02.27 - Roots Quiz, Future Exploration Introduction

We started today's class with the set 12 roots and prefixes quiz.

Following the quiz, I formally introduced the focus of the future exploration project and we reviewed questions that this exploration will seek to answer about an activity that each student selects (see handout below). For homework this weekend, each person should select an activity and respond to the questions on the future exploration pre-writing assignment to begin thinking about.

We then began looking at a reading which explores the various skills and activities involved in an activity; in this case, volcanology. Everyone responded to the pre-reading questions associated with this reading which we then took time to discuss. From there, everyone had time to read the article and respond to the reading questions. The post-reading questions should be answered for homework.

Handouts:

Future Exploration research questions and pre-write
Volcanologist Article
Volcanologist Processing Questions

Submitted Today:
Set 12 roots quizzes

Homework:

Complete the reading and post-reading questions for the volcanologist article we read today.

Complete or revise your essay on theme and message in The Road (this includes submitting your essay critique and outline). - Due Friday, 3/6

02.26 - Upward Bound Presentation, Roots Review

Today, we had an Upward Bound presentation in the first part of class.

You may review the video shown as part of this presentation below.

You may learn more about the Bowdoin Upward Bound program here: http://www.bowdoin.edu/upward-bound/

50 Years of Upward Bound at Bowdoin from Bowdoin College on Vimeo.

We then used the remainder of the class to prepare for our set 12 roots and prefixes quiz tomorrow by reviewing the practice quiz answers.

Handouts:

None

Work Submitted Today:

Revisions or completed essays on message and theme in The Road (including outline and critique)

Homework:

Complete or revise your essay on theme and message in The Road (this includes submitting your essay critique and outline). - Due Friday, 3/6

Prepare for the set 12 roots and prefixes quiz (reference the documents below) this Friday, 2/28

We will review the set 12 practice quiz answers tomorrow.

Set 12 Roots and Prefixes - Word List

Set 12 Roots and Prefixes - Practice

02.25 - Discussion Reflection, Grade Reports, Revision

At the beginning of class today, everyone met and reviewed their responses to the reflection question following yesterday's concentric circle discussion. We then went around and people summarized their discussions.

Next, several people helped to return assignments and I handed out grade report sheets. We then went over general feedback for the essays on theme and message in The Road as well as for the critique and outlines associated with these essays (see below). People had the remaining time in class to work on completing or revising their essay as well as complete the semester one feedback form from Monday if they had not already had a chance to do so.

General essay feedback:

+ Good selection of motifs.

+ Solid transitions between examples and paragraphs.

∆ Fully integrate quotes into the sentence, avoiding dialogue and full sentence quotations.

For a 4 – Selected the best quotes to prove the thesis and claims with smooth transitions.

Critique guidelines and model: see this presentation

Handouts:

None

Work Submitted Today:

Future Exploration Concentric Circles Discussion

Homework:

Complete or revise your essay on theme and message in The Road (this includes submitting your essay critique and outline). - Due Friday, 3/6

Prepare for the set 12 roots and prefixes quiz (reference the documents below) this Friday, 2/28

We will review the set 12 practice quiz answers tomorrow.

Set 12 Roots and Prefixes - Word List

Set 12 Roots and Prefixes - Practice

02.24 - Future Exploration Introduction

Today's class was focused on introducing everyone to our next unit which is based on future exploration of activities which people are interested in pursuing.

For the purpose of this unit, an activity is considered to be anything like a job, hobby, sport, or pastime that positively engages someone's time. We started today's class with everyone responding to the following writing prompt:

What is an activity in which you currently participate and what do you get out of that activity?

After everyone responded to this prompt, people shared out the activities they had written about. 

Next, we reviewed the discussion format for a concentric circles discussion (for a refresher  check out this slideshow). Everyone then had a series of conversations with different discussion partners using the handout provided in class to record notes on their ideas and their partner's response (see handout below). For homework, everyone responded to the reflection question on the back of this sheet.

Handouts:

Future Exploration Concentric Circles Discussion

Homework:

Respond to the reflection question on the back of the concentric circles discussion sheet (due tomorrow, 2/25).

