"A Psalm of Life"

Good Morning!

*Please read quietly until we are ready to begin.  Book Reviews on Goodreads are due Friday.

*Anticipation Assignment to "A Psalm of Life" -- you will see how the questions that you responded to yesterday anticipate the poem that we are reading today and the paragraph that you wrote in your English Journal last Friday.

*"A Psalm of Life" -- Read the poem silently to yourself and then we will go back and read each stanza.  Be sure to take good notes.

HOMEWORK: Independent reading -- book reviews are due January 16 -- this Friday.  If you have not submitted a book review on a book from the recommended list, you need to do so for this last book review for this semester.  FOLLOW THE RUBRIC in writing your review.

"A Psalm of Life"

Good Morning!

I hope that you had an enjoyable weekend!

*Anticipation to "A Psalm of Life" -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

   "The life which is unexamined is not worth living."   (Plato)

   "To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.  (Robert Louis Stevenson)

   "Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about."  (Oscar Wilde)

   "Life is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you're going to get." (Forrest Gump)

Fireside Poets

*Thoughts to consider before reading "A Psalm of Life"--(handout)

HOMEWORK: Independent reading -- book reviews are due January 16 -- this Friday.  If you have not submitted a book review on a book from the recommended list, you need to do so for this last book review for this semester.  FOLLOW THE RUBRIC in writing your review.

English Journal Responses

Good Morning!

Please get your netbook when you arrive. While your netbook is powering up, please read your independent reading book. 

*"The Wanderer" -- Yesterday I asked you to write in your ENGLISH JOURNAL a well developed paragraph, describing and interpreting this painting which introduces the unit "The Spirit of Individualism."  We did not have enough time yesterday to complete this -- please finish today. Respond thoughtfully.


*Anticipation to "A Psalm of Life" -- In your ENGLISH JOURNAL write a respond to the following questions:  What are your dreams for the future?  In the most ideal of worlds, what do you want to be as a person in your future?

HOMEWORK: Independent reading -- book reviews are due January 16.  If you have not submitted a book review on a book from the recommended list, you need to do so for this last book review for this semester.

"The Wanderer"

Good Morning!
Please get your netbook when you arrive. While your netbook is powering up, please read your independent reading book. 

*Independent Reading -- let's get back to doing a little bit of reading before class begins.

*Transformational Thinking Unit --  In this unit of study we will be reading texts that focus on ways of independent thinking, most specifically ways of independent thinking that would address and bring about social reform.  We will be reading texts from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King.  Last night you read some pages in your textbook and completed a handout which introduces us to the first texts that we will reading.  

*"The Wanderer"  -- this painting introduces this section of the text entitled "The Spirit of Individualism."  In your ENGLISH JOURNAL write a well-developed paragraph interpreting this painting.  Be as thorough as you can in noting the different details and what they may mean. Note the accompanying quotation from Thoreau:
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.  Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.    -- Henry David Thoreau


HOMEWORK: Independent reading -- book reviews are due January 16.  If you have not submitted a book review on a book from the recommended list, you need to do so for this last book review for this semester.

Writers Response Groups

Good Morning!
Please get your netbook when you arrive.

*Textbook Assignment for homework-- In your text read pages 340-341 and complete the handout.

*Persuasive Essay -- Now that you have fully completed your persuasive essay, I would like you to share it with other students in groups of four.  You will receive a form to complete which will be handed in at the end of class.  Follow the directions on the form.

HOMEWORK:  1.  Textbook assignment  2.Independent reading -- book reviews are due January 16.  If you have not submitted a book review on a book from the recommended list, you need to do so for this last book review for this semester.

Editing Persuasive Essay

Good Morning!

Please get your netbook when you arrive.

*Return of Test on Writers of the American Revolution

*Proofreading your essay -- As I indicated yesterday, today you are carefully proofreading your persuasive essay for errors.  Read for well composed and effective sentences.

HOMEWORK:  Independent reading -- book reviews are due January 16.  If you have not submitted a book review on a book from the recommended list, you need to do so for this last book review for this semester.

Four Poems

Good Morning and Happy New Year!  I hope that you had a very enjoyable vacation and are ready to get back to work!

*Today I would like us to read four poems that suggest some positive thoughts for the new year.  We will discuss each poem after you have read each poem and have provided three thoughts about the poem.  

*Tomorrow you will be editing the essay that you completed before vacation.  I glanced at a few and noted the need for corrections that I believe you are able to make.  I would like you to do this before I give them a close reading for content and mechanical errors.

HOMEWORK:  Independent reading -- book reviews are due January 16.  If you have not submitted a book review on a book from the recommended list, you need to do so for this last book review for this semester.