The End

We read the final chapter in Animal Farm today and unfortunately, it wasn't a happy ending-- unless you were a pig or a dog. In the end, the animals were worse off than they were before the rebellion. Afterward, I had the students write a paragraph on which animal in the story symbolizes them. They need two comparisons and the focus needs to be on the character of the animal, not the physical characteristics.

Homework:
Read AR
Finish summaries and paragraph (due Monday)

Poor Boxer

We continued to read Animal Farm. To start off the class, I had the students think about which of the characters they would want on their farm to help them. The overwhelming majority chose Boxer because of his hard working and loyal personality. In the chapter unfortunately, the pigs sold him off because he could no longer work and bought booze with the money. Very frustrating.

Homework:
Read AR
Finish summaries

More Animal Farm

We have continued to read Animal Farm as we have gotten through chapter eight. Frustration has taken hold of the students as they read about Napoleon and the plight of the animals. We also did a little symbolism practice that focused on the Seven Commandments.  We will continue with it tomorrow.

Homework:
Read AR
Finish summaries and characters

Animal Farm chapters 2-5

We have continued to read Animal Farm over the past couple of days and are at the halfway point of the book. The animals have expelled and fended off an attack by the humans and have been working the farm for a few years now. Their democracy has turned into a dictatorship in the last chapter and the leaders are focusing on building a windmill.

Homework:
Read AR
Do summaries and characters

Animal Farm

Today we started on the book Animal Farm to look at the way it uses symbolism. Many people have bad memories of reading this book because of the study of the USSR and how the animals symbolized different leaders in Russian history. We will not be reading it as a history lesson, we will read it as story with talking animals.

Homework:
Read AR
Finish summary and character listing

New Unit

The formatives on comparing styles that were taken yesterday were returned today. We went over common mistakes so students will know what they did wrong and they won't make the same next Tuesday on the summative. We also started a new unit on symbolism - another literary device. It was introduced to day with a practice sheet students will use as their notes. Click here to see it.

Homework:
Read AR
Finish "Everyday Symbols" sheet

More Style Comparison

Today the students had the final opportunity to practice comparing styles of poets with two short poems. Click here to see the worksheet. We will be doing out formative tomorrow.

Homework:
Read AR

Adjusted Schedule

Today the classes were adjusted so the final group of students could go to Mokau'ea. Those that stayed behind did AR or if they hadn't done it already, The Armful.

Homework:
Read AR

More Style Comparison

Today the student had more practice comparing the styles of two poets. Click here to see the worksheet. It is a little different on the back, but it pretty much gives the idea of what students need to do.

Homework:
Read AR

Focus on Style

We really focused in on the style of an author today as the students looked for poetic devices in a poem. The use of poetic devices is the determining factor in a poet's style. We again talked about language as a poetic device and the students were given a poem with an example of informal language. Click here to see it.

Homework:
Read AR

Language as a Poetic Device

Today we started the new part of the poetry unit by looking at the style. A new device introduced today was language. Language is broken into formal, which is proper, and informal, which is slang. The students practiced some more poetry analysis on "The Armful." Click here to see it.

Homework:
Read AR

Annotation Summative

Today the students took their annotation summative. I have graded the first section and overall it looks pretty good. Afterward, students were given the time to do AR.

Homework:
Read AR

Poetic Devices Quiz

Today students took a quiz on poetic devices and explaining their use in lines of poetry. For the most part, students either did well or did poorly, there was no in between. Tomorrow is the annotation final. Students will not be allowed to use notes, so make sure to study TIPFEET.

Homework:
Read AR
Study for summative

Formative Review

Today we reviewed the formative the students took last week on annotating a poem. The biggest problem was the some students didn't provide evidence from the poem to back up their opinion. The summative will be on Wednesday and there will be a quiz on poetic devices tomorrow.

Homework:
Read AR
Study poetic devices

Extended Metaphor

Today the focus in class was on finding extended metaphor in a poem. The students annotated "Ice" in class and we went over the answers. Click here to see the worksheet. If the students didn't finish the poem "The Open Window" it is homework.

Homework:
Read AR
Finish "The Open Window"

Annotation Formative

Today students took the annotation formative. They were able to use their TIPFEET sheet this time, but when they take the summative, they will need to annotate on their own.

Homework:
Read  AR

Limricks

With HSA, the schedule was adjusted and only cores 5, 1, and 2 met today. To see the limerick worksheet, look at yesterday's post. Core 2 already did the limericks, so they annotated a couple of poems. There is a formative tomorrow on annotations.

Homework:
Read AR
Finish limericks