English 1
Published on February 22nd, 2021
Welcome to English 1!
I will be updating this page weekly with an overview for the upcoming week. I know this year is unprescedented, but I hope it will be a great one that we spend together. Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions.
2/22/21-2/26/21
Overview
- Monday and Tuesday of this week, we'll focus on discussion questions for chapters 1-2 of To Kill a Mockingbird.
- Block day and Friday will be spent on a review of the first draft of the Animal Farm Final Assignment. The final draft will be assigned at the end of the week.
2/16/21-2/19/21
Overview
- Tuesday of this week is an asynchronous day for the English department. Student will check in with an attendance question and work on the first draft of the Animal Farm Final Writing Assignment which is due that evening by 11:59 p.m.
- The rest of the week will be spent on introducing To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
2/8/21-2/11/21
Overview
- On Monday and Tuesday, students will be introduced to the final assignment for Animal Farm, which is a personal response essay. We'll review the prompt as well as characterictics and examples of personal response essays.
- Block day will be a writing day for the above assignment, and students will be able to have one-on-one meeting with me to ask questions, brainstorm ideas, etc. The first draft of the personal response essay will be due on Tuesday, February 16.
- There is no school on Friday, February 12 or Monday, February 15 due to President's Day.
2/1/21-2/5/21
Overview
- At the beginning of this week, we will complete our review of the first draft of the Animal Farm Speech Assignment.
- The rest of the week will be spent on determining Socratic Seminar questions for the final Socratic Seminar for Animal Farm, having the seminar, and wrapping up the novel.
1/25/21-1/29/21
Overview
- On Monday, we will wrap up our discussion of the Socratic Seminar questions and will also begin looking at additional questions students have about chapters 1-8 of Animal Farm.
- The above will likely spill over into Tuesday. Chapter 9 is also due on this day.
- The second half of the week will be spent on reviewing the first draft of the Animal Farm Speech Assignment.
- Look ahead into next week: student will finish reading Animal Farm and have another Socratic Seminar based on questions they developed themselves.
1/19/21-1/22/21
Overview
- The Animal Farm Speech Assignment is due on Tuesday, January 19 by 11:59 p.m. and students have that asynchronous day to work on it.
- On block day, we'll have our first virtual Socratic Seminar based on discussion questions given out last week.
- We'll spend Friday reviewing the discussion and highlighting the most important points.
1/11/21-1/15/21
Overview
- We'll begin this week by completing the questions activity for chapters 1-5 of Animal Farm.
- Students were introduced to rhetoric and rhetorical analysis when we read Old Major's speech in chapter 1. We'll build on that introduction this week by discussing how to analyze syntax, specifically, and applying that to Squealer's speech in chapter 7. Students will also practice by crafting a short, persuasive speech themselves.
- Students will also read through chapter 8 by block day this week and engage in discussion questions that will aks them to tie events from the last few chapters to those from the earlier chapters.
1/5/21-1/8/21
Overview
- This week, we'll discuss and take note on the value of questions and learn how to develop effective questions.
- We'll use the above to review Chapters 1-5 of Animal Farm.
11/16/20-11/20/20
Overview
- This week, we will begin by finishing analyzing chapter 1 of Animal Farm with a specific focus on Old Major's speech that we will review through a rhetorical lens.
- We'll then move onto chapters 2 and 3 (which are due on block day). Students will be given some specific dicussion questions for analysis.
- We'll be reviewing the first drafts of "The Most Dangerous Game" essays when we come back from Thanksgiving break.
10/26/20-10/30/20
Overview
- We'll begin this week by working toward arriving at the central theme of "The Most Dangerous Game," which will lead into the essay prompt for this short story.
- We'll be splitting the essay into parts, and will first work on the thesis. We'll go over notes and examples on writing a thesis statement, and students will begin working on those statements at the end of the week.
10/19/20-10/23/20
Overview
- This week, we'll be finishing reading and discussing "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell, then discussing the central theme of the story.
- If time allows, we'll begin discussing writing a thesis statement for a literary analysis essay.
10/12/20-10/16/20
Overview
- The final draft of "The Interlopers" writing assignment is due Monday, October 12.
- We'll begin this week by wrapping up on discussion on the meaning of evil, which connects to the opening of "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell and will be important to our understanding of the characters.
- The rest of the week will be spent on reading, annotating and discussing the short story with important guiding questions along the way.
10/5/20-10/9/20
Overview
- We'll begin this week by completing our review of the first draft of "The Interlopers" writing assignment. The final draft of this writing assignment will be due on Monday, October 12 by 11:59 p.m. on Google Classroom.
- We will then begin our final story for this unit, "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell. The final essay for this unit will be based on this story.
9/28/20-10/2/20
Overview
- We'll begin this week by discussing the "2081" short film that is based on the short story, "Harrison Bergeron," and the ways is which the central theme is affected by the changes made in that film
- We'll then review the first draft of "The Interlopers" writing assignment by reviewing the Notes on Writing, scoring and annotating samples, and annotating your own drafts. The final draft will be assigned to be due one week after we're done reviewing the first drafts.
9/21/20-9/25/20
Overview
- We'll begin this week by finishing reading "Harrison Bergeron," and discussing questions regarding the story that will lead us to the theme.
- We will also watch a 25 minute short film by the same title. Some key parts of the story were changed that comletely change the theme of the story, so we will compare the two (story and film) and explore how the changes to the storyline alternate the theme.
- At the end of the week, we should begin to review the first draft of "The Interlopers" writing assignment.
9/14/20-9/18/20
Overview
- We ended last week with reviewing what theme is, and will begin this week by practicing determining the theme of "The Interlopers" before students are assigned a first draft of a paragraph writing assignment for this story.
- As students are working on their first draft for homework, we'll be reading and analyzing "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut.
9/8/20-9/11/20
Overview
- We will begin this week our first short story, "the Interlopers" by Saki. We'll continue to practice thorough analysis through group and class discussions, and annotation.
- We'll also discuss theme this week, and practice determining the theme in "The Interlopers."
- The final draft of the "My Name" writing assignment will be due this Friday, and I will be available for writing conferences throughout the week during office hours, if needed.
8/31/20-9/4/20
Overview
- This week we'll be going over the Notes on Writing for the first darft of the "My Name" writing diagnostic. This method provides students feedback on their writing while also encourages them to build independence by developing the ability to see flaws in their writing.
- We'll also be reviewing the 9-point writing rubric and writing samples, so students are clear on the rubric.
- Towards the end of the week we will begin our first short story, "the Interlopers" by Saki.
8/24-28/20
Overview
- We will complete the annotation model with "Hairs" by Sandra Cisneros. The annotation model will serve as an annotation example to demostrate the expectations for annotation in the class.
- Students will complete a second annotation of "My Name" by Sandra Cisneros after we've gone over what it means to annotate.
- We will begin looking at the writing rubric and the results of the writing diagnistic towards the end of the week.
8/17-21/20
Overview
- We will spend a couple of days and assignments getting to know one another/connecting.
- I will go over all of the most important information you need to be successful in this class.
- There will be a writing diagnostic on Wednedsay, August 19 to gauge students' analycal and writing skills in order to inform this year's instruction.
- We will begin getting into annotation/analysis skills toward the end of the week.