EOC Review: Poetry and Annotations

For the past few days, we have been reviewing annotation and analysis to prepare for the reading portion of the STAAR. Specifically, we have been looking at the genre of poetry.

Poetry is convenient for practicing analysis and annotation skills because it's shorter, they are sometimes humorous, and they allow for a wide range of interpretations by the reader.

Many of us may feel nervous about reading and analyzing poetry in fear that we will be "wrong." While poetry does take a lot of mental energy to interpret, it doesn't necessarily mean that the meaning is any harder to determine. As long as you can support yourself with text evidence and explain yourself clearly, you cannot be "wrong" when analyzing poetry.

We began by looking at a poem called "Dating Myself" by a poet named Poetri. You can see the video of him performing it below along with a copy of the poem itself.





We began our annotations by numbering the lines and counting the stanzas. This helps to give the reader a quick reference point when searching for text evidence or answering questions over the poem.

Stanzas are like poetic paragraphs. They are usually denoted by a gap or a line break. We didn't see any of those in "Dating Myself," so we concluded that there was only ONE large stanza.

Some people assume that poems are only poems because they rhyme. NOT TRUE! Poems do not HAVE to rhyme. Some of them do, though, just not in the way we expect. Some of them have internal rhymes. "Dating Myself" had a few internal rhymes, which we labeled on the poem itself.

Rhymes and other sound devices are used as attention grabbers, or even to accentuate how a poem should be HEARD. Just like stanzas, they are used deliberately by the poet to try and draw the reader's attention to the deeper message by making certain words, phrases, or lines stand out more than others.

Next, we moved on to repetition. Repetition can happen anywhere in a poem. While looking at "Dating Myself," we noticed many of the words he repeats are:

• I
• Myself
• No
• Like
• Man/Guy
• Women/Girl

From instances of repetition, we can start to see the thematic subjects emerge from a poem. Based on what we found, it seems like Poetri might be trying to express something about himself, possibly how much he likes himself or others like him. The repetition of the word "no" may imply that he is uncertain or is rejecting the way people see him or how he sees himself.

We then moved on to examining the tone of the piece. Every class had a different response, and this is for the same reason that you cannot be "wrong" when analyzing poetry. Everyone sees this text a little differently! There were some overlaps, as you can see in the scans of the notes below, but ultimately, each class had a slightly different perspective on the piece.

We began by circling words we saw that had strong emotional meaning, words like "fatigued" and "consumed" and "amaze."

Overall, we found that while Poetri starts his poem with a tone of uncertainty and frustration, he ends with an attitude of determination and confidence. His decision to date himself - to appreciate himself for who he is rather than wonder what it is he's lacking - is what makes him confident and, ultimately, more attractive to the opposite sex.

This helped lead us to determine the theme of the poem. Some subjects we identified within this piece were:

• Dating
• Confidence
• Self-worth
• Self-love
• Relationships
• Insecurity

This helped guide us to our theme. Every class had a different theme, especially depending on which gender we focused on. You can see some of them in the scans below.

Lastly, we looked at how poets sometimes use non-standard English in a poem, especially in modern poetry. Ultimately, we just wanted to show how it is sometimes OKAY to break the standard grammar rules, as long as it is done with PURPOSE.

On block day, we are going to independently practice analyzing poetry. We developed a list of things to annotate for based on the various questions that have been asked in the past on the STAAR. I know it's a lot, so I decided to do it on my own with a poem of my choosing, "High School Training Ground" by Malcolm London. You can see my annotations and the video below

Yes, I want your paper to look that messy afterwards. Thinking is messy. Thinking is chaotic. Our brains are filled with nerves and synapses like wild vines in the Amazon Rainforest, not neat file folders and catalogued memories. 

Watch out! Ms. Hamman's being extra again!

So, you can see what I want you to annotate for below, along with the 4 poems you can choose from. JUST CHOOSE ONE. You may do more than one for extra credit if you wish.

Now, please, read this and take heed: FOLLOW THE STEPS. Don't try to do everything at once! You will get overwhelmed and frustrated. Do ONE THING at a time. We deliberately ordered them to build on one another. And don't SKIP steps. That's a good way to forget to do them later and then lose points. 

If you need help choosing from these poems, here's a quick break-down:

• "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou - If you are feeling sassy and confident, this is the poem for you!
• "To My Favorite..." by Billie Collins - A feel-good letter from father to daughter. For those who are sentimental or need faith in humanity restored
• "Spring in the Classroom" by Mary Oliver - A poem that starts off complaining about school, but turns into an intriguing scandal
• "First Period" by Kevin Derrig - For those days when you just feel like nothing is going right and you want people to understand why you're frustrated

We will complete these annotations in class and they will be due by the end. 

Clocking

Below are the slides we used for our clocking activity this week. If you were unable to participate because you did not have a finished essay, please look through it and complete these activities on your own paper so you will be ready to rewrite your draft in class on Monday.

