of WWII and The Holocaust

We started today's class by focusing on what people had learned about WWII and The Holocaust so far from reading Elie Wiesel's Night. Everyone responded to the following prompt in their writing journal:

Look at the sticky notes you've placed in your book for things you have learned.
Choose one sticky note fact and find a way to illustrate the fact in your writing journal.
Your drawing can be either literal or symbolic*.

*In class, we talked about how some of the facts that people learned might be troubling and they might not want to draw them. This is where drawing something symbolic could come in. If necessary, people could choose to caption their image to help explain it.

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, we reviewed what people had learned so far by sharing out their drawings.

Next, we got back into partner groups from last class and did an activity to wrap up our representation of our prior knowledge (what people knew coming into this unit) around World War II and The Holocaust. To do this, we had each partner group looked at a poster of the information everyone put down as known information about our topic and sorted that information into three to four categories that they put on note cards. I explained this process using the following illustration:

(click to enlarge)

We then posted these cards on the back bulletin board which we will be using to keep track of our knowledge in this unit. Groups explained their cards as they posted them on the board. We have two groups left to go and will start with them next class.


Homework:

Continue to read in Night according to the class reading schedule.

When you come across a new fact / piece of information / perspective, summarize it on a sticky note and put the note in your book.

09.06 - WWII/The Holocaust Background Knowledge

At the beginning of class today, everyone did some brainstorming in their writing journals on everything they knew about World War II and The Holocaust. Everyone then shared out their responses and we used this information to create some general categories of knowledge around the subject.

Names for these categories were put on some large poster paper. Working with a partner, everyone then rotated around to each poster brainstorming what information they had according to each category.

Next week, we are going to use this brainstorm to identify and organize what we know about WWII and The Holocaust. As we continue looking at non-fiction texts for this unit we are going to map what we learn and ask questions based on what we don't know about WWII and The Holocaust.

I gave everyone a collection of sticky notes to use while reading Elie Wiesel's Night. While reading, individuals should look for new facts or information and then take note of that information on the sticky and put the sticky note in the book where they found that information. We will track this new information by putting it on the wall.


Homework:

Read Night according to the class reading schedule.

While reading, identify and put a sticky note in the book when you come across some new information.

09.05 - Moishe the Beadle

At the beginning of class today, I wrote the following sentence on the board:

"They called him Moishe the Beadle, as if his entire life he had never had a surname."

In their writing journals, everyone then brainstormed as many questions as they could about that sentence. Questions that people came up with included the following:

We then read the first page of the story and discussed which questions people could answer about Moishe the Beadle with just the information on the first page. The first page of the book and the answers the class came up with are included below.

We then began discussing what sort of information we could figure out about the rest of the story just from this first page. We will continue doing this tomorrow.

At the end of class, everyone signed out individual copies of the book Night and got reading schedules for the book.

Homework:

Read pages 21 - 46 in Night (you are not required to read the introduction yet).

09.04 - Marigolds (Writing)

For today's class, everyone had time to write their response to the short story "Marigolds" that we read in class yesterday. Everyone had the period to write their response. These essays will be assessed to help me plan and structure our work in English this year by showing me what people can already do well and what areas we should focus on improving.

These essays will not be entered into the grade book. Per the classes request though, I will assess all of the essays using the provided rubric and return these to students so that they can get a sense for grading and assessment in our class.

Materials for this writing are available here:

"Marigolds" by Eugenia Collier
Essay assignment and prompts
Essay assessment rubric

Additional information on this assignment is available through yesterday's post.

Homework:

If you did not do so in class, finish writing your essay for tomorrow.

09.03 - Marigolds (Reading)

At the beginning of class, everyone responded to the following prompt in their writing journal:

Have you moved from childhood to adulthood yet? How do you know or how will you know? Explain your response.

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, students formed groups based on their general answer (yes, no, it's complicated). Groups discussed and then shared out the reasons they had for their choices.

We used this discussion to prepare us for our reading of the story "Marigolds" by Eugenia Collier in which a young woman transitions from childhood to adulthood.

We will be writing an in class essay using this story next class. Before reading the story, we looked at the assignment, prompt choices, and rubric that will be used to assess students' responses. This essay will not go in the grade book as a formal grade. The essay is an opportunity for me to see where everyone is at in terms of their essay writing.


I read the story aloud with the help of some students volunteers.

Handouts from today's class:

"Marigolds" by Eugenia Collier
Essay assignment and prompts
Essay assessment rubric


Homework:

Think about which essay prompt you would like to respond to next class.

Revisit the story to firm up your understanding of it and how you can use it to respond to one of the essay prompts.

If you do not have one already, be sure to get a writer's journal for class. See the posts on 08.29 and 08.30 for details.