December 9, 2011

Period 1--ELA B 30
They had some time to finish their worksheet on quotations from Act I.  Then we corrected and discussed them together as a class.  At this point, we discussed their assessment for Hamlet and, as a class, we decided that they would do 3 in-class essays rather than doing one big essay.  They will have to do their big essay after Christmas with a different piece of literature.  We went over the writing prompt that they will be working on on Monday and together, we came up with a thesis statement for them to write on .  The timed write/in-class essay will be done on Monday.

Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
They had time to finish writing down the summaries from last day.  Then, the class split up for their different tasks:
ELA B 30--they received the activity sheet containing quotations for them to identify as well as the writing prompt for the in-class essay (like in period 1).  They used the majority of the class to finish the quotations.  We will take them up on Monday, and then work on how to structure their in-class essay.  Their in-class essay will be written on Tuesday.
AP 30--I handed out The Great Gatsby and told the students that they need to have it read by mid-January.  They will also be doing in-class, timed writes for Hamlet.  We went over the various writing prompts from which they will be able to choose.  They, however, chose to do their timed write after we are finished reading Act II.  In order to keep them in the same place in the play as the rest of the class, they will have Monday and Tuesday to work on their Book Annotations, do some reading of Gatsby, or catching up on assignments that are outstanding. 

Period 3--Pre-AP 10
I was ready to go with the new lesson, but, in a moment of weakness, let myself be persuaded for the kids to have time to finish working on their comparison/contrast essay.  Kudos to Tanner for getting his done early!  I look forward to reading them (if not the time I have to spend marking them!).  We are moving on into the speaking and listening strands on Monday.

Period 4--History 10
The last few current events presentations by the students were done for Miss Campbell.  This was her last time in this class.  The kids are stuck with me again.  Rather than starting a new unit on Friday, we continued with the "What in the World" current events assignments Mrs. Adleman started with them yesterday.  We spent a considerable amount of time talking about the troubles in Syria and corrected the question sheet that corresponded to that reading.  On Monday, we start in on the Glorious Revolution and the English Civil War--my favourite unit in History 10, so I can't wait!

Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee reviewed some of the information that they have discussed from the last few days, particularly the important people.  She went over the cause and effect relationship with the events surrounding those important people.  From there, the students looked briefly at the purple sheet from yesterday and then continued to view the documentary outlining the Riel Resistance and Macdonald's response to it.  Towards the end of class, we discussed a small exam, so they don't have to deal with a bigger chunk of information.  The exam will cover the Rebellions of 1837 and lead up to confederation (including the pros and cons of confederation, the BNA Act,Red River Resistance, Riel Rebellion, Sask and Alberta joining, and the reasons why Newfoundland held out so long).  This exam will be on Wednesday of next week, so they should be reviewing NOW at home!!!