B4

5-28-08 We walked in the classroom, thinking it was Ms. Wray's (and it was), but then something amazing happened.

The desks were in groups.

In between gasps of absolute enchantment, Ms. Wray's students filed in, sliding their fingers along the smooth wooden surfaces, thought bubbles above their head with question marks that could only be left unanswered as we had a SUBSTITUTE.

The substitute, Ms. Elliot, stood before the students, like a skyscraper, with hair neatly combed, and eyes that betrayed a longing...a longing to teach these students, getting a feeling in her stomach just like the feeling when she got her license to teach and was certified to fulfill the lives of innocent high schoolers trying to find their way, much like us.

"Now," Ms. Elliot said, in her voice, dripping with honey, her eyes a glow of perpetuating light. "Let us begin the lesson." Colton wanted to sit with Billy. And he did. But Ms. Elliot, with her license to teach, took roll, and Colton was instantly busted and put in his assigned seat, with Ben, Gabi D'Amato, and Danielle. Nothing was quite as exciting as those first few moments, but the pursuit of knowledge had begun. The students sat in their shiny wooden desk groups listening to the substitute's smooth voice as she prompted us to answer critical thinking questions about Kite Runner. For example, what is the significance of the author using a sheep to describe Hassan, and not a lamb, as he got raped? Could it be because indeed, Hassan was not as innocent as we all think he is? This brought up the very important question, the ultimate one that we had been avoiding all year. Are we really just sheeps? Who, in the classroom, had committed the crime. We were on the lookout.

Also:

Billy interrupted Sam C. when he was talking. Awkward moment.

Clayton got sent out for "spinning"...or "spitting"...I can't recall. Be sure that he littered the lesson with happy sprinkles of fun though!

Ms. Wray showed up. She was here after all. Ms. Elliot left and everyone got amped as if a rock concert featuring Ozzy Osbourne had just started.

Matt L. gave a deep dark and insightful answer that bled truth like he always does. That Matt. Beneath his dark hoodie, he is really just 2Pac Shakur, a classic example of a student who defies the world and only gets paid for it by police brutality (just kidding).

Our homework is the rough draft of societal issue essay.

5-15 We took Megan Swindel's (sp?) survey about the internet. Then we made a timeline about how Amir's life and the political events in Afghanistan are related. After that we took a look at Amir and Baba's escape from Afghanistan, we specifically looked for especially descriptive passages in this chapter. Then we moved on to Journal Entry #8, a break from The Kite Runner? Not a chance, Journal entry #8 asked us what America meant to Amir and what it means to us. We wrote our answers up on the board which caused the predictable but in the end unavoidable backlog at around the board. And just so the board felt useful we discussed what people had written. But we couldn't escape class without talking about our research paper so we discussed citing surveys and interviews.

- Wolves17

concept maps for A Separate Peace and we also talked about the book and Finny's death. We talked about Finny's ultimate death, if it was Gene's fault or Finny's. Then we went to the library to work on our two source cards and ten note cards.

HW: Two source cards and ten note cards due 4/25 Concept Map due 5/1 Vocabulary test 4/29

Apparently Scribe notes are supposed to be posted on the top of the page?  IF YOU WERE ABSENT 04-17 -mrs wray realized that she assigned too much homework last class, if you failed to complete __one__ assignment you may turn it in next class.

We recieved the social problems worksheet calendar 04-17 is national poem in your pocket day!!!!!! the class turned in: the vocab practice and article summaries

Then we got into lit circles for chapters 8-11 in a Separate Peace wrote Journal # 6 in class then a class Plagarism lesson.

Homework- Finish the Novel Write a Paraphrase for one paragraph fron text source A CIM writing test next wenesday. Our first assignment of the day was the “Roll Assignment.” We were told to write it after our previous role assignment, which none of us had ever remembered actually doing. After some time of yelling across the room, raiding notebooks for this “roll assignment,” ect. It came about that our previous assignment was indeed a role assignment except with a different name. For this “Roll Assignment” we had to read a poem of sorts which involved poetry being an antidote for hate or dislike ect. After this we had to analyze it, and then write a poem using our own medical term. What this really had to do with a roll im not sure... could this perhaps signify a Rick Roll?

