Q2: Week 8 - Posts for 12/7

Post 1: Write about something you learned this semester in your academic life that you think is interesting, important, or valuable.  It could be from any class or from your general experiences as a student.

Reading Details: 120 minutes - I have seen so many students lose points for forgetting these.  Please make sure to include them.  Create a weekly phone reminder if you are struggling.

Post 2: Respond to a peer's prompt from week 6.  I have selected a group of prompts that any member of any class can choose, or you may choose a different one from your class.  In any case, please include the prompt and its author.  Note: some related prompts have been combined, or prompts may have been slightly edited.  The originals are available on the students' blogs.

If your name is listed below with your prompt, please read the prompts and select one, but you do not need to respond to it now.  Please do post the prompt and author, and keep it in mind for a future free post.

Remember: If you have earned a blog exemption this quarter and would like to use it, you need to create a post stating that you are using your exemption.

Optional Make-up Post: If you'd like to make up a previous post, you can make up one post this week without a late penalty.  For all late posts please indicate the week # (1-7) of the original post, the date it was due, and the topic so that I know how to award credit.  (Additional make-up posts will be worth up to 5 points each, or 50% of their original value).

Peer Prompts

Block 1

Asha - What form[s] of art do you enjoy the most? Which from do you like to do the most or appreciate the most and why? Forms of art include painting, drawing, dance, singing, acting, photography, writing, etc.

Clay - The United States was founded on the basis of freedom, but to remain safe, some freedoms must be taken away. How much is too much? Too little?

David - If you could learn how to do one thing, what would it be?

Douglas - Write a brief story that uses irony in some way. At the end of the story, identify the irony and explain what kind of irony you used. 

Emily - If you had one day left on earth until the planet exploded, how would you spend it and why?

Jessica - How can you be yourself and not care about what other people think of you?

Julia: Create a beginning to Lord of the Flies from Piggy's point of view leading up to meeting Ralph.  Explain how they got on the island, and why they were together in the first place.  Go into detail as much as possible.  

Kylie: Write a post about your role model. Who inspires you, and why? 

Madeline: If you won a contest on the local radio that granted you the money to fly and stay at a resort anywhere in the world for a week, where would you chose to go? Explain why you would want to travel to this place? Also describe what you would do on your trip, create your own trip itinerary. 

Puying: Is there a food that evokes memories of your younger days or a major event in the past? How do you connect this food to your life? Do you like this food? Is there a specific reason that your like/hate it? Does this food have a specific meaning for you？Explain why.

Block 2

Eliott: Why do humans want power?

Ethan: With Christmas time right around the corner, the fond memories of Christmas time and the holidays are right behind it. What is your most memorable/favorite holiday memory and why do you cherish it so much?

Maggie: Cake or pie and why?

Todd: What is human nature?

Ben / Wilson / Ajit: Respond to a recent current event or weigh in on a national debate.  (Their specific posts involved Paris attacks, the US response to those attacks, and the Syrian refugee crisis)

Block 3

Alex: What are the worst and best feelings?

Alyssa: Choose a character from Lord of the Flies who would be best at leading. Discuss his strengths and weaknesses and how that would affect his rule. Then, choose a character from another book, movie, or TV show that you think is similar to the leader you chose from Lord of the Flies. Describe the differences and similarities between the Lord of the Flies character and the one you chose.

Emily: As the first semester is coming to an end, and exams are approaching keep this quote is mind. "Never stop fighting until you arrive at your destined place - that is, the unique you. Have an aim in life, continuously acquire knowledge, work hard, and have perseverance to realize the great life." - A.P.J. Abdul Kalam How are you going to persevere through exams and all the work? Are you going to give up? What strategies are you going to use? Compare yourself to this quote.

Judie: Reflect on what your life would be like if you were a different gender.

Pierson: Write on your opinion of LOTF.

Sydney: What is one thing you are thankful for?

Takumi: Choose a character from the Lord of the Flies and describe things you would have done the differently than what the character did.

Thomas / Gracie: Analyze the similarities and differences between our class's decisions about survival and the decisions of the characters in LOTF. Be specific about events in the classroom and book.

