Building Our Reading Muscles, Day 5: September 28, 2018

Focus: How do we build our reading (and writing) muscles?

1. Warming up with a 5-minute whiteboard challenge on making nouns plural

2. Working for proficiency in one more noun lesson (with a 15-min cap)

3. Independent reading / journal checking

HW:
1. For MONDAY:

• If you are behind in your Kite Runner reading or journaling, catch up.
• Spend 20 minutes with your independent reading book.

2. For TUESDAY: Read and journal on Chapters 9 and 10 in The Kite Runner. Tuesday's leaders need to prepare their syllabus and post it to the website.

Confronting Literary Violence: September 27, 2018

Focus: Why does Khaled Hosseini include the violent scene in Chapter 7?

1. Approaching the violence of Chapter 7 of The Kite Runner; either writing about or discussing Chapter 7 while keeping the following in mind:

“Violence is one of the most personal and even intimate acts between human beings, but it can also be cultural and societal in its implications.  It can be symbolic, thematic, biblical, Shakespearean…Violence in real life just is.  If someone punches you in the nose in a supermarket parking lot, it’s simply aggression…Violence in literature, though, while it is literal, is usually also something else.  That same punch in the nose may be a metaphor.”  --Foster, How to Read Literature Like a Professor

• What were the most upsetting parts of reading Chapters 7 and 8?

• How do you feel about Amir right now?

• What questions do you want to ask the author about this scene?
• What might the violence in Chapter 7 represent on a larger scale? Think about the world of Afghanistan and how it's starting to change in these chapters.
• What other stories does this scene of violence make you think of? Can those connections help you understand the nature of the rape in Chapter 7?

• Why this sort of violence and not some other?  For example, why not just have Assef beat up Hassan?

• Wondering what the author has to say about this convtroversial scene?

2. Exploring the symbolism of the kite and kite running on the white boards

Find three different quotations about kites and kite running; try to spread these passages out, finding one quotation from one of the first few chapters, one from the middle chapters, and one from the chapters you've just read.

With your partner, read your passages aloud and discuss the following:

• In each quotation, which specific words and images stand out and why?
• What might the kite symbolize in each quotation?
• Is the meaning of the kite changing? If so, how?

3. Overviewing and setting up our fishbowl discussions for The Kite Runner

HW:
1. For TOMORROW: 

• Complete any two IXL lessons on NOUNS (Level J suggested).
• Bring your independent reading book to class.
• Bring your Kite Runner journals / annotations to class.

2. Remember that this Friday marks the end of the first 6 weeks; all make-up work, revisions, grade corrections, and re-taken quizzes are due this Friday.

Dark Foreshadowing: September 26, 2018

Focus: How does Hosseini let us know that something catastrophic is about to happen in The Kite Runner?

1. Warming up with chapters through Chapters 1 and 6 and a focus on foreshadowing:

What clues does Hosseini drop along the way to set us up for Chapter 7? 
Pick at least TWO categories to trace:

• Weather
• Characterization
• Actions
• Dialogue
• Symbols

2. Reading and annotating Chapters 7 and 8

3. Offering you an overview of fishbowl discussion and signing up for leadership and discussion dates

HW:
1. For TOMORROW: Finish reading and annotating Chapters 7 and 8 for tomorrow. They're rough.

2. For FRIDAY: Complete any two IXL lessons on NOUNS (Level J suggested).

3. Remember that this Friday marks the end of the first 6 weeks; all make-up work, revisions, grade corrections, and re-taken quizzes are due this Friday.

Discussing the Opening Chapters: September 25, 2018

Focus: What are we learning about the characters and their complex relationships?

Please turn in your printed essays. You may print during lunch or after school and leave it on my desk in the Language Arts office by 4:00.

1. Warming up by discussing Chapters 2 and 3 with your NEW membership grid groups (15 min)

• Topic #1: Each member shares a Level 2 (discussion) question you have from Chapter 2 or 3; all members discuss possible answers to each question.

• Ex: Why is important that both Amir and Hassan have lost their mothers? How does this loss affect each of them?

• Topic #2: Each member shares a significant passage (quotation) from Chapter 2 or 3; all members discuss the passage and its possible significance.

