Here's a great opportunity for teen writers: Elementia Literary Magazine submissions and information.  Submitting to Elementia will count for extra credit, however you must meet with me to discuss your writing/art before you submit it.

Another extra credit opportunity:  Be chosen as one of the 3-5 winners, and you will have one of your extra credit opportunities fulfilled.  Johnson County Writing Contest

English 10H: Vocabulary test 3.  Kenneth Rexroth's poem "Gic to Har" is the source material for the vocabulary sentences. It will also be included on the poetry/short story/unit 1 test that we will take next week.  Next week's schedule is Odd-Even-Odd-Even, so the test will be on Monday for 5 and 7, Tuesday for 4 and 6.  Vocabulary List 4 will be Wednesday and Thursday.  There is no school next Friday, October 10.

Reminder that next week's schedule is weird.  No school Monday.  Late start (9:40) Tuesday and it's an even block day with no seminar.  Wednesday is odd block.  Th/F are traditional days.  VOCABULARY TESTS WILL STILL BE ON BLOCK DAYS.  Hours 4 and 6 will have Vocab on Tuesday.  3,5,7 will have Vocab test on Wednesday.

English 12: Illiad excerpt assignment on GC.

English 10H: Watch The Surprising Need for Strangeness and respond to prompt on GC.

English 12: Anglo-Saxon poetry presentations.  Vocabulary list 3

English 10H: Hand back and go over Vocab test 2.  Vocabulary list 3.  Final thoughts on "Opportunity" and the presentations.  Begin analysis of Nabokov lecture both as a class and then in groups.  For each numbered paragraph/section  (1-11), identify and briefly explain Nabokov's fundamental point.

English 12: Beowulf test hand back and explanation.  Group work on Anglo-Saxon poetry.  Presentations tomorrow.

English 10H: Poetry presentations.  Read Nabokov lecture "Good Readers and Good Writers" for tomorrow.  Come to class with a list of 5 key elements that you take away from the lecture and a brief explanation for each.

English 12: Monday-Anglo-Saxon poetry group work.  Character, situation/setting, theme/lesson are your group's focal points.

English 10H: Monday-Presentation work. I had to leave for a district meeting after 4th hour.  Present tomorrow (Tuesday)

English 12: Each 1/3 of the class has one poem.  The Seafarer, The Wife's Lament, The Wanderer.  For your group's poem (based on which 1/3 you sit in typically) give an overall analysis of the character/narrator, the situation/setting, and the theme/bigger picture.  We will work in groups next week with these poems.  Watched TED about succeeding at life through video games in class.  Start thinking about/constructing ideas for your own story involving: heroic cycle and traits, a modern twist, and a universal experience.

English 10H: Turn in 5 Step Paragraph Final Copy on GC.  Group work over "Opportunity" poem from yesterday.  If you were not here today, you have a couple of options: 1.  Link up with a group from your hour over the weekend and collaborate on the presentation with them.  2.  Analyze the poem for one of the literary elements (syntax, diction, imagery, symbolism, theme/bigger picture application) and put together a brief presentation identifying and analyzing Sill's use of that particular element in the poem.

English 12: Vocabulary Test 2.  Written assignment over universal experiences on GC.  Turn in by Friday.  Read "The Seafarer" for Friday and complete the GC assignment for stanza analysis.  This is due by Friday as well.

English 10H: Vocabulary Test 2.  Wrap up final questions on the 5 step paragraph (due Friday) in class.  Close read the poem "Opportunity" by Edward Rowland Sill for Friday.  Annotate using the 4S strategy for Friday.  Your focus should be on syntax, diction, and imagery but do not discount the other literary elements.  Be as thorough and as complete as you can.  No limits on number of annotations, but I want you to take this poem apart line by line and word by word.  On Friday we will work with it in small groups, but you need to be prepared individually. You can do this on your computer or in your notes.

