Research Day 2

Today, we continued to research in the library for the students' argumentative essays. Students should be ready to begin those essays tomorrow.

Research Time

After a short warm-up, students had the whole period to research for their argumentative essay.

Art Presentations and Issues from Speak

Today students presented their final art projects, and then we moved on to a discussion of some of the issues from Speak, focusing especially on making those issues into arguable claims.

Work Day

Today students had the opportunity to work on three assignments:

• The symbol/motif paragraph from 3/22;
• The Cornell Notes from 3/23;
• and the final art project (due tomorrow).

Directions and frames are below and in blog entries for the day in question.

Nonfiction with Speak

We began the day by defining some terms and then started Cornell notes on this article.

Symbol & Motif

The End

Today we finished Speak and talked some about the ending and how Anderson ties all her symbols and motifs together at the end. Students had the chance to work on their final two S/M/Ms and the summary for the final marking period.

Writer's Notebooks are due tomorrow!

Reading 8

Today we had a quick quiz on reading 8, honed our analytical writing a bit, and moved on to reading 9 (we read about half of it), which we will finish together tomorrow.

Reading 7

Today we had a quick quiz on Reading 7. Then we focused on deconstructing some metaphors from last night's reading and got started on Reading 8, which students should finish tonight with a DJ.

Reading #7

After doing a bit more revision of the frog paragraph and starting (or finishing) the summary of the third marking period, we started reading seven as a class. Students should finish the reading (through page 162) and complete their dialectical journals for homework.

Friday—Abstract Art

We spent today revising our frog paragraphs and then we did a bit of abstract art.

Frog Expository

Reading 6

Today, students did a bit of reading to start the period, and then we worked on the assignment below together. Students should finish reading 6 with DJs from tomorrow.

Reading 5 Review

Today, after a quick quiz on Reading 5, we spent the period really honing the analysis in our says/means/matters.

Reading 5

Today we shared our summaries from the second marking period and then read a bit of reading 5. Students should finish reading 5 (through p. 116) and complete their DJ entries by tomorrow.

Reading 4 Work

After a short quiz on reading four, we discussed the reading a bit and then spent the rest of the period breaking down and writing about the quotation below.

Speak, Reading 4

Today we started Reading 4 in class. Students should finish Reading 4 (through page 92) with a complete DJ entry by tomorrow.

Monday and Tuesday

Monday, students read most of reading 3 in class and watched a short TED talk called "The Danger of Silence."
Tuesday started with a short quiz on the reading and then we focused in a bit on Smith's talk and its connections to Speak.