1B
1. Freewrite.
2. Focused freewrite. For five minutes, students responded to the prompt, How does this motif show up in your life or the life of an American teenager today? Then, students met briefly with their groups to discuss their responses.
3. Oral quiz. We took an oral reading check quiz on chapter 2 of The Outsiders, which students had to read for homework over break.
4. Sentence corrections. Students corrected two incorrectly written fragments as a break between activities.
5. Finding motif in Chapters 1 and 2 of The Outsiders. Students worked with their motif groups to create a poster that displayed 4 quotes that demonstrated their motif and 4 explanations of the quotes, 1 symbolic image about the motif, and a hypothesis about what the novel is teaching its readers about the motif so far. Students then presented these to the class.
HW: Read Chapter 3 of The Outsiders. For each chapter you read, locate and explain five lines that relate to your motif. Due Thursday.
2AB
1. Freewrite.
2. Simon Says vocabulary review. Our vocab test is tomorrow!
Test information:
Three sections
- Section I: SAT words. You will be given the SAT words. You must use the word correctly in context in an original sentence.
- Section II: Word part memorization. You will be given the word stems and you must write what the definition is. (I give you “a, an,” you write “without, lacking.”
- Section III: Word part application, multiple choice. Students will apply the word stems to explain what new words using those stems mean.
Extra credit for…
- Creating paper flashcards +2
- Having all of your vocabulary notes +1
- Scoring in the top 10 of our class on Quizlet’s Space Race or Scatter +2
- Scoring #1 in our class on Space Race or Scatter +3
- Writing three example sentences for each SAT word as practice +1
3. Focused Freewrite. Students had seven minutes to respond to this prompt: Describe a time you agreed to do something completely out of character and you were surprisingly successful. This is essentially what Bilbo Baggins will do throughout the story. When did you do this? We shared for 30 seconds with partners and then heard a few for the whole group. For one minute students wrote about how they were like Bilbo Baggins
4. Oral Quiz. Students answered five questions about Chapter 2 of The Hobbit.
5. Chapter 3 read-aloud. We began reading the beginning of Chapter 3, which students will need to read for Thursday.
HW: Study for vocabulary test tomorrow. Read Chapter 3 for Thursday. Take notes on at least 5 occurrences of your motif (quotes) in the chapter. Explain why you chose each quote and how it relates to your motif. You can take these notes on stickies, in your book, or on notebook paper.
4A
1. Freewrite.
2. Focused freewrite. Students had seven minutes to respond to this prompt: Describe a time you agreed to do something completely out of character and you were surprisingly successful. This is essentially what Bilbo Baggins will do throughout the story. When did you do this? We shared for 30 seconds with partners and then heard a few for the whole group.
3. Field trip forms. Students will be attending a screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey by director Peter Jackson on December 14 (opening day!) to analyze the media’s take on this children’s story. This is an A Day. Students will be gone from 8:45-1:00, approximately. The field trip costs $7.50 and you must have your permission slip signed. Parents! Want to chaperone? I’d love to have you! Let me know via email: agarvoille@ycsd.york.va.us
4. Oral Quiz. Students answered five questions about Chapter 2 of The Hobbit.
5. 3 Observations and 5 Whys. Students shared an observation about the reading with their partner (ex: Bilbo isn’t actually very good at burgling). We put three up on the board. For each observation, students answered the question Why? five times, either through a cold-call or by volunteering an answer. This helped us see that all parts of a text exist for some reason–to be entertaining, to make the protagonist look good, to tell the hero journey, etc.
6. Sentence corrections. Students corrected three run-on sentences and three students led the class in correcting them together.
7. Finding motif in Chapter 2. Students worked with their motif groups to create a poster that displayed 4 quotes that demonstrated their motif and 4 explanations of the quotes, 1 symbolic image about the motif, and a hypothesis about what the novel is teaching its readers about the motif so far. Students then presented these to the class.
HW: Read Chapters 3 and 4 of The Hobbit and take notes on at least 5 occurrences of your motif for each chapter (10 in all for Thursday).
ALEXA GARVOILLE 