Tomohiro: How would your life be different if you never…? (His specific post was about if he never came to the US)

Tyren: What is the worst punishment to you?

Q2: Week 7 - Due 11/30

You have two posts + reading details due the Monday that we return from Thanksgiving.  No posts will be due on Monday, 11/23.

Post 1: Choose a critical scene from LOTF - one that you think especially matters to the novel and that it is particularly important for us to understand.  Explain what readers need to notice, ask, and consider in this scene.  Make sure to include page numbers and some quoted phrases.  Then, explain why you think the scene is so important to the novel as a whole.  You are encouraged to refer to class discussions, but don't have to.

Reading Details: Include LOTF, literary analysis, and outside reading time.  Please don't forget this part of your post!

Post 2: Free Post (Suggestions: gratitude, your family's Thanksgiving, nearing the end of the second quarter, responding to a peer's prompt from one of the blogs you read last week, LOTF or independent reading response).

Please take a moment this week to make sure that you are caught up on blogging, commenting, annotating, reading focus journals, and any other outstanding work in English.

Wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving!

Q2: Week 6 - Posts for 11/16

2 posts for this week:

1. LOTF Response: Choose a brief passage from any section through chp. 8 to analyze and respond to in 2 full paragraphs.  You will use the same close reading techniques that we've been working on, but write up your results in paragraph form rather than in notes on the text itself.  Explain why this passage is significant in the book.  You may choose any of the following passages or one of your own.  However, please don't choose one that your group has already looked at in detail or that you've used in your reading focus journal.

The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away.  Once there was this and that; and now--and the ship had gone. [... Jack refusing to give Piggy the floor when he has the conch...]
"The rules!" shouted Ralph.  "You're breaking the rules!"
"Who cares?"
Ralph summoned his wits.
"Because the rules are the only thing we've got!"
But Jack was shouting against him.
"Bollocks to the rules!  We're strong--we hunt!  If there's a beast, we'll hunt it down!  We'll close in and beat and beat and beat--!" (91)

-----

[Piggy:] "I don't agree with all Jack said, but with some.  'Course there isn't a beast in the forest.  How could there be?  What would a beast eat?"
"Pig."
"We eat pig."
"Piggy!"
"I got the conch!" said Piggy indignantly.  "Ralph--they ought to shut up, oughtn't they?  You shut up, you littluns!  What I mean is that I don't agree about this here fear.  Of course there isn't nothing to be afraid of in the forest.  Why--I been there myself!  You'll be talking about ghosts and such things next.  We know what goes on and if there's something wrong, there's someone to put it right."
He took off his glasses and blinked at them.  The sun had gone as if the light had been turned off. [...]
"Life," said Piggy expansively, "is scientific, that's what it is.  In a year or two when the war's over they'll be traveling to Mars and back.  I know there isn't no beast--not with claws and all that, I mean--but I know there isn't no fear either."
Piggy paused.
"Unless--"
Ralph moved restlessly.
"Unless what?"
"Unless we get frightened of people." (83-84)

------

Ralph chose the firm strip as a path because he needed to think, and only here could he allow his feet to move without having to watch them.  Suddenly, pacing by the water, he was overcome with astonishment.  He found himself understanding the weariness of this life, where every path was an improvisation and a considerable part of one's waking life was spent watching one's feet.  He stopped, facing the strip, and remembering that first enthusiastic exploration as though it were part of a brighter childhood, he smiled jeeringly. [...]
This wind pressed his grey shirt against his chest so that he noticed--in this new mood of comprehension--how the folds were stiff like cardboard, and unpleasant; noticed too how the frayed edges of his shorts were making an uncomfortable, pink area on the front of his thighs.  With a convulsion of the mind, Ralph discovered dirt and decay, understood how much he disliked perpetually flicking the tangled hair out of his eyes, and at last, when the sun was gone, rolling noisily to rest among the leaves. (76-77)

2. Write your own prompt: Write an interesting blog prompt and answer it, in two full paragraphs as usual.  You may want to ask a question, specify a topic, or specify the form of the response or a technique to use.  I will choose prompts written by students for a future assignment; if I choose yours, you will get to skip that post.

