A Note on Exam Grades

They're all posted to Gradespeed.

But, just so you know, there's a 4-point curve on that exam.

So the grade you see in gradespeed? Your real score is 4 less than that.

Just so you know.

A Note On Exams

I will post Final Exam grades to Gradespeed on Friday afternoon, after all the Freshmen have taken it.

However, I did scan 7th period's exam today. Class average was an 81.1.

12/17 Edit: Class avg. of 2nd period: 80.7.

12/18 Edit: Class avg. of 3rd period: 81.5.

Exam RVW Sheet

The Exam Review Sheet

Click Here For It.

Membean Quizzes

Quizzes have been generated and are live for all classes.

E-mail me if you have any problems logging in to take it.

TurnItIn.com Signup Info

The codes are above are unique to each of my classes.

There are no CAPITAL LETTERS, and no spaces, in the passwords.

And here is a link to the Turnitin.com Account Creation instructions.

The deadline to submit is midnight, tonight.

MM Proj. Lib Guide

This is a link to the

MM Project LibGuide

Mrs. Townsel made

to help you guys do research.

Go and thank her when you get the chance.

Class Tomorrow

Oh, and in case you were wondering:

There's a TKAM Quiz tomorrow

Ch. 25-31

Yes, I will shamelessly be pulling questions from your sheets that I took up today.

And adding some of my own too.

And I'm collecting your Active Reading Notes (ARN)

so you'll need your Notes Composition Notebooks.

And the links for submitting your project choice are live. Check 'em.

Modern Mockingbird Links: Live

Link to the Modern Mockingbird Google Form for Submission:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/19MnbrQdqQ0ti8vEshrzOYcgA5mR-dS3_6fbw3lCppWw/viewform?usp=send_form

Link to MM Project Submission Results:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1El6YzN6cYvqIqjQTOOBUgvitkl-Kq9W4HA0Hw-rRWig/edit?usp=sharing

Duplicate submissions will be flagged in RED, not counting the first original submission.

Submissions are also automatically timestamped.

Link to the Project Assignment Sheet!

Character Presentations + Quiz Tomorrow

Today, students presented their posters they'd been working on for their Character Analysis Groups.

There is a Quiz tomorrow on Part 1 of TKAM. Would you like to review some of the intro information we covered? I sure know Mariam and Sandi did, so check this out:

Link to Background Info Powerpoint

Also: review your A.R.N. This kind of thing is what those are for. Didn't do them? Well...

HW:

• Study Part 1 of TKAM for quiz tomorrow
• Don't forget about Membean! 2 week period ends this Saturday

Character Analysis Day 2

Students continued working (with various degrees of success) on their Character Posters that they began on Friday. It's a pretty detailed assignment; no one got 100% done on Friday.

Tomorrow, groups will give their classmates a 3 minute presentation on what they know about their character, and what parts of the book informed that knowledge.

Absent: Character Analysis

I'm sorry, guys, I'll be out of the classroom today. The Model UN group is going to Murfreesboro, and I'm helping with chaperoning.

With the Substitute, students will begin the Body Biography Character Analysis Assignment:

Here is the Assignment Handout

Here is the Rubric

Groups will begin this project today -- we'll pick up with it on Monday, when I'm back.

PS: Membean. It's for you. Study your words.

Major Questions of Part 1: RVW

First thing today, students took their first Membean Quiz! I'm delighted to say that grades were good, for the most part!

If you didn't do as well as you thought you should've I recommend doing more Membean study sessions (not longer sessions, just more of them.)


Having read to the end of Part 1 (ooohh! Get ready for the Trial, y'all), we took some class time today to review, and reflect on, some questions that I consider major, and important.

Here is a link to the .pptx with the Qs

Tomorrow, I'll be out of the building.

TKAM: Ch. 1-5 Small Discussions

Students got together in groups today to discuss the first five chapters of the book.

This is the discussion sheet.

Students mulled over the 10 questions in their small groups, and wrote answers in their Notes Composition Notebook.

HW:

• Read Ch. 6-8 (that's through)
• Complete A.R.N.

For WEDS:

• Read to the end of PART 1
• Complete A.R.N.

TKAM 1-4; Examples of A.R.N.

Many students handed in their Career Fair Final Drafts today. Only a handful experienced technical difficulties. And apparently the printer in the MLK Library is running out of ink.

BUT! Today we finally got into Ch. 1-4 of TKAM.

No, I didn't give a reading quiz.

No, I didn't check the A.R.N.

...yet.

After fielding students' initial questions (and getting into Miss Caroline's generally terrible first day of school), I shared my model for completing the different bullet points of the A.R.N.

Here are my examples on Powerpoint slides.

HW over Weekend:

• Read TKAM Ch. 3-5
• YES this is your chance to CATCH UP from THIS WEEK
• Complete the A.R.N. for each chapter.
• Don't forget to also do Point 7: Character Tracking! You have your characters now!

