11.26 - Activity Selection and Assignment Revision

We started today's class with 15 minutes of reading from free-choice or class books. Everyone then recorded their reading progress on one of our reading tracking sheets. This ended the reading section which ran from 11/18 - 11/26.

Next, I handed out packets featuring our next round of activities. Everyone read through these activities and ranked them according to which activities they would like to present. I will use these sheets to set up our next round of activity presentations.

Several students then helped me to return work and I handed out grade report sheets. I then went over the various assignments that had been assigned. Extra copies of each assignment and material that went with it were available at the front of the room. Everyone had the remaining time in period to complete any missing work and revise any assignments scoring below a 92. During this time, I met individually with students to answer questions and talk about assignments.
 

Homework:

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

 

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

11.22 - Writing Reviews

We started today's class with 15 minutes of reading.

We then resumed our work with book reviews and looked at what make effective editorial and reader reviews (see notes below).

 (click image to enlarge)

(click image to enlarge)

Based on these responses, everyone then went and wrote a book review for a book that they have finished so far this year.

Homework:

Finish writing your book review if you did not do so in class. Reviews can be shared on Google Drive with: caleb.collins.lhs@gmail.com

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

 

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

11.20 - Editorial Reviews

We started today's class with 15 minutes of reading. We then took a look at how book reviews are set up and what makes an effective review.

To get a sense for what makes a good review. I handed out some reviews from Amazon.com. We are going to be taking a look at the official, editorial reviews and the top-rated reader-submitted reviews. We are looking at both of these since we went to have the "official" editorial voice and approach to reviews, but we also want to know what makes these reviews popular (the top-rated reviews).

In class today, we looked at the reader reviews and noted key features on the review comparison sheet that most (though not necessarily all) of the reviews seemed to have.


Homework:


If you did not do so in class, finish your notes on what makes an effective editorial review and an effective reader review.

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

 

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv

11.18 - Book Reviews

We started today's class with 15 minutes of reading from free-choice or class books. Everyone then recorded their reading progress on one of our reading tracking sheets. This started a new reading section which will run from 11/18 - 11/26.

Next, we began taking a look at writing good book reviews. This is going to prepare us for writing book reviews that will be available to people looking for books here in our library at the high school. A student in one of the technology classes will be organizing a web site of reviews that will be accessible to library patrons via QR codes that we will put on the book's binding.

To get a sense for what makes a good review. I handed out some reviews from Amazon.com. We are going to be taking a look at the official, editorial reviews and the top-rated reader-submitted reviews. We are looking at both of these since we went to have the "official" editorial voice and approach to reviews, but we also want to know what makes these reviews popular (the top-rated reviews).

In class today, we looked at the editorial reviews and noted key features on the review comparison sheet that most (though not necessarily all) of the reviews seemed to have.

Homework:

Read for at least two hours for this reading section (11/18 - 11/26) from your free choice book.

11.14 - The Most Dangerous Game

I had to attend a meeting during our class today so Mr. Lucarelli was in charge of today's class.

In class, everyone was independently reading the short story "The Most Dangerous Game" while completing a story review. After finishing the story, everyone should also fill out a reading format review.

Homework:

If you did not finish the story, story review, or reading format review in class, do so for homework.

11.12 - Harrison Bergeron Analysis

We started today's class by visiting the library so that everyone could continue adding to their "Next Reads" book lists. When we returned to class, everyone had 10 minutes to read from their free choice book or another class novel. We used this 10 minute read to establish another two-hour overall reading pace.

Everyone then worked with a partner to share out their analysis of significant words, ideas, and questions in "Harrison Bergeron."

We will use this information to adapt experiential activities to this short story.

Homework:

Read for at least two hours for this reading section (11/01 - 11/12) from your free choice book.

11.07 - Harrison Bergeron Processing

At the beginning of class today, everyone read from their free choice books for fifteen minutes. After the reading, everybody recorded the pages that they read today and in any other books that they have been reading outside of class.

We then returned to our work with the short story "Harrison Bergeron." Everyone worked with their partner to complete the story review sheet and the reading format review sheet. After everyone had a chance to complete these, we discussed students' responses to the reading format for "Harrison Bergeron" (this time it was the partner read). Our discussion focused on strengths of partner reads and what can make the format challenging. From this we talked about when the partner read would be best used in a class.

Homework:

If you did not do so in class, finish reading "Harrison Bergeron."

Read for at least two hours for this reading section (11/01 - 11/12) from your free choice book.

11.05 - Harrison Bergeron

At the beginning of class today, everyone read from their free choice books for fifteen minutes. After the reading, everybody recorded the pages that they read today and in any other books that they have been reading outside of class.

Next, we began the next phase of applying experiential learning activities in the English classroom by taking a look at some short stories that English teachers said they teach in their classrooms. Our work will focus on looking at these stories and how they can be connected with activities so that our activities will be more easily used in classes at LHS.

When reading stories we will look at the different ways that stories can be read and different elements of the stories so that we can connect them to appropriate activities.

Today, we read the short story "Harrison Bergeron." The class elected to read this story with partners (we'll conduct the reading of the short story in a different way each time). While reading the story, everyone should complete a story review sheet and, after reading the story, a reading format review sheet.

Homework:

If you did not do so in class, finish reading "Harrison Bergeron."

Read for at least two hours for this reading section (11/01 - 11/12) from your free choice book.

11.01 - Reading and Activity Assessment Reflections

We started today's class with 15 minutes for everyone to read independently from their free choice books. At the end of this time, everyone recorded their progress in the books and tallied the progress they had made for this section of reading.

I then handed out reading reflections for reading sections 1 and 2 (we just finished our third reading section). Everyone then set up their fourth reading section sheet. This reading section will run from 11/01 to 11/12.

Everyone then had the remaining time in the period to work on their
Activity Assessment Reflection (which were handed out last class. These will be included on first quarter grades so this was a final opportunity to get these in for the quarter one eligibility check.


Homework:

Read for at least two hours for this reading section (11/01 - 11/12) from your free choice book.

If you did not do so today in class, complete your Activity Assessment Reflections