February 28, 2012

Period 1--AP 30
We're gearing up to discuss The Awakening.  In order to do this, we examined the concept of Victorial Literature.  I showed a power point I had made up about Victorian society and reminding the students that all of these various ideologies filtered throughout the literature of the times regardless of how far removed they were from England.  We see many aspects of the paradoxes found in Victorial thinking/literature in this novel.  We also reviewed the basics of Creole society before diving right into the novel.  We were just looking at Botecelli's "The Birth of Venus" and the connections that Chopin made between the painting and her character of Edna.

Period 2--Pre-AP 20
We interrupted our study of To Kill A Mockingbird (again) in order for the students to have a look at their timed writes.  They were given the folders I made for them that will hold all their timed writes (like a portfolio).  The rubric for the AP levels is in the folder as is a sheet that requires them to think about their strengths and weaknesses as a writer.  We also went over a handout that I made of theri "Writing Sins" which were common problems that many of them made in their timed writes.  This took the majority of the class.  We deceided that the student who really wanted to re-write the timed write could do so, those who failed it, had to re-write, but I would also make this timed write count for a bit less than their next several ones will.  We did get back to the novel towards the end of class.  We went back to the sheet that I had them fill out about racial/social class/gender prejudice and segregation before they read the novel.  We'll finish this discussion tomorrow. 

Period 3--ELA A 30
We finished discussing the things that surprised them about the novel April Raintree and then what questions they still have left at the end of the novel.  Then, I handed out a S-W-L sheet about the Metis people.  We discussed the column that looks at what they know (or think they know about Metis People)  and what they would like to learn.  Tomorrow we will go to the computer lab and do a bit of research about the Metis.  We also discussed the concept of a nation--what makes a nation, are the Metis a nation, etc. 

Period 4--Pre-AP 10
We started studying Dracula now that the kids are finished reading the novel.  We reviewed the K-W-L sheet that we had done before we started reading and filled in the "Learned" column.  Then we quickly discussed connections (text tot text, text to world, text to self) that they may have made while reading the novel.  We also discussed various symbols and motifs that the students picked up on in their reading.  Finally, we spent the remainder of the class discussing a passage that each student chose from the novel.  These discussions take us all over the book, but we did focus on the concept of the "perfect Victorian women" and the idealism behind the men protecting the women in the novel.  Inevitably, the discussion also led to conversations between good vs. evil.