Examples of Thorough Peer Editing

"What does good peer-editing look like?"

Well, here are two real examples. I've edited out the names.

This first example is what a weak essay looks like after serious and thorough peer-editing:

And this second example is from a much stronger essay example, again, thoroughly peer-edited;

You know I'd like to point out here?

*Both* have a TON of written feedback.

Amount of ink =/= quality (good or bad) of essay

If you actually read the essays, you'll see what I mean. Essay Example 1 does not actually answer the question, and is poorly organized, and furthermore, is delivered with rudimentary word choice.

Essay Example 2 is much more focused and deliberate in its approach to the CF Essay Contest Question. Most of the edits suggest new words, phrases, and constructions, to convey what is a solid treatment of the prompt.

Peer Editing

Peer Editing Document #1

Peer Editing Document #2


HW:

• Final Draft of CF Essay due in class tomorrow
• Finish reading Ch. 1 through 4 of TKAM and completing ARN for tomorrow.

Distributing Books; Active Reading Notes

After checking the Infinitive HW from Monday (here is a link to the KEY and I highly recommend you download or open the file, to solve formatting issues), we (finally, FINALLY!) cracked into TKAM.

But I put some groundwork in place first: Active Reading Notes.

1-6 are to be completed per chapter

in students' Notes notebook.

At which point we began reading Ch. 1 together. I stopped in many places to model parts of the text that would lend themselves well to being Noted as part of the A.R.N. entries.

HW:

• Bring a completed CF draft to class tomorrow for Peer Reviews
• Read Ch. 1 through 4 for Friday, with A.R.N. for each chapter.
• Don't forget to Membean.

Parent Conference / Election Day

I had some wonderful conversations today.

Just think, students! Soon you'll be able to vote!

Don't forget - that infinitive Practice is due tomorrow in class.

Also, bring TKAM if you've got one.

Welcome to Maycomb: Intro. Notes

First, students refreshed their brains' Infinitives department with a brief Bellwork exercise from the purple grammar book: Ex. 9 on page 131. This was competed in the Classwork composition notebook.

This is a link to the BW.

And this is a link to the key.

Then, we spent some time on laying a Historical and Social Context foundation for beginning the book on Wednesday.

This right here is the .pptx file we used in class. Students took notes on the information in their Notes composition notebook. If you missed class, you can print it out to see what you missed.

HW etc.

• Infinitive Grammar Practice due Weds.
• Bring TKAM on Weds.
• 45 mins of Membean this week.
• Your Career Fair Essays are due to me Friday.

Noun Jobs!

Holy Moly!

Students hated the HW last night!

"Mr. Tidyman, the HW last night was ridiculous! I can totes find gerunds in sentences...

But labeling them? Like, ew! No! You didn't prep us for this!!"

Correct, Generic Student Voice. Sometimes I just like to throw you into deep water.

Before we checked the answers to last night's HW, we took notes (in the Notes Composition Notebook) on the Noun Jobs:

"Ohhhhhhh snap! He did it again! He embedded a whole file!"

Here's a link to download the file, if you want:

Now, if you know my 3rd period class, you know that they're an interesting, creative, and vocal bunch (though NO ONE is as vocal as 6th). The ladies and gentlemen of 3rd period insisted I give a further example that demonstrates how a gerund phrase is allowed to operate as an indirect object. I asked for a sample gerund, and I got "sipping." This example was born:

I guess kids just love Muppets? Kermit is the Subject.

Now that we'd taken a nice healthy chunk of time to look real hard at grammar, we checked out the answers to the document from yesterday:

Click to enlarge.

You should admit it: This is a good blog post.

You know it is. Look at all this media. Dang.

Discussing Prejudice; Underlining Gerunds

Students collected themselves into groups today to analyze prejudice, both in The Sneetches, and as they understand it in life.

Here is the document:

Wow, I am really not very good at embedding documents.

Here's a link to it. Yeah, I took it up, so I'll need it from you if you missed Monday.

We also checked out the Gerund HW to make sure we all had appropriate underlines.

The Key:

Click on it to see the full document.

Most of the class was devoted to the discussion of Prejudice. Why are human beings so eager to draw lines of separation through groups? *sigh* If you want to know, start studying sociology.

Oh, before the kids left, I assigned them a follow-up Gerund practice.

It's a little harder: first, you underline, then you label.

I Have a Star, and Therefore I Am Better Than You

Today, students approached a deeper understanding of one of TKAM's principle themes:

Prejudice

But as you know, we haven't begun the book yet. So, we took a look at another lauded piece of literature that focuses on the same theme:

The Sneetches

by Dr. Seuss

omg you don't have a star on your belly? gross get away from me

The above link will take you to the video we watched. This is a link to the full text of the book.

