Week at a glance May 16 - 20, 2011

Curriculum focus: identifies, interprets, and analyzes figurative language including: idiom, imagery, and symbolism (11.1.2.K4), uses information from the text to make inferences and draw conclusions (11.1.4.K5), compares/contrasts textual aspects: character traits, themes, character motives, and author's purpose (11.1.4.K7), analyzes and evaluates how the author's style (word choice and sentence structure) and use of literary devices work together to achieve his/her purpose by using tone, mood, and imagery (11.1.4.K11d, e, and h), and analyzes contextual aspects of setting and their influence on characters and events in the story including the contexts of history, society, and culture (11.2.1.K2a-c).

During this last full week of the semester, we'll finish our essay over F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and prepare for the semester final. Students will receive their rough drafts back to them on Monday, as well as a final exam review packet. We'll meet in the computer lab to type, revise, edit, revise again, and print final drafts Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, our last official day of meeting, we'll finish the final exam review packet.

• Mon: The Great Gatsby - hand back rough drafts. Begin final exam review packet.
  
• Tues: The Great Gatsby -meet in the computer lab to begin typing the final draft.
  
• Wed: The Great Gatsby -Final Draft due by the end of the hour.
  
• Thurs: The Great Gatsby -finish final exam review
  
• Fri: Semester finals - 4th and 6th hour finals.
  

Week at a glance May 9 - 13, 2011

Curriculum focus: identifies, interprets, and analyzes figurative language including: idiom, imagery, and symbolism (11.1.2.K4), uses information from the text to make inferences and draw conclusions (11.1.4.K5), compares/contrasts textual aspects: character traits, themes, character motives, and author's purpose (11.1.4.K7), analyzes and evaluates how the author's style (word choice and sentence structure) and use of literary devices work together to achieve his/her purpose by using tone, mood, and imagery (11.1.4.K11d, e, and h), and analyzes contextual aspects of setting and their influence on characters and events in the story including the contexts of history, society, and culture (11.2.1.K2a-c).

Root Words Exam this Friday - students will receive a study guide on Monday. We'll review throughout the week.

During this last full week of school before finals, we'll apply we've read from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and begin creating an essay. The essay will be done entirely in class. Students will receive topic choices on Monday. By Wednesday, they will complete an informal outline of their essay. A handwritten rough draft of the Gatsby essay will be due by the end of the hour on Friday. This essay is the last writing assessment of the school year. The grade on the final draft will count as half of the student's 2nd Semester Final Exam.

• Mon: Pass back papers and current grades. Root Words Review handed out. The Great Gatsby Essay - discuss assignment, parameters, timeline, and potential topics.
• Tues: The Great Gatsby Essay - brainstorming and shaping the essay. Shaping packet checked in class on Wednesday.
  
• Wed: The Great Gatsby Essay - Shaping packet checked and graded. Pass out and discuss guidelines for the rough draft.
  
• Thurs: The Great Gatsby Essay - Continue writing and shaping the rough draft.
  
• Fri: Root Words Exam. The Great Gatsby Essay - handwritten rough draft due by the end of the hour.

Week at a glance May 3 - 7, 2011

Curriculum focus: identifies, interprets, and analyzes figurative language including: idiom, imagery, and symbolism (11.1.2.K4), uses information from the text to make inferences and draw conclusions (11.1.4.K5), compares/contrasts textual aspects: character traits, themes, character motives, and author's purpose (11.1.4.K7), analyzes and evaluates how the author's style (word choice and sentence structure) and use of literary devices work together to achieve his/her purpose by using tone, mood, and imagery (11.1.4.K11d, e, and h), and analyzes contextual aspects of setting and their influence on characters and events in the story including the contexts of history, society, and culture (11.2.1.K2a-c).

Root words for this week (root - definition - examples):

1. endo - internal - endocrine, endorse
   
2. exo - external - exoskeleton, exonym
   
3. tact/tang - touch - contact, intangible
   
4. veloc - quick - velocity, velociraptor
   
5. vers/vert - turn - invert, conversion
   

This week we'll finish reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Last Friday we read over the climax as Daisy made her choice and Myrtle Wilson met her tragic end. This week we'll analyze the falling action and the consequences. Do Daisy and Gatsby still have a chance to be together? Who are the other two characters who will die before the end of the novel? What was it that made Nick tell us in the beginning, "When I came back from the East last autumn I felt I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart" (2)? We will read and discuss the answers this week.

