Small Presses

Today we developed mission statements and names for each of the English 10 small presses that run out of room 262.

4th hour's is called Fresh Press, and the mission is to produce works that are enjoyable and that expose the reader to new ideas.

5th hour's is called iMpress (I think that's how the caps go?), and the mission is to produce works that are intriguing and influential.

6th's hour's is called Hot Paper Press, and the mission is to produce works that are engaging and that enhance readers' creativity and knowledge.

Exciting! News on how to propose a piece for publication coming next week!

I Gotta Feelin'

Hey, did you know you can learn that cool Black Eyed Peas dance from Oprah by clicking this link on Oprah.com? I say we all learn it. Maybe dancing leads to enlightenment?

Speaking of, today you worked on identifying the tenets of Hinduism and Buddhism in Siddhartha. You can add to this sheet as you read this week and use it on your test on Friday. We'll be talking more about that test as the week goes on.

Tomorrow, we have vision screening. And also, more people will get their papers back every day. This is my solemn vow.

Homecoming Weekend!

Hi, Sophs! I hope your first high school Homecoming was a big success!

I'm checking in today with the schedule for next week, for those of you who like to plan ahead.

As I mentioned, you should finish part one of Siddhartha by Monday. We'll have a quiz! On Tuesday, we're headed up to the nurse's office to do vision screening. You'll bring your books and read in the hallway. I'm giving you one huge reading assignment, which will be due Thursday: Read pages 45-129.

On Wednesday, we'll leave Siddhartha for a bit to talk about our creative writing workshop, and for Friday, you'll finish the book. We'll have an open discussion on it for the first 20 minutes, and then you'll take a multiple-choice test on it.

It'll be a full and fun week! See you Monday!

Peer Editing-palooza

Today was a busy day in class, with everyone angling to improve their Davita essays. I was very happy to have the multi-flow, root cause, uber-effect frame -- it worked for every person I helped except Fresa. Her topic is parenting, and her thesis is that each parent's life experiences influences their particular style, with varying outcomes on Ilana. We figured that she will write body paragraphs on each of the parents, discussing both causes and effects within each one.

Here's the peer-editing list, in case you need it tonight. Remember, you can hand in your essay either Thursday or Friday for full-credit; but after Friday at 3:10, 20% will be deducted from your score.

1. Read introductory paragraph.
2. Identify the thesis statement.
3. Circle the causes mentioned in the thesis.
4. Underline the effects mentioned in the thesis.
5. Before continuing your reading, check the topic sentences of each body paragraph – does each correspond to a cause or effect mentioned in the thesis?
6. Read the first body paragraph.
7. Identify the Points (P from PIE). Put a star by each P.
8. Identify the Illustrations. Underline each one.
9. Evaluate each Explanation – does the writer clearly explain how each illustration proves the topic sentence of the paragraph? Write +/check/- in the margin next to each E.
10. Repeat for each additional body paragraph.
11. Read the conclusion. Circle the section wherein the author explains the “So what?” of her/his argument. Does the author show how this topic connects to life?
12. Go back to the essay to help the writer with her/his particular question or concern. Talk together about it, and come up with a plan for the writer.

Essays Due Tomorrow!

I'm excited because today we're working on our History Trail. It's a visual record of the texts we've worked with through the year. You'll use it for inspiration for your creative writing as we go forward, and I think you'll have a good time making the History Trail Collage pieces.

Also a reminder, and I know you know this, your complete essay is due in class tomorrow. We'll be doing some peer editing, and I'll answer your individual questions. You must have a typed, complete essay in class to get credit for the day.

Good luck! And don't hesitate to email me if you run into problems tonight. (I do have an early bedtime; however, so get your questions in before 9.)

Picasso and Eisenhower

Yesterday, in addition to going into more depth about how to turn those multi-flow maps into cause-and-effect essays, we talked about Picasso, his life and his art. All of the classes shared insightful observations of the painting Guernica. I want to especially thank those of you -- David K., Dan N., and Elaine are standing out in my memory -- for sharing your prior knowledge of history to help in the analysis.

For homework, you read Eisenhower's Farewell speech, and in class today you're working through the causes and effects of war that he highlights. Sadly, I cannot join you because my youngest is feverish. Alas.

The full-text of the speech, in case you were absent, is avaialable at this link.