It was after this that we got up and then proceeded to act out single sentences without using words. Of course chaos ensued as people weren’t sure how to actually act our the sentences as it had nothing to really do with acting as it wasn’t dialogue and instead was used to make a fool out of ourselves in front of our peers.

After this, we ended up going to the English Lab and learning about the Wiki, which hopefully you know about seeing as you are reading this. We learned how to edit pages and where to discuss the days happenings or something you want to talk about. Remember that this goes in the discussion section.

Shortly after we could talk about grades and that made up our day.

-GOD SAVE THE QUEEN

We began class today with another "Role Assignment?" that was much easier to understand. Most of the class participated well in this activity and came up with some good adjectives to describe Clayton's shoes. We talked about what effect the word "tattered" had on the poem and what image we visualized. Then we had a discussion about how the author felt about this "aged" man. My favorite part of this was coming up with adjectives describing a shoe. It really made you think but you had fun listening to others ideas at the same time.

After this, we proceeded to get into groups of three and attempt to come up with examples of an iamb, trochee, anapest and dactyl. Before we could begin this activity some little jokester decided to move the projector so that it looked funny writing on the Smartboard. Ms. Wray is still very upset and I strongly advise whoever did it to "man-up" and confess before we all get in trouble (guys in the class). It must have been someone tall enough to actually reach the projector (cough cough). ANYWAYS, after that drama was finished we finally got to share what we had come up with. Following this, we all headed to the library to check out the tragedy that was "Macbeth". I'm sure we were all too excited to start the book but before we could say "Shakespeare!" Ms. Wray gave away the whole story and told us the plot so we could focus more on the themes of the book rather than what was going on in the play. It sounds like a very interesting play and I can't wait to start acting it out.

-Luvs2shop

February 8th:

We started off the day with a brief conversation about Shakespeare and his challenging language. Next we did a journal write about the difference between appearance and reality. After that we discussed our homework and soon began a discussion on Lady Macbeth and our opinion about her. We decided that she is deceiving, ambitions, selfish, bitchy, and two-faced. Hayden thinks that men are born with those traits (ambitions, deceiving, selfish). Most of the class disagreed but some of the guys agreed. Then, Clayton said that guys are perfect. huh. In the middle of our discussion about Lady Macbeth we talked about the elections because of the diversity in it. Obama is black and Clinton is a female. We discussed whether or not that will affect how people vote. Then we got back on the topic of guys and girls. Who's more controlling? guys or girls? we already know Clayton's opinion..

Anyhow, then we read Act I scene 7 of Macbeth.

There you go : ]

February 23:

The day started off fairly normal until a bout of high, stakes betting began over what Mrs. Wray's answers to certain questions would but then quieted back down as we settled in. To start off we all studied our vocab with partners and as always had the normal fuss over the list being too long or having too hard of words. We next grouped up with the other kids who had paraphrased the same section and worked all the way through 3.1 by reading our shortened and modernized versions aloud. This was not so quickly followed by the creation of groups decided by the name of our first pet. In these new groups, we all performed the scene from Macbeth where they murder Banquo while Fleance escapes. We all performed these with different conditions i.e. willing murderers, reluctant murderers. Nearing the end of class, we watched a video segment from the Nunn version of Macbeth with Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth and Ian McKellen (Gandalf) as Macbeth. This is the version adapted from the Royal Shakespeare Company's production that was performed in the round. We finished up the class with an opening activity (closing activity rather) in which we wrote a final, dying monologue for Banquo. The only homework assigned was to study for the quotations quiz and update our symbol tracking sheets.

