Skip to content

Tag: Main Idea

Published on

L. A. 8

We continue with Romeo and Juliet by diving into Act 2. This Act includes the famous balcony scene! This week, we've talked about motifs and imagery. Students made "text message" conversations between two of the characters in the play using modern language. We've also continued our practice of tackling complex texts with our Main Idea Paragraphs. We've switched from finding the main idea and then supporting it with details to finding the details and then using those to generate a main idea.

Contemporary Lit.

We've had a lot of work time this week and made great progress into our Macbeth essays. Students have packets that have helped them create thesis statements and main idea claims for their three body paragraphs. These packets are an outline of the entire essay, as well as containing the prompt, rubric, and places where we recorded textual evidence. The essays need to be five paragraphs long. We discussed how to cite textual evidence with context and reasoning (linking it back to the thesis statement). We also learned how to write introductory paragraphs that include an attention-getter, quick summary of the play, and thesis statement. Essays are due on January 15th.

Writing Lab.

After wrapping up our Personal Essays, we are quickly working our way through an Original Free Verse Poem. Free verse poems do not have a rhyme scheme or specified structure, which gives students a lot of freedom to express themselves rather than play with style. Students still need to include figurative language in their poems, but are not constrained to a particular type of poem. These poems should connect to the subject of their "Gift of Gratitude" Scrapbook, but can be about any topic: a specific memory, lessons learned from the loved one, descriptions of the person, etc.

General Information

Our guidance counselor, Mr. Wong, came to each class this Wednesday to discuss class options for the 2019-20 year. Students were given course catalogs and sheets to sign up for classes. They are required to have 8 credits (7 + study hall, if desired). Classes marked with an "R" are required, while the ones marked with an "E" are electives.

Incoming Freshman have a choice of three Language Arts classes, while next year's Juniors have a few more options. These classes range in difficulty and independent working levels. If you or your student has questions regarding which English class they should take next year, please feel free to contact me. Mr. Cole and Ms. Haig can also answer questions about classes they are currently teaching or plan to teach next year.

Published on

L.A. 8

We are wrapping up Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet. This week, we talked about dreams and irony, and we also did a little bit of acting in the form of tableaux. Students are also practicing finding the main idea in a piece of complex text. I've also started to grade notebook checks on Interactive Notebooks: students must have pages complete and neat in order to earn 100%.

Contemporary Lit.

In Contemporary Lit., we are still making our way through Macbeth, slow and steady. We are finishing up Act 4 with some discussions on prophecies, and we had a little fun making our own spells and comparing Macbeth to Harry Potter. We also talked about socioeconomic class and how it relates to Macbeth. Next week, I plan on finishing reading Macbeth, then wrapping up the unit after the New Year by writing an essay about it.

Writing Lab.

After practicing a few pre-writing strategies, we have started our "Gift of Gratitude" scrapbook with the first writing assignment: a Memory List. Students are writing out 25 memories of the subject of their scrapbook, with ten pictures. Memories need at least 2 full sentences each.

Published on

L.A. 8

We are continuing to read Romeo and Juliet this week, and should be nearly done with Act 1. We've added lots of pages to our Interactive Notebook, including a journal entry and notes on Act 1 Scene 1 (1.1). We will also do a small art project this week - creating masks similar to the ones Romeo and Juliet would have worn on the night we met. During this time, we will discuss various symbols in the play, such as stars, and how we can represent them on our masks. Homework includes Main Idea Paragraph #2. These Main Idea Paragraphs are part of the school wide initiative to help students understand complex texts and increase literacy scores on state testing. With weekly practice, students will become pros at recognizing the main idea of any text. 

Contemporary Literature

We are over halfway through Macbeth. This week, we are finishing up Act 3. We have discussed the roles of ghosts in literature, the role of guilt in our lives, and the motif of deception and truth in the play. As part of the latter motif, we created masks that explored the idea of lies revealing truths about certain characters. We also read about the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare's authorship - did William Shakespeare really write the work attributed to him, or was it Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford? 

Writing Lab.

It's a new session of Writing Lab.! We're off to a great start this trimester with our new cohort. We've begun by discussing the challenges we face that keep us from writing - anything from distractions and difficulties with spelling to feeling insecure and tackling bad memories. We also talked about various strategies we could use to combat these difficulties. Before we begin our "Gift of Gratitude" scrapbook, the project that will be the focus of the entire class, we are practicing various writing skills, such as Significant Details and Show, Don't Tell.