Jennifer Holzhausen's Homework Blog

March 27, 2009 (Blue) SSR Day / Spring Break BEGINS!! :)

B2 - Study Guides for Ch. 5-6 DUE.  Quiz: Ch. 5-6.  Discussed vocabulary terms for Chapters 3-6.  Amanda and Jamie put together a review game for extra credit.  Shared and discussed meanings behind "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns and "Meant to Live" by Switchfoot.  Assignment:  Study the vocabulary for a matching vocab. test on Tuesday after break.

B3/B4 - Final Drafts of the Essay DUE.  Passed back and recorded some graded work.  Discussed Benchmark Writing Assessments.  I asked students to write some goals and to give me some ideas about how they would design their own "perfect" school.  We ended the day with a paragraph about their future career goals.  Assignment:  If you were absent, please meet with me at some point to make up what you missed during class today.

March 26, 2009 (Gold)

G2/G4 - Final Drafts of the Essay DUE.  Passed back and recorded some graded work.  Discussed Benchmark Writing Assessments.  I asked students to write some goals and to give me some ideas about how they would design their own "perfect" school.  We ended the day with a paragraph about their future career goals.  Assignment:  If you were absent, please meet with me at some point to make up what you missed during class today.

G3 - Checked double-entries for the Schectman article.  Discussion.  Groups chose topics for the Trend Analysis paper.  The class voted on the "Cinderella" movie to be viewed and analyzed for this paper.  They have chosen Enchanted.  Assignment:  Read Jane Yolen's article, "America's 'Cinderella'," (handout) and complete a double-entry notebook assignment.

March 25, 2009 (Blue) SSR Day

B2 - Study Guide for Ch. 3-4 DUE.  Quiz: Ch. 3-4.  Discussion of symbols: kewpie doll lamp, the puppy, the stake, horseshoes and solitaire, and "tart".  Students then constructed collages of pictures to represent each of 7 characters with textual descriptions, and ideas about the symbolic importance of each character in the novel.  Assignment: Read the rest of the novel and complete the vocab. and Study Guide for Ch. 5-6. 

B3/B4 - Second drafts of the essay DUE for peer-editing and a grade.  Students worked in class all period (well, many of them did...).  Assignment:  Final draft of the essay DUE on Friday at the beginning of the block.

 

March 24, 2009 (Gold)

G2/G4 - Second drafts of the essay are DUE for a grade check and peer-editing.  Peer-editing, modeling, and discussion of essays will take most of the period today.  Assignment:  Final Drafts of the essay are DUE on Thursday at the beginning of the period.

G3 - Small group presentations of a variety of "Cinderella" stories.  Assignment:  Read "'Cinderella' and the Loss of Father Love" by J. Schectman.  Complete a double-entry.  On Thursday, we will vote on the 'Cinderella' movie to watch after spring break, and we will decide on the global trend topics for your group that day as well. 

March 23, 2009 (Blue)

B2 - Study Guides for Chapters 1-2 DUE.  Quiz.  Journal:  Which of the two main characters do you feel most similar to?  Why?  Completed and discussed some opinionnaires.  Discussion of key symbols in Chapters 1-2 (water, rabbits, mouse, and work cards) and went over the vocab. terms for today.  Assignment:  Read Chapters 3-4, complete the study guide, and define the vocabulary terms for these two chapters.

B3/B4 - Rough Draft Packets DUE for a grade.  Students were given the entire period today to revise, edit, and write their second drafts of the essay on lined paper.  Assignment:  Second drafts DUE on Wednesday for peer-editing.

March 20, 2009 (Gold) Mrs. Northouse - out

G2/G4 - Rough Draft Packets DUE for a grade.  Students were given the entire period to work on their second drafts of the essay.  Assignment:  Complete the second draft of the essay for peer-editing on Tuesday.

G3 - Students were given the entire block to work on their "Cinderella" presentations for Tuesday.  Remember, handouts are due to me by 3:!5pm on Monday if you want me to make copies for you.  Assignment:  Group presentations due Tuesday.

 

March 19, 2009 (Blue) - Mrs. Northouse out in afternoon

B2 - Checked notes for homework.  Journal: What do you really know about Poverty?  Discussed the current economic crisis and its parallels to the Great Depression.  Distributed copies of Of Mice and Men.  Assignment:  Read Chapters 1-2, complete the study guide, define the vocabulary terms for these two chapters.  Quiz on Monday.

B3/B4 - Pre-writing DUE.  Students were given the entire period today to work on their Rough Draft Packets.  Assignment:  Rough Draft Packet DUE for a grade on Monday.

March 18, 2009 (Gold) SSR Day

G2/G4 - Pre-writing DUE.  Today, several students began working on the rough draft packets for the essay in class.  Others are still working on pre-writing and are already a day behind on the assignment.  I made myself available to students to answer questions or help clarify as they worked.  Many did not work or use their time well.  Assignment:  The first draft "packet" is DUE for a grade on Friday.  In class on Friday, we will be writing the next draft.  If students do not have their packets completed, they will be behind!!!  Catch up as soon as possible, please!!

 

G3 - We watched a short clip from the beginning of Disney's Cinderella, then we discussed the elements we think are most important to our ideas of a "Cinderella" story.  Next, we read through and discussed the "14 Variants" of a "Cinderella" story which were created by a number of folklorists.  I assigned temporary new groups to read through, discuss, and present a variety of other versions of the "Cinderella" story.  Your group will connect with you... if you are unable to participate due to another absence, your participation on the presentation will be waived.  Assignment:  Read through your copy of the group's assigned story and be prepared to work with your group to develop a presentation in class on Friday.  You will present these to the class on Tuesday.  If you want me to make photocopies for you, your handouts (a required piece) are due to me by 3:15pm on Monday.

March 17, 2009 (Blue) St. Patrick's Day

B2 - Journal:  How do you feel about your speaking ability? Are you comfortable with the way you speak in conversation or in public?  Students completed three dialect surveys today.  Discussion and notes: The American Dialect.  Assignment:  Read and take notes over the background information on Modernism (p. 821-835) and take at least one whole page worth of notes.  No Quiz.

B3/B4 - Passed back some graded work and had students put all of their graded work from first nine weeks together in the back, in the miscellaneous section of the binder.  Began working on a pre-writing activity to help students generate ideas for the next essay assignment.  Students first created a list of 5 characters from Romeo and Juliet who could be blamed for the tragedy.  Next, we discussed a number of different character traits as a class.  Students chose three character traits for each of the five people on their list.  These character traits should be the three most important character traits that lead them into the tragedy.  From there, students picked one person to blame.  I had them plug and chug information into a pre-constructed thesis statement, then they began working on an outline.  In the outline, I asked them to start with the three character traits as the topic sentences for their body paragraphs.  Ex. Friar Laurence is irresponsible.  Then, they had to find three specific examples in the book (with page numbers) where he shows us that he is irresponsible.  It might be something he said, did, or something someone said about him.  Assignment:  Finish the pre-writing assignment.  (There were only a few students who finished in class.)  

March 16, 2009 (Gold)

G2/G4 - Review Sheet for Acts 3, 4, and 5 DUE.  Test over Acts 3, 4, and 5.  The rest of the period will be spent discussing the pre-writing for the next essay assignment.  Assignment:  Complete the pre-writing assignment. 

G3 - Draft #3 of the Comparative Critique DUE for my comments.  Checked double-entries for "Universality of a Folktale."  I read two short Norwegian folk tales to the class.  Discussion:  What is a folk tale?  Why share them?  What is an "oral culture"?  How do we "tell" folktales today?  Notes:  Comparative Analysis paper.  Assignment:  None!