While we watched the cartoon short, students noted answers to questions on this sheet.

Also, there was a Gerund Practice for HW.

Here is the Gerund Practice. It's due Mon., we'll check it in class.

TKAM: Author's Bio Info

First, students checked out their answers to the Participle Practice from Tuesday (or yesterday.)

The answers are all right here, if you'd like to check your work:

Here's the HW Key

Then, students did some reading, annotating, and responding, to this small packet of information about Harper Lee, the author of TKAM.

Here is the TKAM info on Harper Lee

I think it's fair to expect that the questions should all be answered by tomorrow.

PSAT Day

Today, high schoolers took the PSAT. (Not Seniors, though, I heard they went to the zoo.)

Here's what my classes told me about the test:

• Dolphins
• The Grand Canyon
• Young Sensei is dropping his All Haiku Everything mixtape sometime next month (thanks, 6th period, for this level of creative detail)

For tomorrow, students need to have completed the Grammar Practice on Participles and Participial Phrases, so we can check it tomorrow.

Membean Numbers

This document explains how Membean will count for grades (the studying & the quizzes) in my class.

Don't have word? Here's a .pdf. file.

This is on you guys now. I will try to provide time to study when I can, but much of this Vocabulary interaction will be self-directed.

Membean Registration

First, click on this:

membean.com/enroll

Then, when it asks you for a class code, put in the correct one of these:

Yes, that's my real handwriting, stop laughing.

Then make your account (Choose the option that says "No, I need to make a new account.")

Put in your name, you grade, your email address.

Do additional things.

Success. Logout.

PSAT tomorrow.

Membean Vocabulary: Payments

Membean:

Here is a link to the Online Payment page

on the MLK site!

Or, you can bring me a check for $10, made out to MLK Magnet.

Or, you can bring me $10 cash.

10/3/14

Part. Ph / Narrative Drafting

1. Participle & Participial Phrase BELLWORK document
2. BELLWORK Key

Note from class: Your Personal Narrative must be more than a memory. It must has meaning, a message, a point. It should address a Main Idea, as well as deliver an insight or message about that Main Idea.

HW:

• Page 01 of the Participle Practice HW
• Page 02 of the Participle Practice HW
• ALSO: Write a rough draft of your Personal Narrative for peer editing tomorrow

New Phrases/Narratives (Substitute)

In my absence, I asked for the students to complete the following:

1. Finish the Phrase Notes V.02, using the purple EOL book.
2. Complete the Participial Phrase Practice: Ex. 6 on page 126:

This was it.

And here's the key:

Then students began to brainstorm their own Personal Narratives.

This is a link to the document that the I left to them, to help them start coming up with ideas for a meaningful memory.

HW for Weekend:

• Complete the brainstorming document above, and get ready to embark on writing next week!

Take Me To Casablanca; Personal Narratives

Here is a link to the document students completed today in class.

Don't have MS Word? Here's a link to the same thing, in .PDF format.

I also took a grade on students' annotations of the "Take Me To Casablanca" personal narratives.

Phrase Quiz #1: Adj./Adv. Phrases

Today was the day of the quiz. The first half was just like the Preview (Rvw B) from yesterday, and the second half was slightly harder. Speaking of which, I passed back students' Rvw B papers, and took questions before administering the Quiz itself.

If you missed it, you need to see me to make it up at your earliest convenience.

HW:

• Bring your read, and annotated, copy of "Take Me To Casablanca" to class tomorrow for Analysis Questions.
• You may wish to focus on the following:
• The eyes of the Moroccan people, and their effect on the narrator
• The feelings of guilt that the narrator feels while visiting the two cities
• The overall theme or message of the piece. Why did the author write it? What does she want us to do, or think? How does she want to change us by the end of the piece?

Brace Yourselves; A Phrase Quiz is Coming

Here is a link to the answers to last night's HW, which we checked, after attendance and a stretch.

Then, students performed a PREVIEW of tomorrow's phrase quiz. The preview was RVW B on page 121 of the purple grammar book. It looked like this:

This was graded in class, and the grade will be a x0 in GS.

Tomorrow's real Phrase Quiz will be delivered in the same format: a reading passage with phrases to identify, classify as Adj. or Adv., and discover the word(s) it modifies. The reading passage will be slightly more difficult.

Then we reviewed the 2nd Personal Narrative example: "The Long View". Click on the link to see an annotated text, as well as the answers to the questions, frequently accompanied by explanations.

HW for Tonight:

• Study for your Phrases Quiz tomorrow:
• Click here for a brief refresher on VERB PHRASES
• Click here for a brief refresher on PREPOSITIONS
• Print off (or otherwise get a copy of) Personal Narrative #3: "Take Me To Casablanca"
• Read it
• Annotate it

Focus: Phrases

First thing, we checked out the HW from over the weekend.

