Day 41

NINTH LIT

• SECOND PERIOD: Students studied for their Mid-Term exam.  This will be on Monday, the 19th!!
• FIRST AND EIGHTH PERIOD: Students took their Romeo and Juliet Drama Unit Test!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students took their Romanticism Unit Test!

Day 40

NINTH LIT

• SECOND PERIOD: We took our Romeo and Juliet Drama Unit Test!
• FIRST AND EIGHTH PERIOD: We studied for our Romeo and Juliet Drama Unit Test! THIS WILL BE NEXT CLASS!!!

AMERICAN LIT

• We studied for our Romanticism Unit Test! THIS WILL BE NEXT CLASS!!!
• For five bonus points, students can edit the poem A Dream Within a Dream
• They should identify 5 sound devices, 3 elements of Romanticism, and 1 theme

Day 39

NINTH LIT

• Students took DGP quiz 4.
• PERIOD 2: We reviewed for our Romeo and Juliet test.  This test will be next class (December 13) for second period!
• PERIODS 1 AND 8: We took notes on Romeo and Juliet in pop culture and received our review sheets for the Romeo and Juliet test.  First period's test will be December 14, eighth period's test will be December 15!!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students took DGP quiz 3.
• Students finished their Romanticism PowerPoint projects. THIS SHOULD BE TURNED IN BY MIDNIGHT.  Email this project to me at AmandaLRobbins@gmail.com

Day 38

NINTH LIT

• Students finished day 4 of DGP. THERE WILL BE A QUIZ NEXT CLASS!
• We then took our Act IV quiz, followed by acting out Act V of Romeo and Juliet.
• Act V questions are due next class!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students completed day 4 of DGP.  THERE WILL BE A QUIZ NEXT CLASS!
• We then continued working on our Romanticism PowerPoint project.  THIS IS DUE NEXT CLASS!

Day 37

NINTH LIT

• Students completed Day 3 of DGP
• We then took a quiz over Act III of Romeo and Juliet.
• Students then read through Act IV of Romeo and Juliet, using guided questions to help them follow along.
• THERE WILL BE AN ACT IV QUIZ NEXT CLASS!
• Your Drama unit test has been scheduled for Wednesday, December 14/Thursday, December 15!!! This is tentative but will likely fall on this day.

AMERICAN LIT

• Students completed Day 3 of DGP
• We then did a short activity using songs to prove knowledge of alliteration, assonance, consonance, end rhyme, internal rhyme, and near rhyme.
• We watched a video of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven and followed along in the text, searching for alliteration, assonance, consonance, end rhyme, internal rhyme, and a romantic hero as we read.
• Time left in the class was spent on annotating poems for the PowerPoint project.
• Your Romanticism unit test has been scheduled for Monday, December 12/Tuesday, December 13!!!
• If you have lost your poems...
• Choose one from here:
• Old Ironsides 
• The Chambered Nautilus 
• GROUP 1 ONLY: Choose two from here:
•  The Children's Hour
• Paul Revere's Ride 
• Christmas Bells 
• Eulalie 
• GROUP 2 ONLY: Choose two from here:
• The Wreck of the Hesperus
• The Journey of Life
• Dear Lord and Father of Mankind

Day 36

NINTH LIT

• Students completed Day 2 of DGP
• We then took a quiz over Act II of Romeo and Juliet.
• Students read Act III of Romeo and Juliet, using guided questions to help them follow along.
• THERE WILL BE A QUIZ OVER ACT III NEXT CLASS!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students completed Day 2 of DGP
• Students recapped their annotations of Thanatopsis.
• We then began our Romanticism PowerPoint Project:
• Students will annotate three poems (one may be a poem we've already annotated), paraphrasing them into their own words and identifying various poetic devices within each poem.  They will then turn this into a PowerPoint presentation complete with images and design.
• Students received a rubric for this.  This will count as three formative grades.
• DUE DATE: DECEMBER 8/9!!!

Day 35

NINTH LIT

• Students completed day 1 of DGP
• We then read Act II of Romeo and Juliet using guided questions to help follow along.
• THERE WILL BE A QUIZ OVER ACT II NEXT CLASS.

AMERICAN LIT

• Students completed day 1 of DGP
• We recapped Romanticism with an annotation of Oliver Wendell Holmes' The Chambered Nautilus
• We then read William Cullen Bryant's Thanatopsis and annotated it for various poetic devices.  THIS IS DUE NEXT CLASS.