Thesis Practice and Emotive Language

For the past two days in class, we have been focusing on revising and improving our essays that we wrote at the end of the 3rd quarter for our "Anthem" test. Here is the prompt we originally addressed.



To begin, we took a look at our thesis. Many of us had great thesis statements, but a few needed some work. So, to review, we practiced thesis writing with the handout below. (The notes written in are from working together as a class; they are not my personal opinions, but examples)



A thesis can be written many different ways, but it should include 3 big things:

1. Topic (what the prompt is asking you to write about)
2. Position (which side you are taking)
3. Reasons (these should not be specific scenarios, but rather general reasons or benefits/consequences of the position)

Your thesis should also avoid:

1. First and second person pronouns (I, me, my, you, your)
2. Personal opinion statements (I think, I believe, personally, in my opinion)
3. Any reference to the quote in the prompt

Students made minor changes to their original thesis statement and then rewrote them onto a notecard to be approved. I read them over Monday night and returned them with feedback on Tuesday. If you still have not turned yours in, be sure to do so as it will be worth 25% of the formative grade given at the end of the week!

Next, we took a look at how we could possibly improve our word choice to increase our emotional appeal. We discussed how an essay should not maintain the same scope of focus throughout the essay, but should have more of an hourglass shape.

The beginning of your essay should be a broad view of the topic and position, giving reasons that apply to many possible examples and scenarios.

In other words,

Instead of: Stealing is sometimes acceptable because a person could be hungry. 

Try: Stealing is sometimes acceptable because it could mean the difference between life and death for some. 

The second thesis could apply to MANY examples, not just those involving food or starvation. The writer wants to take a broad look at all the possible reasons it may be acceptable to steal.

However, when the writer begins their body paragraphs, they narrow their focus down to one or two SPECIFIC scenarios and examples and gives specific details. Then, the focus begins to widen again as the writer gives their analysis and commentary, explaining how the example relates back to and proves the thesis.

Then, we move into the conclusion and restated thesis, where the focus broadens out again.

So what does this have to do with emotive language?

Well, your introduction and conclusion are the best places to add this emotive language.

Of course, you can add emotive language to any point in your essay, but it has the most impact as an attention grabber and a clincher.

At the beginning of your essay, your reader is still trying to figure out where you stand on a topic and why. In the body paragraphs, you are trying to prove your point. But by the end of the essay, you should not have only convinced your reader that you are right, but you should transfer your passion to them as well! You don't just want them to agree, you want them to be your ally!

To examine how we can use emotive language, we watched three different motivational speeches from classic movies. While we viewed them, we filled out the handout below.



You can view the movie clips below:


Braveheart (Begin at 3:30 to 5:10)


Rocky (Begin at 1:45 to 3:55)


Pursuit of Happyness (sic) (Begin at 0:24)

On Wednesday, we will discuss how we can add emotive language into our on writing and begin our revising and editing activities that will take us through class on Thursday and help us rewrite our final essays.

Revising and Editing + Sentence Notes: Compound-Complex

Today, we discussed two different topics: sentence structure and how to approach revising multiple choice questions. Below is a handout regarding the fourth sentence type to add to your quincunx: compound-complex sentences



If you have your quincunx: Review the powerpoint below and then copy the information from the picture of MY quincux below that.

If you don't have your quincunx: Review the powerpoint below and fill in the blanks on the handout above with the information from the powerpoint.

Everyone: Complete the short practices on the second page of the handout above. Then complete the sentence identification practices on the third page. We will be going over these together on Friday, March 23rd.

Sorry for my messy handwriting!

Then, we began our practice of revising passages and how to approach these multiple choice questions. Instead of focusing on grammar, spelling, and changes to individual sentences, we have to consider the essay as a whole to accurately answer the questions. So, we began with a strategy called chunking.

Chunking is a strategy where you summarize "chunks" (usually paragraphs) of a passage into a sentence or a single subject. This gives you a sort of outline of a passage that you can use to get a general overview of the focus and organization of the passage itself.

We chunked the first passage of our two revising practices together. When I chunked this passage, I skimmed each paragraph and tried to get an overall idea of what each paragraph discussed.



Then, we moved on to answering the questions with a partner. If you were not in class on block day, print out these practices below and be sure to answer the questions as best as you can. Be ready to discuss and check them over on Friday, March 23rd. 

Socratic Seminar Cram Session!

If you lost your Socratic Seminar materials...

If you are confused by something on your handouts...

If you just need some reassurance and clarification before our seminar on block day...

THIS IS THE POST FOR YOU!

This post contains everything we've done the past three days to prep for our Socratic Seminar on Wednesday, February 28th and Thursday, March 1st.

Below is one of the more important handouts. It was printed in class on purple cardstock.