• Here is a key for one side...
• And here is a key for the other.

Then we completed an extremely focused (and frankly, easy) exercise that demonstrated how it is the usage of the prepositional phrase that determines whether it is an Adj. or Adv. Ph

This was the exercise:

And here are the answers:

HW for Tonight:

• Complete this Adj/Adv. Practice
• Read this sample Personal Narrative "The Long View", and answer the 10 questions that accompany it.

Phrase Pract. #2; Personal Narratives

I greeted students with a short Phrase Refresher powerpoint. Just to set the tone.

Today students completed Phrase Pract. #2, Ex. 3, on page 120. I have yet to be convinced that everyone really knows what's up with phrases.

Then students read a model of a Personal Narrative piece: "Paper Airplanes." They answered the questions that accompanied the text in their Classwork composition notebooks.

Here is a link to the text of the story!

The HW for all classes (except 6th, who ran out of time) was to answer these three follow-up questions:

Crossing Borders: Violence & Reconciliation Workshop

Click this link to access the 

Blendspace

containing the media files.

Child's Play

Armed with their notes on the S.T.E.A.L. framework for character evaluation, students worked in small groups applying this to the main characters of 6 veeerrryyyy short novels.

The groups focused on one of following stories:

• [Placeholder.jpg]

Their singular task, within their groups, was to read their selection, and complete a S.T.E.A.L. character analysis chart.

While I didn't collect this document, what I did do was scan one completed chart from each group. If you missed today, I'll be able to put you in a group tomorrow, and they'll catch you up.

S.T.E.A.L.ing Characters

Aw, snap.

Turns out, R/F/D/S isn't enough. It's a good starting place, but we need to go deeper.

Today, students skipped over writing a personal response to Speak, and instead, took a serious note on Character Analysis.

"But, Tidyman, why do we even have to do this?

Didn't we just do character analysis the other day?

Wasn't that the R/F/D/S thing?"

No. Don't be silly. That's Character Classification. It's basic. It's a good first step.

But that just means you know something about a character. And knowing, if you recall, is quite low on Bloom's Taxonomy. You deserve better.

We must seek to understand.

And so, students took notes on this powerpoint. 

We then looked at S.T.E.A.L. as applied to Theodor Geisel's seminal work, The Cat in The Hat.

Due to copyright law, I cannot link to my copy of The Cat in the Hat.

I paid 6 dollars for it.

You're welcome.

To see the framework, as well as the applied example, I present this .pdf file.

It's got a little more info than we worked with today in class, but hey, whatever.

Tomorrow, students are going to practice applying this framework to other stories. They'll work in groups.

HW:

• Bring Notes notebook to class
• YOU MUST BRING BACK THOSE 2 FORMS YOUR 7TH PERIOD TEACHER GAVE YOU. #FRFR.

"Awww nawwww! He didn't!

He didn't just embed a whole powerpoint

into his blog!"

I totally did.

Belonging; Applied Kinetics

Today, students took a gander at this opening powerpoint right here, and completed Journal Response #5: "Belonging". It was tied to Speak, but invited personal reflection.

This was, of course, after I had returned students' Classwork Composition Notebooks, which I had collected and checked on Friday.

• If you missed Friday, I need your notebook.
• If you missed today, Monday, I have your notebook to give back to you. Please complete Journal #5, available above.

Next, we moved to Applied Kinetics. For this activity, students moved to different quadrants of my classroom to indicate their understanding of whether characters from Speak were R/F/D/S.*

*Looking back on this, I wish I had portioned more class time for this activity.

Tomorrow, students will expand their breadth of character understanding by familiarizing themselves with S.T.E.A.L.

I would tell you what that means, but hey, that's tomorrow's class.

Character Classification & Speak

Students began class with a journal response to Speak

Here is a link to the .pptx that contains the prompt!

After responding to the Journal Prompt, students set up their Tables of Contents in their Classwork composition notebooks, which I then collected. I will return them on Monday.

And then we not-seamlessly transitioned to Bloom's Level III: Applying.
Students were asked to evaluate several characters (both major and minor) from Speak using the 4 character-classification terms we covered yesterday:

• Round
• Flat
• Dynamic
• Static

Here is a link to the document that was our handout in class!

HW for weekend:

• Finish character classifications (if not completed in class)
• Continue to review Speak

Open House!

Hey! It was awesome! Thanks for coming by to my room, and all of MLK tonight.

If you need/want/missed the Powerpoint I showed this evening, it's right

Here

if you'd like to download it.

Thanks again, from all of us here at MLK!

Round, Flat, Dynamic, Static

Today, students began by responding to yet another Speak-related journal entry prompt. This, as well as the notes on Character Classification, are contained on:

This Powerpoint!

After responding to this journal prompt (and having a little time to share some very interesting feedback -- looking at you, 3rd period --) students received this note-taking skeleton that accompanies the explanatory powerpoint.