• Topic #3: Each member makes a text-to-self, text-to-text, or text-to-world connection to understand the text on a deeper level. Feel free also to connect to the documentary we watched.

2. Reading and annotating Chapters 4, 5, and 6 for tomorrow; click HERE if you need the online version of the reading journal

3. If you finish the reading and annotating early, you are welcome to start on your IXL for the week (proficiency in any two lessons in nouns)

HW:
1. For TOMORROW: Finish reading and annotating Chapters 4, 5, and 6. Brace yourself for Chapter 7.

2. For FRIDAY: Complete any two IXL lessons on NOUNS (Level J suggested).

3. Remember that this Friday marks the end of the first 6 weeks; all make-up work, revisions, grade corrections, and re-taken quizzes are due this Friday.

Family Dynamics: September 24, 2018

Focus: How can making personal connections and asking questions help us understand the family in The Kite Runner?

1. Warming up with three good things and checking in

• Three good things
• One character goal for the next two weeks
• One academic goal for the next two weeks
• Any corrections I need to make in your grades?

2. Creating a symbolic family drawing  for the family in The Kite Runner:

• What does the house/estate look like? Where do the different characters belong?
• Which characters are symbolically small and powerless, and which ones have power?
• Which characters are close to each other, and which maintain an emotional distance?
• Find passages from the text to back up at least THREE of your symbolic choices and write them in your drawing.

Follow-up class discussion: What important choices did you make, and what do they symbolize?  

Can you relate to the family in The Kite Runner?  Anybody here overshadowed by siblings? How does your relationship with your parents compare to Amir's relationship with his dad?

3. Reading and annotating Chapter 3 together; click here if you'd like the three-column notes template

4. Getting set up with your NEW membership groups (you will start class with them tomorrow)


HW:
1. For TOMORROW: Polish and PRINT your essay by 4:00 pm. Make sure you REMOVE ALL EDITING COMMENTS. You will not be permitted to leave class to print, but you do have until the end of the day to leave it on my desk.

2. For WEDNESDAY: Read and annotate Chapters 4, 5, and 6 using sticky notes or a reading journal; remember to use your reading strategies as you annotate (make personal connections, ask questions, make inferences about important little details, build up your background knowledge by looking up things you don't understand).  Make sure you have annotations or reading journal in class each day for checks.

3. For FRIDAY: Complete any two IXL lessons on NOUNS (Level J suggested).

4. Remember that this Friday marks the end of the first 6 weeks; all make-up work, revisions, grade corrections, and re-taken quizzes are due this Friday.

Building Our Reading Muscles, Day 4: September 21, 2018

Focus: How can we build our reading skills?

NEW SEATS AND A NEW UNIT TODAY!

1. Warming up with a celebration of some fantastic peer editing

2. Distributing The Kite Runner books and bookmarks; slow reading the first chapter together with three levels of questioning:

Level 1: What is a Hazara?

Level 2: What does Hassan's physical's description represent about his social status?

Level 3: Why do societies always need a scapegoat?

3. Reading our independent reading books and/or Chapter 2 of The Kite Runner; use sticky notes or three-columned notes (handwritten or typed) to annotate as you read. Remember your reading strategies.


HW:
1. Read Chapter 2; use sticky notes or three-columned notes (handwritten or typed) to annotate as you read. Remember your reading strategies (especially your three levels of questioning).

2. For TUESDAY: 

• Revise, polish, and PRINT your summary-response. 

• Turn in by 4:00 pm. You will not be allowed to leave class to print, so please take care of this on your own. 

• Use the Night-Before checklist to make sure your essay is in final-draft shape!

Your Futures: September 20, 2018

English 10 meets in the Forum today.

HW:
1. For TOMORROW: Bring your independent reading book to class.

2. For TUESDAY, SEP 25: Revise, proofread, and PRINT the final draft of your summary-response.

The BIG Edit: September 19, 2018

Focus: What do need to revise to strengthen our essays?

Tribe: Shortened Class

1. Warming up with an explanation of tomorrow

• Meet in the Forum and sit together.
• Have out student planner and something to write with/on.
• Cell phones stay in backpacks.
• Zero side conversations.
• I give you 10 points for your focus during the counselor's presentation (like Independent Reading).

