Friday, April 30

Freshmen: Today we took a vocab exam and worked further on our projects. The projects are due May 10 - no exceptions.

Sophomores: Today we took a vocab exam and read some from Hamlet. We also shared your speeches. Due for Monday is Act III, 7 notes for the seminar, and an entry in your 3EJ.

CNF: We continued our documentary viewing; be sure to have a copy of Three Cups of Tea for our next block period.

Tuesday, April 27 or Wednesday, April 28

Freshmen: Today we talked about short story structure and how to develop a main character. Your fiction component should use these two tools to help you design the two most essential components of any piece of fiction - the plot (what happens) and the main character (who causes the action to happen, or the person the action happens to). Continue to work hard on your capstone projects.

FRESHMEN AND SOPHS: Remember - vocab chapter 14 due on Friday.

Sophomores: Today we began Act III and focused primarily on Hamlet's most famous soliloquy, in 3.1. You are to rewrite it from someone else's point of view (e.g. my example of Yoda or Elmo), staying true to both Hamlet's ideas and point of view of your new perspective. When these conflict, defer to Hamlet - that is, do as Bloom suggests we do, and allow your character to become Hamlet. We will continue to work on these in class on Thursday. Read 3.2 for homework tonight.

CNF: Today we had our final seminar on Season of Life. Get Three Cups of Tea ASAP.

Monday, April 26

Freshmen: Today we focused on writing... Your project is due in two weeks, so keep plugging away.

Sophomores: Today we had a seminar on Act II from Hamlet.

CNF: We listened to excerpts from In Praise of Play from www.speakingoffaith.org. We will have a seminar on the rest of Season of Life on Tuesday (both periods).

Freshmen: Today we took a vocab quiz and focused on continuing to write our essays; I don't really advocate you writing them at home - write them here, in class. The break is good for you, too. However, I would be sure that I had at least 2 or 3 poems written by the end of the weekend. Don't forget about finding some art work that ties in with your topic.

Sophomores: Today we focused on reading the rest of Act II. This weekend, finish Act II - you should have a total of 8 notes, and at least one 3EJ for Act II. Chapter 14 vocab will be due next Friday.

CNF: Attention Seniors: Monday we will listen to portions of a radio program, so if you can podcast it this weekend and give it a listen, that would be great (it's awesome, and it's free!). Go to Speakingoffaith.org and search for In Praise of Play. In any event, have the book finished for the next block period - that will be our seminar date. The next book we need is Three Cups of Tea.

Thursday, April 22

Freshmen: Our primary focus was on writing our essays. Remember, chapter 13 vocab due tomorrow as well.

Sophomores: Today we took a vocab exam; your homework is to read 2.2.1-2.2.182 for Friday. Take at least 3 notes for discussion in our seminar on Monday. Also, you are to review 2.1 and write 2 notes on that reading, so for Friday, you will have a total of 5 notes; additionally, you should continue to work at your 3EJ.

CNF: Our goal is to finish Season of Life for Monday, when we will have our final seminar on the text. Please have at least 1 note per chapter - those notes should reflect what you were thinking about as you were reading, acting as a way to capture your thinking on paper.

Tuesday, April 20 and Wednesday, April 21

Freshmen: Today we took an essential step in the development of your capstone project: First, we looked at all the information we have gathered about our topic and decided on three thesis statements - this determines the topics of your essays (e.g. "Stained glass work is an art form, not a craft," or, "When I was 16, my aunt taught me how to work with stained glass," or, "There are essentially two methods for constructing a stained glass window - lead came or foil and solder"). Next, we looked at the required categories for our essays and decided which thesis best fit each genre (e.g. "When I was 16, my aunt taught me to work with glass" clearly best fits the narrative essay genre). This helps ensure we have one essay from each of the three required categories. Next, we looked at all our information again, and sorted the information by thesis, and tentatively arranged that information in the order in which it should appear in the essay - this gave us a way of pre-seeing our essays. This also serves as a great way to pinpoint if a particular topic doesn't have enough information. Finally, we tentatively ordered that information in a logical progression, forming a blue-print or flexible outline for our essays.

You should spend your 20 minutes of reading homework continuing to research, especially filling in any gaps there may be in your research. Bring your 3x5s and your rough drafts to class each day this week.

There will be a vocab quiz on Friday.