Their task was to complete it as we went over the notes in class.

Tomorrow, we'll be using these words to look at numerous characters in Speak.

Setting: Contrasting Analysis

We began with this brief powerpoint presentation, which included Journal Response #2: Cover Analysis.

Sidenote: Here is a link to the full-size scan of the cover we examined.

After allowing for some discussion of the cover's artistic elements, we transitioned to an analysis of a 3rd key environment in Speak: The Janitor's Closet.

Here is the exact document I gave out in class.

By the end of class, the time had come to apply (Bloom's Level III) our practice of analyzing settings' effects on people to students' own lives.

Here is the document I gave out for HW.

HW & Announcements:

• Finish the Closet Setting Analysis
• Complete the Speak: Setting Application (personal)
• 8/21: MLK Open House
• 8/29: Picture day!

Setting Analysis: Syracuse NY

Students responded to the Journal Entry contained in this .pptx. There was an opportunity for students to share, and defend their answers.

Then students transitioned from simply knowing the setting of Speak, to analyzing the effect that Melinda's house, and school, have on her character while she's there in the First Marking Period.

This was the document that students received. It's to be completed for tomorrow, when we directly address the literary process of characterization - the manner in which an author creates a believable character.

Getting Into "Speak"

Mkay here was class:

1) Students swapped their copies of the Brainwashing/Music Industry articles (see Friday's post), and answered each other's Bloom's I-VI questions.

1.5) Some classes, but not all, insisted on discussing the ramifications of this article. Lots of good points arose organically, and I can't record them all here. Two of the best (in my opinion) were these:

• This article's conclusion is flawed: it ends with the idea that, through repeated listens to "bad" pop music, the audience will eventually figure out just how bad it is. This runs in direct opposition the the thesis of the rest of the piece: that listening to bad songs more frequently encourages audiences to like it.
• "Bad" is a subjective (a.k.a. "biased") statement. Especially given that the author at no point gives an example of a "good" song.

Freshmen handed this document in.

Then, they took notes on a handy piece of English called the Plot Diagram (this was page #2 in the NOTES composition notebook):

Having equipped students with the generalities of this framework, we then applied this knowledge to Speak by mapping the novel's details across a blank one. The blank document can be found here.

HW for Tues:

• Bring Speak to class (if possible)
• Review the First Marking Period. Tomorrow, we're going to focus on setting.

OmigoshOmigosh!

*disclaimer: this post has NOTHING to do with my class, or even MLK.
It's just about literature*

GUYS. GUYS?

GUYS!

(and girls too of course, I mean students in general)

Powell's bookstore is selling ALL of Haruki Murakami's books for

30% OFF!!

It's still too early to call this the Book Sale of the Year, but it's close.

Put an eyeball on it: http://www.powells.com/subjects/fiction-and-poetry/literature/murakami-sale/?utm_source=specials&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spec_Murakami&utm_content=Browse%20Button

Interested in Murakami, but don't have the coin/interest to invest?

Come talk with me about him.

I've read a few of his books.

Wrapping Up The Week

Good afternoon, and Happy Friday.

Today, students did 2 things: set up their composition notebook(s), and engaged with an activity that involved both skill we addressed this week.

Here is a link to a short powerpoint that explains how to set up the composition notebooks.

We then inaugurated these by taking our first Lit-Term related note: The explanation, and a definition, of parallelism.

• Click here to see the notes students copied from my whiteboard.

Or click here!

Then, students demonstrated their familiarity with Annotation and the application of Bloom's Taxonomy by exercising those skills on:

This article from mic. (this is the exact handout)

And here's the same article in web-based format.

Remember: the job was to read, annotate, and draft the Bloom's QUESTIONS. You didn't have to provide answers.

HW for the WKND

• Finish annotating the article, and drafting the Bloom's Questions.
• Bring Speak to class, if you have a copy (digital is fine)
• Bring your notebooks back to class as well.

And some totally non-required thinking:

The article submits that:

Songs are popular because they are played a lot.

And not that

Songs are played a lot because they are popular.

This...intrigues me. And makes me think about Transformers 4. Is the media defining popularity for us? Or do we, as consumers, but more importantly, human beings, have agency in deciding what's "cool" anymore?

I love questions like this because I don't know the answer.

Huddle Up: Working in Groups

Having gotten the impression that most Freshmen were getting sick of 50 minute lectures on English, today was a day for practicing recently-acquired skills in small groups.

First, students evaluated (Bloom's Level V!) each others' responses on the IBS practice from last night, and compiled a "Best Of..." set of I-VI questions.

Having completed this step, it was time for the groups to apply Bloom's to a small piece of "new" material.