There are 3 types of questions on this handout:

• Level 1 Plot Questions - These questions are OPTIONAL. You should really only complete these two questions if  you literally didn't understand something about the book and you absolutely need clarification!
• Examples: How did Equality escape from the Palace of Corrective Detention? Why don't they have electricity? What did they find in the house at the end? (*SPOILERS*)
• Analysis Questions - "Analysis" really just means breaking down a whole into parts and looking more closely at the parts. This is any kind of question that generates conversation (not just a simple question-answer interaction) between multiple individuals. It could be about a particular concept (Rand's philosophy, point of view, etc.), symbols (lightbulb, books, colors, the forest, etc.), or a part of the plot (Liberty and Equality's relationship, the rules of the City, the end of the book, etc.). Your study guide questions are a good place to start, but be sure you are asking a question that will generate a conversation, not just a simple recall answer. 
• Examples: Do you think Liberty and Equality are ready to be parents? Do you think Prometheus and Gaea are appropriate names for them? Why did Ayn Rand have Equality build a lightbulb as opposed to something else? 
• "Light Conversation" Questions - These are the "gossip-y" type questions you ask as the seminar gets rolling and maybe begins wrapping up. They are not questions that require a huge depth of thought to answer, but you have to have read the book to be able to answer it. 
• Examples: If you could ask Ayn Rand one thing, what would you ask? If there were a sound track for this book, what songs would be on it? If you lived in this society and Equality came back to save you, would you go?

Yes,  you must do the last two sections: My Favorite Parts and Other Smart Things I Can Talk About.

The only requirements for it to be smart are:

1. You are passionate about it
2. You can talk about it for at least 15 seconds

For each question, if it asks for an answer, YOU MUST GIVE ONE. It's okay if it's "wrong." The worst that will happen is someone will say "I disagree" during the seminar. 

You also need PAGE NUMBERS that give an example of what you are asking about or prove your answer. These page numbers aren't for me. They are for you! The less time you spend flipping through your book, the more time you have during the seminar to contribute and earn credit!

This is the tracking sheet we will use on block day. You don't have to do anything with it until the day of the seminar. It was printed on bright green cardstock.

This packet is full of optional resources. It lists types of questions to ask and even gives question stems. It is NOT a required assignment. It is meant to be a "resource" or helpful tool. 

Remember, students who are not prepared on block day will be given an alternative assignment that will take the entire class period to complete. 

Not sure what a Socratic Seminar is?

Well, in class today, we watched part of a video that demonstrates a real Socratic Seminar! You can see it below. A few notes though:

• In the video, you'll see the kids have red cups on their desks. This is a tracking tool used by the teacher. We will not be using that. 
• These students are discussing gender roles as a pre-reading activity. They have not yet read the text and so most of their answers are references to their personal experiences. In our seminar, you should be referring to the book just as often as your own experiences. 
• The outer circle is interacting by providing feedback digitally. They are not just chilling on their phones.

Intro to Socratic Seminar

Today, we introduced our upcoming activity, a Socratic Seminar over "Anthem."

According to ReadThinkWrite.org, a Socratic Seminar is...

a formal discussion, based on a text, in which the leader asks open-ended questions. Within the context of the discussion, students listen closely to the comments of others, thinking critically for themselves, and articulate their own thoughts and their responses to the thoughts of others.

Below is the information packet students received today regarding the purpose, process, preparations, and expectations of our Socratic Seminar. We reviewed it in class and discussed what students were responsible for doing to prepare and participate and what I as the teacher will do to prepare them for their participation.



To summarize, we condensed it down to these responsibilities:

Students are responsible for... Writing questions to pose during the seminar BEFORE the seminar date Preparing to respond to questions by marking text evidence Having knowledge of the text and of the overall plot Communicating with peers in a grade-appropriate and respectful manner Articulating ideas and supporting with evidence as necessary Taking notes over the their own participation and the participation of their partner

Ms. Hamman is responsible for... Providing feedback to guide question writing Structuring preparation time to assist students with writing quality questions Creating and providing materials to assist students in question writing Creating and providing materials to allow for self-evaluation during the seminar

On Friday, students will receive a prep packet to help them collect their best questions from their study guides as well as the tracking sheet for use on the day of the seminar. These handouts will both be turned in at the end of the seminar and will contribute to the student's overall grade. 

"Anthem" Chapter 1 and 2 Review Map

Below is our powerpoint from class today. The last slide gives directions for the map activity we began in class. This map is due Tuesday, February 13th.

Don't forget to read chapter 3 and 4 for homework tonight!

"Anthem" Annotation Activities and Notes

Today we reviewed chapter 1 of "Anthem" together in class and then proceeded into our annotation activities.

Now, "Anthem" is not a very long book, nor is the plot too complex. It is a relatively simple story on the surface. However, the author has left many things deliberately unexplained within the text. 

This intentionally vagueness is due to the perspective or point of view of the text. Since it is told from the first person point of view, we see the society through Equality's eyes. Equality has only ever known this society. In his heart, he believes his society tries to do the right thing, but he is beginning to see the cracks in the wall. He struggles to understand the seemingly unfair and contradictory actions of his government and society. 