2. Peer editing each other's summary-response essays using these slides

3. Wrapping up with 3-minute conferences

HW:
1. TOMORROW: Meet in the Forum. Sit together as a class.

2. For FRIDAY: Bring your independent reading book to class. If you have your own copy of The Kite Runner, bring it to class on Friday as well.

3. For TUESDAY, SEP 25: Final drafts of your summary-response are due. Please PRINT them and submit them by 4:00.

The How and the Why: September 18, 2018

Focus: How do we use our evidence to support our response topic sentence?

1. Warming up with the how and the why of our school cell phone policy

2. Zooming into your photo and identifying your 2-3 pieces of evidence

• Ex: If my topic sentence is about the significance of the color red, what might I zoom in on in this painting?

• Ex: If my topic sentence is about celebrating the promising possibility of education, what might I zoom in on?

• Your turn: What two or three pieces of evidence in your photo best support your topic sentence?

3. Understanding the what, how, and why for each piece of evidence

The what: Identify what the piece of evidence is by describing it.

• The father holds not one but two hats in his weathered hands: his hat, as well as his son’s hat.

The how: Explain how the evidence reveals something important.

• Rockwell has painted the son’s hat over the father’s hat to reveal how the father has put his son’s needs above his own, and for this reason, the father is the true figure of courage in the painting.

The why: Explain why the evidence supports your response topic sentence / why the evidence is something we should all care about.

• While the father’s features may initially fade into the background of the photo, Rockwell paints him as an unsung hero of rural life.

4. Partnering you up by photos and verbalizing your what, how and why to each other

5. Finishing the drafts of your paragraphs of response

*Giving you a heads-up: On Thursday, we will meet in the Forum for important information from the counselors.*

HW:

1. For TOMORROW: Finish your paragraph of response. Tomorrow will be our last day of in-class work time. Final drafts are due Tuesday, September 25.

2. On THURSDAY: Meet in the Forum.

3. For FRIDAY: Bring your independent reading books to class.

Switching from Objective to Subjective: September 17, 2018

Focus: How can we build our topic sentences and start drafting our essays?

1. Warming up with three good things

2. Reteaching independent vs. dependent clauses

3. Entering subjective mode by grading a few topic sentences for the response paragraph

4. Composing and peer editing our own topic sentences for the response paragraph

5. Color coding a paragraph of response to understand its structure

• Choose one color for the topic sentence, the sentences of analysis, and the concluding sentence.
• What do you notice about them?

• Choose a second color for the specific pieces of evidence.
• About how many are there? What can you use as "evidence" in a photo?

• Choose a third color for the transitional words.
• When do you need transitional words and phrases?

HW:
1. Start working on your paragraph of response (due before class on Wednesday).

2. Independent reading

Due Date	What’s Due
Thursday, Sep 12	Pre-writing due (Attempt and Completion grade)
Monday, Sep 17	Topic sentences and rough draft of summary due (Growth grade)
Wednesday, Sep 19	Rough draft of response/complete rough draft due (Growth grade)
Tuesday, Sep 25	Printed final draft due (Mastery grade)

Building Reading Muscles, Day 3: September 14, 2018

Focus: How can we build our reading skills?

Homecoming Assembly: Shortened class

1. Warming up with a reteaching of independent vs. dependent clauses

2. Reading our independent reading books

HW:
1. Spend 20-30 minutes with your independent reading book.

2. Finish your topic sentences and paragraph of summary if you did not finish in class yesterday.

Due Date	What’s Due
Thursday, Sep 12	Pre-writing due (Attempt and Completion grade)
Monday, Sep 17	Topic sentences and rough draft of summary due (Growth grade)
Wednesday, Sep 19	Rough draft of response/complete rough draft due (Growth grade)
Tuesday, Sep 25	Printed final draft due (Mastery grade)

Drafting Out to Sea: September 13, 2018

Focus: How can we build our topic sentences and start drafting our essays?

1. Warming up with grading a few topic sentences

2. Composing our own topic sentences

3. Exploring the structure of a sample summary-response

4. Working on your rough draft

• Please start a new Google doc for your draft, label it "Your Last Name Summary-Response." and place it inside your Kite Runner folder.

