This is what we did today.
Insert joke here.
1/25/2024
I am so excited by the conversations and conferences that is happening in 198 today. TEACHER HAPPY DANCE!
I noticed a few things when skimming Google Docs this morning:
- Make sure you are writing on MY Google Doc so that I can see your daily progress.
- Make sure that your thesis is specific enough to fully answer the prompt and not just restate the prompt.
If you need help with writing a succint yet specific thesis, I have a file of template thesis sentences for literary analysis for you to look at in Schoology.
1/24/23
We are starting our essay today! Make sure that you READ and understand the parameters of the assignment.
A few important reminders: Write on my Google Doc. I will be looking at your process, so if you copy/paste from another source, I won’t be able to see that.
A lot of the choices regarding the essay are up to you: your structure and how much evidence you put in. This is intentional. I know you aren’t used to this, but this is an expectation in collegiate level writing.
I am going to hop on the documents before class starts tomorrow to give quick feedback for those who have soemething written down.
Please make sure you a confident and comfortable with the task before the weekend hits. The TurnItIn due date is on Sunday and 11:59 and the Schoology/Google Doc due date is 1/31.
1/23/24
We are continuing our table work to prepare for the essay. Remember last week when we played Jenga with quotes and made flashcards with quotes? We’re working with them today! Each table has a “deck” of cards and three intrepretations of the essay prompt: What is Greg’s transformation a metaphor for?
Decide as a group if the quote works best for the capitalism prompt, the mental illness prompt, or the trauma response.
When you are done with this, work on the Classical invention: Transformation brainstorming sheet. The essay is about TRANSFORMATION, so it might be useful to know more about that word.
1/22/23
Happy Monday! No, really. Happy Monday! If I *have* to get out of bed and come to work, I’d rather be here with y’all rather than any place else. 🙂
We are spending the next few days preparing to write a literary analysis with your table group.
In the group analysis chart for The Metamorphosis, Philip Niemeyer is an art director who interpreted American life through this chart. On the left side, Niemeyer lists elements that he interprets (e.g. fears, fads, couples), and across the top, he lists the years in which these elements gained prominence. What makes this a great chart is that Niemeyer interprets our society metaphorically. For instance, in listing Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher as the couple of the year in 2004, he represents them with a picture of a cougar. This chart also has the three essential elements of analyzing and interpreting embedded in it: (1) it helps the reader gain a better understanding of a person, place, phenomenon, or thing – in this case, American society; (2) it takes a subject apart and closely examines how it trends; and (3) it considers the societal context involved.
| Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | |
| Transformation | |||
| Isolation | |||
| Identity | |||
| Family | |||
| Existence | |||
| Noun | |||
| Most important quote or phrase |
Here is an example of a completed chart over Romeo and Juliet created by a 9th grader:
1/19/23
Happy Friday! I know that it was a struggle to read the article about Rebellion and Punishment yesterday, so I wanted to make Friday be a little more active.
In your table groups, create five flashcards explaining quotations from The Metamorphosis. We chose our quotes from playing Jenga, but if you are working on your own, use this wheel to find your five quotes. For each quote, you will make a flash card on the index cards. On the front of the index card, write the quotation down. If it is a super long passage, just quote the most important part. There is a reason that I want you to write the quote down and it’s NOT just to waste your time. I promise.
Then, on the back, create a bubble map discussing the quote. You do not need to include ALL of the bubbles – aim for about 3 bubbles per quote. When you are done, make sure you turn them in to me for credit!
1/18/23
Ugh. Today’s activity ISN’T working out the way that I had hoped, so we are just going to switch to Plan B: reading and annotating.
You can find the article in Schoology or right here. You can see that I have started to annotate. I want you to add to this. The idea was that we were creating a collaborative document with notes, but it’s not working out that way. I’m frustrated, but what can you do?
You can share with other people, but make sure that you share the document with me, as well.
Tomorrow will be better, I promise! Tomorrow we play Jenga!
1/17/2023
I was so scared that it was going to be chilly at school today, but it’s nice and warm! Maybe it’s because the building had time to warm up all day on Monday? At least you had one more extra day to read The Metamorphosis!
We have two things on the calendar today: The Sesame Street Quiz and I Read the Book, Now What?
The Sesame Street Quiz needs some explanation, so if you aren’t here today, you still might need to come into a KOnnect for me to explain it.
First of all, take a look at this slide. Which character doesn’t belong?
There really isn’t a wrong answers – it all depends on how you justify it. This is my answer: In this quartet, Mulan is the character who does not belong. She is a warrior who fights to protect her country against the Huns, breaking gender norms for her family, her country, and her culture. Ariel, Pocahontas, and Jasmine are heroines of their own story and battle their own fights, but they are not trained warriors. Mulan disguised herself a man to learn how to to fight both physically and with strategy.
But, today a student had an answer that I was jealous of: Jasmine doesn’t belong because she is not the main character of her movie
On this quiz, you will do two things: One slide one, you will exaplain which one of your words doesn’t belong and why, making sure that you connect it back to the novella. One slide two, create a Sesame Street Quiz over The Metamorphosis using four words of your own choosing – you do not need to explain them. Just write them down. 🙂
Then, start to work on I Read The Book, Now What assignment that is due on Sunday. My goal is that this will help you with the essay over The Metamorphosis next week.
1/12/24
Today is a reading day. I have lo-fi music, coffee, and headphones for you in class, but you are the one who needs to read. Remember, the novella needs to be read by the time you get to class next week. If you do ten pages a day, you are already halfway done! Reading a summary alone won’t help with textual evidence or working with the language.
If you weren’t here and you saw that you got ten Live School points, it’s because I awarded points to both your group and the class for putting seats back in the correct spot today!
🪲🐞🦗🪳🪲🐞🦗🪳🪲🐞🦗🪳🪲🐞🦗🪳🪲🐞🦗🪳🪲🐞🦗🪳
The Metamorphosis is in the tenth grade on-level textbook, so I have managed to find a few extra copies that are in my room if you would like to take it home this weekend. 🙂
What kind of bug do you think Gregor is?
January 11th
If I were a sea creature, I’d be the noble sea manatee. Don’t ask why.
We are starting The Metamorphosis today! I have paper copies in class and the pdf (and other resources) can be found in Schoology. Make sure that when you are reading that if you use a source like Shmoop (my favorite) or SparkNotes that you still read the story. We are not focusing on plot and character recall – we are going to working with language and ideas, so if you only read the summary, this is not going to help you with textual evidence and the language.
If people do not use this time to read, then that tells me that there is no need to give class time to read. If everyone is going to read outside of class, I will use the time in class for something else.
We read the first few pages today and you have tomorrow to read silently in class. That means you’ll be responsible for reading the rest before class on Tuesday. You can either read it all in one go or read about ten pages a day. Just don’t put it all off until the last minute – give yourself time to appreciate Kafka!