For instance, consider this passage from chapter 1:

So we awaited our turn in the great hall and then we heard the Council of Vocations call our name: "Equality 7-2521." We walked to the dais, and our legs did not tremble, and we looked up at the Council. There were five members of the Council, three of the male gender and two of the female. Their hair was white and their faces were cracked as the clay of a dry river bed. They were old. They seemed older than the marble of the Temple of the World Council. They sat before us and they did not move. And we saw no breath to stir the folds of their white togas. But we knew that they were alive, for a finger of the hand of the oldest rose, pointed to us, and fell down again. This was the only thing which moved, for the lips of the oldest did not move as they said: "Street Sweeper."

And we looked straight into the eyes of the Council, but their eyes were as cold blue glass buttons.

Equality is witnessing reality and processing it for what it is at face value and what his society has told him to be true. But we see the society for what it really is: a kind of crazy, twisted collectivist disaster. So, Equality's observations about the Council of Vocations is strange. They do not breathe, they do not move their lips when they talk, their eyes look like glass buttons...

Almost as if they weren't alive at all!

Now, that sounds crazy, but what about this book hasn't had a touch of strangeness to it? 

Ultimately, we never will find out the true answer, so don't bother trying to skip ahead in the book to find out (although, if you want to read ahead, that would be fine! 😏)

The point is this: The author is giving us all the clues we need to see Equality's world for how it really is and how he really feels about it even when he can't admit it or see it himself. But we have to find it. 

And we can do that through annotating!

So, consider the notes from each class below:

The lovely drawings I did in the margin helped us to answer #4 about the effect that the use of colors have in the text. 

Color can have a strong influence on our emotion and thoughts considering how it interacts with our sense of smell and taste, both of which are strong memory triggers. Author's use it to subtly influence our mood and connect with us on an empathetic level (emotions and feelings). 

The fact that the color grey is used in the context of the house and is associated with dullness, boring, bland feelings and things that are considered typically unpleasant - smoke, dust, old, death - give us a hint as to how Equality feels when he is at home. He feels trapped, bored, worn out. 

But the colors blue and green are connected with the outdoors - the sky and the shadows outside - and are associated with more positive feelings like endlessness, freedom, happiness, and peace. When he is outside, he feels the possibility of growth and freedom. 

A few other points about this activity:

• Don't forget to answer in complete sentences, like I did in the examples above.
• When it asks you to justify your answer with support from the text, THAT MEANS YOU NEED TEXT EVIDENCE!
• The effect of the words isn't about how YOU feel, its what the use of those words tell  you about the characters, setting, or plot. 

Below is the annotation activity that is due at the end of class on Friday, February 9th. Students may work on it alone or with a partner. 

Just a quick note about this activity. The brain holds only 7 slots for short-term memory. In other words, if you mark seven different words or phrases in a text, your brain will remember why you marked those seven things for a short time. However, as soon as something else comes into your brain - your partner asks you a question, you remember a song you like, your phone buzzes and you wonder who texted you - one of those slots is automatically filled with something new and you have lost the previous thought. 

When you are annotating, just circling/highlighting/underlining the word isn't enough! Your brain can't hold all that intangible data! You should be writing notes off in the margin as to WHY you marked that word. What does it remind you of? What is it associated with? Was it confusing? Was it surprising? Even just one word notes to yourself will suffice. Trust me, it will help.

Finally, if you don't know what a word means, LOOK IT UP!

Levels of Questioning Notes and Practice

Today, students were given the study guide for the first half of "Anthem."  You can see the document or print it out below.



You may notice that the study guide itself is blank. This is because students will be composing their own questions regarding their reading and answering them using the text. In order to do this, we need to identify what TYPES of questions students will be composing.

We went over the handout below in class.



As you can see, there are three levels of questions: recall, analysis, and synthesis.

Level I: Recall questions are questions that can be answered directly from the text. They are questions the author explicitly or directly gives us the answer to. These questions do not take much thought to answer and usually only have one right answer. We do not have to draw conclusions or make inferences, because the text will say straight out what the answer is.

For example, 

What is the name of the character with glasses in Lord of the Flies? 
Answer: Piggy. 

The author tells us that Piggy wears glasses directly in the text.

Level II: Analysis questions are questions the author doesn't directly answer for us, but instead leaves clues that we put together to come up with an answer. These questions may take more thought because we have to prove our answer with text evidence and our interpretation of that evidence. Because we are interpreting the text to come up with an answer, there are a few possible correct answers to a Level II question depending on the reader's perspective.

