Wrapping up the First Two Weeks: August 30, 2019

Focus: What have we accomplished in the first two weeks? What do we need help with?

1. Warming up with "Home on the Prairie" and identifying craft moves

2. Prepping your notebook for check #1

3. Taking the American Literature 2-week survey, linked HERE and sent to your IC e-mail

4. Reading your independent reading book

HW:
1. Ongoing: Follow your reading schedule, remembering that each week you need to spend at least one hour outside of class reading.

2. MONDAY: 

• BRING YOUR INDEPENDENT READING BOOK TO CLASS

Scars: August 29, 2019

Focus: How have your childhood stories and scars shaped who you are?

1. Warming up with an explanation of your Academic Character grade

2. Exercising your memories and writing muscles with "Being 12"

3. Mapping your scars

4. Drafting a story using the craft moves we've noticed so far: Sensory imagery and metaphor

5. RADaR revising and sharing beautiful words

HW:
1. Ongoing: Follow your reading schedule, remembering that each week you need to spend at least one hour outside of class reading.

2. Tomorrow: 

• BRING YOUR INDEPENDENT READING BOOK TO CLASS.

• I will collect your Notebook at the end of class for our first notebook check.

Realistic Reading Goals: August 28, 2019

Focus: What are your reading goals for this unit?

1. Warming up with small group enneagram book talks

• Why'd you pick this book? What about it appeals to you?

• If you're interested in the other person's book, write it down on your "What I'm Reading Next" list

2. Establishing your reading rate for your book, your reading schedule, and your overall goals

3. Opening your book and beginning to read; sharing beautiful words

HW:
Follow your reading schedule, remembering that each week you need to spend at least one hour outside of class reading.

Hands: August 27, 2019

Focus: What story do you really want to tell? How can you tell it well?

1. Warming up with enneagrams and trusting each other

2. Listening to Sarah Kay's "Hands"; tracing your hands and listing experiences

3. Drafting your stories using sensory imagery to show instead of tell; RADaR revising

4. Sharing beautiful words

HW:
1. For the next four weeks, your homework is to spend one hour outside of class reading independently.

2. For WEDNESDAY: Bring your independent reading book and signed gold letter to class. This has been your only real homework so far, so every single person should have this done.

Senses, Spaces, and Self: August 26, 2019

Focus: How do authors use sensory imagery to create spaces and characters?

1. Warming up with three good things and a book talk

2. Exploring craft moves and sensory imagery in "Salvador, Late and Early"

3. Applying these craft moves to "Home on the Prairie: Lincoln, Nebraska"

4. Wrapping up with beautiful words

HW:
1. For the next four weeks, your homework is to spend two hours outside of class reading independently.

2. For WEDNESDAY: Bring your independent reading book and signed gold letter to class. This has been your only real homework so far, so every single person should have this done.

Writing with Your Senses: August 23, 2019

Focus: How do we use our senses to create spaces?

Please turn in your signed purple sheets if you have not yet done so.

1. Warming up with one-minute memories from The Many Storied House

2. Offering you an overview of our first unit on personal essays; returning to "Blueprints" to recapture memories and tell stories

3. Indulging our five senses with a little creative writing; peer revising using sensory imagery

4. Sharing beautiful words

HW:
For Wednesday: Please bring your book to class along with the signed gold letter. If you have your book, go ahead and start reading it.

Your Writing Self: August 22, 2019

Focus: Who are you as a writer?

1. Warming up with a book talk and quickly revisiting yesterday's Baseline Reading

2. Taking the Baseline Writing Assessment

3. Introducing the Personal Essay this week's focus

4. Experimenting with sensory imagery

• A quick writing exercise

• Revising your Baseline Writing Assessment to incorporate stronger and more diverse sensory imagery

• Debriefing how the revision changed your writing

5. Sharing beautiful words

HW:
1. Add something (or many things) to your Writer's Notebook to make it yours.

2. Please make sure you and your parents have completed the surveys I sent via email last week.

• Click HERE for the student survey.
• Click HERE for the parent survey.

3. Friday: 

• Signed class overview due.
• Make sure you have joined our Remind class by either accepting the invitation I sent you on Saturday or by clicking on this link.

Our Next Step onto the Road: August 21, 2019

Focus: Who are you as a reader?

1. Warming up with a book talk and a quick debrief of yesterday's book browsing

• Do you know which book you're going to read?
• Do you know how to acquire a copy of that book?

***Quick break to set up a screen-free zone***

2. Getting to know each other a little better with enneagrams

3. Taking a baseline check of your reading skills with Cormac McCarthy's The Road

4. Ending with a little beauty

HW:
1. Try to finalize your independent reading selection and acquire your book by next Wednesday, Aug 28 (you need to have it checked out / purchased / borrowed before class begins).

2. Please make sure you and your parents have completed the surveys I sent via email last week.

• Click HERE for the student survey.
• Click HERE for the parent survey.

3. Friday: 

• Signed class overview due.
• Make sure you have joined our Remind class by either accepting the invitation I sent you on Saturday or by clicking on this link.

Our First Step onto the Road: August 29, 2019

Focus: Who are you as a reader?

1. Warming up with a book talk and a quick intro to my website

2. Finishing the Writer's Notebook set-up and trying our your first prompt

3. Speed dating to find the right book for you and reading the independent reading letter

***Quick break to set up a screen-free zone***

4. Taking a baseline check of your reading skills with Cormac McCarthy's The Road

5. Ending with a little beauty

HW:
1. Add something (or many things) to your Writer's Notebook to make it yours.

2. Please make sure you and your parents have completed the surveys I sent via email last week.

• Click HERE for the student survey.
• Click HERE for the parent survey.

3. Friday: 

• Signed class overview due.
• Make sure you have joined our Remind class by either accepting the invitation I sent you on Saturday or by clicking on this link.

Welcome! August 19, 2019

Focus: What do we want to know about American Lit?

1. Warming up with three good things

Consider the following facts about happiness:

• When your mind is in a happy state (as opposed to a negative or neutral state), you're significantly more efficient, competitive, and successful.

• "Doctors put in a positive mood before making a diagnosis show almost three times more intelligence and creativity than doctors in a neutral state, and they make accurate diagnoses 19 percent faster." (Achor The Happiness Advantage 15)

• "Optimistic salespeople outsell their pessimistic counterparts by 56 percent." (15)

• Students in a happy mood before taking a math achievement test receive significantly better scores on average than students in a neutral state of mind. (15)

• You can rewire your brain to become happier by performing certain tasks on a regular basis.

2. Taking the "Two-Minute Personality Test" and introducing ourselves

Small break: Welcome to a screen-free zone!

3. Meeting and setting up the Writer's Notebook

HW:
1. Add something (or many things) to your Writer's Notebook to make it yours.

2. Please make sure you and your parents have completed the surveys I sent via email last week.

• Click HERE for the student survey.
• Click HERE for the parent survey.

3. Friday: 

• Signed class overview due.
• Make sure you have joined our Remind class by either accepting the invitation I sent you on Saturday or by clicking on this link.