Monday, January 31
We spent the period reviewing major themes from the first semester, such as American cultural and social diversity, including the conflicts and oppression it has often involved (racism, slavery); changing ideas of Nature from tthe Puritans to the Rationalists to the Romantics; rebellion and civil disobedience; religion; liberty; equality.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Friday, January 28
We continued culture box presentations.
In second and fourth periods, when finished with those presentations, we reviewed the four major types of English sentences: simple (one independdent clause), compound (two or more independent clauses), complex (one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses), and compund-complex (two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses).
We continued culture box presentations.
In second and fourth periods, when finished with those presentations, we reviewed the four major types of English sentences: simple (one independdent clause), compound (two or more independent clauses), complex (one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses), and compund-complex (two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses).
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Wednesday, January 26
We resumed the students' presentation of their "culture boxes." Presentations will wrap up Thursday.
Students should return outside reading books.
Tuesday, January 25
As the final for the semester, students began their oral presentations of the boxes they had made representing their cultural heritages.
We resumed the students' presentation of their "culture boxes." Presentations will wrap up Thursday.
Students should return outside reading books.
Tuesday, January 25
As the final for the semester, students began their oral presentations of the boxes they had made representing their cultural heritages.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Monday, January 24
Preparatory to the final presentations beginning tomorrow, we
(1) went over Friday's handout with its comparison of public speaking and everyday conversation,
and
(2) practiced the techniques presented there by means of an improvisational speaking exercise based on drawing an assortment of items from a sack.
HW due Tuesday:
Culture boxes due; presentations begin.
One day late: 10% penalty; teo days late, 20%. After Wednesday -- too late.
Preparatory to the final presentations beginning tomorrow, we
(1) went over Friday's handout with its comparison of public speaking and everyday conversation,
and
(2) practiced the techniques presented there by means of an improvisational speaking exercise based on drawing an assortment of items from a sack.
HW due Tuesday:
Culture boxes due; presentations begin.
One day late: 10% penalty; teo days late, 20%. After Wednesday -- too late.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Friday, January 21
(1) We explored further the expectations and possibilities for the Culture Box assignment and examine examples of successful boxes from previous years.
(2) Students received and we briefly reviewed a handout with tips on public speaking. On Monday we will conduct a (hopefully fun) exercise in oral presentation to prepare for the presentations on Tuesday.
HW due Monday:
Read today's handout.
HW due Tuesday:
Culture Box (see Documents page) and Oral Presentation.
(1) We explored further the expectations and possibilities for the Culture Box assignment and examine examples of successful boxes from previous years.
(2) Students received and we briefly reviewed a handout with tips on public speaking. On Monday we will conduct a (hopefully fun) exercise in oral presentation to prepare for the presentations on Tuesday.
HW due Monday:
Read today's handout.
HW due Tuesday:
Culture Box (see Documents page) and Oral Presentation.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Thursday, January 20
(1) We read the conclusion of Walden, in which Thoreau explains why he left the woods (for the same reason he went there), and offers hope that society will someday escape the ruts it is in, and that if people are true to their natures and highest aspirations change will come, however unlikely that may seem in the present.
(2) Mr. P handed out the Culture Box project assignment sheet, and students read it and asked questions about it.
Wednesday, January 19
We read the excerpts from the "Brute Neighbors" chapter of Walden, then looked at students' (and Mr. P's) chunks about the accounts of the ants and the loon aas a way of discussing that material.
(1) We read the conclusion of Walden, in which Thoreau explains why he left the woods (for the same reason he went there), and offers hope that society will someday escape the ruts it is in, and that if people are true to their natures and highest aspirations change will come, however unlikely that may seem in the present.
(2) Mr. P handed out the Culture Box project assignment sheet, and students read it and asked questions about it.
Wednesday, January 19
We read the excerpts from the "Brute Neighbors" chapter of Walden, then looked at students' (and Mr. P's) chunks about the accounts of the ants and the loon aas a way of discussing that material.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Friday, January 14
We revisited the word "deliberate" and examined the central section of Walden beginning "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately . . .." What Thoreau means by this a is a key to what he is about.
HW due Tuesday:
Read the selections from the “Brute Neighbors” chapter of Walden (pp. 240-43, up to the “Conclusion”) and type one 87-word chunk answering the following question: What meaning or purpose do the Battle of the Ants and the Story of the Loon share? (Or, put differently, what common statement do the two incidents make?) Combine CM and CDs.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Thursday, January 13
We resumed our reading from Walden (interrupted one week ago), examining the tone of Thoreau's accounts of the "shanty Irishmen" and of his root cellar, concluding that whatever the differences, the two passages share a decidedly cool detachment.
