Wink...Wink! Honors English Title Graphic
Grades/Homework
Utah Compose
StudySync
Class Notebook Wiki
Put a Book on Trial
Book Review/Test Outline
Grammar Punk
Thompson's Textbook
Word Cells
Word Cells Biglist
 To see all the weeks in the term, scroll ALL THE WAY DOWN...
...and carefully read what you find!

January 19-23, 2015: Welcome to Third Term!

Monday, January 19: MLK Holiday (Human Rights Day)
Tuesday, January 20: Professional Day

  • No School for Students
  • This term you will learn...
  • ...the academic vocabulary of poetry and drama.
  • ...how to make sense of Shakespeare.
  • ...the elements of tragedy.
  • ...how to use semicolons and colons correctly.
  • ...how to write and present a podcast.
  • ...40 new word cells.
  • ...to read.
  • ...to write.
  • ...to repeat.
  • ...how to read and write poetic epitaphs...if time permits.
  • ...how to close read "Interactive Fiction" to solve a mystery...if time permits.
  • ...and, as always, some surprises!


Wednesday, January 21: A Day
Thursday, January 22: B Day


Friday, January 23: A Day (Writing Lab: SAGE Practice)

  • Turn in completed homework assignment!
  • Third Term Word Cells: Assignments & Due Dates & Presentation Outline
  • It's official: Mark your calendars and prepare your podcasts!
  • February 2-6 you will take the state writing test, on which you will have to write two essays: one argumentative, one informational. It's a big deal, and I want you to do well. Today we will practice using Utah Compose. Read at least three of the available texts about the topic before you begin. Here's the question: Write a multi-paragraph argumentative essay in response to this question: Does the freedom of speech include the right to mock the relgious beliefs of others? Use textual evidence from the attached (on Utah Compose) documents to support your claim. Address and rebut counterclaims. Cite your sources with in-text citations.
  • You have one hour. Go!
  • Done early? Check out StudySync for a new assignment about this term's novel. (Due by Feb. 4th)
  • Study Guide Questions??
  • Homework: Cartoon #1 (Littlefoot)
  • Keep up on the Reading Schedule!



January 26-30, 2015

Monday, January 26: B Day (Writing Lab: SAGE Practice)

  • Keep up on the Reading Schedule!
  • Don't forget that Cartoon analysis that is due tomorrow!


Tuesday, January 27: A Day
Wednesday, January 28: B Day


Thursday, January 29: A Day (Region Swim -- Sub.)
Friday, January 30: B Day

  • Test on Book I of A Tale of Two Cities
  • Turn in Study Guide for Book I
  • Shakespeare Intro: Miramax Biography
  • Writing Notebook: Movie Notes/Two-Column
  • Using your notes as textual evidence, write a short essay that illustrates your understanding and synthesis of the information in the Shakespeare Biography. Respond to this question: Compare and contrast Shakespeare's time to ours. What are the advantages of living in each? Disadvantages? (Two pages!)
  • Hand out Passages for Analysis


February 2-6, 2015

Monday, February 2: A Day (Writing Lab)
Tuesday, February 3: B Day (Writing Lab)

  • SAGE
  • Writing Test


Wednesday, February 4: A Day (Writing Lab: SAGE Test)
Thursday, February 5: B Day (Writing Lab: SAGE Test)

  • SAGE
  • Writing Test


Friday, February 6: A Day

  • A Tale of Two Cities: Review Tests on Book I / Discuss Chapters 1-5 of Book II (Study Guide)
  • Word Cells Presentations: Set #2
  • -fic- / -fact- / -fect-
  • -bio-
  • -vert- / -vers-
  • -sent- / sens-
  • Word Cells Presentations: Set #3
  • Writing Notebook: During the time we are studying Romeo and Juliet, the Poem o' the Day will be replaced by the Shakespearean Quotes o' the Day. Your assignment is to copy the quotation exactly as it is written (including punctuation, line spacing, and source), and then paraphrase it and give an example from your own experience that supports the statement. Yes, you still have to fill the page! Here we go:
  • Shakespearean Quotes o' the Day -- Copy and discuss these quotes:

    "If all the year were playing holidays,
    To sport would be as tedious as to work."
    -- Henry IV, Part 2: Act II, Scene 1

    Example: I think this quotation means that if your whole life is a vacation (playing holidays), even playing (sport) gets boring (tedious). I see this in my own life at the end of summer, when I've been out of school for more than two months. I actually look forward to going back because I get bored when I don't have anything I HAVE to do. For example, .... (Now fill the page.)....