A somewhat nonsensical level II question :)

For example,

What was Haemon's reason for killing himself in Antigone?
Answer: Haemon killed himself  because he did not want to live without his love, Antigone. The messenger observes that when Creon found Haemon crying over Antigone's body, he was "lamenting her, his love lost underground, crying out that his father had stolen her away from him." (Exo.61-63)

OR

Answer: Haemon killed himself as punishment for his father's terrible behavior. Haemon even threatens his father with this directly when Creon declares Antigone will be executed: "Then she must die. But her death will cause another." (3. 119)

The ultimate reason for Haemon's death is not communicated to us directly, so we must infer based on the observations and actions of the characters.

Level III: Synthesis questions are questions that go BEYOND the text. These are questions that involve the thematic subjects and thematic statements of the text, but are questions that could also be answered by someone who has never read the text before. Answers to Level III questions can be used to further your understanding of the text as a whole, the value in reading it, or its application to the real world. Level III questions take the most thought to answer and there are many possible "correct" answers because they rely primarily on the reader's understanding of the thematic subjects rather than just the plot. Students should still use text evidence to connect to their answers for Level III questions.

A wonderful example of a level III question!

For example,

What does it truly mean to be loyal to your family?
Answer: Being loyal to your family doesn't always mean doing everything your family wants. It can sometimes mean honoring the wishes of some family members, while ignoring the selfish desires of other family members. For example, Antigone showed loyalty to her family by ensuring that her brother, Polyneices, received a proper burial even though her sister, Ismene, told her it was a bad idea. Antigone knew Ismene's desires were more selfish and so she had to ignore them in order to remain truly loyal to the wishes of her family as a whole.

You may also use personal experiences to answer Level III questions, but you must still find some way to connect it back to the events, characters, symbols, or references within the text.

Below is the story we read aloud in class today. Below that are the example questions we came up with in each class. Make sure to review them and bring any questions you may have to class with you tomorrow when we will begin reading chapter 1 and writing questions together for that chapter.

Ayn Rand Interview

Our next piece is a novella called Anthem by Ayn Rand. During block day this week, we watched a few minutes of an interview she did with Mike Wallace in 1959. In this video, she explains some of her ideas. For most of you, her ideas are very different than what you've been taught at home and at school (and at church, if you attend). We watched the first 9 minutes during class, and I encourage you to watch the whole interview. By watching it, you learn more about her ideas, and understanding her ideas may make Anthem easier for you to understand.

Aristotle once said, "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Rand's ideas may be very different than your own, and I think that's what makes her interesting to read.


We will be watching the interview in class on Friday, February 2nd and answering the questions below afterwards.

Handouts from Friday - Grammar Review Packet and "Anthem" Notes/Anticipation Guide

Below is the Grammar Test Review packet. It is extra credit on the grammar and writing test.



Below is the Guided Notes for the introduction to "Anthem" and, below that, is the powerpoint with the information needed to fill in these blanks.





Finally, this is the anticipation guide students completed on Friday and Monday. We used this assignment to lead our debate and discussion in class today. This assignment was due Tuesday, January 23.

Grammar - Quincunx

This week, we will be focusing primarily on...GRAMMAR! Of course, the most EXCITING subject in all of English!

Okay, so grammar isn't totally exciting and amazing, but it IS important!

Today, we focused on grammar in terms of sentence structure by creating a tool called a quincunx (pronounced kwin-chunk). Creating the quincunx involves some paper folding, so watch the video  below to learn how.

Supplies needed: One piece of 8.5x11 or 11x17 paper, scissors (optional)



Once you have your quincunx created, we first wrote notes about the building blocks of sentences: words, phrases, and clauses.

Words are the smallest units; you can't have a sentence shorter than one word!

Phrases are groups of words that are connected in some way like "a brown dog" or "runs down the street."

Clauses are like phrases but they must have a subject (something doing some kind of action) and a predicate (everything after the subject, including the verb/action). For example "a brown dog runs down the street."

Independent clauses can stand on their own as sentences, like the one above: "A brown dog runs down the street."

Dependent clauses cannot stand on their own as sentences because they do not represent complete thoughts. For instance, if I attached the subordinating conjunction "while" to the clause above:
"While a brown dog runs down the street..."

The first sentence type we took notes over were simple sentences

Notice the sample sentence at the bottom of the notes.

The second sentence type we looked at were compound sentences. Compound sentences can be created by joining two simple sentences (or more) with a comma and a coordinating conjunction (also called FANBOYS).

We took notes over coordinating conjunctions on the inside of our quincunx.

On block day, we will discuss complex sentences, dependent clauses, and subordinating conjunctions as well as fill in examples from both our reading and writing of each sentence type.

Get some sleep tonight and remember, it's always in style to use proper grammar and punctuation!

Capitalization Rules

During the second half of class, we reviewed capitalization rules, which you can see below:



A few rules not listed: you also capitalize regions such as the South, the Midwest, etc. You would also capitalize the adjective forms of these terms, such as "Southerner." You should also capitalize acronyms such as R&B, NBC, and USA. 