Armed with one of six children's fables, students had to work together to A) process the reading, and then B) formulate a question (with answer) or task for their story at each level of Bloom's Taxonomy before the end of class. I collected each group's sheet before the final bell.

HW for Friday:

• Bring your composition notebooks to class tomorrow, so we can set them up.

Learning Blooms...

...see what I did there? Little play on words in the title. Heh.

Today students got a crash course in something called Bloom's Taxonomy. What is it, you ask? Well...

It's a framework that scaffolds a student's understanding through increasingly complex levels.

Don't worry, I tried my best to explain what that meant today.

• First, students got a breakdown of what Bloom's is, and how it features 6 levels of understanding. We also annotated it.
• Then we took a look at resources for drafting Bloom's-oriented questions.
• Here is an additional bonus resource that I didn't give out in class.

Honestly, this was kind of a lot to digest. So we needed to examine Bloom's Taxonomy applied to a specific story: Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Certain students did the voices for the characters in each class. Archie's rendition of Papa Bear was awesome.

I also asked students to respond to the Goldilocks examples on p.2. Things took a turn for the amusing around the "Formulate a theory as to why Goldilocks went into the bears' house" part.

"But Mr. Tidyman, what's porridge?"

Now that students had gotten a glimpse of how Bloom's works in action, it was time for them to demonstrate their fledgling understanding of this framework by drafting their own questions. Which I sincerely hope they do, tonight, for HW.

HW for Tonight:

• Read The Itsy Bitsy Spider
• Complete the Bloom's chart on the front (you don't have to answer your own Q for level IV)

Bonus Round!

If you made it this far you don't have to read any more. Here are some additional offerings from today:

Copyright Natalie Dee.

Like this picture? Look up Marxism.

Maddy mentioned an awesome word to describe Goldilocks.

You should learn it.

During a conversation about the bears protecting their house with guns, Emeline made the "Right to bear arms!" joke. It was glorious.

During a conversation about the bears not being at home (what were they out doing?), Kendall and Lily pretty much simultaneously made the "They had to go get the...bear necessities!" joke. More glory.

Treat yourself:

Personalized Annotations

Today, Freshmen (but not 2nd period, sadly -- there was a Grade-Level Meeting then) corrected wrong answers on their first Summer Reading Assessments. I had to drop two of the questions, for reasons I explained using THIS handy (and short) Powerpoint.

While the students worked on those, I reviewed students' annotations that I asked them to complete for HW last night (see post below), on their own personal current event articles.

I saw some really good work!

Alexandria in 3rd did a great job of writing comments, questions, and reactions to her article in the generous right-side margin of her page. She graciously allowed me to post her article as an example:

• Alexandria's Page 1, Page 2, and Page 3.

Kendall in 7th did something that was popular among those students with several colorful writing instruments: she used a bunch of different-colored annotations for different parts of her article.

But what set Kendall's method of annotation apart is that she included a Key explaining what each color was used for. It was organized and eye-catching. She also allowed me to post her work as an example:

• Kendall's Page 1+ Color Key 

These two students weren't the only people who did a great job, but they're the two who I asked if I could post their work. If you also made stellar annotations, I'm sure I told you so when I gave these back to you.

We'll go over popular problems/misconceptions/mistakes tomorrow.

And speaking of tomorrow...

HW for Wednesday:

• Bring back your annotated Current Event article/media for a lesson on Question Building.

Mid-Day Update: Emergency Vocabulary Lesson

I'm noticing a disturbing trend as I examined students' current event article annotations.

9/10 students have circled, underlined, or highlighted the phrase "pro bono", and put a question mark by it.

But when I asked 3rd period what pro bono meant, no one uttered a peep.

You know what this means?

It means nobody looked it up, despite not knowing its definition.

Do you think people come out to their car, out in the parking lot, notice they have a flat tire, and say, 

"Welp! That sure looks like a flat tire!"

And then jump in their car and drive away?

No.

1. Identify the problem.
1. Ex.: "I don't know this word/phrase."
2. Take steps to fix/solve/address it.
1. Ex.: "I'll just look it up right here on my phone that has the internet (and/or) that has a dictionary on it."

Def. of "Pro Bono"

Word of the Day: Annotation

Good Afternoon!

Today, Freshmen received some direct instruction in the time-honored practice of Text Annotation:

an·no·ta·tion ˌanəˈtāSHən 

noun

noun annotation plural noun annotations

1. a note of explanation or comment added to a text or diagram.
   • the action of annotating a text or diagram.
   Synonyms: note notation comment gloss footnote commentary explanation interpretation

Several students indicated that they had heard this term before, which was good news. I then led a Annotation Demonstration, after giving students a copy of a USAToday article with which to practice this skill.

• Here is a link to the USA Today example article.
• And here is a link to an example of the annotations we did in class.
• Page 1
• Page 2

While I led the majority of the demonstration, students were invited to ask questions, as well as contribute their own annotations.

