Several students finished their revisions today in class. Some were even able to move on and do the editing of their essays. Because progress reports go out on Friday Mrs. Scales graded all of the essays that were submitted to Turnitin today. She will do so tomorrow as well so that completed essay grades can show up on the mid-term progress reports.

All completed essays are due no later than the end of each class period tomorrow. Missing essays will receive 0 points and be counted as a missing assignment or NHI in the grade book and on the progress reports. The fine work being turned in on the essays already graded are helping bring up most students’ grades.

Our A List word this week is Support. How appropriate to our writing workshop integrity essay revision focus. All submitted rough drafts have been commented on and today we focused on what each individual student needs to do in the revision stage.

Those students who did not respond to the prompt, but rather wrote very general essays on the topic of integrity were instructed to develop a new or stronger thesis that appropriately addressed the prompt and then build an outline looking at how their ideas and examples could be used to support that thesis. An example of how to do this was posted on the front board last week.

A few students needed to go back and cite all of the sources that they had used and or quoted. They were reminded to cite the source both directly in the text and on a Works Cited page.

Mrs. Scales read her rough draft as model text. From the model text, we reviewed the importance of a strong hook, and a clear thesis that appropriately responds to the prompt as a part of the introduction. While many different organizational structures may be used for the essays, the model text was written in a chronological narrative order (anecdotes or stories from the writer’s life are used to support the thesis and represented in the order in which they happened).

Complete revised and edited essays are due by the end of class on Wednesday of this week. 

This week’s independent grammar topic is End Marks or punctuation.

Based on last week’s performance on the comma quiz a Rules For Comma Usage study guide was provided for all students. The study guide presents 10 rules for when to use commas correctly. For any student who did not receive 70% (14 points) or higher on last week’s quiz the study guide is accompanied with a Remedial Homework Assignment on Comma Usage that must be completed for a grade by the start of class next Monday.  Those students who did receive 70% or higher have been exempted from the assignment, but should review the rules as there will be three comma questions on this week’s grammar review quiz.

Third period students were issued a school copy of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations last Friday.  Today they were reminded that Great Expectations is replacing their independent reading novels and they must have the book with them each day in class.  Like the independent reading novels, Great Expectations will be used anytime we finish a lesson early or reading time is given in class. On independent reading days (normally Fridays) students will have to complete a reading summary for the assigned pages. These written summaries will be due at the start of class on the following day. Summaries are homework and may not be done during reading time in class.  Reading comprehension quizzes and tests will be giving over Great Expectations.

 

 

Today we read a very challenging piece of nonfiction text. “Magical Realism in the Tales of Nikolai Gogol” by James D. Hardy, Jr. and Leonard Stanton of Louisiana State University has some very interesting things to say about the distinctions of magical realism in “The Nose.” This provided us with a wonderful opportunity to review a piece of literary criticism about the story we have just read and dig deeper into the whole idea of our unit focus on magical realism. While the vocabulary of the text was challenging, each class period worked through it and practiced annotating. The honors classes also practiced summarizing claims in each of the four sections of text.

In summary, we revealed that the authors of “Magical Realism in the Tales of Nikolai Gogol” believe that the story “therefore, exists on three interlocking and circular levels of magical realism” (1).

We identified those three levels as:

1. “the inherently surreal quality of daily life in St. Petersburg” In other words St. Petersburg, Russia was like not other place during the the time.
2. “the appearance of the everyday can be regarded as not only the narrative consequence of the magical moment, but also its cause.” Meaning that ordinary everyday situations drive the story and are actually the cause of the magical or fantastical.
3. “The inexplicable is an event that occurs suddenly and surprisingly, while realistic consequences play out as a narrative” It is the unexplainable events of the nose taking on a persona of it’s own that happens without explanation that drives the realism of the story.

Therefore, we learn from this text that Gogol inverted or changed the order of events used in most magical realism. Whereas magical realism is most often text in which  “a supernatural or inexplicable event gives rise to a series of realistic consequences” “The Nose” does just the opposite because “the realistic detail of life in St. Petersburg could be satisfactorily explained only by reference to fantastic and surreal stories.”