• Mon: New root words; quiz on Friday. The Great Gatsby - Chapter VII quiz, study guide due by the end of the hour.
  
• Tues: The Great Gatsby - read and discuss Chapter VIII. For Wed: finish reading Chapter VIII.
  
• Wed: The Great Gatsby - Chapter VIII quiz, study guide due by the end of the hour.
  
• Thurs: The Great Gatsby -read and discuss Chapter IX. For Fri: finish reading Chapter IX.
  
• Fri: Root words quiz. The Great Gatsby - Chapter IX quiz, study guide due by the end of the hour.

Week at a glance April 25 - 29, 2011

Curriculum focus: identifies, interprets, and analyzes figurative language including: idiom, imagery, and symbolism (11.1.2.K4), uses information from the text to make inferences and draw conclusions (11.1.4.K5), compares/contrasts textual aspects: character traits, themes, character motives, and author's purpose (11.1.4.K7), analyzes and evaluates how the author's style (word choice and sentence structure) and use of literary devices work together to achieve his/her purpose by using tone, mood, and imagery (11.1.4.K11d, e, and h), and analyzes contextual aspects of setting and their influence on characters and events in the story including the contexts of history, society, and culture (11.2.1.K2a-c).

Root words for this week (root - definition - examples):

1. anni/enni - year - annual, bicentennial
   
2. giga - billion - gigajoule, gigavolt
   
3. kilo - thousand - kilogram, kilometer
   
4. mega - million - megabyte, megawatt
   
5. proto - first - prototype, protein
   

This week we'll continue reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. In the first half of the novel, we discover that Gatsby has moved to Long Island and held these expensive, elaborate parties in the hopes of being reunited with his lost love, Daisy. As we read Chapters V - VII this week, students may wish to reflect on the quote from Fitzgerald that heads our class website. Think of a time when we have returned to a friend or a place we enjoyed in the past -- is our return ever as joyful or wonderful as the happy memories?

• Mon: New root words; quiz on Friday. The Great Gatsby - read and discuss Chapter V. For Tues: finish reading Chapter V.
  
• Tues: The Great Gatsby - Chapter V quiz, study guide due by the end of the hour.
• Wed: The Great Gatsby - read and discuss Chapter VI. For Thurs: finish reading Chapter VI.
• Thurs: The Great Gatsby -Chapter VI quiz, study guide due by the end of the hour.
• Fri: Root words quiz. The Great Gatsby - read and discuss Chapter VII. For Mon: finish reading Chapter VII.

Week at a glance April 18 - 22, 2011

Curriculum focus: identifies, interprets, and analyzes figurative language including: idiom, imagery, and symbolism (11.1.2.K4), uses information from the text to make inferences and draw conclusions (11.1.4.K5), compares/contrasts textual aspects: character traits, themes, character motives, and author's purpose (11.1.4.K7), analyzes and evaluates how the author's style (word choice and sentence structure) and use of literary devices work together to achieve his/her purpose by using tone, mood, and imagery (11.1.4.K11d, e, and h), and analyzes contextual aspects of setting and their influence on characters and events in the story including the contexts of history, society, and culture (11.2.1.K2a-c).

Root words for this week (root - definition - examples):

1. ambi/amphi - both- amphibian, ambidextrous
   
2. dom - house/home - domain, domestic
   
3. hema/hemo - blood- hemoglobin, hematoma
   
4. paleo - ancient - paleontology, paleoanthropology
   
5. xeno - foreign/alien - xenophobia, xenobiology
   

This week we'll continue reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Students have already met Nick, Daisy, Tom, Jordan, and Gatsby. They've encountered some of the most enduring symbols in all of literature: the valley of ashes, the eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleburg, and Gatsby reaching out to the green light across the bay. We'll continue on with readings and discussion over chapters 2 - 4. During these chapters, students will come to understand who Gatsby actually is and why he was reaching out across the bay.

• Mon: New root words; quiz on Friday. The Great Gatsby - Chapter II quiz, study guide due by the end of the hour.
  
