Friday, September 11

 English 12A: Today we engaged in a peer review. Your task is to take your peer's feedback and improve your essay. You should bring two copies of your essay to class Monday: The copy you brought to class today and had marked up by a peer, and the improved essay you produce this weekend. You'll be asked to compare the two on Monday.

English Honors 9A: Today we read the short story "Raymond's Run" and focused on implicit and explicit themes emerging in the text. You should read for 20 minutes and come to class Monday ready to write about a theme you saw develop in "Raymond's Run."

Wednesday, September 9

English 12A: We decided everyone needed one final day to complete their drafts of their reflective memoir college application essay assignment. We will do this tomorrow and you need to bring a printed copy of your essay to class on Friday for a peer review. Read for 20 minutes tonight.

English Honors 9A: Today we combined what we learned about introductions, hook techniques, and our reading of the short story "Lamb to the Slaughter" by writing a couple of sample intro paragraphs to the prompt "Was Mary's killing of her husband justified?" The Canvas assignment is due tonight. Read for 20 minutes as well.

Tuesday, September 8

English 12A: Today we continued to work on your essay. We will take some time to focus on this in class tomorrow as well. You should have a finished, printed final copy for class on Thursday. Your homework is to read for 20 minutes.

English Honors 9A: Today we continued to focus on introductions, particularly different hooks to try in an introduction. You took a Introduction Hook Technique Quiz in groups during class (you do have two attempts at this, so if you have one left you're welcome to take it again) and need to take the Follow Up Quiz for homework (you only get one attempt at this, and should take it by yourself without the aid of any notes). Both of these are on Canvas. Read for 20 minutes tonight as well.

Friday, September 4

English 12A: Today our focus was on conclusion techniques. You are to identify the conclusion technique that best fits your essay and eventually craft one that fits its parameters. You should read for 20 minutes twice over the long weekend and, if you are not at least at the halfway point of your essay, work on it for half an hour or so. We will have Tuesday and Wednesday next week to continue to draft in class.

English Honors 9A: Today our focus was on learning the four ingredients of the introduction and a focused study of hook techniques to try. We will continue this focus next week. Read for 20 minutes at least twice over the long weekend.

Thursday, September 3

English 12A: Today we continued to work on drafting your essays; tomorrow we will talk about conclusion techniques as you start to build toward your finish. Read for 20 minutes tonight.

English Honors 9A: Today we had a Socratic Seminar which focused on your questions and observations about the short story "Lamb to the Slaughter."

Wednesday, September 2

English 12A: Today our focus was on drafting the body of your essay, building upon the introduction you wrote. Use your notes, especially your story arc, to help you do this. We will have about 30 minutes to work on it tomorrow in class. If you haven't shared it with me yet, do so, so that I can begin to give you some feed back: jeffrey.baird@csddocs.org. Read for 20 minutes tonight.

English Honors 9A: Today we read a short story called "Lamb to the Slaughter" and used it as an opportunity to learn how to "show our work" as we read through annotation. In class, we studied the different kinds of ways readers might express their thoughts using questions and annotated the text for a minimum of five questions. Your homework tonight is to reread the story and, rather than asking questions, move to observation and annotate it for Dahl's use of the various literary devices we studied the past two days. You should have a minimum of seven annotations regarding his use of literary devices for class tomorrow. Use your flip books to help you.

Tuesday, September 1

English 12A: Today our focus was on assessing whether or not we have mastery of the introduction hook techniques we covered this week in class. We took one quiz in groups in class today, which elicited some terrific discussions about writing (which was my main goal, rather than quizzing you: I cared way more about the conversation than the quiz, what you might call a Jedi Mind Trick). You're are to take the Introduction Hook Technique Follow Up Quiz tonight on Canvas. We also shared our introductions with the teacher (jeffrey.baird@csddocs.org) for credit and with a classmate for some feedback regarding these two questions: Does the writer use the stated hook technique effectively? And, which of the three introductions is the best? Finish this for your classmate tonight and decide what you think for about your own introductions before class tomorrow. Finally, read for 20 minutes tonight.

English Honors 9A: Today we completed our overview of literary terms via Nearpod as we completed the flip book we began earlier this week. Your homework is to read for 20 minutes and to identify as many literary concepts or terms in your reading as you can tonight.