The Day Before...

Today we handed in final drafts of the personal narrative and finished "The Cask of Amontillado."

Have a great break!

Prep Work

Today we reviewed imagery, mood, and setting and did the vocab on page 343 in preparation for Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado," which we'll read tomorrow.
Personal Narrative final drafts are due tomorrrow.

Healthy Kids

Today we spent the whole period on the Healthy Kids survey.

Tuesday

Today we continued the close reads for Unit 3, beginning with page 307. We then reviewed the terms setting, imagery, and mood.
Students should finish any unfinished work for homework tonight. Remember that personal narratives are due Friday.

Unit 3 Begins

Today we began unit three in the textbook with a warm-up focused on setting. After some specifics about the essay (final drafts due Friday), students started on the Unit 3 Workshop (Notes pp. 302 & 304 and Close Reads pp. 303, 305, & 306). They should finish this work for homework tonight.

Benchmark Essay Review

Today we spent the period reviewing the benchmark timed writing students did at the end of the first quarter. We reviewed the prompt and the rubric, scored some sample essays, and wrapped up the day with students scoring their own essays.

Show, Don't Tell

Today we practiced a bit of "showing" writing in the warm-up and the spent the period practicing some more brushstrokes. For homework, students should try out at least three of the brushstrokes as they revise their personal narratives. I will be checking these revisions tomorrow.

Brushstrokes

Today we worked on some creative, grammatical ways to add variety and description to our sentences. Tomorrow, students will apply these ideas to their own personal narratives (which should be complete and undergoing significant revision at this point).

The Conclusion and Some Revision

Today we started with this warm-up:

The students went on to write their own conclusions using the models above and the sentence frames on the following slide:

HW: Students who didn't get to it in class should work through the revision exercises on page 173 and 174 as noted above.

The Real Writing Begins

Today I checked off the prewriting from yesterday and students tried out six different beginnings. Once they had tried all six, they picked their favorite and got started on the first draft of their personal narrative. Drafts should be finished (though perhaps lacking a conclusion, which will be our Monday focus) on Monday.

More Prewriting

Today we coninued the personal narrative prewriting. Students should complete the web below for homework if they did not manage in class.

Students who finished moved on to starting the actual narrative by working on varied ways to begin.

Personal Narratives Begin

Today we began the first major essay of the year, the personal narrative. We started by brainstorming topic ideas, examining the prompt on page 168, and looking at a student example on pages 169-70. No homework tonight, but it's coming.