• Tues: The Great Gatsby - read and discuss Chapter III. For Wed: finish reading Chapter III.
  
• Wed: The Great Gatsby - Chapter III quiz, study guide due by the end of the hour.
  
• Thurs: The Great Gatsby -read and discuss Chapter IV. For Fri: finish reading Chapter IV.
  
• Fri: Root words quiz. The Great Gatsby - Chapter IV quiz, study guide due by the end of the hour.
  

Week at a glance April 11 - 15, 2011

Curriculum focus: identifies, interprets, and analyzes figurative language including: idiom, imagery, and symbolism (11.1.2.K4), uses information from the text to make inferences and draw conclusions (11.1.4.K5), compares/contrasts textual aspects: character traits, themes, character motives, and author's purpose (11.1.4.K7), analyzes and evaluates how the author's style (word choice and sentence structure) and use of literary devices work together to achieve his/her purpose by using tone, mood, and imagery (11.1.4.K11d, e, and h), and analyzes contextual aspects of setting and their influence on characters and events in the story including the contexts of history, society, and culture (11.2.1.K2a-c).

Root words for this week (root - definition - examples):

1. leuc/leuk - white - leukemia, leukocyte
   
2. mela/melo - old - melanin, melancholy
   
3. neuro - nerve - neurologist, neurosis
   
4. osis - diseased condition of - metamorphosis, tuberculosis
   
5. pneumo - breathing/lungs - pneumonia, pneumatic
   

This week we'll begin our last unit of the school year over F. Scott Fitzgerald's great American classic, The Great Gatsby. We'll focus on the historical, cultural, and social context of Fitzgerald's work as we have an overview of the Roaring 20's, Prohibition, and the Jazz Age--a name for the era given by Fitzgerald himself. Students will meet Nick Carraway, our narrator, and see life through his young and and a bit innocent perspective. Since we are studying the opening chapters of the novel this week, our focus will be on shaping our first impressions of the characters and learning what we can from them. Students will check out books on Tuesday and will need to bring them to class from now on for the rest of the semester.

• Mon: New root words. The Great Gatsby - background and slang, notes and discussion.
• Tues: The Great Gatsby - finish background and slang, notes and discussion. Check out books.
• Wed: The Great Gatsby - read and discuss Chapter I. For Thursday: finish Chapter I, pages 1-21.
  
• Thurs: The Great Gatsby - Chapter I quiz; Chapter I study guide due by the end of the hour.
• Fri: Root words quiz. The Great Gatsby - read and discuss Chapter II. For Monday: finish Chapter 2, pages 23-38.
  

Week at a glance April 4 - 8, 2011

Curriculum focus: generates ideas from personal experience, prior knowledge, observation applying appropriate strategies (11.7.1.1), selects a topic and relevant details for form, purpose, and audience (11.7.1.2), organizes and plans a written piece and develops a thesis statement in response to a prompt (11.7.1.3b), edits and polishes final revision to improve fluency and clarity (11.7.1.7), composes and meets the needs of the audience when creating persuasive writing (11.7.2.1c), builds a focused argument in the persuasive mode that uses logical thinking and appeals to reason, authority, and/or emotion using persuasive techniques (11.7.3.1c), the arguments opposing the writer's position are anticipated and effectively refuted (11.7.3.1g)--these are the primary indicators we are covering. We are also covering a broad range of other local indicators that, if all were listed, would be our entire writing curriculum.

The Local Writing Assessment

Although the state of KS does not require us to complete a writing assessment every year, WRHS's English 11 teachers are dedicated to tracking our students' progress and checking our own teaching practices. The Local Writing Assessment is a persuasive essay test developed by the English 11 team given during years when we are not required to do the KS Writing Assessment. The test is an in-class essay, meaning that students will not have any homework and will not be able to take materials home. Each day has a prescribed purpose. As long as students are focused, using their time wisely, and working through the writing process, we expect each student to pass without worry.

• Mon: LWA - Select a topic and begin the brainstorming process.
• Tues: LWA - Use the shaping packet to help shape the essay.
• Wed: LWA - Use the shaping packet to create a rough draft.
• Thurs: LWA - Meet in the IMC Lab C. Type the rough draft.
• Fri: LWA - Revise and edit the draft. LWA Final Draft and all materials due by the end of the hour.