"Life's a long and winding ride
Better have the right one by your side And happiness don't drag its feet Time moves faster than you think" -Kip Moore Today you chose over forty different topics from our story, "The First Seven Years". I will list them below, but we are going to be using these topics as a discussion point later in the week. Yes - you will get to use your iPhones in class! You and a partner will record your discussion about ONE topic, what readers can learn about that topic from the text, why it is relevant to current culture (text-to-society), and why it is relevant to students (text-to-self). Topics: Forgiveness, dedication, meddling, fear of the future, soul mates, power of reading, status, confidence, betrayal, false impressions, wrath, parents approval of spouse, envy, disobedience, money, education, patience, materialism, pride, trust, rage, disapproval, desire, sadness, dependence on others, wealth, love, secret love, pride, age, arranged marriage, happiness, self image, perseverance, understanding, lust, relationships, sacrifice, independence, selfishness, work ethic, loyalty Whew! You guys ROCK!! (For anyone who was not in class but still reads this blog, these 10th graders came up with these topics with ZERO help from me. They are SO MUCH smarter than you think!) Have a great night! -Mrs. Col
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In Friday's class, we began to read a story (due Monday, along with your final creative story from Veldt vocab) about a proud man named Feld who wanted his daughter to marry the man of his choosing, a man who had a college education. At the same time that he was trying to set up his daughter with Max, his assistant Sobel was getting frustrated.
The class determined that Feld had not paid enough attention to his daughter's actions. She had been reading notes tucked sweetly between the pages of novels traded with Sobel for years. But Feld had no interest in Sobel, except that he was one of very few trusted assistants in the village. Read more on the short story tab under ELA10H (blog) Tuesday we began to look at vocabulary in "The Veldt". For the most part, the words chosen by the author are easy to understand, but occasionally, those vocabulary words really jump out at the reader creating a vivid picture and emphasizing mood and tone of the work.
Your job TUESDAY: 1. Choose 15 words from "The Veldt" which seem to pop off the page for you. If you don't know the meanings, be sure to determine definitions. 2. Discuss the power of a few of your words with your group. WHY would the author choose this word? What mood does it emphasize? What is another word that the author could have chosen? 3. Create an idea for a creative story in which you utilize all 15 vocabulary words. 4. As homework, create a "rough draft" of your story. You will work with this again Wednesday. **When I say "rough draft", I mean that you need to create a work which includes a beginning, a middle, and an end. The work should be finished, as far as you are concerned. You should not have typos, spelling errors, or vague ideas on the page. The reason it is a ROUGH DRAFT is that I will ask you to do some editing work on it. ---Even Stephen King edits his work years after he writes and finds several changes that he would like to make. Your job Wednesday: 1. In groups of TWO, read one another's creative story from Tuesday. Is there anything you would like to know? Does the story qualify as a FIVE on your 5-3-1 rubrics for V.O.I.C.E.S? 2. Use the rest of class to edit your paper. Would you like to change organization? How about word choice? Some people probably want to change the entire story. That's okay, but the FINAL DRAFT is due Monday. Thursday: No class. HALF DAY! Today we read the story of "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury. Tomorrow, we will look at it in depth in regard to WORD CHOICE. If you want to read it again, you can find it in your short story packet OR you can look for it on this website under ELA10H/Short Stories.