Passage- Robert and Shana Parkeharrison

Kindred Spirits- Asher Durand

Sentences about the spirit of adventure, the quest for knowledge and discovery, the points of no return that we all face in life and other shared/universal experiences that all people encounter.  You do not have to address the short stories specifically, but there must be a universal experience aspect to your sentences related directly to the artwork pictured above.

Tuesday:

English 12: Beowulf test.  Upcoming reading: The Seafarer, The Wanderer, The Wife's Lament.  Vocabulary Test 2 is tomorrow (Wednesday 9/17)

English 10H: Discuss and look at some examples of step 5 in the paragraph writing process.  Make this final addition to your two practice paragraphs.  Then complete a self assessment of each step of the process using the following questions.  You will choose one of these as your final submission through GC.  Your final submission needs to follow the same format as the 5 Step Paragraph handout.  What this means is that I want each step's sentence(s) followed by your answer to the self-assessment questions. Then, I want the complete paragraph.  On Friday, you will submit a stand-alone paragraph that is your final draft.  Whether you edit as you go on today's assignment, or simply go through the steps and then edit your final submission is up to you.  I will be grading the final paragraph using the assessment questions, but I will not grade your assessments or your edits.

1.  Do I use a controlling idea, or simply state an unarguable fact?  Is there a clear sense of development and mapping in my introduction?

2.  Do I address the relevance of the controlling idea/topic?  Is there a universal importance/bigger picture element to the topic?

3.  Do I adequately explain and describe the example, or is it simply identified?  Are enough details present that will allow the reader to begin to see the connection before I explain its relevance?

4.  Do I explain the example and its relevance as well as connect it to both the immediate task at hand (specific topic) as well as relating it back to the bigger picture/universal experience?

5.  Do I bring the controlling idea full circle in terms of philosophy, bigger picture, and overall relevance to the topic? 

I was absent Monday, but here are the sub plans:

Hour 3: English 12.  Finish Beowulf (pg 43) in class.  The reading guide for 12-17 is on Google Classroom.  After finishing the reading, work on reading guides for use on test.  Beowulf test is Tuesday and is open note with the reading guides.

Hour 4-7: English 10H- Have students work in partners through google drive (they can share back and forth that way) to peer edit their practice paragraphs from Friday 9/12.  They should have two.  Ask them to “suggest” on drive comments and feedback on how each step matches up to the model.  Take 15 minutes or so on this.  Then have them spend the remaining time working on a polished version of each of the two paragraphs.  For Tuesday, they need to bring a polished version of two paragraphs through step 4, with a working version of step 5 for each (the concluding sentence/sentences)

English 12: Why We Fight: Anglo Saxon Values vs. The Cult of the Uniform

Read "Why We Fight"  and respond to the following on Google Classroom:
1. Define your interpretation of the "cult of the uniform" and whether or not you think it is real.
2. How is the view of the "hero" in Why We Fight different from how heroes would have been viewed in Anglo Saxon times?
3. Do you agree or disagree with the overall point of the essay? Emotional connections aside (family/friends in military, etc.) how would you respond, especially to paragraphs 3 and 4?
4. How do you think this author would explain/respond to the Beowulf/Epic Hero archetype? How would he differentiate between the mythological "hero" and the real-life hero?
5. Kind of a bonus question, but... see if you can find a good song about heroes, or a specific hero. I mean actually good. Case in point, I just looked up the lyrics to Mariah Carey's song "Hero" and it is awful. It reads like a poem written by an 8 year old. See if you can find something better.