Wow, what a deep concept. Can you wrap your mind around all those twists and turns? Sometime reading and understanding what someone else has said about a piece of literature can be much more difficult that reading the original literature and forming your own thoughts. Well, don’t worry you will get a chance to do quite a bit of your own literary analysis and criticism during your high school and college educational careers. One of the important things to look at in this particular text from today’s class is how the authors used lots of examples directly from the story as evidence to support the points they made. More on that to come next week.

After reading “The Nose” freshman unable to eat roll baked by juniors in the foods class without first inspecting for any disembodied noses!

Today was an exceptionally good day. Of course I think that any writing workshop day is a pretty good day. Our mini-lesson was on hooks. I even demonstrated for one class period with my finger pulling at the side of my mouth just how starting our writing off with a strong hook to get the readers interested in continuing to read our essay is like hooking a fish.

We worked through using Turnitin again. It was explained to students who had forgotten their password for Turnitin that as a school we pay for the number of students who use Turnitin. Therefore a student may not just keep making duplicate accounts. We took time in class for any student who could not get into their accounts to have me delete the original account and allow them to set up a new one. Once again, students were reminded to write down their log in information so that they are able to get back into their Turnitin accounts.

The best part of today was this evening when I started reading some of the student essays. We have some great work to discuss and begin revising.

Today a student asked me how many words the Integrity Essay needed to be.  When I responded that he could find that information on the blog, he made a derogatory comment about it being my job to answer students’ questions. I replied that I had just answered his question by directing him as to where he could find the information for himself. Why do you think I would do that? Wouldn’t it be easier to just repeat the same instruction given last Wednesday and repeated again on Friday, and then again on Monday of this week? Those were not rhetorical questions. I really want you to think of a response. Why would I not just take the easy way out and keep repeating the same information over and over and over again no matter how many times it was ask?

Well, now let me give you my response to both those questions. Yes, it would simply be easier and probably make me a more likable teacher if I simply smiles and provided the information again to every student who didn’t pay attention when I was original providing the information because I was speaking to the entire class and not them individually.  One of the skills I see lacking in students today is the ability to do for themselves or take responsibility for information given as a part of the entire class instruction. My job is to teach you how to read, write, listen, and speak more effectively. Each of those skills require critical thinking and the use of habits of mind and study skills that come from being able to connect ideas and information. By not listen to information given, or reviewing the information posted for you, you are not taking any of the responsibility for developing those skills, that I have pointed out to you from the start of the school year as being an important part of the course . If you have listened, taken notes, and reviewed the information on the blog and still do not understand something, or how to do something, then by all means ask. But no, my job is absolutely not doing the work for you and repeating information that you are more than capable of finding on your own just because it is easier to ask again rather than find the information yourself is doing the work for you.  Yes, I too get tired of saying, “read the blog” over and over again.

Believe it or not, I do have solid research proven reasons for the way I do most things that I do in the class room, including summarizing nearly every day of class room instruction for you on the blog several times a week. So the next time you think I am not doing my job because you don’t get the answer you might like from me, or the next time you miss school (even when it is absolutely unavoidable to have missed school ) go to the blog first to see what you can figure out for yourself. Then once you have reviewed the information provided, please, by all means come to me and ask questions about anything that you do not understand. I will always answer your question, it may just be an answer that helps direct you to the right place to find what you needed.

Directly from the Eng. 9 Syllabus that you were provided at the beginning of the school year:

Questions

While it is true that someone great once said, “there is never a dumb question” I expect you to be independent learners, taking ultimate responsibility for your learning. Therefore, think prior to asking questions. Think about whether or not I have already provided you that information and if so, where you can go back to find the information prior to asking a question. Our class time together is important and I promise that I will have prepared extensively for what we will be doing each day, therefore I don’t feel it is too much to expect that you will listen carefully, take notes when needed, and not waste class time on questions that you should be able to answer yourself. Strive to be one of those people who furthers the issue by asking well developed probing questions of relevance to the entire class.

