Icy Homework!

I hope everyone is warm and safe on this icy, beginning-to-get-very-white day! Those icy trees are beautiful (although dangerous), aren't they?

Gentle Reminders:

1. Read President Obama's speech and analyze for the six persuasive characteristics. Click here to access the graphic organizer, or, yes, you may identify each on the hard copy of the speech.
2. Please spend time adventuring to another world through the novel of your choice for one of your "outside-of-class" reads. REMEMBER: please post a book review for each read on your blog and GoodReads = the assessment on your chosen novel. I hope to finalize book review rubric today...so far, the electricity is only flickering! Check out these sites at GoodReads and Mrs. Gillmore's Book Reviews for my latest review of The Dangerous Days of Daniel X.
3. Blog Post Due! I will grade those while we enjoying this "cool" break.

What are you reading good right now?

Preparing for Wednesday?

What shall we accomplish during class on Wednesday (January 21)?

By the way, did you know that to be proper, one should use "shall" with first-person pronouns and "will" with second and third-person pronouns? Tis true!

Now to the agenda:

1. Grammar Time: Introductory elements ~ participials.
2. Test over Antigone. Remember, you must write a paragraph on the test convincing me...ah, yes...persuading me who the most tragic figure is within this drama. QUESTION: why is "who" correct in #2? Why would "whom" be incorrect?
3. Return papers. Confirm grades.
4. Type essay (due Friday) and blog (due this weekend).
5. Assign speech to read...guess whose? Yes, going to analyze this speech for persuasive techniques. Please refer to previous blog.

Planning ahead? Vocabulary test on Friday!

A Curious Review

I completed The Curious Case of Benjamin Button just now. Interesting read.

Please check out my review of this novelette at Mrs. Gillmore's Book Reviews.

The Art of Persuasion

As you draft your essay, consider the following persuasive techniques:

1. Claim: State your argument. Which sentence would contain your claim?
2. Big Names: Important people or experts can make your argument seem more convincing. To what characters from Antigone might you refer? What other important people or experts might support your claim?
3. Appeal to Logos: Facts, numbers, and information can be very convincing.
4. Appeal to Pathos: Getting people to feel happy, sad, or angry can help your argument.
5. Appeal to Ethos: If people believe and trust in you, you are more likely to persuade them.
6. Kairos: Try to convince your audience that this issue is so important they must act now.
7. Research: Using reliable research can help your argument seem convincing. Yes, Antigone would be considered research in this essay.

Please check the class wiki for the rubric for this essay assignment and the PowerPoint to which I will refer in class.

Has anyone checked out DailyLit yet? In answer to the question, may you subscribe to more than one novel at a time? Yes. I just subscribed to Persuasion by Jane Austen. Could I use this novel as evidence within this essay assignment?

Grades are updated in GradeQuick. If interested, you might attempt to access them online. I know they had to move our grades to another server...not sure if your log-ins and passwords will be updated. Should you see an assignment you think we need to discuss, please email me! We have Monday to finalize grades!

Have a great weekend!

For Thursday, January 15, 2009

Here's our agenda:

• Grammar Time: Review verb consistency. Test on run-ons, parallelism, and verb consistency on Monday.
• Discuss Antigone. Who is the most tragic figure in this drama?
• Draft of outline for "The Art of Persuasion" essay due in class! Reminder: Entry #2 in Writer's Notebook was to brainstorm ideas for this essay.

Assignments for Monday, January 19:

1. Grammar Time test.
2. Bring a draft of your essay.

What is next?

1. Review/complete discussion of Antigone and test on Wednesday.
2. Finalize essay.
3. Begin The Call of the Wild.

Have you taken any stands lately?

Read the classics via your email!

Just learned about this site: Daily Lit.

Guess where I read about this interesting site? That's right...through my Google Reader where I subscribe to Ms. Carla's The English Teacher Blog.

At this link, you will discover 593 classics which are sent to you in installment format...meaning you receive a portion each day...via your email.

I chose The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald for three reasons:

1. This novel is now one of the newly released movies, and I like to have read the book before seeing the movie.
2. Written by Fitzgerald, this novel may give insights to the author as English 11 studies another of Fitzgerald's novels The Great Gatsby.
3. A goal of mine is to read more classical literature.

In eleven installments...or in eleven days, I will have read this novel. Not bad!

You are wondering, asking..."May I read one of these for my quarterly reading requirements?" Yes! Try it out!

Welcome to 2009!

Glad to have you back on our journey through English 10...Gillmore Style.

So far we have...

1. Reviewed run-on sentences. What are the two types?
2. Wrote in our Writer's Notebooks about a time in which you took a stand...served as a prewrite for our next writing assignment and as a starting point for our next thematic unit entitled Taking a Stand.
3. Assigned Antigone pages 65-74 and a bio of Sophocles to read for Friday.
4. Assigned a paragraph. Draft due on Friday. Check here for that handout. Remember to proofread aloud!
5. Assigned vocabulary for this drama. Quiz on the words on Tuesday.
6. Reviewed your semester test.

Now, for the rest of the week:

• Grammar Time: Review of parallel structure.
• Edit/Revise/Type paragraph.
• Read Antigone: Prologue-Act 2
  

What is in our near future?

• Completing Antigone and beginning The Call of the Wild.
  

Reminders:

• You have to read six books this nine weeks. As a class, we will read Antigone, Call of the Wild, and Animal Farm this nine weeks, so that means you are responsible for reading three novels of your choice.
• Expectations/Length Requirements:
  1-299 pages = 1 book
  300-599 pages = 2 books
  600 + pages = 3 books
• I would also like for one of your reads between now and the end of the year to be a selection from the AP Literature exam...will give you that list on Friday.
• I will post assessment options soon...just as soon as I get that all decided!
  

Once again...welcome back!

Check out my newest blog!

Throughout 2009, one of my goals is to write book reviews as I complete the latest great read.

Please check out Mrs. Gillmore's Book Reviews here.

Completed my first novel yesterday...Twilight!