English 10H: Went over Fahrenheit short answer test.  No makeups on Monday if you haven't taken it yet.  I think one person asked about that (AC?) but it's not going to work, sorry.  Respond to prompt on Google Classroom and turn in.  For Monday, pick two of the practice paragraphs you have done steps 1 and 2 for, one from the character side and one from the theme side.  Complete steps 3 and 4 for each.  You must use two examples and explain each (123434/ Idea-explain-example-explain-example-explain)

English 12:  Hand back and go over Vocabulary Test 1.  Vocabulary List 2.  Finish reading Beowulf through Part 13.  Beowulf Reading Guide 12-17

English 10H: Hand back and go over Vocabulary Test 1.  Vocabulary List 2.  Continue with the 5 Step Paragraph work.  Add Step 2 to the practice sentences we did on Monday (Step 1) and continue to think about how to apply the stories from class to steps 3 and 4.  PATSY CLINE HAS LEFT THE BUILDING (Tuesday's extra credit option is closed)

English 10H:  Off day extra credit!!!!  The first 10 people who respond to this by emailing me (sobarand@smsd.org) will get a 5 point bonus (that's a letter grade) added to their Fahrenheit test.  The next 10 responses will earn a 2.5 point bonus. Here you go:  As many of you know by now, I love to listen to music.  One of my favorite singers is Patsy Cline.  Her voice is beautiful and her songs are so poetic that it is almost as if she is singing to me directly sometimes.  In singing directly to me, Patsy isn't just singing to Drew Baranowski the person, she is also singing to Drew Baranowski the teacher.  Naturally, that means that she is singing about elements of our lives here at school too.  Find lyrics to any Patsy Cline song and make a thematic comparison to any of the stories we have read in class.  In an email, identify and briefly explain the song/lyrics that you chose and how they are actually Patsy Cline's veiled attempt to sing about literature that we are reading here in English 10H.  Your analysis must make sense, and should impress me, for credit.

5 point bonus winners: Alissa M, Gillian B, Emma J, Olivia L, Lauren A, Trisha O, Addie N, Sunny H.  Good job ladies! Andrew A, Cameron M.  The 5 pointers are spoken for.

2.5 point bonus winners: Emma Kate S, Zack R, Amelia H, Julie J, Rakeya M, Emily F, Rachel A, Natalie P, Stella S, Sarah P.

This Extra Credit Option Is Closed

English 12: Read and discuss through part 7 of Beowulf in class.  Quiz over 1-7.  For Wednesday, read through part 11 and complete the reading guide.

English 10H: Writing concerns prompt on Google Classroom.  Open/download the Paragraph Writing Template.  We practiced step 1 in class with the following starters: Authors use symbolic characters...  The conflicts that literary characters face... Authors achieve purpose in literature by... It is critical to make a bigger picture connection in literature because...  Complete each of those sentences.

English 12:  Read and discuss through section 6 in Beowulf.  Answer and go over the reading guide questions that correspond.

English 10H: Response journal on Google Class.  Used the prompt for basis of in-class discussion.  Incorporated the Ice Storm comparison chart as well.

English 12: Vocabulary test 1.  Work on Hero Collage (DUE FRIDAY) and finish the Opportunity In Real Life assignment (for partial credit now) if you want some points for it.  Read Beowulf parts 1-3 in class.  Complete the front page (1-3) of the Beowulf reading guide for Friday. Beowulf 1-11 Reading Guide

English 10H: Vocabulary test 1.  Discuss In the Shadow of Man on its own, then comparatively with other stories.  Begin short story comparison chart in conjunction with reading What Happened During the Ice Storm on your own.  Chart should have rows for the first four stories and columns for Character-Symbolism, Character-Conflicts, Theme-Purpose/Message, and Theme-Big Picture.  In each grid square, compare the designated aspect of that story to the corresponding aspect of Ice Storm.

Monday Sept 1- No school for Labor Day

English 12: Remember that Vocabulary test 1 is tomorrow.  Begin Hero Grid/Collage.  We will continue to work on it after vocab tomorrow.

English 10H: Read "Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy" in class.  Begin constructing thoughts/discussion on common literary threads of our 4 short stories (specifically Theme and Character related) The Pedestrian, By the Waters..., Charming Billy, and In the Shadow of Man.  Read ITSOM for tomorrow/Thursday. Vocabulary 1 Test Wed/Thurs.

Just in case any of you thought I was making this up, here's your science lesson: Handwritten vs. Laptop Notes