“If I have to tell you what to do, then you are not marketable” Apple

I will propose problems, guide you to resources and solutions, opportunities and different ways of thinking, but you have to own your own learning. I will own the learning target or objective as aligned to our state standards for English 9 and allow you to choose the how. If one way of learning isn’t working for you, I will help you uncover deeper meaning within varied learning techniques, but I can’t learn it for you. The sooner you take personal responsibility for your learning, the quicker you will be on the path of choosing your own life-long adventure. Educate yourself on intellectual autonomy and empower yourself. You get about 100 years to live out the story of your life and I am not the director. You are the star and director of your own learning and your life story.

Today we reviewed the major characters of “The Nose.” Each class made a chart to illustrate the most important aspects of each character, as well as the setting.

Preview of Essay Question

Many critics have suggested that this story has no deeper meaning. The author, Gogol, was simply making fun of those of us who try too hard to analyze literature. Part three of the story begins with the declaration that ‘utterly nonsensical things happen in this world. Sometimes there is absolutely no rhyme or reason in them…’ and the ending shows the narrator’s failed attempt to find meaning in the tale. He gets flustered and complains, ‘No, this is something I can’t understand, positively can’t understand.’ Write a well-developed essay in which you provide your own analysis of “The Nose”

Remember an essay must have an introductory paragraph, at least one body paragraph, and a conclusion. You will be scored on your ability to write an essay that indicates you have read the short story, not your opinion or accurate analysis.

Please congratulate freshmen Sydney C. and Rileigh M. for being recognize in the 2017 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

Homework: Finish reading “The Nose” by Nikolai Gogol, make sure that all of your annotations are clear and demonstrate your close reading of the text. Fill out the next four lines of your Dialectical Journal using examples (quotes) from the text that clarify this short story by Gogol as magical realism. Remember to use your Magical Realism criteria chart from your Reading Log when selecting which parts of the text best demonstrate magical realism.

Remember Folders will be collected for the second grading next week.

 

As our QW today we diagrammed a sentence as practice for tomorrow’s quiz. The sentence was:

Tashonda sent e-mails, cards, and letters. 

This was a fairly easy sentence to diagram having a clear subject (Tashonda), a clear verb (sent), and three direct objects (e-mails, cards, letters) connected with the conjunction (and).

Mrs. Scales reminded everyone that today is the last day to complete the Independent Grammar lesson on Prepositional phrases, and offered other practice sentences to help prepare for tomorrow’s quiz.

 

Remember that prepositional phrases are always diagramed under what they are modifying. An example is this diagram for the sentence: Charles is working in the garden by the river.

One final quiz review example demonstrates the correct sentence diagram for an infinitive acting as adverb in the sentence: He is determined to work hard.

 

 

The rest of class today was used to continue reading and annotating “The Nose” We reviewed any annotations made from last night’s homework and picked up on page 55 of the text.

One annotation discussed in class was the text in the last paragraph of page 48, “How, in fact, could a nose, which only yesterday was in the middle of his face, and which could not possibly walk around or drive in a carriage, suddenly turn up in a uniform!” We discussed how this quote could be a good example of one of the four entries needed in student’s Dialectical Journals concerning “The Nose” because it is a tremendous example of pointing out elements in the story that question things in the story that contradict natural law and therefore meet one of the criteria we have established for magical realism.

Students were reminded that the weekly lesson plans alway cover the planned assignment for the week, and unless adjusted due to needed changes are the best place to find out what is due when. Students will have time in class after finishing the quiz tomorrow to finish reading “The Nose.” This takes the place of the Independent Reading we normally have on Fridays, but will still not provide enough time for some students to complete the entire story. That is why there has been a Friday homework assignment posted on the weekly lesson plans since the end of last week requiring students to complete the short story and make four entries for “The Nose” on theirDialectical Journals. Students were also reminded that a schedule for folder pick up and grading for each class period is also on the lesson plans.

Folders for all classes will be collected early next week (according to the following schedule) for the second grading and homework must be completed.

3rd Period – Monday Jan. 23rd

5th Period – Tuesday Jan. 24th

Honors – Thursday Jan. 26th