Day 34

NINTH LIT

• Students did a journal activity on the reality of teenage romance.
• After a short study time, students took their quiz over Act I of Romeo and Juliet.
• We then took some notes on drama terms.

AMERICAN LIT

• Students did a journal activity about growing and reaching for goals.
• We then began a think-pair-share annotation activity over "The Chambered Nautilus."

HAVE A WONDERFUL, SAFE, AND BOUNTIFUL THANKSGIVING!!!

Day 33

NINTH LIT

• Students did a short journal activity on the influence of parents and teenage rebellion in keeping with the themes of Romeo and Juliet.
• We went over our guided questions for Act I.  These will be due next class!
• Students finished reading Act I of Romeo and Juliet.  There will be a quiz over this next class!
• We began our mask activity: students created a mask for a character within the play, giving it symbolic colors and details as well as choosing and citing a quote for that character. This will be due next class!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students did a short journal activity on the influence of nature in their lives.
• We took some notes on the Fireside Poets, Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, and Holmes.
• We then read and annotated two poems by Holmes, Old Ironsides and The Chambered Nautilus

Day 32

NINTH LIT

• Students took a quiz over DGP
• We went over the guided questions for Act I, specifically focusing on the terms for this act: pun, monologue, dialogue, and comedic relief.
• We then read Act I through scene 3.

AMERICAN LIT

• Students took a quiz over DGP
• Students then finished their reading circle groups, turning in their assigned role worksheets by the end of the period.

Day 31

NINTH LIT

• Students completed their DGP work
• We then went over our Romeo and Juliet character chart, learning some of the main characters within Shakespeare's play
• We began reading R&J, watching some parts of it on film.

AMERICAN LIT

• Students completed their DGP work.
• We then began reading circle groups, reading various Romantic era pieces to gain understanding.  Each student had an assigned job (Discussion Director, Literary Luminary, or Vocabulary Enricher); these jobs will be finished next class.

Day 30

NINTH LIT

• Students completed their DGP work
• We then added on to their poetry notes, learning the four identifying marks of a Shakespearean sonnet.
• We read Shakespeare's sonnets 18 and 141, annotating them and identifying them as sonnets.  We then read the prologue to Romeo and Juliet.
• Students will need their books next class!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students completed their DGP work
• We watched a video on literary devices and took notes from this
• Students then reviewed plot structure to prepare for our upcoming short story circles.
• We began reading The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving.

Day 29

NINTH LIT

• Students took a series of notes on poetry, focusing on rhyme and meter.
• They then annotated a few songs as poems, looking for rhyme scheme, meter, internal and end rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and consonance.
• Students then took a short pop quiz on poetry terms and their intro to Shakespeare video.

AMERICAN LIT

• Students took the Benchmark I exam.

Day 28

NINTH LIT

• Students took Cornell notes as they watched a video on William Shakespeare.  They turned in this worksheet at the end of the period.

AMERICAN LIT

•  Students took notes on the Romantic literary period.
• They then looked at a selection from Edgar Allan Poe's short stories, annotating it for the key elements of Romanticism and Dark Romanticism.

Day 27

NINTH LIT

• Students took the Benchmark I exam.

AMERICAN LIT

• Students completed the second half of their Revolutionary Unit Test.

Day 26

NINTH LIT

• Students were split into two groups:
• One group completed a Shakespeare webquest on the computers
• One group did a retake of our Short Story Unit Test
• We then had a quick in-class discussion about an intro to William Shakespeare to get ready for our upcoming drama unit!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students took the first part of the Revolutionary Unit Test.
• There will be a second part of the test tomorrow!

Day 25

NINTH LIT

• Students finished their papers and turned these in for a grade!
• Any late papers must be turned in ASAP for -20 points per day.

AMERICAN LIT

• Students recapped our previous annotations - The Crisis, Speech in the Virginia Convention, and To His Excellency.
• We then had a quick review for our test NEXT CLASS!

Day 24

NINTH LIT

• Students self-edited their essays.  THESE ARE DUE NEXT CLASS!!!
• Reminder, we will be taking a Make-up Exam on the 25/26th!!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students diagrammed our sentence for DGP. We will have a quiz over DGP next class!!
• We then annotated Patrick Henry's "Speech in the Virginia Convention" and Phillis Wheatley's poem "To His Excellency, General Washington."

Day 23

NINTH LIT

•  Students' rough drafts were checked for a grade then peer-edited.
• We then moved into the lab to revise our papers.  Students need to have their edited rough drafts printed and finished by next class!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students found the clauses and sentence types of our DGP.
• We then completed a WebQuest over Patrick Henry's Speech in the Virginia Convention and annotated the speech as we worked.