This is the clip we watched in class. media type="youtube" key="wu-rE6Nc0QI&rel=1" height="355" width="425"

Englishstud101

February 25, 2008

-We started off class with an explanation about forecasting for yearbook next year from Catlin Dennis. Then our attention quickly turned to Andrew's teapot he made in ceramics, which Ms. Wray claims would cost $60 at the coffee shop she goes to... nice work Andrew. Today was Milo's (Ms. Wray's son's) birthday. -We took our "easy" quote quiz from Macbeth that wasn't exactly easy. Apparently the other classes had a different version than us. -Moving on to Macbeth.. we didn't read 3.5 or 3.6 but Ms. Wray gave us a quick summary of them: 3.5: Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, is unhappy that the witches didn't consult her before prophecing Macbeth's future. This scene is believed to not be written by Shakespeare because the witches do not speak in pentameter. It is often left out of productions of the play. 3.6: Lennox doesn't overtly say that Macbeth is a killer and a tyrant, but hints that Macbeth is guilty of his crimes. Macduff left to raise an army to overthrow Macbeth. -We had a discussion about some Shakespeare conspiracy and how he didn't really write all of his plays- some believe that it was actually Lord Chamberlain who wrote these stories... -Then we acted out a choral. The witches read while the rest of the class made the noises of dog's howling (or according to Alec, it's "BARK"), the wind blowing, and owls hooting. The sound effects, which were mostly covered up by the sound Clayton's HOO'S, were louder than expected and we couldn't really hear the witches reading their lines. -We had a discussion about cornfields and crop circles that have been left by aliens, or as some believe, have been made by humans. But who would take time to do this?? -Ms. Wray told us about gibbets and how witches would hang bodies for days until the fat from their bodies would ooze out of their skin and was then collected in a bucket. I guess they used the fat to make soap. Sick. -We switched our focus back to SHakespeare and read an aside by Macbeth with a partner. We acted it out in a whisper, as a political broadcast, as a fearful man, and as an angry tyrant. -We split back up into groups, which we were //almost// able to choose this time. We read 4.2: Took place in Macduff's castle as Lady Macduff is asking her son why her husband has fled. Lady Macduff feels betrayed and tells him that Macduff is dead. Suddenly, a group of murderers enter and kill her son as he urges his mother to run. The murderers chase after her.
 * -And that was Monday!**

HOMEWORK: -read 4.3 and complete reading journal -review vocab -finish journal write from last class

On 2/27/08 we took another version of the quots quiz that was supposedly easier, I didnt tinki was easier personalybutwe tok it because many people did bad on the last quotes quiz. Afterwardswe talked about tratsy who was a Bolshevik leader during Stalin's time and how he was huned down and klled. Then we had a Socratc Seminar which took most of the class period, compard lenghts of Romeo and Juliet to Macbeth. After that we read 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, and 5.4 in class.

March 31, 2008:

Well FIRST DAY BACK!! YAY! It was a nice warm day back. Too bad that didn't happen over spring break, huh? Well anyways, getting back on track... We started off just chillin for five or so minutes while we took role. For some god only knows reason we started off class talking about drunk people. It was very amusing: the looks on everyone's faces. That discussion was over soon enough, just to be overtaken with getting right down to business. The class turned in our found poem and our lit circles worksheet was stamped with an uber cool Frankinstein stamp. My personal favorite is the chicken inspector because it just screams random. Some people in class were complaining about getting homework at the end of class, so Ms Wray complied and gave it to us than: AS I WILL NOW :D

HOMEWORK: -Complete social problem preliminary planning sheet -Creative Project (to be shared Wednesday if you have one of the shorter novels) -ALL roll sheets due Wednesday -Turn in found poem (if you were absent or didn't have it today)

There is the homework...Now what was I saying again? Oh, right. Ms Wray announced the next reading project that we voted on. The results are... *drum-roll* A SEPARATE PEACE!! Apologies to Matt. Yes, we are not reading a Tale of Two Cities, although most everyone voted on choosing either but having lit circles again. And...theres more! The essay that we voted on: *drum-roll again* SOCIAL ISSUES!! Again...apologies to Matt. I don't even remember what I voted for. After moaning and groaning we finally reached the brainstorm part. The directions were: - Take 5 minutes to brainstorm on social problems; Think on three levels: global, national, and local( [WKSH handed out] See homework)

We wraped up with lit circles and Ms Wray checked up on how the books were coming along.

.::This Wraps Up our very Mundane Monday::.