Reading details!  Include LOTF and time spent working on your literary analysis.

Q2: Week 5: Posts for 11/9

2 posts for this week!

1. Reading Response: 2-paragraph response to Lord of the Flies, so far.  Please don't include spoilers for anything after chapter 4, and don't summarize the plot!  (We've all read it, I hope).

Reading Details: Include LOTF reading time

2. Creative Post: Write a brief story that uses symbolism in some way.  At the end, identify any symbols you used and what they stand for (or what you wanted them to stand for).

Q2 - Week 4: Posts for 11/2

Happy Halloween!

2 posts for this week:

1. Literary Analysis Debrief: In a standard 2-paragraph post, reflect on your process of writing the literary analysis draft.  What was hardest for you about this paper?  What was easiest?  What did you think you did well?  What do you think you particularly need to work on in revision?

2. LOTF Intro - This week in class, we did a role play scenario of being trapped on an uninhabited island.  What do you think would really happen if the class were in that situation?  If you were trapped on an island with only peers and children, what feelings do you think you, specifically, would experience, and why?

Reading/Work Log: Include time spent on your literary analysis draft outside of class, time reading LOTF, and of course time on your independent reading.

Q2 - Week 3: Posts for 10/26

1. Reading Response: You can respond to your outside reading book or update us on your literary analysis work.

Please include your reading and work time for the week.  Yes, you should include time outside of class spent on your literary analysis.

2. Free post!  Remember you need to have a topic.

Q2: Week 2: Post for 10/19

Happy Fall Break!

Only one post this week and 60 minutes of reading.

How-To: Create a post that teaches your readers how to do something.  This could be something practical, like how to make a pom-pom out of yarn or catch a fish or tie your shoes, or something less concrete, like how to survive life with a sibling or know what's going on in the world or not be overwhelmed.  This post should be in 2nd person POV, because you are talking directly to readers.  You are welcome to include pictures if they are relevant.  Please post all writing directly to the blog, though, and not in an attachment.

You are welcome to put this in the form of a poem if you'd like.  Here are some possibilities for inspiration:
- Wendell Berry "How to Be a Poet"
- Lee Herrick "How to Spend a Birthday"
- Sherman Alexie "How to Write the Great American Indian Novel"
- Judith Beveridge "How to Love Bats"

Include your reading details (60 minutes +).  Yes, you should include time spent reading and annotating stories.

Second Quarter, Week 1: Posts for 10/12

Post 1: Reading response, focused on outside reading or short stories (but do choose one thing and discuss it in depth rather than jumping around)

Please post your reading details, including short story reading and test study time outside of class.

Post 2: You've made it through the first quarter!  Take a moment to reflect on the ups and downs of your first quarter of ninth grade.  What went well, and what will you be working on for second quarter.  Please consider English class as well as other aspects of your ninth grade life.  As usual, write a minimum of 2 developed paragraphs.

Week 8: Posts for 10/5

This is the last blogging week of the first quarter!

1. Reading Response - you may respond to a short story or to your outside reading book.  Please  develop your ideas in at least two full (5 sentences +) paragraphs, and avoid summary, particularly if you are responding to a short story we all read.

2. A Flash (short short) story - a fictional piece in about 100-200 words - Consider the ones we read in class or see 100wordstory.com for more.

*List your reading / working times at the bottom of the post, including any time you spent working on your literacy narrative outside of class.  Be specific!  "I read 120 minutes" is not enough.

****Optional Make-up Post: If there is a post from this quarter that you did not complete, completed late, or did not do well on, you may write or rewrite it here to be considered again and re-graded.  You must include the due date and assigned topic of the original post, and a brief statement of what went wrong the first time.

Week 7: Posts for 9/28

Two posts this week as usual:

1. Reading Response: you may respond to an outside reading book or a short story, or you can reflect on your literacy narrative.  If you are responding to outside reading, you may want to consider using the class work we've done with plot, character, and setting, and the terms related to these elements of fiction.

Reading Log: Include outside reading, short story reading, and work on your literacy narrative outside of class.