Have a great night! -Mrs. Coller WEDNESDAY:
1. Mr. Hayden, from the Guidance office, came to class today to speak about the upcoming PSAT (Practice SAT). If you would like to sign up to take it on October 19, bring $15 to the guidance office before the test. 2. In groups, we determined possible connections between Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and "Boots of Spanish Leather" by Bob Dylan. This is what you found: *They both deal with unwanted change. *Both have characters who are resistant to change, but have to deal with it. *Both stories hinge on a seemingly insignificant object to symbolize a major event in life. (piece of paper with small dot vs boots of Spanish leather) *Both stories deal with loss and healing. 3. We read a poem called "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams. Individually, you determined its meaning from your own perspective. We found that the perspectives all varied, but would work. Your thoughts: **The wheelbarrow may seem insignificant, but actually holds great weight in its setting. Commonplace events/people are more valuable than we may believe. **The wheelbarrow is red among white chickens. Does this symbolize the death of something so that other aspects of the farm can succeed? Does this symbolize the work of the wheelbarrow in moving the dead chickens around so that people can eat? THURSDAY (Today): 1. We had a quiz on the second portion of literary elements, numbers 11 - 62 in your packet. 2. I gave you time to read your novel of choice in class today. You have an ORB (Outside Reading Book) assignment due for THIS novel on October 10th. Click HERE to get the assignment now, or wait until Monday when I hand it to you in class. Have a good night! -Mrs. Coller I am proud of you for analyzing Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" so well yesterday. You determined that she was addressing the issue of keeping dangerous traditions instead of initiating change of bad policy. As a class, we discussed the difference between TOPIC and THEME:
TOPIC: usually one word or phrase, general idea with little to no expansion on it THEME: Usually consists of what the readers learn about the topic. When I contemplate THEME, I begin by making a short list of main topics, then discuss EXACTLY what I think the author wanted us to know about that topic. THEMES are best explained in complete and detailed sentences. TODAY we discussed Jackson's PERSPECTIVE. She wanted the audience to think that all was well in the town until she told them the truth. Then the audience's PERSPECTIVE changed. In fact, from YOUR perspective, you told me that you already had a hint that the lottery was a terrible tradition because of The Hunger Games. Continuing to focus on perspective, we analyzed Bob Dylan's song, "Boots of Spanish Leather" and found that the IDEA of losing someone special is enhanced because the song is a dialogue between the singer and the woman he is losing. At first, the singer refuses to accept a gift from his lover, who is leaving. He thinks she will return to him, so he simply asks that she come back safe and untouched. The singer's PERSPECTIVE changes when he realizes she is not coming back to him. At the end, he has decided to request a tangible gift from his ex-lover, something with which to remember her. Tomorrow, we will continue to talk about the IDEAS in works of literature using a different poem, "The Red Wheelbarrow". See you then, In class today, your job is to:
Homework: **STUDY for your quiz on Literary Terms THURSDAY. You will need to know:
Have a great night! -Mrs. Coller Today we will head down to the auditorium to get our school photos done. Yay!
Have a great weekend! -Mrs. Coller For the last couple days, we have read a short story called, "The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant". In this short story, whether you liked it or not, you found that the author shows strong VOICE. This is something that you will practice doing throughout the school year, so don't forget that, if you write with strong VOICE, you can say:
In class, we analyzed the character of the narrator. Then we looked at the VOICE of the author, J. D. Wetherell, and determined that his VOICE is strong and follows the above requirements. To further emphasize VOICE, we wrote our own little research paper explaining what we think the most powerful word in the English language is, then proving that theory with: *text to text *text to self *text to society relationships. This project was due today. TODAY, we began to look at organization using a speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt. In groups of two, you wrote down your understanding of the ORGANIZATION of the speech. Tomorrow, we will discuss your findings using the handout received in class today. (As you may have noticed, you may click on the links in this blog to see the documents in a .docx format. If you don't have Microsoft Word, you may be able to open it in Preview, but you may ask me to print out a copy of the document for you in class.) Have a great night. -Mrs. Coller Hello, All! This site will be used to keep you updated on homework assignments, give you grammar help, and lead you to historical information. You may also email me @ [email protected].
When I was absent on Friday, you read a short story called "The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant". In groups, you were to get together and decide what the narrator's most powerful word would be in regard to this text. In other words, what does the narrator think is essential in regard to a main concept for his life? After you decided this, your job was to choose a word that YOU think is the most powerful word. In order to PROVE your theory, you will be going to the LMC today and for the next couple days. You will need to find: *a piece of literature/poem that supports your theory. *a piece of news that supports your theory. *a personal reason for your theory. The Most Powerful Word essay is due Thursday. See the assignment sheet for details. Have a great day! -Mrs. Coller |
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