April 29

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Recent research suggests that excessive texting may be linked to anxiety, distraction, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation. What does your experience tell you about this? Be sure to support your answer with specific examples.
***OR***
(ALTERNATE TOPIC/STUDENT SUBMISSION):
Why is it that some teachers are more effective than others if they all receive the same training? What makes someone a good teacher?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Vocabulary quiz
3. Discussion: genre, culture and magical realism

HW:
I. Read the definitions of magical realism here and write down at least three ideas and three questions you want to discuss on Monday.

II. Read the first chapter (January) of Like Water for Chocolate and answer the following questions. Make sure to support each of your answers with at least one textual quote:

1. Who is narrating the story?
2. What happened to bring on Mama Elena’s early delivery of Tita?
3. Where was Tita born?
4. How come it was not necessary to slap Tita on the bottom at birth?
5. Why did Tita feel a deep love for the kitchen?
6. Explain what happened to Tita when she was two days old.
7. Explain the relationship between Tita and Nacha. What made their relationship special?
8. What made it possible for Nacha to nourish Tita and impossible for Mama Elena?
9. Compare and contrast Tita’s world to that of her sisters.
10. What was the reason given to prevent Tita from marrying Pedro?
11. What is the significance of the family tradition?
12. What issues does Tita bring up when she questions the family tradition?
13. What is Tita’s punishment for having a headache?
14. What is the significance of the song, “The Eyes of Youth,” that Gertrudis plays on
the piano?

Extra Credit Opportunity #2

Watch the prezi below and post a brief paragraph in which you:
* explain what made the most sense to you and what didn't
* discuss the advantages and disadvantages of open source learning
* argue that school should either stay the way it is or become open source.

The Open Source on Prezi

April 28

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Why do so many people love books about love, death, and the supernatural? What is it about these abstract concepts that move us?

AGENDA: (30 min. period due to testing)
1. Journal
2. How to use your homework to change minds/lives
3. Check out Like Water for Chocolate

HW: Vocab quiz tomorrow

April 27

JOURNAL TOPIC:
There is approximately one month left in the school year-- what are you looking forward to, what do you dread, and what will you miss?

AGENDA:
1. Journal/check HW
2. Discuss upcoming E.C. opportunities on blog
3. Prepare to study last novel of the year (see HW for more)

HW:
1. Read "The Ants" (pp. 550-570 in textbook)
2. Answer R&A Questions on p. 570
3. Write a brief paragraph in which you explain the central conflict of the story
4. What is a GENRE? What genre do you think "The Ants" represents and why?

Extra Credit Opportunity #1

What if school was more interactive, like what you see in this video? Would it be more engaging, more distracting, or would it make any difference at all? Post a thoughtful paragraph and win.

April 26

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Welcome back. Describe the three most interesting things you learned about culture, your novel, and yourself during the last few weeks.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Observations on the home stretch
3. Vocabulary

HW:
1. Vocab
2. If you still need to complete the literature analysis requirement for the semester, BEGIN THAT WORK NOW. As Hanz & Franz (look it up) would say, "Hear me now and believe me later"; each moment you procrastinate will haunt you as we approach finals and the end of the year.

Can You Believe It?

Tonight's edition of "60 Minutes" contained a segment about Greg Mortensen (see it here) that presented a different version of the truth from what we read and were led to believe. The report sure didn't look good and now I'm confused. Should I teach his book next year? If I do, should I present it as fiction or non-fiction? Is he still a basically good guy who did amazing things that made a lot of people better for knowing about him, or is he a bad guy for embellishing the facts and misusing donations from schoolchildren?

This is where you come in. Write me an essay that organizes information from at least five sources to CREATE a view of Greg Mortenson that will guide my decisions. Notice that create is in capital letters; instead of forming an opinion and finding evidence to support it, you must FIRST do the research, and, based on what you read, THEN form an opinion. Amount of extra credit negotiable depending on the quality of your argument and sources.

Literature Circle Presentation & Binder Submission Requirements

English 2 literature circle binder and presentation guidelines

April 14

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Did your mind wander during the California Standardized Testing & Reporting? (Mine did.) What did you find yourself thinking about? How did you manage to refocus your attention on the task at hand?

AGENDA:















HW: Literature circle work

April 13

JOURNAL TOPIC:
The inconsistent testing schedules can be viewed as an inconvenient disruption-- or they may actually be helping our brains by causing us to think about our daily routines instead of operating on autopilot. Describe a routine in your life that you can constructively disrupt for this purpose.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Literature circles

HW:
1. Finish literature circle novel
2. Compile binder
3. Prepare post-break presentation

April 12

[No class today due to California Standardized Testing and Reporting]

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Describe something you learned during the test this morning.

AGENDA:
















HW:
1. Journal (consider the preposition)
2. Literature circle work

April 11

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Mahatma Gandhi said, "An eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind." What did he mean? Do you agree? Explain your answers.

AGENDA:
1. Journal/check HW
2. Literature circles: status/planning, essay prep

HW: Literature circle work

April 8

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Popular wisdom holds that, "You may pick your friends, and you may pick your nose, but you may not pick your friends' noses." Why not? (Don't settle for the obvious; use what you've learned about norms and cultural customs.)

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Vocabulary quiz/correct
3. Literature circles (remember to plan around next week's testing schedule)

HW:
1. Lit. circle work
2. Type up notes for Monday

April 7

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Why is the light bulb such a popular symbol/metaphor for an idea? Do you experience ideas as sudden occurrences, or as the product of gradual (even painstaking) processes?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Literature circles: a)status, check-in, and planning for five roles; b)extend cultural analysis; c)partners/essay review

HW: Literature circle work

April 6

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Our national anthem ends with the lyrics, "O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." How free are we? If our government became more restrictive, what would you do? What price would you pay for your freedom?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Literature circles meet

HW: Literature circle essay #1 (see below-- due tomorrow, Thursday April 7)


LITERATURE CIRCLES essay 1

April 5

JOURNAL TOPIC:
If you could give one piece of advice to one character in the novel you're reading, what would it be and to whom would you give it?

AGENDA:
1. Journal/check vocab HW
2. Return/discuss vocab midterm
3. Literature circles

HW: Literature circle work

April 4

JOURNAL TOPIC: Write a short story based on the following picture [Source: Van Allsburg, Chris, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston: Massachusetts (1984)]:


burdick pumpkin

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Meet with Literature Circle
3. Vocabulary

HW:
1. Vocab sentences
2. Literature circle work

April 1

JOURNAL TOPIC:
In a brief paragraph, develop a realistic plan for refinancing the national debt. Avoid party politics and trace causality and possible effects as they relate to Cubism, the Donatist Controversy (or the Shia-Sunni Split) and the Wave Theory of Light. Outline a method for predicting and/or preventing similar effects and criticize your plan from all perspectives (if you are concerned about time you may write a computer algorithm to do this for you.)

[Happy April Fool's Day: no journal today.]

AGENDA:
1. Vocabulary midterm
2. Brief meeting with literature circle

HW: Literature circle work