February 1

THIS WORK WAS CANCELLED SO THAT YOU COULD DO YOUR TENTH GRADE SCHEDULING. WE'LL DO THIS LATER THIS WEEK.
We'll do some sort of quiz on the next chapter in your book. Third period that is chapter 3; Period 4 that's chapter 2.
Then I'll ask you to do some research on a topic related to your book. Third period we will dig into Jack London and the Klondike Gold Rush.
Fourth period we will find out about the Four Olds.

The game I'm going to ask you to play I call "Station to Station". The idea behind it is to take one piece of information and follow it where it leads. In theory every person will end up in a different place even though each person began the journey in the same place.
I have provided you with a start point. For third period it is http://www.arcticwebsite.com/LondonJackKlond.html
For fourth period the start point is http://www.morningsun.org/smash/cr_3_1968.html

Now read over the start point. Find something that interests you. It might be a name of a city or a food or a question (what kind of food did Jack London eat in Alaska or Why did they call it the Cultural Revolution?) Using Google Search or Google Images or some such, investigate this topic. On a new Google Docs document write a brief summary of what you learned. One stipulation. Try to keep the topics concerned with our main theme: Third period, the Klondike Gold Rush; Fourth Period, The Cultural Revolution.
Now you have at least one new website to read. Within that website fine another topic or question to investigate. On that same Google Docs document tell me a bit about what you learned.
Now try the same process again. As you go to one website use that to search for the next topic.
Do this six times so that you have six summaries. Include pictures where that will help your explanation. Assume you are teaching a sixth grader with this exercise so don't make your explanations too complicated.
Name your document LastNameSTATIONTOSTATION.
But I want to throw you one more curve. Somewhere in your search I'd like you to mention a PRIMARY SOURCE. What's that? Look it up. Once you figure out what a Primary Source is, tell me which Primary Source you saw in your investigations today.

January 31

Today is Fred Korematsu Day. We will do silent reading as usual but I've put out some books on Japanese Internment that might interest you.
After SSR we will go to the lab to do a short research project on Japanese Internment. Here is the idea:

At the main high school we have a new printer that can create posters, 13" x 19". On our computers we have a program called Microsoft Publisher that can help you make such posters. I'd like you to try. The goal would be to print a few of the best posters tomorrow. The theme of the posters would be Heroes of Liberty. I'd like you to focus on key people like:
Rosa Parks
Nelson Mandela
Fred Korematsu
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Cesar Chavez

And particular times:
the Civil Rights Movement
the Movement for Women's Rights
The Gay Rights Movement
Japanese Internment or perhaps discrimination against Muslim Americans today
The Farm Worker Movement

You'll need to do some quick reading but most of your time should be spent on the poster itself.

We also have some new rules to discuss today.
HOMEWORK: read the next chapter. Test tomorrow.

January 27

We might as well do the whole class in the lab today.
First we'll do a quiz on the reading.
Then we'll get back to the research reports. A few people are far along in this process. I'd love for those folks to help the others. Let's make it a goal to get everyone through this today: everyone should have a research report with a long quote and, most important, a Works Cited with four entries.

If there's time I'll ask you to do the next step: how to cite a short quote.

HOMEWORK: read chapter one. Possible quiz on Monday.

January 26

We'll do three things today:
1. Silent reading, of course.
2. Distribute your next reading book. I made an executive decision.
3rd period will be reading White Fang by Jack London
4th period will be reading Red Scarf Girl
You will be expected to read approximately 20 pages per night. This will be homework though you are free to read this book during SSR. I will be quizzing you periodically to see if you are doing the reading.
3. We'll do more work on the research reports. I've commented on every paper I received yesterday so just about everyone has something to work on.

HOMEWORK: 3rd read "The Trail of the Meat"; 4th read "Note to the reader", "Note on pronunciation", Foreward, and Prologue. Both classes will be quizzed on this reading tomorrow.

things to remember

1. Go to the top of the page and name your file correctly. Right now your files should be
LastNameResearch1 (that is the first stage of your research report)
LastNameWorksCited1 (that is your works cited with at least 4 sources)

2. Learn how to put your Works Cited on a separate page. The YouTube movie tells you how and I will tell you how.

3. As you deal with my comments please erase those comments so I can see what you did. And if I have suggested edits to your words be sure to turn the entire document to black type once you fix whatever needs fixing.

January 25

Today I want you to make progress on your research reports. This will cause some problems between us. Please be polite when you tell me I'm tormenting you.
I will be acting as your editor. I will strive to give you feedback intended to improve your writing and thinking skills. In doing this I will make demands on you that you might not like.
By Thursday I would like you to:
1. Produce a Works Cited with four entries including at least one book and one magazine article.
2. Learn about your topic. Many of you have already written copiously about your subject based upon prior knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to push you to learn things you didn't already know and to produce an interesting document that your classmates would want to read. This means reading about your subject--and not just Wikipedia. Books, magazines and longer treatments are crucial.
I want to emphasize that at this point my goal is QUALITY NOT QUANTITY. I expect to ask all of you to rewrite and improve what you have done to date.
I will be reviewing your sources. If I think your sources are UNRELIABLE OR SUPERFICIAL (Wikipedia is superficial most of the time) I will require that you add other sources.

I am going to show you the movie about setting up MLA on google docs. Enjoy!

January 24

I'm going to ask all classes to write me a note again. I hope this is acceptable. I will distribute a syllabus to all students. And we will, of course, do 20 minutes of silent reading. I have some new rules governing SSR which I will describe. Finally we will begin some reading.
If we can get our next novel then your homework will be to read the first 20 pages.

Students will be able to analyze literature in terms of mood and tone
Students will be able to evaluate informational material in terms of argument