02.23 - Semester 01 Feedback / Roots Set 12

Today's class was focused on feedback from the first semester (quarters one and two as well as the midterm) and on set 12 roots and prefixes. The feedback on semester one was given through a Google form. However, to review this feedback, I made activity cards available and everyone selected an activity card or two that helped them to respond to the following questions:

"The Road" was our heavyweight text for looking at sentence structure and motif as they relate to the meaning of a text. How effective would you say this book was in helping us meet these goals?

How worthwhile would you say it was to read “The Road”?

Everyone had some time to respond to this question in their writer's journal and then we discussed the responses that people generated.

Next, a selection of people began providing feedback through the following Google form:

Semester One Feedback

While other people worked on the set 12 roots and prefixes sheet (see handouts below). People who did not get a chance to complete the feedback form, will have time later this week.

Handouts:

Set 12 Roots and Prefixes - Word List

Set 12 Roots and Prefixes - Practice

Homework:

Complete the set 12 roots and prefixes word list and practice sheets for Wednesday.

02.11 - Partner Essay Critique

Today we did partner critiques of everyone's essays for The Road. 

See the following presentation for directions and examples:

Partner Essay Critique

Handouts:

Theme and Message Outline for The Road
Section key for The Road

Essays and Waffles

Homework:

Complete revisions for the waffles and essay analogy work for Friday (2/13)

If you missedthis lecture, you can read and take notes from this article which covers the same information.

02.10 - Sentence Types with Anna Karenina

We started out today's class with a review of sentence types. We also looked at how relative pronouns can be used to connect clauses to a noun. Then, I handed out a copy of the opening to Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and we looked at it to identify sentence types in the story. See the documents below for this process:

Sentence Types with Anna Karenina: Presentation

Setnence Types with Anna Karenina: Activity

Sentence Types with Anna Karenina: Official Responses

Handouts:

Theme and Message Outline for The Road
Section key for The Road

Essays and Waffles

Homework:

Complete your rough draft for The Road for Wednesday (2/11)

Complete revisions for the waffles and essay analogy work for Friday (2/13)

If you missedthis lecture, you can read and take notes from this article which covers the same information.

02.09 - Revision and Rough Draft of The Road essay

At the beginning of class today, I returned the analogy work that people did with our essay and waffles activity along with an updated grade report sheet. We reviewed class performance and general feedback on this assignment (see below) and discussed ways in which people could earn a four.

Click Image to Enlarge

Everyone then had the rest of the period to begin writing their essay on message and theme in The Road. If people had not completed their evidence sheets, those needed to be completed before starting the rough draft. A rough draft of the essay should be ready for our class on Wednesday.

Handouts:

Theme and Message Outline for The Road
Section key for The Road

Essays and Waffles

Homework:

Complete your rough draft for The Road for Wednesday (2/11)

Complete revisions for the waffles and essay analogy work for Friday (2/13)

If you missedthis lecture, you can read and take notes from this article which covers the same information.

02.06 - Outlines: Tie-Backs and Transitions

At the beginning of class, we reviewed key components of the midterms and then everyone had a chance to review comments and grades on their midterm (this had been displaced by our multiple snow days).

Next, everyone responded to the following writing prompt:

For The Road theme and message essay, you will be assessed on your thesis and claims, transitions, and quote integration.

Which waffles ingredients did you say these elements represent?

What does this tell you about how you should use these in your essay?

We discussed these responses and then moved into looking at how to write tie-back and transition sentences to help with the flow of the essay. These sentences are also included as part of the work on the essay outline. To practice, we used the Lion King example for the essay outline and wrote a tie-back sentence which connected a paragraph looking at Mufasa's leadership back to the thesis about responsibility as a leader's most important trait. Then, everyone wrote a transition sentence moving from the Mufasa paragraph (as an example of a good leader) to the Scar paragraph (as an example of a bad leader).

Examples from class are included below

Tie-Back:

Mufasa knew his responsibilities so he was a good leader.

Mufasa takes responsibility for his actions and because of this he knows exactly what it takes to be a good and just leader.

Through his actions, Mufasa shows how being responsible and doing his duty as a king and father makes him a good and just leader.

Transition:

While Mufasa is a model of an ideal, responsible leader, Scar show how terrible it is to have an irresponsible leader.

Mufasa's brother Scar, however, is the opposite of Mufasa, because he doesn't take responsibility for what he does.

Unfortunately, not everyone possesses the same qualities of leadership of Mufasa.

Everyone then had the rest of the period to work on building evidence for their essays as well as writing tie-back and transition sentences.

