10.09 - Simile and Metaphor

We started today's class by looking at the "Calvin and Hobbes" comic included below and responding to the following prompt:

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In your writer’s journal:

Which type of figurative language is this comic using (in a visual form)?

Explain how you know.

Identify and explain specific critiques of his typical school day that Calvin is making.

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, we discussed the various answers that people came up with. This discussion lead us back to looking at simile and metaphor which everyone was working with for homework. In class we reviewed similes, ironic similes, metaphor, and implied metaphor.

For homework tonight, everyone should work with extended metaphor and mixed metaphor.

In the last few minutes of class, we reviewed the set 4 roots and prefixes practice answers.

Handouts:

Figurative Language handout

Practice with Simile and Metaphor

Homework:

Complete the extended metaphor and mixed metaphor sections on the Practice with Simile and Metaphor sheet.

Practice with Simile and Metaphor

Prepare for the set 4 roots and prefixes quiz tomorrow.

Roots and Prefixes set 4 - Word List

Roots and Prefixes set 4 - Practice

If you have not done so already, turn in your Neruda Tones analysis for "United Fruit Co." or "Standard Oil Co.".

Neruda Annotation and Analysis Prompt

"United Fruit Co." and "Standard Oil Co" by Pablo Neruda

10.08 - Simile and Metaphor

At the beginning of class today, everyone had a few minutes to work on their set four roots and prefixes practice sheets. We will review these tomorrow in class.

Next, we returned to our work with looking at what elements will contribute to a positive overall class experience. I handed out rectangles of fabric that we will use as contribution flags. With the basic principles of our class in mind, everyone drew two pictures on their flag representing the following:

Picture 1 - what you bring to the class as a person (what contributions you will make)
Picture 2 - what you need from the group for this to be a good learning experience for you
After everyone had time to complete their flag we went around and people shared out the drawings on the flags we created in class yesterday.

Following this we began talking about simile and metaphor. I gave people a sheet to practice different forms of simile and metaphor. We looked at how to come up with examples of these types of figurative language based on the definitions and examples from the figurative language handout (see below). People will be completing the front side of this practice sheet for homework.


Handouts:

Figurative Language handout

Practice with Simile and Metaphor


Homework:

Complete the front side of the Practice with Simile and Metaphor sheet.
Practice with Simile and Metaphor

If you did not do so already, complete the set 4 roots and prefixes practice sheet.
Prepare for the set 4 roots and prefixes quiz on Friday.
Roots and Prefixes set 4 - Word List
Roots and Prefixes set 4 - Practice

If you have not done so already, turn in your Neruda Tones analysis for "United Fruit Co." or "Standard Oil Co.".
Neruda Annotation and Analysis Prompt
"United Fruit Co." and "Standard Oil Co" by Pablo Neruda

10.07 - Basic Principles for a Great Class

We started today's class with everyone responding to the following prompt in their writer's journal:

What was the best class of which you have been a part?
(This can be any group learning experience from pre-K to present day and could involve anything from a hunter safety course to AP Bio).
What was it that made this class great?

Everyone then discussed their response with a partner and identified underlying principles that seemed to contribute to the positive experience of the course. In class, we talked about how rules are different from principles. A rule could be, no running in the halls. The principle behind this rule might be "value your safety and the safety of others".

Next, partner groups got together in small groups and created a common list of these basic principles that could be helpful for us to use to make our class a great experience. Small groups then came together as a class and we used these lists to discuss what basic principles our class would follow.

After generating this list, we discussed what elements of our class we should adapt to fit these principles. Then, I handed out rectangles of fabric that we will use as contribution flags. With the basic principles of our class in mind, everyone drew two pictures on their flag representing the following:

Picture 1 - what you bring to the class as a person (what contributions you will make)
Picture 2 - what you need from the group for this to be a good learning experience for you

We will share out what people drew for pictures tomorrow.

Homework:

Everyone returned their copy of The Giver today. If you did not have your copy with you, please bring it in for tomorrow.

10.06 - Neruda and American Companies

At the beginning of class today, everyone got together with a partner who had read the same poem as them (either "Standard Oil Co." or "United Fruit Co.") and shared their analysis of the poem. Next, people go together with the person who read the poem that they did not read. Working with this partner, partners read their poem to their partner and then their analysis. Partners then discussed the following writing prompt and responded to the question individually in their writer's journal:

What does Pablo Neruda think of American businesses?
Explain your response using examples from the poems.
What do you think of Neruda's perspective?

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, we discussed students' responses. Then, everyone handed in their analysis of the Neruda poem (unless they felt they needed to revisit and revise their response based on our analysis in class).

Everyone then had the remaining time in the period to work on set 4 roots and prefixes (we will have a quiz for these roots and prefixes on Friday).

Handouts:

Roots and Prefixes set 4 - Word List
Roots and Prefixes set 4 - Practice

Homework:

Complete the roots and prefixes sheets (see above) for Wednesday.