    "O, it is excellent
    To have a giant's strength,
    but it is tyrannous
    To use it like a giant."
    --Measure for Measure: Act II, Scene 2
  • The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
  • The Prologue Assignment with Close Read
  • (E-notes may help!)
  • Why is Shakespeare Hard?
  • Audio/Visual: Three Ways to Stage the Prologue
  • Passage Analysis: Find your passage in the Massive Purple Text.
  • Using this web site as a resource, close read your assigned passage of Shakespeare. Become the expert on your assigned part, so that when we encounter that passage in our study of the play, YOU can help us understand it.
    • Look for end punctuation marks (. ? !) and drawn lines to divide the passage into sentences (not lines).
    • Circle words you do not recognize, including words that you know but that seem to be used in an unfamiliar way.
    • Try to "translate" your passage into language a modern teenager would use.
    • Homework: Finish the Prologue Analysis and Passage Analysis of your assigned passage for next time!


February 9-13, 2015

Monday, Februrary 9: B Day


Tuesday, February 10: A Day
Wednesday, February 11: B Day


Thursday, February 12: A Day (State Swim - Sub.)
Friday, February 13: B Day (State Swim - Sub.)

  • Writing Notebook: Who is your Valentine? Does that person know s/he is your Valentine? (Does anyone else know?) What are your thoughts on teen romance? Romeo and Juliet are about your age, and they fall in love and get married within only a couple days of their first meeting. Do you think this kind of "love at first sight" is something that can actually happen? Fill the page!
  • Vocabulary of Drama (R&J)
  • Assignment: Using the Massive Purple Text and the page references on the worksheet itself, define the terms on the front of the handout and turn it in with your name on it!
  • How to Read Shakespeare (MPT, 781-2)
  • Why are some words given stress marks on the -èd ending
    (banishèd, punishèd, upturnèd)?
  • Why does Shakespeare seem to be apostrophe crazy (fall'st, speak'st, o'er, e'er, 'Tis, etc.)?
  • What is a dramatic foil? (How is Mercutio a foil to Romeo?)
  • Close Reading: Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene 4 (Mercutio's Queen Mab speech)
  • Queen Mab Essay Outline (due next time!)
  • A Tale of Two Cities Reading Schedule


February 16-20, 2015

Monday, Februrary 16: Day of Presidents (No School)


Tuesday, February 17: A Day
Wednesday, February 18: B Day


Thursday, February 19: A Day
Friday, February 20: B Day


February 23-27, 2015

Monday, February 23: A Day (Writing Lab)
Tuesday, February 24: B Day (Writing Lab)


Wednesday, February 25: A Day
Thursday, February 26: B Day (Parent-Teacher Conferences)


Friday, February 27: A Day

  • Word Cells Presentations: Set #8
  • -syn- / -sym-
  • -hypo-
  • -hyper-
  • -script- / -scrib-
  • Shakespearean Quote o' the Day -- Copy, paraphrase, and give an example to support this quote:
    "O sir, to willful men
    The injuries that they themselves procure
    Must be their schoolmasters."
    King Lear, Act II, Scene 4
  • Romeo and Juliet: Video Review
  • (The Balcony Scene through the Death of Mercutio: 30 minutes)
  • Acts I & II Review "Quiz"/Worksheet
  • Now it's your turn to play the parts!
  • Act III -- Scenes 2 & 3
  • Assignment (Homework): Director's Close Read & Stage Directions for Act III, Scene 4
    • Pretend that YOU are the director of this scene.
    • Write the following on your copy of the text:
    • Mark your confusion & check with the translation to clarify.
    • In the right margin, paraphrase the dialogue.
    • Casting: If you were the director, who would be playing these parts?
    • In the left margin, write specific stage directions for each line of dialogue. (What is the character doing while he speaks his lines?)
    • At the bottom, explain the dramatic irony: What does the audience know that the characters do not?
  • Samples
  • A Tale of Two Cities Reading Schedule



March 2-6, 2015

Monday, March 2: B Day


Tuesday, March 3: A/B Day (ACT at high schools)

  • Periods 1-8 (No Intervention)
  • Test on Book II of A Tale of Two Cities
  • 1) Turn in the completed study guide (after you use it to do step #2).
  • 2) Outline an academic essay that addresses this prompt: Numerous critics have noted that the antagonists in Dickens's novels tend to be more interesting, alive, compelling, and memorable than the protagonists. Do you agree or disagree with this position?
  • A Tale of Two Cities Reading Schedule


Wednesday, March 4: A Day (Writing Lab)
Thursday, March 5: B Day (Writing Lab)


Friday, March 6: A Day


March 9-13, 2015

Monday, March 9: B Day


Tuesday, March 10: A Day
Wednesday, March 11: B Day


Thursday, March 12: A Day
Friday, March 13: B Day


March 16-20, 2015

Monday, March 16: A Day
Tuesday, March 17: B Day

  • Synthesis Essay Sources/Discussion
  • Prompt: The French Revolution of 1789 had many long-range political, social, and economic causes that contributed to the discontent of the French people, especially the third estate. Using information from the sources listed above and your knowledge of A Tale of Two Cities, write a multiparagraph academic essay in which you identify and explain the three primary causes of the French Revolution. Use textual evidence from multiple sources and cite the sources when you use them.
  • Assignment: Outline your response by class time on Wednesday.
  • Academic Essay Format & Blank Outline Form
  • Finish A Tale of Two Cities
  • Welcome to Spoon River!
  • Travel back a century in time by talking to the sleepers on the hill?
  • Introduction to Poetic Epitaphs: Meet Aragog!
  • Spoon River Anthology
  • Introductory Film (22 min.)