Using these capitalization rules, we then applied our knowledge to a couple of sample essays that have all capitalization removed. We highlighted or circled all the words in the essay that are supposed to be capitalized. These practices are due at the beginning of class on Tuesday, January 9th.

HINT: There are 38 words that should be capitalized on page 1 and 27 words that should be capitalized on page 2.

Persuasive Essay Review: Annotating

Today, we began our review of persuasive essays by completing an annotation activity. We began first by reviewing what we would be annotating for and creating our color coding key.

So, we are looking for 8 different things in our sample essays (and eventually, our own essays).

1. Indented paragraphs, marked by an arrow
2. Thesis statement, which I will highlight in PINK
3. Topic sentences, which I have underlined in RED. Topic sentences should relate to the thesis. If they don't, they aren't topic sentences. 
4. Detailed examples, concrete details, and proper nouns, which I will underline in LIGHT BLUE. Proper nouns should be denoted with an exclamation mark. 
5. Commentary, or how your detailed examples relate back to your topic sentence or thesis,  which we will denote in the margins. You can't have commentary if you don't give detailed examples!
6. Restated thesis in the conclusion, which will be underlined. 
7. Illegible words, which we will circle and denote off in the margins. 
8. Transition words and phrases, which we will draw a box around. We will also note if they transition between similar ideas or transition to a new idea. 

Afterwards, we will use the scoring guide to determine what score point each essay deserves and why. 

We began with the first essay in THIS PACKET. It says Persuasive - 8 at the top. These are all sample essays over the prompt "Write an essay stating your position on whether it is better to live in a large city or a small town." 

First, we marked the indented paragraphs with arrows. This helps us see the structure of the essay, but also makes it easier to find things like the thesis and topic sentences. 

Next, we read through the introduction and found the thesis. We wanted the sentence that told us which side the author picked and why. 

We did find a sentence that told us the author thought that large cities were better and small towns were not so great, but it didn't really gives us a reason why, so we made a note of that off to the side. 

Now, we had to go through the body paragraphs and locate the sentence that told us WHY the author believed big cities were good and small towns were not so good. It took us a little while to get to it because the author begins by telling us BAD things about big cities, which doesn't really match their thesis. Finally, about three sentences towards the end of the first body paragraph, they state why they like big cities: because of what they provide. 

The second body paragraph also began by giving evidence that contradicts the author's thesis. It wasn't until the final sentence of this body paragraph that the author states a reason why they dislike small towns: it's "just not my choice."

Our next step was to go back into the body paragraphs and identify the detailed examples - those things that occur in real life or in our observations that prove our reasons are valid and logical. We identified two examples in the first body paragraph: things you need are close by and it could be considered safer in a big city. 

Notice that the author uses NO proper nouns! This means they really don't have specific examples or concrete details. Without these two things, it is unlikely that they scored higher than a 2.We made a note of the lack of proper nouns off to the side. 

When we looked more closely at the second body paragraph, we couldn't really find any examples. We found the author's opinion on the friendliness of small town citizens, but no examples or observations they could point to in their writing. Again, they used no proper nouns. 

For step 5, we determined that it was impossible for the author to give any commentary - to explain how their examples relate to their thesis - because their examples were too vague to comment upon. We noted the lack of commentary at the top of the essay. 

No commentary makes me a sad panda. 

Next, we turned to the conclusion to try and locate the restated thesis where the author restates that they think big cities are a good place to live. Out of the three sentences in the conclusion, we decided the first sentence most obviously reaffirmed the author's opinion that larger cities were a better place to live. 

Most of our classes agreed the majority of the essay was easy to read, but a few people made note of a couple words that may have been considered illegible such as "alot" and "automobiles" in the second body paragraph.

Finally, we located 3 transitions within the essay. They were annotated by drawing a box around them. We also observed that the third transition, "furthermore," was used incorrectly by the author. Rather than further explaining the same idea, the author actually transitions to a new idea. 

By the way, the bonus question this week is the purpose of transitions and at least two examples. To get credit, put your answer on your post-it note when I hand them out after the announcements on Friday. 

In order to determine the score point of the essay, we summarized our findings regarding the essays organization, examples/details, and use of language (transitions, spelling, punctuation, and grammar). 

In short, we agreed that this author had alot to work on, but ultimately had a coherent structure to their essay - intro, body paragraphs, conclusion. They also had a thesis, despite it not being very clear. They also gave a reason for their position, but did not clearly support it. Many students suggested that, based on these characteristics, the essay deserved a score point of 2. We highlighted a few key phrases in our scoring guide to justify this score. 

On Friday, we will continue to annotate essay examples with a partner before moving on to annotating independently. We will also complete the persuasive triangle handout students also received today. 

Fall Semester Reflection and Goal Setting

Welcome back from our winter break! I know it was probably very difficult to leave our warm beds these past few days, but we are almost to the weekend and I am very happy to see most everyone back in class.

Yesterday, we began by reflecting on the progress we have made so far this year. Specifically, we completed a Reflection and Goal Setting form. You can see it at the end of this post.