• If you finish your summary in class, start on the response.

• See essay timeline attached here (and posted below).

HW:
1. Bring your independent reading book to class tomorrow.

2. Finish composing your summary (and topic sentences if you need an extra day).

Due Date	What’s Due
Thursday, Sep 12	Pre-writing due (Attempt and Completion grade)
Monday, Sep 17	Topic sentences and rough draft of summary due (Growth grade)
Wednesday, Sep 19	Rough draft of response/complete rough draft due (Growth grade)
Tuesday, Sep 25	Printed final draft due (Mastery grade)

Objective vs. Subjective: September 12, 2018

Focus: How can we develop our objective and subjective skills to form topic sentences?

1. Warming up: Is it objective, or subjective?

Summary = objective

Response = subjective

2. Debriefing yesterday's documentary with your grid groups

• Topic #1: What specific moments from the documentary will stay with you? Which struck you?
• Topic #2: What larger takeaways do you have from the documentary? What did you learn?
• Topic #3: How does the documentary help you understand something better or differently about the Time photos we examined on Monday?

3. Reviewing the summary-response essay, then working on your pre-writing document

• Place your pre-writing document inside your Kite Runner folder.

3. Exploring the possibilities for your topic sentences and doing a quick demo together

4. Wrapping up Independent vs. Dependent Clauses: The Reteach

HW:

1. For TOMORROW:

• Finish your pre-writing document if you did not finish in class.

2. For FRIDAY: Independent reading

3. Remember that September 26 is the end of the first 6 weeks, and this is when any make-up work/revisions must be submitted (reading journals, grammar quizzes, etc.).

If anyone wants a head-start, The Kite Runner reading schedule is linked HERE and on the class website.

Inside the Taliban: September 11, 2018

Focus: What background knowledge do we need to better understand our photos?

1. Warming up with an overview of the note catcher

2. Viewing and taking notes on the National Geographic documentary, Inside the Taliban

HW:
1. For TOMORROW: Add one row to your three-columned photo essay notes in which you make a connection between something you watched in today's documentary and your photo. In other words, how does this background knowledge help you better understand your photo?

2. For FRIDAY:

• IXL: Nope!
• Independent reading

Taking the Fight to the Taliban: September 10, 2018

Focus: What does it mean to "take the fight to the Taliban"?

1. Warming up with three good things

2. Reflecting on Reading Boot Camp and setting goals: Click HERE for the Google form.

3. Offering your the photo essay overview and making a few important distinctions

4. Exploring the Time photos: "Taking the Fight to the Taliban"

• Preview the text
• Activate background knowledge
• Make predictions
• Set a purpose
• Flip through and summarize

5. Selecting the photo that intrigues you the most and reading it closely

Click HERE for the reading journal. Make a copy of it and move it to your shared English 10 folder.

Fill in your middle column with details from the photo and the description underneath.

In the left-hand column...

• Ask Level 1, 2, and 3 questions
• Make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections
• Make inferences

The the right-hand column, quickly document which reading strategies you used.

HW:
1. For TOMORROW: Flip back through the photos one more time and add a row in which you reflect on and evaluate the meaning of the title, "Taking the Fight to the Taliban."

2. For FRIDAY:

• You get the week off from IXL. We will have an "Independent vs. Dependent Clause Reteach" on Wednesday and Friday in class.

• Independent reading

Building Reading Muscles, Day 2: September 7, 2018

Focus: How do we build our reading muscles?

1. Warming up by refining your grammar:

• Complete ONE more IXL lesson: "Phrases and Clauses" OR "Sentences, Fragments, and Run-ons."

• Test yourself with this quick exit ticket.

2. Establishing your own independent reading parameters and settling into you books

Books must be finished by Friday, November 2. 
Starting next week, we will also be reading The Kite Runner.

3. Reflecting on Reading Boot Camp and setting goals: Click HERE for the Google form.

4. Thinking about reading as muscle-building

HW:
Spend 20-30 minutes with your independent reading book.

Reflecting and Goal-Setting: September 6, 2018

Focus: How can you vary your reading strategies to deepen your understanding of a text?