Sophs: Today we mainly focused on reading two essays about Hamlet (both the character and the play) by Harold Bloom. This isn't one of the things we read, but if you missed class, read this: http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0305/hamlet.html as well as http://media.www.jhunewsletter.com/media/storage/paper932/news/2003/04/04/News/Bloom.Explains.Duality.Of.Hamlet-2246760.shtml

For Thursday, read Act II scene i.

Remember, we will have a vocab quiz on Thursday.

CNF: We conducted a seminar on the middle section of Season of Life. Bring your book again to class on Thursday.

Monday, April 19

Freshmen: Today was our final in-class research day. Of course, I'd expect the research process to continue for the next several weeks, but the bulk of it should be done by this point. For the rest of the week, be sure to bring the fruits of your labor (e.g. your 3x5 cards) as we begin writing your essays in class.

Sophs: Today we had quite a stimulating seminar on Act I of Hamlet. We will take another vocab exam on Thursday - chapter 13 this time.

CNF: Today we decided to complete through chapter 16 for our seminar on the next block day (period 2 - period 5 is shooting for finishing chapter 13), so read that and have one good note per chapter. Remember, the purpose of your notes is to record what you are thinking at key points in the text so you can remember them and talk about them in the seminar.

Friday, April 16

Freshmen: We took the chapter 12 vocab exam and continued our research. Remember, all your research needs to be done next block period.

Sophomores: We took the chapter 12 vocab exam and continued our reading of Hamlet. Be sure to go to the turnitin.com website and revise and resubmit your father essay.

CNF: We continued reading Season of Life. We will determine on Monday where to go from here.

Thursday, April 15

Remember that scene on The Simpsons when it's tax day and everyone is at the post office in line to mail their taxes, and the news reporter asks Otto why he waited so long to file his taxes, and Otto says, "Taxes? I thought this was the line for Metallica!"? Talk about a classic.

Freshmen: Today we continued to focus on your research. It's particularly important you are formulating good, authentic questions that drive your research, and that you are getting as much information as possible from as many different sources as possible. Your 20 minutes of reading each night should be used to focus on researching your topic. All research is due next block period. Remember the Chapter 12 Vocab exam is tomorrow.

Sophs: Remember the Chapter 12 Vocab exam is tomorrow. Today our main focus was on reading Act I from Hamlet. You are to have 5 notes and at least one 3EJ entry for the seminar on Monday.

CNF: Today we had a seminar on the first 8 chapters of Season of Life. We'll continue to read Friday and Monday and have a seminar during our next block period.

Tuesday, April 13 and Wenesday, April 14

Freshmen: Today we studied the idea of "Ways" poems further. Due Friday is a "ways" poem of your own, where you examine an ordinary idea in a number of different ways. Look at it in a concentrated manner so that it appears strange or surreal, and see if you can pull out for your reader it subtle nuances.

The major thing we did was begin the research phase of the capstone phase, realistically, the most important phase because if you do well here, you have a great chance at writing and teaching successfully. If not, you will have no information and thus no chance at success. We reviewed Question Based Research by formulating questions we want to answer about our topic on a number of 3x5 cards as a way to guide our research, and will write brief answers on the back as a way to guide our writing. We will do research in class each day this week and next Monday, so be sure to have your sources and cards.

Sophs: Today we concluded viewing Hamlet, and have begun reading it. We focused heavily on understanding Shakespearean language and sentence structure. Read all of Act I for Monday. In conjunction with this, you need to have 5 notes for our seminar as well as one entry for your triple entry journal.

For homework, read the introduction on reading Shakespeare's language, if you haven't already, and finish Act I for Monday, with 5 notes, and one 3EJ entry.

Monday, April 13

Welcome back. Here's what we did:

Freshmen: We took at look at Wallace Stevens's "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" and did (or will do) some writing using it as our model. One of the things you have to do with your capstone is a "ways poem" that looks at your topic in a number of different ways. Know the following: Letter to the Editor due May 21; Chapter 12 vocab due Friday; read for 20 minutes; most important - all 5 of your sources are due in class for your capstone project next period, as well as your minimum of 12 3x5 cards.

Sophs: We finished viewing Hamlet, and will begin reading the play next period - be sure you have a copy.

CNF: We talked about definitions of masculinity and maleness in preparation for reading Season of Life - have a copy of the text for next period.