HW due Tuesday:
Read the selections from the “Brute Neighbors” chapter of Walden (pp. 240-43, up to the “Conclusion”) and type one 87-word chunk answering the following question: What meaning or purpose do the Battle of the Ants and the Story of the Loon share? (Or, put differently, what common statement do the two incidents make?) Combine CM and CDs.
We resumed our reading from Walden (interrupted one week ago), examining the tone of Thoreau's accounts of the "shanty Irishmen" and of his root cellar, concluding that whatever the differences, the two passages share a decidedly cool detachment.
HW due Tuesday:
Read the selections from the “Brute Neighbors” chapter of Walden (pp. 240-43, up to the “Conclusion”) and type one 87-word chunk answering the following question: What meaning or purpose do the Battle of the Ants and the Story of the Loon share? (Or, put differently, what common statement do the two incidents make?) Combine CM and CDs.
Thursday, January 13
We resumed our reading (interrupted a week ago) from Thoreau's Walden, puzzling over Thoreau's accounts of the "shanty Irishmen" and of the root cellar. We concluded that the two have in common a certain cool detachment toward their subjects on the author's part.
HW due Tuesday:
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Tuesday, January 11
We read more of Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail," specifically the beginning (not included in our textbook) in which he addresses the criticisms of the clergymen to whom the open letter was addressed, and we compared it with Emerson's "Self-Reliance," especially the two pieces' references to Socrates and Jesus as types of heroic individuals condemned in their own time but revered by people of later ages.
We discussed in this connection a quotation from a Mignon McLaughlin:
"Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers."
We read more of Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail," specifically the beginning (not included in our textbook) in which he addresses the criticisms of the clergymen to whom the open letter was addressed, and we compared it with Emerson's "Self-Reliance," especially the two pieces' references to Socrates and Jesus as types of heroic individuals condemned in their own time but revered by people of later ages.
We discussed in this connection a quotation from a Mignon McLaughlin:
"Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers."
Monday, January 10, 2011
Monday, January 10
Students turned in their outside reading essays, which also must be submitted to turnitin.com.
We finished watching, and began discussing, Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience." Why should we celebrate the law-defying, peace-disrupting, anti-social views and actions of such figures as Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King?
Students turned in their outside reading essays, which also must be submitted to turnitin.com.
We finished watching, and began discussing, Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience." Why should we celebrate the law-defying, peace-disrupting, anti-social views and actions of such figures as Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King?
Friday, January 7, 2011
Friday, January 7
Students worked in pairs to edit each other's first drafts of their Outside Reading papers.
HW due Monday:
Final drafts of the Outside Reading assignment, along with first drafts and peer edit sheets.
Also, students must turn papers in to turnitin.com
Class IDs: Per. 1: 3622528
Per. 2: 3622529
Per. 3: 3622531 I may have given period 3 the wrong ID number.
Per. 4: 3622532
Password: room301
Students worked in pairs to edit each other's first drafts of their Outside Reading papers.
HW due Monday:
Final drafts of the Outside Reading assignment, along with first drafts and peer edit sheets.
Also, students must turn papers in to turnitin.com
Class IDs: Per. 1: 3622528
Per. 2: 3622529
Per. 3: 3622531 I may have given period 3 the wrong ID number.
Per. 4: 3622532
Password: room301
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Thursday, January 6
We continued reading in Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" ("Resistance to Civil Government").
Mr. P announced that tomorrrow's essay deadline would be the seadline for first drafts, and that the final draft will be due on Monday.
HW due Friday:
Full first draft of the Outside Reading assignment.
HW due Monday:
Final draft due. Typed. Minimum 600 words.
We continued reading in Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" ("Resistance to Civil Government").
Mr. P announced that tomorrrow's essay deadline would be the seadline for first drafts, and that the final draft will be due on Monday.
HW due Friday:
Full first draft of the Outside Reading assignment.
HW due Monday:
Final draft due. Typed. Minimum 600 words.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Tuesday, January 4
We put aside Walden for the time being and read from Thoreau's other masterpiece, "Resistance to Civil Government" (aka "Civil Disobedience") as background to the film on Gandhi which the class will watch tomorrow in Mr. P's absence. We also read the biography of Thoreau on pp. 230 & 231 in the textbook.
HW due Friday:
Outside Reading essay. 600 words minimum.
Monday, January 3
Mr. P returned the vocabulary assignment with words from Walden, and we spent the bulk of the period reviewing those words. Later in the class we also began reading from Walden.
We put aside Walden for the time being and read from Thoreau's other masterpiece, "Resistance to Civil Government" (aka "Civil Disobedience") as background to the film on Gandhi which the class will watch tomorrow in Mr. P's absence. We also read the biography of Thoreau on pp. 230 & 231 in the textbook.
HW due Friday:
Outside Reading essay. 600 words minimum.
Monday, January 3
Mr. P returned the vocabulary assignment with words from Walden, and we spent the bulk of the period reviewing those words. Later in the class we also began reading from Walden.
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