Does your progress in the fall semester show your true potential?

In order to complete this assignment, you will need to log in to HAC. If you are unable to access your HAC account because you do not know your password, your house secretary should be able to give you your current password.

Here are the steps to take to access the correct view in HAC to complete this assignment:

1. Log in to HAC
2. Click on Classes
3. At the top of this page, there are three drop down menus. Select the one that comes after the words "report card run"
4. Select 1. This is your first nine weeks grades.
5. Hit Refresh View to the right.
6. Your first nine weeks grades should appear. Record your first nine weeks average in the space provided on the handout. Count up how many Zs or 0s are listed. Write this off to the side.
7. Return to the drop down menu at the top of the page. Now select 2. This is your second nine weeks grade. 
8. Hit Refresh View to the right.
9. Your second nine weeks grades should appear. Record your second nine weeks average in the space provided on the handout. Count up how many Zs or 0s are listed. Add that to the total you wrote in step 6. This is your answer to #4 on your handout. 
• Some phones or computers may show a prompt that there are multiple marking periods in a particular nine weeks. If this appears, select the option S1 from the drop down menu and hit "Continue"
10. You may not be able to view your total semester average. You may leave that space blank. 
11. If either your first or second 9 weeks average is below an 80, you need to move on to #2 on your handout. If both averages are above an 80, you can skip #2.
12. Complete the rest of the handout. 

Students who were absent from class should turn this assignment in as soon as possible. You can find the handout below.

Final Exam Resources!

Here is the schedule for final exams this week!



And here is the final exam review given today in class. Completed (100% COMPLETE) reviews may be turned in on exam day. On the second half of the review - the section over concepts and skills - students may demonstrate their understanding in one of a few ways:

• Writing a definition
• Giving examples
• Making a list
• Drawing a diagram
• Attaching old work demonstrating mastery and understanding of the skill or concept

Students may use whichever method they deem appropriate.

LOTF Ch 7-12 Test Review

Below are all of the resources to prepare for our upcoming test over Lord of the Flies chapter 7-12. Keep an eye on this page to see if there are any additions.

Quizlet over chapters 7-12

LOTF Silent Conversation and Annotation Stations

Here are all the documents from our station activities today.

Station 1 is an annotation station. Follow these directions to annotate this passage and respond to the analysis questions on your own paper.

Station 2 is another annotation station. Follow these directions to annotate this passage and respond to the analysis questions on your own paper.

Station 3 and 4 are both silent conversation theme stations. For this station, follow these directions (they are the same for both station 3 and station 4) to create a response to TWO of the following themes:

1. Anyone can become savage if the situation is bad enough.
2. Leadership is a balance between discipline and wisdom.
3. Savagery lives in even the most civilized people.
4. Fear brings out the worst traits in people.

Remember that for these stations you need to pick one character or symbol and you need TWO quotes along with analysis to support your response. 

Station 5 is a review station. Complete this review of chapters 7 - 9 using your book. The page numbers that contain the answers are in parentheses at the end of each item. 

How to Write a Theme Statement

Only 17 days remaining until Christmas Break! Let's start this off with some good news! Say "hello" to our newest classmate, Regal the Eagle!

That's the answer to our bonus question this week. Be ready to give the answer on Friday for some candy!

This week, we will begin discussing theme and theme statements in relation to Lord of the Flies. 

We began today by clarifying the difference between a thematic subject and a theme statement. A thematic subject is usually one or two words and identifies the subject matter present in the text. A theme statement extends this to include the author's message or perspective on the subject. 

For example, here is a list of all of the thematic subjects we came up with during class based on our current reading:

Survival
Savagery
Childhood
Family 
Obstacles
Civilization
Isolation
Danger
Hope
Leadership
Fear
Nature
Adventure
Loneliness
Beauty
Innocence
Logic/Intelligence
Learning
Death
Evil/The Devil
Exploration




Imperfection
Maturity
Hatred
Masculinity
Teamwork
Friendship
Responsibility
Recklessness
Culture
Freedom
Violence/Ruthlessness
Self-defense
Adaptation
Sanity
Authority
Discipline
Courage
Instinct
Corruption
Abandonment
Identity

We then proceeded to begin step 1 of our Theme Statement Generator. We started by narrowing down our list of thematic subjects to 1-3 ideas. 

You can use this generator for any text - just insert the title into that blank and PRESTO!

As you can see, I chose more than 3 (sorry, overachiever alert!). I chose subjects that I felt like, if I had to, I could explain them and how they show up in LOTF verbally.

For the next step, find out who the author of the text is. So, I reached into my bag and found my book and...

Yes, I was extra enough to make a gif of me getting my book out. WHEN IN DOUBT, TAKE YOUR BOOK OUT!

AHA! The author is William Golding. Not WG. Not Will. Not Gucchi Golding. Not Ya Boi Willy G. 

