Due Wednesday

Discuss, research, and choose your group novel. The power point from today is available here.

Due Monday

You are going to complete a practice SBAC computer based test as a "guest". Unfortunately, this means that you won't get results back, but it will be a good experience for you to experience the types of questions that you might be asked to complete. You are also going to complete an assignment based on the questions that you have to respond to. The link for the test is available here. From this link select "sign in". On the next page, select guest and grade 11. You will do the G11 ELA Practice Test. (not the performance task) Please make sure you log in as a guest and that you select the 11th grade test. I used Chrome as my browser and had no problems.

The assignment:

Number your paper for each question (1-30) and create three columns which will be labeled TEXT, QUESTION TYPE, MY REACTION. Your reactions could be done as a simple ranking like "hard, medium, easy." For example, you might have things like:

Text/ Question Type/ Reaction

1. Read about clothing/ Select sentence/ pretty easy



12. Listen about frogs/ Short response/ hard





15. Read sample text/ Revise for organization/ medium


(My apologies that I don't have time to make my chart example look like an actual chart)

When you are done with the chart, please jot down ideas for the following question.

What do I feel that we need to practice most before the actual SBAC test?


This task will take you a while to complete. If you need to break it up into different sessions, when you sign back in you may just want to click past the questions you have already answered by providing fake answers.

Due Thursday and Friday

Due Thursday:

Please print and bring this packet to class.

Due Friday:

Your "genre" practice writing assignment is due.

Due Wednesday

Please finish your Harlem Renaissance poetry reactions. The poems are available here and the notes frame is available below. Remember, you are completing the notes based on author, not individual poem. You should have a reaction for each of the following authors:

McKay
Hughes
Cullen
Johnson
Bennett
Grimke

 After everyone has read the poems at your station, please discuss the STRUCTURE, (poem format, rhyme scheme, line length etc) STYLE (figurative language, imagery, allusions, etc.) and CONTENT (meaning, topics, etc.) of each poem.
 For each station, you must record your observations on a chart resembling the following.

Author(s):
Titles of Poems:

Structure and Style Observations:


Content Observations:


Which poem did you find most interesting/ meaningful/ compelling and why?

Due Monday

You will be writing the introduction and body paragraph of the Harlem Renaissance Synthesis essay. Please choose a body paragraph that allows you to address complex views. In other words, you may have 3 or 4 authors who are all addressing issues of identity, but what they say about those issues is different. This will be primarily a completion point assignment, but there will be some assessment points for how well you use quotation incorporation and elements of strong composition (sentence variety, etc.)

The power points we have looked at in class are available here.

Synthesis Essay Reading Due Wednesday

Please print off the following Harlem Renaissance synthesis essay packet. After reading the instructions carefully, please read and mark the text for quotations that you would anticipate using to help answer the essay prompt. Please do not merely highlight your documents, but remember to include key words or phrases in the margins that will help you when it comes time to organize your essay.

This essay prompt has you juggle some complex ideas which is another reason why you writing your own thoughts in margins is key.

Updates and Due Wednesday

The research paper topics have been updated outside of my room. Please swing by and check if you have recently revised your topic.

The research paper website has been activated and updated with due dates for this year and resources to help you with your checkpoints. See the side bar to the left to go to the research paper page.

For Wednesday, please print out and bring this document to class. You do not have to read it; just print and bring.