Wednesday, January 31

English 12A: Today we read Chapter 55 in the Tao te Ching, read this essay from This I Believe (https://thisibelieve.org/essay/23/), read from The Alchemist (pages 71-87 in our book; check the schedule for the pages on the PDF), and worked for a bit on your This I Believe essay.

English 12B: Today we focused on children's books, for those of you who are choosing that as a possible creative response for your Capstone Projects.

Tuesday, January 30

English 12A: Today our focus was on the reading comprehension strategy of predicting, and making predictions based on textual evidence. It is my intention that you do this as well as you can with The Alchemist. In order to practice the skill, we read the short story "The Lady or the Tiger?" and did an assignment, which you can find on Canvas, and which is due tonight. We also read a This I Believe essay, which can be found here: https://thisibelieve.org/essay/39990/ and read from The Alchemist. See the reading schedule to find out what you missed.

English 12B: Today we focused on short stories, how to craft a short story, and how short stories often deal with social issues, much like the ones you are focusing on in your Capstone Projects. My hope is, these examples will provide you with some ideas about how to craft a short story as one of your creative responses. We also did a quick entry in the Hero Catch Phrase Project, and, as always, read a section from The Elements of Style.

Monday, January 29

English 12A: In response to your incessant begging for more Thomas Foster and more chapters from How to Read Literature Like a Professor, I relented and assigned you to read Chapter One ("Every Trip is a Quest..."). You can find it on Canvas, and yes, you're welcome. It is due tonight. We also read more from The Alchemist - see the schedule on the blog and on Canvas to see what you missed.

English 12B: Today we took a quiz on Part IV of The Elements of Style and spent more time working on your Capstone Projects.

Friday, January 26

English 12A: Today we discussed the chapters we read yesterday from How to Read..., listened to a brief interview with Joseph Campbell about the hero, and read pages 33-47 in The Alchemist to conclude Part I.

English 12B: Today we completed another entry in our Hero Catch Phrase Project and worked on your Capstone Project.

Thursday, January 25

12A: Today in class, we read pages 21-32 in The Alchemist (see the schedule on Canvas or the blog so you know what to read from the PDF if you were absent). We then completed an assignment on Canvas titled How to Read Chapter 4 and One Story. Please read these chapters and complete the short essay assignment. It is due tonight.

12B: Today we did another entry in the Hero Catch Phrase Project and worked on your Capstone Projects.

Tuesday, January 23

12A: Today our focus was on reading the next selection in The Alchemist (pages 11-21 in our class set), and learning a little bit about what alchemy is in order to build background knowledge. On Canvas, you should complete the Alchemy Article of the Week assignment. It is due tonight. Period 3, however, only needs to complete the first four questions and not the essay, due to the longer discussion that section had today that limited in-class work time.

12B: Today we did another Hero Catch Phrase entry and worked on your Capstone Projects. Your research paper and letter to the editor should be nearing completion.

Monday, January 22

English 12A: Today we began reading The Alchemist. If you were absent, go to Canvas. Find The Alchemist under Assignments, and check out the reading schedule. Read the pages you were absent for on the PDF that is linked there. I also collected your annotated Life of Pi books.

English 12B: Today we read from The Elements of Style, did another Hero Catch Phrase entry, and worked on your Capstones.

English 12A Trimester 2 Alchemist Reading Schedule 2018

If you do not have a copy of The Alchemist, you can still complete the reading assignments by reading a PDF version, which can be found at http://mindguruindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/MP073_The-Alchemist-By-Paulo-Coelho.pdf

For each reading assignment, I will list the pages for both the book and the PDF version.

1/22 - Read the Introduction, Prologue, and book through page 11 (through page 4 on the PDF).
1/23 - Read pages 11-21 (PDF pages 4-9)
1/25 - Read pages 21-32 (PDF pages 9-14)
1/26 - Read pages 33-47 (PDF pages 14-20)
1/29 - Read pages 51-61 (PDF pages 20-25)
1/30 - Read pages 61-71 (PDF pages 25-29)
1/31 - Read pages 71-87 (PDF pages 29-36)
2/1 - Read pages 87-104 (PDF pages 36-44)
2/2 - Read pages 104-121 (PDF pages 44-52)
2/5 - Read pages 121-138 (PDF pages 52-60)
2/6 - Read pages 138-153 (PDF pages 60-67)
2/7 - Read pages 153-167 (PDF pages 67-73)
2/8 - In class essay
2/9 - Seminar on book

Friday, January 19

English 12A: Today you did an assignment on Canvas titled "The Case for Short Words." Your annotated copies of Life of Pi are due on Monday.

English 12B: Today was a work day to make more progress on your Capstone Projects.

Thursday, January 18

English 12A: Today our focus was on four questions regarding Part III of Life of Pi: Which is the better story (or, which story do you believe)? Which is the better story? What is the theme of Life of Pi? And, what is Yann Martel (or Pi Patel, for that matter), trying to say about stories? The annotated copies of your book are due Monday.

English 12B: Aside from doing another entry in the Hero Catch-Phrase Project and focusing on more misused words in The Elements of Style, we focused on what we called "Ways Poems," which take their name from Wallace Stevens's "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." This is one of the poetic genres I am encouraging you to try in your genre response section of your Capstone Project.