Handouts:

Theme and Message Outline for The Road
Section key for The Road

Homework:

Complete your outline for The Road (thesis, claims, evidence, tie-back sentences, and transition sentences)

02.05 - Evidence Building

I was at a writing conference today and so everyone was working with a substitute. The focus of today's class was building on the thesis and claims work we started in class yesterday.

In class, people started with the claims they established for homework and worked to make those more powerful. Once claims were established they were used to start creating an outline by identifying evidence on motifs that supports these claims. For this, I provided students with a section key for The Road identifying key words or phrases associated with different sections of the book.

Handouts:

Theme and Message Outline for The Road
Section key for The Road

Homework:

Continue to gather evidence for the claims in your essay

02.0 4- Theme and Message in The Road

In today's class we looked at motifs The Road. People shared out the information below to the following prompt:

What role(s) did your motif(s) play in developing the story?

Pistol - Power role: security and protection (safety). It gave them a way to end their lives or to kill other people (which would keep them safe). Can also scare people away from them.

Represents survival and death - can kill attackers, aslo a means of suicide if things are really grim.

Cart - Holds all of their things, allows them to carry their food/supplies. Also a source of comfort/home (holds toys, blankets).

Carries the things they need for survival (blankets/food/tarp), limits where they can go (can’t wheel it through), also have to hide it.

helps and hinders

Coast/South/Sun- South is a symbol of destination and hope, a safe haven. Coast, similar to the south, kind of an alternate route/journey. The sun is different - symbol of giving up (gone and been gone). They’ve accepted the fact that the sun is not there for them (has to do with how much they have given up).

Coughing - Foreshadows the man’s death, shows that the man is sick, looks at how his son relies on him.

Darkness/Ash - Darkness and ash block out the sun (which represents goodness/god) Darkness is the darkness of our souls/nature. The sun is god, and god is gone (hence the darkness). The darkness is a measure of hoplesness (it grows and shrinks).

Ash represents the society that has burnt out/civilization gone.

Death - Represents safety, fear, a last resort. Death can be better than life, an escape, but also brutal.

Fire/Dreams -

Fire (literal) - keeps them alive, they know they can survive and keep going when they have it. Represents civilization (the boy is carrying the fire (see fig. example).

Fire (figurative) - perseverance and good morals in a bad world. The boy realizes that this is his legacy.

Dreams - giving up, a reminder of the world as it had been/how life used to be. Dreams can haunt you.

Food - For survival, kept them alive, also gave them hope whenever they found it. It was always a goal to find the next food source (they had to keep going).

Symbolizes hope - hope fades when they run out of food/drink. Food/drink give them hope for the future. Metaphorically and literally enable them to move forward.

Shoes - They help with survival (keep feet warm, keep feet protected).

Next we looked at theme and message in The Road. People shared out the responses that they had drafted for homework. We took time to discuss these and then looked at how to draft powerful thesis statements to guide this essay.

For support within the essay, people should analyze motifs that help contribute to that overall theme and message. Everyone then had the remaining time in the period to create their own thesis and identify the two to three basic arguments that they would like to make.

Handouts:

The Road - Theme and Message Outline

(pages 1 and 2 used in today's class)

Homework:

Create a powerful thesis statement for your essay and identify the two to three arguments you will use to prove this thesis (step one of the claims creation process).

02.03 - Return to The Road

We started today's class with some discussion around what it means to be a hero and how heroism is portrayed in The Road.

Working in their table groups, everyone discussed the following three questions. Groups shared out their responses to these questions after having time to discuss each one.

1 - Does the boy live happily ever after at the end of The Road.
2 - Is the father a hero in The Road?
3 - Is the boy really worthy of being called the "word of God"?

Next, people got together in small groups based on the  motifs that they had worked with in the second quarter. People will be writing about these motifs as well as theme and message for homework.

Submitted Work:

None

Handouts:

None

Homework:

Explain the role the motif you were assigned in class played in The Road.

(If you were not in class or forgot the motif you were assigned, write about a motif you know well).

Write for ten minutes in your writer's journal responding to the following question:

What are some important themes and messages in The Road?

If you have not yet complete the "Essays and Waffles" note sheet from our class on 01.26, do so for our next class.

02.01 - [Snow Day]

There was no school today due to the inclement weather.