Thursday, January 26th - Periods 1, 6-7, 8-9, 10

Do Now: Get computer and go to zellerenglish.blogspot.com.

Homework: Last day to hand in 2nd quarter assignments is tomorrow!

Agenda: 1) Make survey for your research paper.
2) Writing for your senior project essays, especially: The College Exploration, The College Essay, Cover Letter, and the Research Paper.
3) Do Research.
4) Do missing homeworks to boost your grade.

Tuesday, January 24th - Period 1, 6-7, 8-9, 10

English 4 Mid-Term Review: Day 3

Do Now: Fill out the worksheet to review capitalization, run-on sentences, subject-verb agreement, and pronoun-antecedent agreement.

Homework: Study for Mid-Term!

Collaborative Classroom Inquiry: What is culture and race?

Critical Thinking Questions: Why are we preparing for this exam? Why is this an important skill?

Content: Notes, Jeopardy

Objective: SWBAT work as a team and review major concepts for the mid-term.

Class Activities: Standard English Worksheet, Note-taking, Jeopardy.

Tuesday, January 24th - Period 2

Elective Mid-Term Review: Day 5

Do Now: Write down last mid-term vocabulary word: Enshroud - To cover.

Homework: Study for Mid-Term!

Collaborative Classroom Inquiry: What is Standard English?

Critical Thinking Questions: Why are we preparing for this exam? Why is this an important skill?

Content: Standard English Worksheet, Poetry for analysis

Objective: SWBAT work as a team and review major concepts for the mid-term.

Class Activities: Standard English Worksheet, Review as class, Poetry from Multicultural Voices, Poetry analysis

Monday, January 23rd - Periods 1, 6-7, 8-9, 10

English 4 Mid-Term Review: Day 2

Do Now: Find 3 vocabulary words that have meanings that are somehow connected. Explain the connection.

Homework: Study for Mid-Term!  

Collaborative Classroom Inquiry: What is grammar? Why do we need to know Standard English?

Critical Thinking Questions: What are the elements of an essay?

Content: Grammar review books, Note taking

Objective: SWBAT recognize adjectives, adverbs, and verbs and understand the elements of an essay and college and career planning skills.

Class Activities: Grammar Review, Reviewing Essay and Career Planning concepts.

Monday, January 23rd - Period 2

Elective Mid-Term Review: Day 4

Do Now: From the vocabulary list you have already started to written down, choose 3 words that are connected and explain that connection.

Homework: Study for Mid-Term! (On Thursday)

Collaborative Classroom Inquiry: What is grammar? What does grammar do for a language?

Critical Thinking Questions: What is a critical perspective of Finding Forrester?

Content: Notes, Grammar Book, Finding Forrester

Objective: SWBAT recognize parts of speech and understand a critical perspective of popular movie narratives.

Class Activities: Do now, Vocabulary Choices, Parts of speech exercises, Critical analysis of Finding Forrester

Thursday, January 19th - Periods 1, 6-7, 8-9, 10

English 4 Mid-Term Review: Day 1

Do Now: What are major lessons, concepts, or skills that you remember learning to this mid-way point?

Homework: Choose 10 of the vocab words to write into sentences.

Collaborative Classroom Inquiry: What is meter?

Critical Thinking Questions: What have we learned so far this year?

Content: Meter worksheet, Exam Review

Objective: SWBAT prepare for their exam and write their own haikus.

Class Activities: Meter worksheet, Exam review, Vocabulary selections.

Thursday, January 19th - Period 2

Elective Mid-Term Review: Day 3

Do Now: What should you include in the conclusion of your essay?

Homework: Write or type a clean copy of your essay!

Collaborative Classroom Inquiry: What is urban and street culture?

Critical Thinking Questions: How and why do you write essays?

Content: The Notebook

Objective: SWBAT complete their essay drafts.

Class Activities: Conclusion review and writing, Review The Notebook, All Star Vocabulary

Wednesday, January 18th - Periods 1, 6-7, 8-9, 10

What is Poetry: Day 8

Do Now: What does it mean for a hip-hop or rap artist to have flow?

Homework: Describe the writing style of your favorite music artist.  Does this artist use a rhyming pattern? Do they have flow?  Explain. (1 Paragraph)

Critical Thinking Questions: How do poets use meter in their writing to make it sound better?  What is a free verse poem? How is free verse different from a poem that has a form?

Content: “All Falls Down” by Kanye West, “Mother to Son” and “April Rain Song” by Langston Hughes, and “Under the Greenwood Tree” by Shakespeare

Objective: Students will recognize the differences and similarities between free verse and formed poetry and will be able to recognize the rhyme scheme and meter of poems that they read and write. Students will also write their own “Mother to Son” poem.

Class Activities: Comparing Kanye’s meter to Shakespeare’s meter, Recognizing Free Verse Poetry, Writing Daughter/Son to Parent Poems in free verse.

Wednesday, January 18th - Period 2

Elective Mid-Term: Day 2

Do Now: If you introduce your topic and thesis in the introduction, what is the purpose of the body of your essay?

Homework: Write first 5 mid-term vocabulary words into sentences.

Collaborative Classroom Inquiry: How do we write an academic essay?

Critical Thinking Questions: What are good questions for the Education Opportunity Unit?

Content: Student writing,

Objective: SWBAT develop important and relevant questions from the Notebook article comparing Lower Merion to Overbrook.

Class Activities: Body Paragraphs to support the introduction, All-Star Vocabulary, Education Opportunity Review

Urban and Street Culture Questions: Winter 2012

Why do most neighborhoods litter?

What is it like to be in a “Blood” gang?