1. Warming up by addressing Academic Character

2. Offering you a Reading Boot Camp post-assessment deal: Isolating strategies and using them to discuss the clip from Batman Begins

• You will have two minutes to teach us how your strategy is central to understanding last night's film clip.

• You can use up to two Google slides (put them in your shared folder).

• After we finish presenting, you will be asked to reflect on what you heard and learned.

3. Reflecting on Reading Boot Camp and setting goals: Click HERE for the Google form.

HW:
1. For TOMORROW:

• Achieve proficiency (85 or higher) on any two lessons in "Phrases and Clauses."

• Spend 20 minutes with your independent reading book and bring it to class on Friday. 

2. If you're planning on purchasing your own copy of The Kite Runner, you will need it next Monday.

Pulling Together the Written, the Auditory, and the Visual: September 5, 2018

Focus: How do we apply our reading strategies to layered texts?

1. Warming up with your grid group takeaways from yesterday

2. Analyzing the complex little worlds of commercials

In your new reading journal, dedicate one row to each of the following "layers":

Layer 1: The visual (What images do you see?)

Layer 2: The music (What kind of music/background noise do you hear?)

Layer 3: The voiceover (What words are being spoken? What kind of voice is speaking them?)

• Background: Watch Dead Poets Society, starting around minute 21
• More background: Which poem is being recited?

Layer 4: The text (What words appear on screen? How you can use background research to unlock these words a bit more? Does this commercial have a slogan?)

Layer 5: The product (What is being advertised? To whom? What aspects of this product are being emphasized in this commercial?)

Overall: Which reading strategies did you use to understand this commercial?

3. Trying out our newfound skills with a film clip
(22:30-36:30)

HW:
1. For TOMORROW: Please watch the short movie clip from Batman Begins linked HERE; fill in at least four rows of the reading journal to unravel the four layers of this clip.  Here a few things to keep an eye (and ear) out for:

a. The visual: Important images, colors, movements, postures, clothes, facial expressions, etc.
b. The music: How would you describe it? What tone does it help create?
c. The voices: What words are spoken out loud?  Why are they important?
d. The central character: What can we infer about him and how?

2. By FRIDAY:

• Achieve proficiency (85 or higher) on any two lessons in "Phrases and Clauses."

• Spend 20 minutes with your independent reading book and bring it to class on Friday. 

3. If you're planning on purchasing your own copy of The Kite Runner, you will need it next Monday.

Rereading and Peeling Off the Yellow Wallpaper: September 4, 2018

Focus: How do we combine multiple reading strategies to develop multiple meanings?

1. Warming up with three good things

2. Using a new strategy: Rereading the beginning and ending; brainstorming symbols in "The Yellow Wallpaper"

3. Exploring the multiple meanings of these symbols in grid groups

Topic #1 (as a class): Reread for shifts and symbols

• What has shifted / changed from the beginning to the ending?

• What are some symbols in the story you find important? Which one interests your group the most?

Topic #2: Make inferences and connections regarding your symbol

• Find at least four passages in the story that describe that symbol and highlight/underline them.

• Pull out specific words and phrases from those passages that describe that symbol, and do some web brainstorming (see sample on the board).

• Add at least one piece of background knowledge on the rest cure, the author, and/or postpartum depression to your web brainstorming. How does it fit?

Topic #3: Use your symbol to develop a larger theme. What does the author want us to understand better or differently?

• What patterns can you find? Try to group the descriptions, just as we did with poems.

• What larger understanding of the story does it help create?  Form a thesis statement that looks something like this:

• The (insert symbol here) in Perkins' "The Yellow Wallpaper" represents _____________________, but it also symbolizes _____________________.

4. Extending our thinking by creating Level 3 questions and posting the best of the best on the blog: WHAT DO YOU THINK GILMAN WANTED US TO QUESTION?

TURN IN YOUR "YELLOW WALLPAPER" THREE-COLUMN JOURNALS, PLEASE.

5. Starting your weekly IXL: "Phrases and Clauses" (must be Level I or higher)

HW:
1. By FRIDAY:

• Achieve proficiency (85 or higher) on any two lessons in "Phrases and Clauses."

• Spend 20 minutes with your independent reading book and bring it to class on Friday. 

2. If you're planning on purchasing your own copy of The Kite Runner, you will need it next Monday.