Yesterday we played a game that BASICALLY explains the concept of Marxist Communism. When the game was done, the many laborers had a few cents each, while the one or two masters had much more money. In a perfect world, this system would work because everyone would have as much as they needed and no more or less. Unfortunately, in our greedy world, this system will not work because people cheat and lie and take from others. That is similar to Marxist Communism - the idea is that everyone should share in the work and the profit, but in reality, people get swindled.
The reason for studying this is that our next author, Arthur Miller, was accused of being a communist in America in the 1950s. This was a terrible thing back then and he was brought to court for it. He was convicted and lost everything; Miller lost his good reputation and many of his writings over the next few years (after the accusation) failed. Because of this incident in his life, Miller chose to write a story about another time in history when people were accused of something and then lost everything for it - the Salem Witch Trials. We will read that book, called The Crucible. Open the attached link in Microsoft Word if you need the notes from today's class. Arthur Miller Notes See you tomorrow. -Miss White
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I am out sick today and am writing this to you from my "comfy couch". Obviously, you will have a sub.
This is the plan: You are going top practice writing a more serious kind of letter - a college application letter. You need three paragraphs and you will ORGANIZE your writing so that you look and sound great while you write. In your essay, you need to give three awesome character traits. I know this will be weird because you're bragging about yourself, but you have to sell yourself somehow. You also want to mention a negative character trait that you have and explain how you are working to improve it. The "negative" example I always give is as follows: If I am disorganized, I have to take extra steps to ensure that I don't look disorganized. So I create schedules and reminders for myself online so I can be sure to keep on top of my natural inclination to be disorganized. Now I don't forget as often and people think I am organized! (See how I turned a negative into a positive? That's what I want you to do.) Give it a try. I'll see you Tuesday. Behave for the sub! -Miss White Test today on:
*Literary terms *Short Stories *Brush Strokes If I said it in class, you are responsible for it. Good luck. -Miss White Today in class we reviewed for the test Friday and learned a new brush stroke, a participle. Technically, a participle is defined as: A form of a verb that in some languages, such as English, can function independently as an adjective.
Our class examples of a participle brush stroke are:
-Miss White Today we reviewed the first brush stroke - an ABSOLUTE. Here are some examples:
-Miss White So you want to learn to write better than you already do? Well, pay attention. We will be learning 5 basic grammar tricks to enhance sentences. Then you can mix and match, add literary techniques, and shake it up a little. I am hopeful that these lessons will allow you to be more creative (and definitely more interesting) when you write.
FYI - You might want to use these techniques when you do your papers for other subjects, too. Those teachers also appreciate good grammar and a little bit of rock-and-roll when they read. Today we focused on absolutes. See the image grammar book for clarification. Tomorrow we review and learn more. Yay! Have a great night! -Miss White Today in class we did some brainstorming about our "realities". So the class wrote several ideas and descriptions of a chosen everyday activity on one side of their scrap paper. On the other side, students wrote a detailed description of dreams or thoughts they might be having while engaged in their everyday activity.
Homework:
-Miss White PS - Write a comment on this blog today and I will buy you a candy bar of your choice. (How's that for a bribe?) After the junior class officers explained the "I Dare You" fund-raiser to the class, I asked the students to come up and show me their homework. Today, it was fairly easy to get a one-hundred - all you had to do was complete the worksheet. (Don't expect that very often - BTW) We reviewed all the questions and discussed various possible answers to most of them.
Then came the class work. We made fairly detailed descriptions of some activity which happens daily in our lives. Students paid special attention to the sounds, feelings, smells, sights, or tastes are associated with this activity. Tomorrow we will concentrate on a "dream" that may contrast to the daily hum-drum of life. Then comes the writing - so be ready. We are going to copy James Thurber's writing style and create our own stories. Have a good night! -Miss White Today in class we:
-Miss White Happy Friday!
Today we did group work. Since you had some trouble with your last vocabulary assignment, I decided to allow you to check each other's sentences before handing them in today. I am hopeful that your small group helped you to find any mistakes. After that, we worked for a while on the study questions for the story and reviewed them together. You have no homework this weekend. Have fun! Make wise choices! -Miss White |
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