How does urban and street culture compare?

Why is “street” looked at as ghetto?

What are some differences between street and urban?

Why do stores sell guns and get mad at the fact that there is a lot of shooting and killing in the neighborhood?

What’s the name of your block? How do you become a member? (Or, how do you rep?)

Why are we learning this?

What are more languages in my culture?

Why do black brothers fight?

Why do the neighborhoods in urban areas cleaner than the streets?

Why don’t my street lights work?

Tuesday, January 17th - Periods 1, 6-7, 8-9, 10

What is Poetry: Day 7

Do Now: Is it possible to write a poem about our classroom from the perspective of a desk?

Homework: 1) Complete your personification poem. 2) Wiki Article Response OR Bring in a news article answering questions: Why is it important? How does it connect to you?

Critical Thinking Questions: What is personification? How does personification offer us another perspective into seeing the world differently?

Content: April Rain Song, The Wind, Trees, Student Poem, Personification in Music

Objective: We will understand personification and be able to begin our own personification poems based on our class theme.

Class Activities: Defining personification and writing examples, Reading and listening to examples of personification, Brainstorming based on personification theme, Writing our own poems.

Tuesday, January 17th - Period 2

What is Urban and Street Culture: Day 8

Do Now: What is an essay? What is the purpose of an essay?

Homework: Write our first 5 All-Star Words into a creative paragraph.

Collaborative Classroom Inquiry: What is urban and street culture? How does it impact us?

Critical Thinking Questions: How do we write an essay?

Content: Essay Planning Sheet, Class Inquiries, Nelson Mandela Speech, Vocabulary

Objective: SWBAT develop a topic for their essay, write an introduction, come up with a question from Nelson Mandela’s speech

Class Activities: Identifying topics and themes, Writing Introductions, Reading Speech, Developing Questions, Deciding on All Star Vocabulary

Friday, January 13th - Periods 1, 6-7, 8-9, 10

Senior Project Day

Agenda: Spend the period working on senior project assignments that would be most beneficial to you:

• Write and type ALL essays into googledocs.
• Edit your essays for spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
• Do Internet research for your topic.
• Create your Works Cited page using MLA format.
• Write down homework assignments that you have not completed in order to receive some credit for them.

Homework: Review past homework assignments on blog and complete for partial credit.

Friday, January 13th - Period 2

What is Urban and Street Culture: Day 7

Do Now: Test today!

Homework: Bring in a news article that references life in the city and write a one paragraph summary of it.

Collaborative Classroom Inquiry: What is street and urban culture?

Critical Thinking Questions: What was the experience of this immigrant woman in an American city?

Content: Speaking with Hands

Objective: SWBAT reflect on a poem as it relates to the lives of people from outside their culture.

Class Activities: Test, Reading poem, responding to poem, discussion

Tips for Survey Questions: The Senior Project

Wednesday, January 11th - Periods 6-7, 8-9, 10

What is Poetry: Day 6

Do Now: Why is it important to see and understand things from multiple perspectives?

Homework: Study, test tomorrow!

Critical Thinking Question: How does the perspective of a story affect its meaning?

Content: Student’s own poetry, Emmanuel Jal

Objective: Students will learn Perspective in storytelling (1st, 2nd, 3rd person narration), student will write from one of those perspectives using personification to draft a poem.

Class Activities: Presentation and note taking on perspective, Reading and picking our potential perspectives from class text, Personification poem drafting

Wednesday, January 11th - Period 1

What is Poetry: Day 5

Do Now: From the group agenda, identify the part of speech from each underlined word.  

Homework: 1) Research Paper, next 2 pages due Friday. 2) Study vocabulary, test tomorrow!

Critical Thinking Question: Why is it important to know part of speech?  How can parts of speech make you a better writer?  How do good poets and writers use parts of speech effectively?  

Content: Group Agenda, Examples of Cinquain Poems, Poetry Unit Portfolio

Objectives: Students understand and recognize parts of speech.  Students collaborate in groups to generate 3 cinquain poems.

Class Activities: Observing an artifact, Defining Parts of Speech, Cinquain Presentation, Writing Cinquains in groups.  

Tuesday, January 10th - Periods 1, 6-7, 8-9, 10

What is Poetry: Day 5

Do Now: From the group agenda, identify the part of speech from each underlined word.  

Homework: 1) Research Paper, next 2 pages due Friday. 2) Study vocabulary, test Thursday!

Critical Thinking Question: Why is it important to know part of speech?  How can parts of speech make you a better writer?  How do good poets and writers use parts of speech effectively?  

Content: Group Agenda, Examples of Cinquain Poems, Poetry Unit Portfolio

Objectives: Students understand and recognize parts of speech.  Students collaborate in groups to generate 3 cinquain poems.

Class Activities: Observing an artifact, Defining Parts of Speech, Cinquain Presentation, Writing Cinquains in groups.  

Monday, January 9th - Periods 1, 6-7, 8-9, 10

What is Poetry: Day 4

Do Now:  1) From our discussions about poetry last week, describe with as much detail as you can what you think poetry is. 2) Give an example of “poetic” language that you use or hear sometimes.

Homework: 1) News Article response on wikispaces. 2) Next 2 pages of senior project due Friday.

Collaborative Classroom Inquiry: What is our criteria for poetry?

Critical Thinking Questions: What is poetic language? Can anyone be poetic?

Content: Student Writing, Parts of Speech

Objective: SWBAT develop their own poetic identities by developing poetic language of their own.

Class Activities: Do now discussion, 15-minute group poem exercise, poem share, vocabulary review, parts of speech notes.