William. Golding. 

Put the author's name in the FIRST blank of the question in step 2. 

Now, it's decision time. Take a look at your 3 (or 5 in my case) thematic subjects and choose ONE that you feel like, if you had to, you could write at least three sentences about how that thematic subject shows up in LOTF.

So, I chose to focus on the thematic subject of fear, since it shows up in so many different ways in the text. I wrote this subject in the second blank of the question in step 2.

But, now I have to actually ANSWER that question.

When it says "what does William Golding believe/say about fear," it doesn't mean what did he write about that had to do with fear. It's asking me what does he believe about the CONCEPT of fear. What does William Golding have to teach us about this very powerful emotion? What lesson can we learn from this text regarding fear?

So, I thought about it and considered the way that fear affects the course of the story and the characters involved. A majority of the boys, except possibly Roger and maybe Jack, are not inherently mean. In fact, they are more interested in having fun and playing around and swimming in the lagoon than anything else at the beginning of the book. It isn't until someone brings up a beastie or a snake that the boys begin to change and focus more on "survival" and destroying whatever might threaten them. 

It isn't until each of the boys feel fearful or threatened by something that they begin to turn to a more brutal nature. Jack's role as leader of hunters is threatened by Ralph's authority; Piggy's intelligence and logical voice is threatened by the bullying and teasing of the other boys; the littluns' safety is threatened by the Beast. 

From that, I began to deduce that maybe William Golding was trying to teach us that fear can bring out our worst tendencies. It can uncover our darkest potentials (thanks, Miguel V. from 2nd period for that awesome insight!)

When writing your response, try to avoid just finishing by saying "is important/good/bad/some other adjective." You can say this, but you need to follow it up with a "because."

Still having trouble? Try these sentence stems:

Thanks for the sentence stems, Mrs. Wise!

The last step is the EASIEST. Just cross out the first 3-4 words (the part that says "William Golding believes/says that...") and PRESTO!

There's a working theme statement!

I say WORKING theme statement only because we have to do a little fine-tuning to make sure the metaphorical engine of our literary analysis powerhouse is running smoothly. 

Go through each of the fine-tuning tips and check off each one as you confirm you have followed their guidelines.

And that's it! We wrote our final theme statements on a notecard and put our names on the blank side, so if you were not in class today, be sure to get a notecard when you come to class tomorrow to turn yours in!

Now get a good night's sleep and be ready for our station activities tomorrow!

LOTF Foldable Part 2

On block day, after we finished our essay, we set up the last three sections of our Lord of the Flies foldable. Remember that you should be adding to this throughout your reading of the book!

The first section we set up was the one titled "Symbolism." Symbolism is when you attach intangible or abstract ideas (peace, love, evil, bravery, etc.) to a tangible, visible object or symbol (dove, heart, snake, lion, etc.). Tangible items are things you can see, hold, buy at Walmart, or just generally physically interact with. Intangible things are those big ideas that you can't hold, buy at Walmart, or physically interact with. You can experience and express them, however, using symbols.

For instance, the symbol we most commonly associate with love is a heart.

There is nothing inherent in the shape of a heart that means love. Human beings have just used it to express love because love is a big, complex, intangible idea that we can't exactly buy at Walmart and give to people.

In Lord of the Flies, we see TONS of symbols that represent big ideas like authority, evil, intelligence, and even paradise. For instance, the conch that Ralph uses to call the boys acts as a symbol of order and authority.

Ralph blowing the conch like...

Set up your symbolism flap like shown above. Then, you will pick ONE of the symbols below to track throughout the novel. There isn't an "easy" one, by the way. They are all equally difficult/easy.

• Conch
• Fire
• Piggy's glasses
• Pigs
• The island
• A mask
• Spear
• The "Beast"

Then, on your flap, you will draw a picture of your symbol, find out what it represents, and who it is associated with throughout the book. Below, you will collect quotes about your symbol (WITH PAGE NUMBERS) as you read. 

The next section is the Transition Tracker. 

One of the main themes of this novel is the idea that man is constantly struggling between the urge to be civilized and the urge to be savage. As the boys' time on the island lengthens, we will see them go through the same struggle. So, we will be tracking 3 things as they waver between civilized and savage.

Set up this section like it is pictured above. I've given  you a freebie for the boys. They  begin as civilized because they are still making rules, electing a leader, and trying to be logical.

Finally, we have plot. 

Set up this final section as it is pictured above. I've labeled the first and last part of our plot pyramid because students usually forget these two exist. The first is the exposition, or the part of the plot where we learn what the situation or setting is. The last is the denouement. That's basically like the epilogue of the story. 

In the example above, I've also given you a few "milestones" to get you started. The first conflict is where Ralph and Jack cannot agree on who should lead and how. It gets progressively worse from there, honestly. The climax of the story will occur in about chapter 8 or 9, so you can track the events of the plot as you read without wondering if you've gone too far.