"That's the good part of dying; when you've nothing to lose, you run any risk you want."
-Montag from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
-Montag from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Important Files
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5/30/17: We began watching "The Tempest" today in class. Homework tonight is to read Act 1, Scene 1: write a paragraph summarizing and write down 3 unknown words on the same page as the summary and define them.
Summary for Act 1, scene 2 is due Thursday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzPgLYFnwD4&feature=youtu.be 5/18/17: Students will be reciting the poem Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe on Friday. While we are still at the beginning stages of dissecting the meaning of the poem, the assignment to memorize it was given over a month ago. Therefore, the recitation will be on Friday, 5/19/17, and we will continue discussing the meaning and breaking down the poem next week. On Monday we will be starting The Tempest by Shakespeare. The students are excited about reading a Shakespeare play, and this will be our last piece of literature for the year. 5/1/17: Link to vocabulary words for quiz this Friday. It will be on words 21-40 and students will be quizzed on spelling and definition. https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/250291 4/28/17: Finish your question activity and paragraph due Monday. Study for the vocabulary quiz on Friday. 4/27/17: Today we changed the roles up a little as we read Act 3 of Cyrano de Bergerac. Tomorrow is a vocabulary quiz on words 1-20 of the vocabulary words. Tomorrow we are also going to discuss the meaning of Cyrano's line when he says, "Love seeketh not its own." What does this mean and is Cyrano seeking his own or not? 4/26/17: We had a great conversation in class today about social hierarchy and whether one's social status has any bearing whether a person is inherently good or not. We also began reading Act 3 of Cyrano. Remember that there is a vocabulary quiz on Friday covering 20 words. 4/24/17: We started reading Act II today in class. Students should be studying for their vocabulary quiz on Friday. 4/21/17: Tonight's homework is to answer the question: "Does Cyrano have a healthy view of love?" Provide three examples from Act 1 to support your answer. We have begun having fun acting out Cyrano de Bergerac in class. We will finish acting it out during the next weeks of class. The test for Cyrano de Bergerac will be on Friday, May 12th. Today I passed out a vocabulary list for the play. Students will be tested on words 1-20 on Friday, April 28th, and words 21-40 on Friday May 5th. Our next poem recitation will be Monday, May 15, "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allen Poe. Attention: Parent-Teacher Conferences are this week. If you would like to meet with me regarding your child's progress, please follow the link to sign up for a time slot. http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090544abad2aa2ff2-parent Welcome to 7th Grade English. We just finished up Fahrenheit 451. We are now reading a French play written in 1897 called Cyrano de Bergerac. Assignments: 3/30/17: Student-chosen poem recitations are due tomorrow. The rubric was handed out to all the students. All students should have highlighted their parts and written down all unknown words from Act I. 3/27/17: Homework: Read pages 1-15 of Cyrano de Bergerac. Tomorrow we assign roles. 3/21/17: We will be having a Fahrenheit 451 Test on Friday of this week. Also, 5-paragraph essays are due on Friday. The student selected poem recitations are due Friday, March 31st. We will be starting Cyrano de Bergerac on Monday, March 27th. 3/10/17: We took a 3 question grammar quiz from lesson 12 of grammar books, read the end of Fahrenheit 451 together, and wrote a thesis and outline for our essay. Homework tonight will be to finish our outline. 3/9/17: Please note: We changed the 5 paragraph essay prompt to the following: Should the firemen have been burning books in Fahrenheit 451? We also took time to make new ANI charts for this new question, categorized each answer in the "A" column and "N" column, and chose our top 3 most compelling arguments for each column. Tonight's homework is to read to page 158 (The end of the book). 3/8/17 Update: We had a great discussion in class today about some very inspiring concepts. Please talk to your kids about our discussion and read pages 146, and 149-151 to get a better understanding of the content of today's class. Their homework tonight is to write about a time when they visited an awe-inspiring place on earth and connect that visit to what Granger is saying on page 150 and to our class discussion. My goal is for them to understand the connection between seeing how small we are when we see places like the Grand Canyon, the Ocean, or other awe-inspiring places on earth, and the virtuous benefit that comes out of seeing ourselves as insignificant. We are are not guaranteed tomorrow. So, as Granger's grandfather points out, we should "Stuff our eyes with wonder!", and "Live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds." because there are "no guarantees." 3/7/17: Tonight's homework: Read to page 150 (annotate, unknown word list), complete extra practice from lesson 12 of grammar book #'s 5-8. 3/6/17: Today the students took a vocabulary quiz. We learned about direct objects and how to diagram them. Homework for 3/6/17: Complete the sentences in lesson 12 of grammar book and numbers 1-4 of extra practice. 3/3/2017: Vocabulary quiz is postponed to Monday, 3/6/17. In class we generated a list of reasons for and against the essay prompt on which students are working. The prompt is below: "Many societies have decided to censor certain types of offensive, inflammatory, or provocative speech. Many argue that in civilized societies free speech should have conditions that people are not abusing it to the detriment of the whole society. Should certain types of heavily offensive speech be illegal in civilized societies?" Students have been assigned to choose a poem, speech, or passage from one of the Realms of Gold books. They are reciting these on Monday, 3/20/17. 2/24/17: Tonight's Homework: Be sure to have read to the end of Chapter 2 (page 106 of Fahrenheit 451. Be sure to have completed the Invention stage of your 5 paragraph essay. Bring it to class on Monday. Your 5 paragraph essay will be tentatively due on 3/17/17. We will be working on it in class periodically between now and the due date. |