If you felt that your analysis of Neruda's poem needed revision before being submitted, complete these revisions tonight for homework.

10.03 - Roots and Diction Quiz, Neruda Analysis

At the beginning of class today, everyone got out their analysis of Pablo Neruda's use of tone in "Ode to My Sox" and responded to the following prompt in their writer's journal:

What are the main strengths in your annotations and analysis of how tone relates to message in Neruda's Ode to My Socks"?

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, we discussed students' answers. Next, I passed out annotations and analysis that I had done of the poem as a model (see below). We looked at the annotations, read the analysis and then everyone responded to the following prompt in their writer's journal:

What strengths do you notice in these annotations and analysis that you could incorporate into your own writing to make your writing stronger?

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, we discussed the strengths that people noticed. Some strengths people noticed included:
      - short quotes that are integrated well into the sentence (quote flow with the writing)
      - quotations are cited (line numbers after each quote)
      - there is a clear relationship between the identified tones and the diction

We then also looked at ways this analysis could be improved. Some things that people noticed included:

      - awkward phrasing in the second to last line with the word "more"
      - the analysis does not discuss the denotation of words (only connotation)
      - the claim that Neruda's feet are an "ocean" element doesn't have enough
               evidence to be strongly supported

The strengths that people identified in their own writing and ways in which they could improve their work are elements that people should keep in mind as they proceed with the diction quiz and analysis of either "United Fruit Co." or "Standard Oil Co." by Pablo Neruda.

We then had the set three roots and prefixes quiz and the diction revision quiz (which people could choose to complete or not based on their previous performance with the diction quiz).

When people had finished these quizzes, they had the rest of the time available to work on their analysis of message and tone in either "United Fruit Co." or "Standard Oil Co." by Pablo Neruda.


Handouts:

"Ode to My Socks" - Model Annotation and Analysis by Mr. Collins

Neruda Annotation and Analysis Prompt
"United Fruit Co." by Pablo Neruda
"Standard Oil Co." by Pablo Neruda

Homework:

If you did not do so in class, complete your written analysis of either Neruda's "United Fruit Co." or "Standard Oil Co."

Class Site Bonus:

For those who chose to analyze Neruda's "Standard Oil Co.", it will be helpful to have a bit of an understanding around how drilling for oil works.

Below is a cut away view of what different drilling operations look like. When this poem was written in 1940, the vertical well would have been the most common sort.

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This video explains the drilling and refining process for oil as it would have been familiar to Neruda when he wrote "Standard Oil Co." (the poem was written in about 1940).

This video shows what the oil drilling process is like today:

10.02 - Diction Practice (cont'd)

Today we reviewed the responses that people had come up with for the diction practice from yesterday's class. We focused on the informal and formal tones as well as the emotional tones. People shared out their responses for each section and we discussed what made responses effective. 

When it came to the emotional tone prompt about bike riding, everyone wrote their own and then swapped with a partner who then crossed out and replaced or added in words to change the tone of the piece. We shared these and identified what tones were being used.

We also reviewed the responses for the set three roots and prefix practice sheet. 

At the end of class, I handed out copies of Pablo Neruda's poem "Ode to My Socks" and read the poem aloud. This poem is for tonight's homework (see below).

Handouts:

Using Diction to Affect Tone exercises

"Ode to My Socks" by Pablo Neruda

Annotation Guide (for use with "Ode to My Socks")

Homework:

Read and annotate Pablo Neruda's poem "Ode to My Socks"

Respond to the prompt at the end of the annotation guide for "Ode to My Socks"

Prepare for the set three roots and prefixes quiz.

Prepare for the diction quiz tomorrow.

10.01 - Diction Practice

At the beginning of class today, I returned the diction quizzes that people took last week. On this quiz, a number of people struggled with having focused discussions on the author's choice of diction. Many people were able to accurately identify tone in the passage provided on part three of the quiz, but then cited full sentences to discuss how tone was established instead of individual words.

Today's warm up activity was to look at the feedback given on this part of the quiz and then come up with a more focused answer. These responses were recorded in people's writing journals. After everyone had a chance to do this revision, we discussed the responses that people had generated. 

Next, we continued this focus on tone and diction with a series of exercises that focused on specific uses of tone (see handouts below). Everyone completed each section individually and then we would come together as a class and people would share their responses and we discussed what it was that made answers effective and what points to be aware of in responding.

Some sample responses from class today included:

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In the "subjective" number 5 above, we talked about how this tone is actually more objective since "arrested" and "citizen" are rather generic terms. A more subjective pairing of words could be "harassed" and "hooligan" since both of those terms involve some judgement on the action and person.

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We did not finish this sheet in class so everyone should look at finishing the final section of the formal and informal tone section.

Handouts:

Using Diction to Affect Tone exercises

Homework:

Finish the final section of the formal and informal tone section and the emotional tone sheet that are part of the "Using Diction to Affect Tone" activity.

Prepare for the set three roots and prefixes quiz on Friday.