I then checked to make sure students had successfully obtained their own, unique, current event article from over the weekend (see post below for details.) Because, and you can probably tell where I'm going with this...

HW for Tuesday:

• Annotate YOUR OWN current event media that you hunted down over the weekend.
• Students who chose a video can make video annotations with:
• VideoNot.es
• Problems? Check this out: http://blogs.bedfordstmartins.com/bits/traci-gardner/videonot-es-for-analsis-peer-review-and-grading/tgardner/
• This web-based annotation tool is forcibly compatible with Google Drive.
• The bright-green MTA Bus Pass form is due to the basket in Guidance tomorrow.
• From everyone. Fill out the front to obtain a card, fill out the back to decline. But return it, regardless.
• First Day Packets are due TOMORROW to your first period teacher!
• Tomorrow morning, students will attend Grade Level Meetings in the Auditorium, with theoir grade level.

If Today Was Friday, Why Did It Feel Like a Tuesday?

Hello!

Today, students accomplished the following objectives:

• They found their new seats for Q1 (after attendance. Spoiler alert: it's alphabetical order. It helps me learn names.)
• Students took their first Summer Reading Assessment, over both Speak and Enrique's Journey.
• If you missed this, see me to make it up ASAP!
• Freshmen, both familiar to MLK and new-to-the-school, got a brief meet-n-greet window of time in which to "break the ice."
• "Break the ice" is an idiom. Literally, there was no ice that was broken. They just talked to each other and introduced each other to each other.
• Idiom is a Literature Term. BOOM! Learning.

While students took the SRA, I tried to learn everyone's names. We'll see how well that went on Monday. (Right, Fernando?)

HW for the Weekend:

• Bring in a current-event piece of media that concerns itself with the main topic of Enrique's Journey: children immigrating to the U.S.
• By "current" I mean that this piece of media must have been published in 2014.
• By "piece of media", I of course mean news articles. But I also mean interviews, TV specials, propaganda, songs, editorials, YouTube clips...pretty much any media.
• How to submit:
• Print it and bring it to class!
• Save it on to a thumb drive and bring it in!
• E-mail me a link! (Include your full name and class period, plz.)
• Questions about the assignment? E-mail me, or ask it here by posting a response to this post.
• Don't forget about your First Day packets! They're due BY Tuesday, 8/12.
• If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. Finish your Summer Reading.
• Get an agenda/assignment book. Srsly.
• If you haven't yet -- e-mail me. 

"But Tidymaaaaan, I can't do these things! I'm going to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 'cause it opens tonight!!"

Good. Fine. Go see it. But before you do: #getonmylevel.

See y'all Lunes.

Welcome Back!

Or, in some cases, just plain Welcome!

Today, students received my Class Rules & Supplies List, which we went over.

We also enjoyed a brief ice-breaking activity, before allowing some time for general questions and answers about schedules, the MLK building, and school life in general.

HW for Friday:

• Complete the Summer Reading
• Write me (Mr. Tidyman) an introductory e-mail
• Here is a link to the assignment guidelines!

Freshman English Supply List

Today was the first day of Teacher Inservice leading up to the coming school year.

Mrs. Syes and I had the opportunity to discuss recommended school supplies for our English classes.

Here is a link to our School Supplies Google Document!

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Just get in touch with me or Mrs. Syes.

(pssssst!)

Freshman Orientation!

If you made it here, awesome! I had a blast getting to meet & greet new Freshmen and Freshman Families.

Here is a link to the Powerpoint I shared.

(Thanks to several students and parents for correcting my spelling and grammar. I am grateful, and humbled.)

See you August 6th!
(Don't forget to read Enrique's Journey!)

EOC Grades Posted

This is just to say that EOC scores are in. They are also now in Gradespeed, in the Semester Exam column.


This is just to say that This is a link to William Carlos Williams' poem "This Is Just To Say."

Exam Schedule

For your reference:


Here is a document outlining next week's exam schedule.

Despite the half-day schedule, I will be around school for a good bit each day. If you need me, chances are good I'll be in the vicinity of 3NW.

Holla.

Exam Guide & Non-Required Summer Reading

Here is a link to the study guide for the final exam!

Bring your textbooks, and your copies of F451, to class ON THE DAY OF YOUR EXAM.

You'll need them to study for the test.

Last thing: Non-Required Summer Reading

In the future, the internet is in your head. But that's the normal part.

If you liked F451, you'll love this.

Ray Bradbury's Short Fiction: "Murder" vs. "Kill"

First, I asked classes to clarify the shades of meaning that separate the verbs "murder" and "kill". This was very hard for most students to do, as almost nobody had taken the time to look these words up.

