Writing, Writing, and More Writing!

If you want to know what we've been working on, then think: writing.  All of my classes have been working on analytical writing.  I'm trying something new - writing an essay from the inside out - and I think it's going pretty well.  I had them write a paragraph at a time and I've been grading them as we go, so there won't be a giant essay grade at the end; it will be spread out over time.  I've been so pleased to see how much revision and editing they've been doing.  Because they can re-do these writings for a better grade, they've been re-visiting the paragraphs multiple times and I feel like many of them are truly behaving like academic writers.  This is what it takes to write papers at the higher levels of high school and beyond, so I'm really happy with what I'm seeing from so many of them.

Last week English 9 created, typed, and submitted their first analytical paragraph over Romeo and Juliet. English 10 added on their introductory and conclusion paragraphs and submitted an entire 5-paragraph essay over "The Palace Thief", and they're ready to move on to our last unit of the semester: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  This is something all knew to me, so I spent all of yesterday planning and creating the first third of the unit.  My plan is to be at least 2/3 of the way through by the time we break for Christmas.  We'll see!

Here's what's coming up this week:

English 9

• Monday, 12/4 - we'll spend part of the hour going over scheduling information for 10th grade - signatures and forms are due back on Friday; then we'll add to our notes for R&J and do Act III, scenes i and ii.
• Tuesday, 12/5 - Academic Advisory - I'll hand back papers; we'll continue Act III
• Wednesday, 12/6 - 1/2 Day - I'll be signing off on English 10 Honors schedules (see note below); we'll continue with Act III
• Thursday, 12/7 - PSAT Advisory - TURN IN READING LOG #11; we'll try to finish Act III; Quiz over Act III; if time - pre-writing for Analytical Paragraph #2
• Friday, 12/8 - get reading log #12; scheduling for 10th grade with the counselors.

English 10

• Monday, 12/4 - nouns; read HeLa pp. 1-7 and do study guide, annotations, vocabulary cards
• Tuesday, 12/5 - Academic Advisory - I'll hand back papers;  read HeLa pp. 27-33 with study guide, annotations, vocabulary cards
• Wednesday, 12/6 - 1/2 Day - HeLa pp. 63-66 with study guide, annotations, vocabulary cards
• Thursday, 12/7 - TURN IN READING LOG #11; nouns; HeLa pp. 93-102 with study guide, annotations, vocabulary cards
• Friday, 12/8 - get reading log #12; finish pp. 93-102 in HeLa; silent reading

A note on scheduling for English 9 - they have received the information for 10th grade scheduling.  On Monday I'll go over how to access the course selection guide so that they can plan things out. There is an option for English 10 Honors being offered next year, but it requires signatures.  This option is only for students who love English, are strong in English, and plan on taking A.P. English 11 and 12.  It's definitely not for everyone.  Please note, they do not need to take English 10 Honors to take A.P.  If I think your student will struggle in this class, I'm not going to sign off on it.  This class will be in the 4.0 scale for the G.P.A. and if they struggle it will hit them hard.  I'd rather have them go to a regular English 10 class and finish strong before they head for A.P. than wreck their G.P.A. and transcript struggling in a class for which they're not ready.

I hope everyone has a great week.  Enjoy this beautiful weather for two more days, and then it sounds like winter will arrive. Ciao!


Writing, Writing, and More Writing! by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://www.laurastubbs.blogspot.com.