Make sure to read "To Build a Fire" by Jack London. An e-text is available here in case you didn't take your book home for the weekend.
Semester 1 final information is available to the left.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Write an introduction for the following prompt, taking the guidelines below into account.
Expository Introductory Ideas
Essentials:
• Make it clear to the reader what the prompt topic is
• Provide necessary background information
• Provide an organizational structure for your upcoming essay
Recommended:
• Select a point of view appropriate to prompt (formal recommended, but not always possible.
• Use at least one sentence beginning with a dependent clause and properly placed comma following
• Use at least one sentence with a series including properly placed commas.
Prompt:
Imagine for a moment that there are no budget problems that affect schools. Explain your idea of the best possible education that a school could offer to its students.
Expository Introductory Ideas
Essentials:
• Make it clear to the reader what the prompt topic is
• Provide necessary background information
• Provide an organizational structure for your upcoming essay
Recommended:
• Select a point of view appropriate to prompt (formal recommended, but not always possible.
• Use at least one sentence beginning with a dependent clause and properly placed comma following
• Use at least one sentence with a series including properly placed commas.
Prompt:
Imagine for a moment that there are no budget problems that affect schools. Explain your idea of the best possible education that a school could offer to its students.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Important Information
Huck Finn Reading: Through Chapter 38 by Friday.
State Writing Test (February 6, 7, 8):
Resources:
Official Scoring Guide
Sample Student Essays
State Writing Test (February 6, 7, 8):
Resources:
Official Scoring Guide
Sample Student Essays
Monday, December 17, 2012
Assignments Over Break
Read Huck Finn through chapter 33.
Complete the analytical vocabulary assignment explained below.
Vocabulary and Analytical Sentences
Chapters 1-18
As we talked about recently, the words that you use in your writing have a significant effect on the voice you create. Accordingly, this activity will help you learn the definitions of some “mature” and “academic” words, and also help you apply them to your thinking about Huck Finn.
For each word, you’ll need to complete a two part process. After you look up the definition of the word, write down a meaningful definition; this will complete part one. Make sure you put this definition in your own words: do NOT just copy and paste! The second step is to create a statement (maybe 2-3 sentences) making an analytical observation about Huck Finn that uses this new word. (You can change the form of the word if necessary). It’s important to avoid making a sentence that is simply a plot summary. Instead you need to analyze a character, theme, idea, etc, much like we’ve been doing in our class discussions. In fact, you can even use some of the observations from our class discussions. Remember, analysis presents an observation (a reference to a specific event or events in the text) and then seeks to explain why that observation is important or significant to the story.
Also, please use this as an opportunity to focus on creating mature sentences. I recommend typing this assignment so you can revise as you go along; my example sentence below underwent at least 10 revisions before I decided to leave it alone. Notice you’re only being given a few words, so I expect high quality thinking and writing.
Here is an example:
0.) ambivalence: (Noun) a sense of uncertainty; undecided conflict between two emotions.
Huck’s ambivalence about his living conditions, the fact that he can be content under the rules of the widow but then quickly readapts to the harsher living environment with Pap, serves as an important indication of his malleable character. Because it is not in Huck’s nature to make up his mind fixedly, this indecision allows for perhaps his greatest act of open-mindedness-- the ability to come to see Jim as a person.
1.) juxtapose
2.) ostensible
3.) incongruous
4.) conventional
5.) ephemeral
6.) elicit
Complete the analytical vocabulary assignment explained below.
Vocabulary and Analytical Sentences
Chapters 1-18
As we talked about recently, the words that you use in your writing have a significant effect on the voice you create. Accordingly, this activity will help you learn the definitions of some “mature” and “academic” words, and also help you apply them to your thinking about Huck Finn.
For each word, you’ll need to complete a two part process. After you look up the definition of the word, write down a meaningful definition; this will complete part one. Make sure you put this definition in your own words: do NOT just copy and paste! The second step is to create a statement (maybe 2-3 sentences) making an analytical observation about Huck Finn that uses this new word. (You can change the form of the word if necessary). It’s important to avoid making a sentence that is simply a plot summary. Instead you need to analyze a character, theme, idea, etc, much like we’ve been doing in our class discussions. In fact, you can even use some of the observations from our class discussions. Remember, analysis presents an observation (a reference to a specific event or events in the text) and then seeks to explain why that observation is important or significant to the story.
Also, please use this as an opportunity to focus on creating mature sentences. I recommend typing this assignment so you can revise as you go along; my example sentence below underwent at least 10 revisions before I decided to leave it alone. Notice you’re only being given a few words, so I expect high quality thinking and writing.
Here is an example:
0.) ambivalence: (Noun) a sense of uncertainty; undecided conflict between two emotions.
Huck’s ambivalence about his living conditions, the fact that he can be content under the rules of the widow but then quickly readapts to the harsher living environment with Pap, serves as an important indication of his malleable character. Because it is not in Huck’s nature to make up his mind fixedly, this indecision allows for perhaps his greatest act of open-mindedness-- the ability to come to see Jim as a person.
1.) juxtapose
2.) ostensible
3.) incongruous
4.) conventional
5.) ephemeral
6.) elicit
Friday, December 14, 2012
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
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