• The definition of KILL
• The definition of MURDER
• Degrees of MURDER in US Law (Margot asked about this, as well as "manslaughter", which is in the Wiki)

Then classes attempted to draw parallels between the world of "The Murderer", and our own modern lives. Excellent responses included the following insights:

• In the story-world, people communicate by wrist-communicators (phones). In our world, we have seen some rudimentary wrist-phone technology announced (behold Samsung's Galaxy Gear, as well as some reviews of leading competitors)
• Music, in both the story-world and our own, is pumped into large interior spaces (next time you're in the mall, ESPECIALLY around the winter holidays, listen to your shopping environment.)
• In both worlds, phones CAN BE handy communication devices, but also CAN work against you by stripping personality, emotion, and nuance from conversations.
• Psychiatrists have a great deal of say in WHO is "crazy", as well as WHAT constitutes "crazy".
• Sean in 5th period pointed out that our TV's have progressed past CRT monitors (or, cathode ray tubes). They've gotten flatter. The TV in my classroom is a prime example of a CRT.
• IN GENERAL: The more devices that we have to keep us in touch with others generate increased expectation of keeping in touch, even if you don't want to.

Also, there was a reading quiz. Almost everyone did poorly, but there was at least one 100 in each class period.

Tonight's HW is to read, and answer the questions regarding Ray Bradbury's "The Pedestrian".

That link will take you to the word file.

I also distributed the MLK Summer of 2014 Summer Reading Guidelines

The Circle of Life, and The Study Thereof

Today, Freshmen studied notes for their forthcoming Biology EOC, which will be administered here at MLK tomorrow morning.

In addition to notes, students completed EOC Practice Test questions.

Here is the key with the answers to those questions (I did not take up your work, you should still have them.)

STUDY FOR YOUR BIO EOC TONIGHT.


Then, enjoy this.

EOC Review Materials

Here is a link to the Review Jeopardy game we played in class.

And here is a link to the EXTENDED version of the Study Guide I gave out in class (This one is the ENGL II version.)

Happy studying. See you tomorrow.

Setting Up The Capulet Party

Today, we watched a clip from the old R&J film. Just the part that went with Act I.i. On something called a "video cassette."

Then, we got volunteers to read I.ii out loud in class, stopping to explain difficult passages.

Tonight's HW:

• Read I.iii-iv
• Here is a link to the Online Textbook
• And here is a link to the Sparknotes translation. 
• As well as these two Reading Guides:
• Guide to I.iii
• Guide to Mercutio's "Queen Mab"Speech

Romeo and Juliet: Act I, Scene I

Behold the power of translations:

Here's a modern-English rendition of the play, side-by-side with the original Shakespearean.
(Thanks, Sparknotes.)


And FURTHERMORE, here's a Word document with a translation of Act I, Scene I, that I wrote myself.


Use any/all tools at your disposable to assist you in your HW, which was to read I.i for Monday.

See you then!

No Powerpoint? No problem!

Can't see those sweet animations I put in that powerpoint?

Images blocking your notes?

Check out this video I made of the whole show run-through:

http://www.screenr.com/8SUN

Hope this helps, guys (and Hannah.)

AND FURTHERMORE!

Here's a link directly to the .mp4 video, on the off-chance that the web-based link doesn't work.

ODY: Part Two Review Powerpoint

Sorry, Caitlyn. And sorry Kendreya. And sorry, all of the other thoughtful students who pointed out that this hadn't been posted last night.

Here is the link to the new-and-improved ODY Part TWO RVW powerpoint. (.pptx)

It's not as awesome as the first one, but it's OK.

For best results, download the file and play it through Powerpoint, so you can see the animations.

Test on Odyssey Part Two tomorrow.

ODY: Part One Review Powerpoint

Don't act like it's not amazing.


Link to Powerpoint file (.pptx.)


Test on Monday

• Characters
• Adventures
• Lit terms
• Qualities of Epic/Epic hero
• Lessons

Q3: Every End is a New Beginning

Today, student were given a new seating arrangement for the third quarter. I will help you find your seat if you didn't get it assigned in class.

Then students had the opportunity to revisit DEA Test A. We took this early last semester. I distributed the Individual Student Reports (you may have already had this mailed to your house by the district) which contained, at the bottom, students' answers to test questions. I also gave everyone a Test Correction grid, and instructed classes to take another look at questions they had previously missed.

During the last 10 minutes of class, I presented the best approaches to finding the correct answer to the questions that were MOST FREQUENTLY MISSED: Questions 6, 13, 16, and 18, were the most problematic. Between 1/6-1/3 of each class answered these correctly.

Note: If you don't have your DEA Individual Student Report, that's OK, I can print one for you in class.

Note: If you weren't in today's class, and missed the opportunity to re-examine wrong answers, that's OK too -- tomorrow we're taking another look at DEA Test B.


HW: Make sure to bring your Individual Student Report to class tomorrow. I will have a new Answer Correction sheet to distribute.