Wednesday, January 17

English 12A: Today we focused on reading Part III from Life of Pi and the power of story. Finish reading Part III tonight and consider these questions that we will address tomorrow in class: Which is the "true story"? Which is the better story? What is the theme of Life of Pi? And, What is Martel (and perhaps even Pi Patel) trying to say about stories?

English 12B: Today, our focus was on the sonnet, one of the poetic forms you might end up choosing for your Capstone Genre Response. For extra credit, find a sonnet of Shakespeare's and bring it to class tomorrow. For extra, extra credit, write a sonnet of your own. Continue to work on your research and your writing.

Tuesday, January 16

English 12A: Today we had a seminar about Part II of Life of Pi. If you haven't finished that, do so for homework. We will finish Part III tomorrow in class.

English 12B: Today our focus was on free verse poetry, in case you end up choosing that for your genre response for your Capstone Project.

Friday, January 12

English 12A: Today we continued our focus on three major rhetorical devices used in Life of Pi: Listing, repetition, and inversion. We also read Chapter 19 in How to Read Literature Like a Professor. That assignment can be found on Canvas. You should complete Part II of Life of Pi for Tuesday's class, and I would like you to preview the seminar prep guide for that day, which you can find on Canvas. You do not need to write anything down at this time - just read through the questions and contemplate them.

English 12B: Today we took our last big day to work in class on your research papers for the Capstone Project. Next week we are going to spend some time focusing on some of the different genres for the genre response. We also did another entry in the Hero Catch Phrase Project. Keep working on your research papers as homework.

Monday, January 8

English 12A: Today we focused first on how to effectively integrate textual evidence by reading Chapter 3 from They Say I Say, "The Art of Quoting." It can be found here: https://www.iss.k12.nc.us/cms/lib/NC01000579/Centricity/Domain/2741/They%20Say%20I%20Say%20Full%20Text.pdf

Go to page 42 of the book, page 70 on the PDF, to read the chapter we read. We did this because students are struggling to effectively quote passages when writing responses to literature in class.

We then began an Article of the Week/Month assignment this week where we examine two articles that examine whether or not it is ethical to maintain zoos. We will be writing a response to the articles in class tomorrow.

Finally, read through Chapter 82 (page 225) in Life of Pi for Tuesday's class.

English 12B: Today we focused on how to correctly summarize a source, using Chapter 2 of They Say I Say as our guide. That chapter, "The Art of Summarizing," can be found here: https://www.iss.k12.nc.us/cms/lib/NC01000579/Centricity/Domain/2741/They%20Say%20I%20Say%20Full%20Text.pdf

We then proceeded to work on your research papers, and also completed an entry in the Hero Catch Phrase Project.

Friday, January 5

English 12A: Today we reflected on your use of the 10% Solution, read some This I Believe essays, and talked about how they mirrored some ideas in Life of Pi. For Monday, read everything through Chapter 75 (page 209) in Life of Pi.

English 12B: Today we did another entry in our Hero Catch Phrase Project. We also spent a lot of time working on your research papers. Keep working on them on your own. You should tentatively plan on being done with them in a week or so, and then we will turn our attention to the multi-genre responses and web page building.

Wednesday, January 3

English 12A: Our primary focus was on The 10% Solution. If you were absent, you can find the lesson by going to Canvas and clicking on Files. From there, learn about The 10% Solution and then apply it to your college application essay. Your 10%ed essays are due in class on Friday on Paper. You should also read to page 177 in Life of Pi.

English 12B: Today we completed the Day 18 assignment for The Elements of Style. We also read Chapter 1 from They Say I Say, which you can find here: https://www.iss.k12.nc.us/cms/lib/NC01000579/Centricity/Domain/2741/They%20Say%20I%20Say%20Full%20Text.pdf. Go to page 19 of the book or page 47 of the PDF and read Chapter 1 and use their advice to begin with what others are saying about your topic early on in your Capstone Research paper. Finally, we spend more time working on the Capstone Research paper.

Keys to Success Scholarship Info

Seniors,

The Keys to Success program is offering 5 awesome scholarship opportunities to Brighton High School seniors.  You could win a $1000 scholarship to UVU, SUU, SLCC, the University of Utah or the Paul Mitchel School.  To find out about this opportunity, go to KTSUTAH.com and click on “Scholarships.”  For more information, see Ms. Schwendiman in the Counseling Center or anyone in the CTE offices. 

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Welcome back and happy new year. I hope that your winter break was a fun and restful one as we gear up to finish out the second trimester.

English 12A: Today we read Chapter 12 from How to Read Literature Like a Professor. There is an assignment for this on Canvas. We then talked about the many strange and curious cases of shipwrecks involving Richard Parkers. You may want to investigate this on your own. Lastly, we read a This I Believe essay that pertains to where we are now in Life of Pi (https://thisibelieve.org/essay/46556/). You should be done with Chapter 57 (page 166) for class tomorrow.

English 12B: Today we began the formation of your research paper for your senior Capstone Project. We began by looking at all the information you have gathered about your topic and ordering the information. The idea is to create a flexible outline for your research paper. We then reviewed different ways we learned to craft an introduction and began writing the research paper. We are going to spend some class time every day for the next two weeks or so writing your research paper. The tentative deadline for the paper to be finished is January 12.