In addition, here's an article on a PBS site about Guernica that also includes some images of the sketches Picasso made to prepare to paint.

Multi-Flow Madness

Today I modeled how you go from a multi-flow map to a thesis statement for your cause-and-effect essay.

Here are the steps:

1) Identify the causes and effects that are most interesting and relevant to the novel.

2) Then, construct your thesis statement like this: In Davita's Harp, Chaim Potok shows that divergent religious and political beliefs cause war, which then leads to drastic personal and political change.

3) The body paragraphs are identified in the thesis: there will be one for each cause, and one for each effect. To determine your PIEs for each paragraph, think of the root causes of your "causes" and the uber effects of your "effects." In class we decided that the root causes of divergent religious beliefs were past experiences and cultural differences. Also, the root causes of divergent political beliefs included past experiences and different worldviews. The uber effects of personal change were the family restructuring that Anne and Ilana experienced and the depression and breakdowns they both experienced. Each of those would be a PIE in the paragraph about personal change.

Are you following? If not, don't fret. We'll work on it again in class tomorrow. See you then!

Many Views on Parenting

It's been a couple of days since I've posted, and a lot has happened! We had a fruitful discussion about parenting. This was especially interesting for me because I tend to have a lot more sympathy for the parents in Davita than many of you. I'm sure this is because I'm a mom already. Some of you also thought the story showed that kids do better with at least one stay-at-home parent. Others wrote on their notecards that staying home wasn't important, but rather balancing career and family or allowing kids to develop their own ideas was the most critical factor in being a good parent.

The different reactions are a great example of that transactional theory of reading I told you about - the meaning you make with a book depends on YOU, including your life experiences and your values.

Here are just a few of the ideas that people took away from the discussion:

"I really liked the idea that parents should always respect what their children choose to do, but should enforce boundaries at the same time." -- David N.

"I thought that the adults in Davita's life (except maybe Aunt Sarah) treated her way too much like an adult. She didn't get a chance to be a kid." -- Molly L.

"An idea that stuck with me was how Anne's mothering and dictating ideas to Davita actually was encouraging free thinking." -- Rebecca K.

"I thought that Ezra was a very religious-based father and Michael was a very opinion-based father." -- Stephanie K.

"One thought: Ezra is a good parent, but Ilana really throws him off, so he had to rethink his values about family." -- Anna B.

"I found it interesting that many people thought Ezra to be the better father because when I think of Ezra, he seems a bit detached." -- Danielle K.

"I think Ezra wasn't really a good parent because he keeps David in only one environment with all Jewish tradition, people, and culture up to the point that David doesn't really care about anything. David says to Ilana that politics are boring, and she responds by saying that you think politics in general are boring, but if they're Jewish you're interested." -- Meghana V.

"The idea that Channah and Michael are foils is an interesting concept that changes the meaning of the book slightly." -- Sophia C.

And this comment wasn't about parenting, but it was something I hadn't noticed in the text that I thought was cool/interesting:

"When Jakob Daw was at the beach with the Chandals, he never went near the water, refused to even put on a swimsuit. When Ilana 'forsaw' his death, he walked into the sea." -- Lisa J.

What do you make of that?? Go ahead and comment on it below!

Love for the MLA!

Well, the reactions to the MLA rules were about what I expected. The bottom line is: the MLA rules for formatting and citation are hard to learn and remember. However, they are necessary, as they give us a standard way to cite sources. Properly using MLA also shows you care about entering into the larger scholarly community.

For homework tonight, you're preparing for our first big discussion on Davita. Please answer the following in your notebook. You must have this assignment completed in order to participate in the discussion tomorrow!

Answer these first two questions about parenting on two levels: First, explore your personal opinion regarding the question; and second, answer in terms of the text.

1. What is a good mother?

2. What is a good daughter or son?

Now, further explore Ilana Davita's parents by completing the following tasks:

3. What are the pros and cons of Anne's mothering? What does she do well? What does she do poorly? Make a t-chart to show your thinking. Support each pro and con with a quote from the text.

4. Make a double-bubble map comparing Michael and Ezra as fathers.

5. For you personally, and in the text, what makes a good father?

Finally, write a theme statement on Potok's beliefs about parenting. For example: In Davita's Harp, Potok claims that a good mother ________________.

