Natalie reviewed her list of rhetorical terms and then took a test on these -- 95.
She then read and almost completed Act 2 of Hamlet, asking several thoughtful questions. The study questions of Act 2 are due next Thursday. We then reviewed the essay prompt for the writing on Kennedy's speech on World Speech. She will continue reading at home and doing the study questions to bring in on Thursdays. We will work on other Hamlet items in our curriculum.
Will did a great job revising his essay about the "Colorado Wild Fires". He felt comfortable making revisions, which is an area that he had difficulty with in the past. Will shared that he felt he was really improving as a writer and I agree with his assessment. The assignment for the Colorado Wild Fires centered around using good descriptive language and sensory details. He made his edits and revisions on paper and now needs to enter it on his computer. In addition, he needs to work on his concluding paragraph. I asked him to consider a couple questions when writing his final paragraph. First, were the fires brought under control while he was at his vacation house? Also, did he feel it was safe towards the end of his visit? Will needs to finish his edits and draft the concluding paragraph for homework.
Natalie continued following the history of British literature through the early 1600's. She completed a detailed quiz/worksheet with the most important information. After she does this third one of these, the following week she will take an exam featuring the most important points. Natalie will read and annotate the Kennedy speech this weekend and bring her essay next Friday. Reminder: next Thursday is a literary terms test.
Review of literary-rhetorical terms using King Claudius' speech to Hamlet in Act 1. We found and marked which of the literary devices were used by Shakespeare in this famous speech. Natalie will have an exam on these terms next Thursday. Natalie handed in her essay on comparing the beginnings of the play versus the 1999 film, and why they began differently. She then completed a final question on Act 1 study prompts. Lastly, she began to read Act 2 of Hamlet and to respond to the study questions (continue next Thursday). She took home the Kennedy speech from last week to annotate -- due tomorrow.
Today in class, Will shared his thoughts about his meeting with the college counselor and the suggestions that were offered to improve his essay. He worked on modifications and had a sense of clarity as to why he needed to change the essay a bit. The revision process was difficult at first, however, as we went along he seemed to have a better sense of why and how he needed to revise it. He was concerned about not getting to other topics and seemed a bit anxious about spending “so long” on one piece of writing. He completed the revised draft, and we will be making final edits on it at our next meeting.
There were two items on the agenda today. Intro to British literature, and completion of last week's writing of the Kennedy speech. Natalie said that her writing had been thrown out, so she will bring it next week, along with the Hamlet study questions from yesterday. Therefore, we spent more time on British literature, and Natalie completed a quiz on the most important points. Lastly, she read a few pages on high-level annotating, and began to use the instructions on a short, but dense, text.
Each Thursday is devoted to the study of Shakespeare's, Hamlet. Today we finished Act 1, and Natalie is close to completing the "study questions" for Act 1. She should turn them in in tomorrow morning. I will correct and comment on these and give them back to her next Thursday. Natalie is assigned a two-paragraph response to a prompt that incorporates an important learning standard comparing the beginning of the play to the start of the film with Mel Gibson. She has watched Act 1 in the movie. The question is to reason out why the beginnings were so different, why Shakespeare decided to begin with the ghost scene, while the film producer decided on a later scene that backed up to the ghost event. Due next Thursday.
Today, I taught Will's English class. I decided that since he is taking the ACT soon, we would review and practice the English and Reading Comprehension sections using the Princeton Review SAT book. We focused on the mini-reading sections for the English part. Will and I did some together and then he continued independently. He had a very positive attitude and certainly knows his own strengths and weaknesses. I would like him to get some more practice in English, Math and structure before the ACT so that he feels comfortable taking it.
Will continued his exploration of descriptive paragraph writing today. His next assignment is to write a descriptive essay about the Colorado wildfires which he observed during his summer vacation. He shared the brainstorm notes that he worked on over the weekend. We then looked at several examples of descriptive essays from both high school students and published authors. We talked about painting a visual picture and using sensory details in writing. Will then began drafting his essay during class. He was able to complete the introductory paragraph and over the weekend will complete a section describing the firefighting base that was located at a nearby school. Will did an excellent job today!
For the next five or six weeks on Fridays, Natalie will be working on how to write an essay in response to an argumentative text. Today we worked through a sample using President Roosevelt's speech "Lease-Loan," and pre-write materials including structure and rhetorical devices (defined with examples) -- from which I made templates to do the same for her upcoming writing, and a final essay example. She completed a test on critical thinking based on the Roosevelt text -- she had an A. Natalie will read a commencement speech by John F. Kennedy this week, and next Friday she will complete another critical thinking test that analyzes Kennedy's speech, and the pre-write templates, in preparation for her essay response.