Wednesday, March 18: A Day (JT 18) (Writing Lab)
Thursday, March 19: B Day (Writing Lab)

  • Test on Book III of A Tale of Two Cities
  • Utah Compose: Synthesis Essay due Monday, March 23 @ 8:00 P.M.
    • The synthesis essay should not only do all the things an academic essay is supposed to do but also reflect that you read and understood the novel and that you learned something about the French Revolution. It is an exercise not just in form (academic essay) but in content (learning from novel and from history).
    • Be wary of plagiarism! Since you are using so many sources, it can be very tempting to start claiming all those good ideas, words, and phrasings are your own. Don’t give in to the temptation! Cite all sources and make sure that the paper you write is ultimately a synthesis of YOUR learning, not just something you copied from the Internet.
    • Revision is different than editing. You can revise up to 30 times on Utah Compose. Just sayin’…
    • Make this something you are proud of.


Friday, March 20: A Day

  • Third Term Word Cells Final Exam
  • Writing Notebook: Write a review of A Tale of Two Cities in the parallel structure and antithetical form that Dickens used to begin the novel. "It was the best of books; it was the worst of books...." (Where Dickens used commas to separate the clauses, you should use semicolons to illustrate that you actually know how they work!) Discuss the joys and successes of reading the novel as well as the challenges and frustrations. Fill the page!
  • Spoon River Anthology: In-class Assignments
  • Spoon River Anthology: The Rhodes Affair
  • Writing Notebook -- Comma Review (Rules 1-7): Read each of these epitaphs and write a sentence that describes the character and illustrates the appropriate rule. Write a brief description of each character. Explain what part the character played in "The Rhodes Affair," and include the character's voice (tone). How does the character feel about his/her life? How do you feel about the character?
  • Comma Rule #1: Clarence Fawcett
  • Comma Rule #2: Mrs. George Reece
  • Comma Rule #3: Jack McGuire
  • Comma Rule #4: Nicholas Bindle
  • Comma Rule #5: Henry Phipps
  • Comma Rule #6: Ralph Rhodes
  • Comma Rule #7: Thomas Rhodes
  • Sample sentences using the epitaph of Eugene Carman:
  • Comma Rule #1: Eugene Carman worked for 14 years in a store owned by Thomas Rhodes, and he is a bitter man because of it.
  • Comma Rule #2: Carman is a frustrated, angry, and resentful because he feels like he was taken advantage of.
  • Comma Rule #3: Carman, because Rhodes was influential in the church, had to attend services twice a week to keep up appearances with his boss.
  • Comma Rule #4: He is overcome by rage, resentment, and bitterness.
  • Comma Rule #5: Because he spent so much of his life as "Rhodes' slave," he starts screaming at his reflection.
  • Comma Rule #6: He yelled at himself, "You cowardly dog! You rotten pauper!"
  • Comma Rule #7: This causes him to have a brain aneurysm, which kills him.
  • The following two-fers are instrumental in the VOSR. game. Let's review them carefully:
  • Judge Somers & Chase Henry
  • Editor Whedon & Carl Hamblin
  • The Town Marshal & Jack McGuire
  • Ollie McGee & Fletcher McGee
  • Cooney Potter & Fiddler Jones
  • VOSR: Interactive Fiction (Zork, anyone?)


March 23-27, 2015

Monday, March 23: B Day

  • Yes, I KNOW that Utah Compose was down all weekend!
  • Synthesis Essay on A Tale of Two Cities due Wednesday @ 8:00 P.M.


Tuesday, March 24: A Day (VOSR)
Wednesday, March 25: B Day (VOSR)


Thursday, March 26: A Day (VOSR)
Friday, March 27: B Day (VOSR)
This is the last day of the term!

  • Finish the game if you can.
  • Turn in finished packet.
  • Have a dandy spring break!


Extra Stuff

Leftovers, etc.

Q: "Did I miss anything?"
A: Yes.
^ Scroll up to find it. ^

Despite the absence of any support from the school district, I have made every reasonable attempt to insure that this website is educationally sound and does not contain direct links to inappropriate material.
©2015 M. Wolfman Thompson - All rights reserved.
*<%^)