2. Dear ____-year-old: Watch the video "How to Age Gracefully" (from CBC Radio WireTap).  Write a letter of advice to someone at an age that you have passed, based on your experiences.  Make it interesting - try to avoid things they might hear frequently!  (Yes, it should be longer than the advice in the video - please make it the standard 2-paragraph length).

Week 6 - Posts for 9/21

2 posts this week as usual:

1. Reading response: You may respond to your outside reading book or "Harrison Bergeron."  Please consider either identifying questions at levels 1, 2, and 3 (explanations here) or describing the plot map so far in your outside reading book.

Reading details: please include time spent working on the literacy narrative outside of class, and time spent reading short stories.

2. Free post!  Remember that free post does not mean rambling stream-of-consciousness; choose an interesting topic and use the traits of good writing.

Week 5: Posts for 9/14

As we get the hang of blogging, the scoring on these will get a bit tougher.  Make sure you are writing a minimum of 2 fully developed paragraphs (a minimum of five sentences, but five short sentences may not give you a developed paragraph).  Don't summarize what happened in your book.

Our posts for this week:

1 - Reading response - push yourself for new things to talk about and use the sentence starters (Bb: Reading and Literature / Outside Reading) to guide you.  Alternatively, you can update us on your literacy narrative (what you are excited about, what you are struggling with, what you have questions about, what you'd like advice on from your classmates).

**Please include your reading / working time this week, including all time you spent on your literacy narrative outside of class.

2 - Dialogue - your second post should be a dialogue between at least two people or characters.  It should be engaging and be punctuated and formatted correctly.  The length and substance should be equivalent to a regular blog post, though you will have more than two paragraphs if you are formatting correctly.  Here are some ideas for conversations:

- a conversation between two liars in which each line has a double meaning
- a conversation among three characters in which no line is more than three words long
- an exchange between two characters in which one character only asks questions and the other only answers
- a conversation between two characters from two different books or works (make sure to tell us who the characters are and what books they come from)

Week 4: Posts for 9/8

Note: Due to Labor Day, blogs this week will be due on Tuesday instead of Monday.

Post 1: Reading Response!  Two developed paragraphs with minimal plot summary.  If you are struggling with what to respond to, try reading as a writer: How does the author engage the reader's attention?  What do you notice about how the book is structured?  What examples do you see of personality, emotion, or vivid detail in the voice?  (Quote if appropriate)

Remember your reading details!

Post 2: This week falls between the anniversaries of two major tragedies of the 21st century.  For your second post this week, please read or view something related to either Hurricane Katrina or September 11th and write a 2-paragraph response.  If you choose to read something (anything from a poem, article, or short story to a novel or nonfiction book), count all of the time toward your 120 minutes.  If you choose to view something (like a documentary), you may count up to 30 minutes toward your reading time for the week.

Reading Ideas:

Katrina: Blood Dazzler (poems by Patricia Smith), A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge (graphic novel by Josh Neufield), Zeitoun (nonfiction narrative by Dave Eggers), Voices from the Storm (oral histories of storm survivors, edited by Lola Vollen and Chris Ying)

9/11: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (novel by Jonathan Safran Foer), several other possibilities

Week 3: Posts for 8/31

I'm going to try a different system for getting you blog assignments.  This will allow you to easily link to the blog assignment without having to go through your blog first.  Let me know what you think.

Remember, each post should be at least two developed paragraphs (unless otherwise specified), and you should devote about 15 minutes of focused writing to each.

1. A Reading response to your current outside reading book.  Yes, I know you are probably reading the same book.  Push yourself to make new observations and connections.  Add your reading days/times at the end of this post.  "I read 2 hours" is not enough.

2. Modified free post: We've been reading like writers this week, examining Sedaris's voice, sentence fluency, word choice, and use of conventions, as well as his ideas and organization.  Use your awareness of these traits to imitate the style of an author you enjoy or admire.  Here are the details:

• Your emulation itself should be one full paragraph, and just focus on the stylistic aspects--voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions.
• What you will write about is up to you, but you should create it: though it can be fiction, it should not involve character or situations borrowed from the author in question.
• In a paragraph before the emulation, you should introduce the author in question and quote or link to a paragraph of the author's writing so that we can see what you are emulating, and of course, make sure to name the author.