I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas on these topics! See you tomorrow!

Research One-Pager

Today we did a version of Give One, Get One designed to increase our cultural and historical knowledge. Then, I assigned a one-page research paper on your chosen allusion from Davita.

I sensed some apprehension here, but I think you're already well on your way to completing this assignment! The most important aspect of this assignment is to think about how your allusion enhances your understanding of the book. How does knowing more about Aunt Sarah's story help illuminate a theme regarding storytelling? How does knowing more about famous communists help illuminate a theme regarding political ideology? Explain your answer in this paper.

Do not worry too much about being correct in terms of MLA citations and works cited. We will do some work with that on Monday.

Check Edline if you need a copy of the assignment - I posted it in the folder labeled "Assignments."

Have a great weekend!

Allusions!

This first week is really grueling, isn't it? My voice is already going, and it's only the third day!

Today in class, we talked about allusions in Davita's Harp. There are many, and as I read it, I imagined the history buffs among you were having a great time reading about real-life events. Groups came up with various categories of allusions during the List-Group-Label activity. Very common categories were "Related to Judaism" and "Related to Politics."

A few groups had slightly different ways of grouping, including the "Annas and Davids" group of 4th hour (it's comprised of two Annas and two Davids.) Their categories included: Imaginary Characters, Different Political Views and Ideas, Leaders, Related to Judaism, Positive Events/Organizations, Inspirational Men, and Negative Events/Places.

For homework, each student chose an allusion to research further using the EHS online databases. I suggested that ABC-CLIO and World Book would be the most useful of the resources for this particular assignment. Check the comments for the Usernames and Passwords for these, if you've lost them. Each student has to find a resource on his/her chosen allusion, read it, and print it.

Those who had to leave early from 6th hour can choose from the following allusions, which were not chosen by anyone else in any class:

Book of Psalms
Pilgrim Smith
Coup d'etat
Jerusalem
Debs
Sabbath
Basque
Yiddish
Hasidim
Chanukkah
Prayer Shawl
Rabinnical Judaism

See you tomorrow! And see your families at Open House tonight!

Test!

It was a sad day for this extrovert, having to sit silently by while you took your test on Davita. Testing on the second day feels a little bit wrong, but I do think it's important to verify that we've all read the text. And now it's over with.

Moving on! Tonight, you're doing an A to Z taxonomy on the book. This is an alphabetical list of elements that are important to the novel. Use the taxonomy as a brainstorming tool - be creative and try to come up with something other people might not. Focus on symbols, important events, and other literary devices. We'll be back to conversing tomorrow, thank goodness.

A Paragraph About Yourselves

I just came from the Welcome-Fest in the gym. You were all sitting on the bleachers looking ready. I'm excited to get into the swing of things. In a few hours, you'll be sitting right here in 262!

Tonight, I'm asking you to write a paragraph about one of your personality traits. Below you'll find a sample paragraph about me. I asked my friend Ms. Hatten what she thought I'd chosen to write about. Positivity? She guessed. Cheerful? Delightful? I didn't choose any of those, but isn't it nice to know that she thinks I have them?!

Here's my paragraph about being an extreme extrovert. I'm looking forward to reading yours tomorrow!

My brother Kevin and I are total opposites in temperament. To put it simply, I am extremely extroverted. I love to be with people. I wake up in the morning talking. I fall asleep mid-sentence. And, I express almost every thought that enters my consciousness. I complained once to my husband that a friend of mine wasn’t forthcoming enough with news of her new boyfriend. Dan rolled his eyes at me. “Not everyone expresses every single emotion she has at the moment she has it,” he said, pointedly. “Like you do.” One person who doesn’t, for instance, is Kevin. He’s two years younger than I am. He likes peace and quiet. His favorite activity growing up was playing video games all by himself, or sometimes with the dog. My mom, a single parent for much of our growing up, tried to keep the peace between us as best she could. In the car, she’d give us alternating five-minute intervals during which we could choose activities. During my five minutes, I’d sing or tell a story or play twenty questions. When it was Kevin’s turn he’d say, “I want five minutes of quiet.” It was torture! I couldn’t do it! I’d make it 90 seconds and start complaining about the unfairness. That’s one of the reasons I’m here, sophomores. In this job, I can talk almost as much as I want. Thank goodness.