Day 22

NINTH LIT

• Students spent the class period writing their rough drafts of their short story assignment (see previous post).  These rough drafts are due next class!!

AMERICAN LIT

•  Students found the sentence parts during  their DGP opening assignment.
• We went back over "The Crisis" and spent the rest of class finishing our annotation.

Day 21

NINTH LIT

• Students completed a journal on stories from their childhood.
• We then introduced our new writing project!! Students will be writing a one-page typed story of their choosing.  There are a few requirements:
• It must have a suspenseful or twist ending
• It must be school appropriate
• It must have 10 words from our vocab lists
• We spent the rest of class prewriting for our stories.

AMERICAN LIT

• Students did their first DGP activity, finding the parts of speech in the sentence "Your friend from Switzerland is a good student."
• We then took notes on annotation and used these notes to begin annotating Thomas Paine's "The Crisis 1"

Day 20

NINTH LIT

• Students took their Short Story Unit and Lit Terms test.

AMERICAN LIT

• Students took a quiz on grammar and on their Revolutionary vocabulary
• Students finished their match game from the previous class.

STUDY HELP!!!

NINTH GRADERS!!!

Need help studying for your test???

Click here: http://classtools.net/widgets/quiz_1/IMQLZ.htm

Then press the "PLAY" button at the bottom and choose any one of the review games!!

PLEASE DO NOT EDIT ANY OF THE QUESTIONS.  I WILL BE CHECKING TO MAKE SURE THEY ARE AS I LEFT THEM.

Have fun and study hard!

Day 19

NINTH LIT

• Students took their DGP and Vocab quizzes after turning in their DGP and Vocab packets for a grade
• We then had a review session for our Short Story Unit Test on Friday/Monday
• REMINDER!!! Your Short Story Unit Test is on Friday/Monday!!! STUDY!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students finished taking Grammar notes.  There will be a short grammar quiz next class!
• We reviewed our terms from last class.  There will be a short quiz over these vocab words next class!
• Students then began a "Match Game" where they found facts about the 13 colonies and learned about important people and works of literature from the time period.

Day 18

NINTH LIT

• Students diagrammed their DGP sentence.
• We spent time working on vocabulary.
• REMINDER!!! Students have a DGP/Vocabulary combo quiz next class!!!  Their vocabulary words are:
• Adjourn, alien, comely, compensate, dissolute, erratic, expulsion, feint, fodder, fortify, illegible, jeer, lucrative, mediocre, proliferate, subjugate, sully, tantalize, terse, unflinching.
• Students took notes on how to annotate a piece of literature and then verbally annotated as a class Ray Bradbury's "The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind."
• REMINDER!!! Students have their Short Story Unit Test on Friday, October 7, and Monday, October 10!!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students continued their grammar notes from last class, taking notes on sentence parts.
• Students completed their differentiated vocabulary sheets over the following words:
• Parallelism, oratory, repetition, exclamation, rhetorical questions, restatement, and charged words.

Day 17

NINTH LIT

• Students found the clauses and sentences types in their DGP
• We then worked on our vocabulary packets.
• REMINDER: Your vocab/DGP quiz is next week on Wednesday/Thursday!!
• Students read "The Birthday Party" and rewrote the story from the point of view of the husband, wife, waiter, or other restaurant goer.  They had to include
• One simile
• One form of alliteration
• One piece of imagery
• One piece of EITHER personification OR hyperbole
• REMINDER: This is due NEXT CLASS!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students turned in their Slackers essay and a discussion was had about doing work.
• We then took short notes on parts of speech.
• Students then began an activity on Revolutionary vocabulary which will be completed next class.

Day 16

NINTH LIT

• Students completed their DGP, finding the subject, verb, etc.
• We then worked on a Vocabulary activity.
• REMINDER: Your DGP/Vocab quiz will be next week on Wednesday/Thursday!!
• Students were separated into groups and either worked on notecards or read "Sonata for Harp and Bicycle"

AMERICAN LIT

• WRITING TEST DAY!
• Students watched "John Adams" while taking notes and having grade conferences.
• REMINDER!!! YOUR SLACKERS ESSAY IS DUE NEXT CLASS

Day 15

NINTH LIT

• Students worked on their new DGP sentence, finding the parts of speech: "Each of the girls did her homework."
• We then went over our new list of vocabulary words.
• Students completed reading "The Most Dangerous Game" and took a short quiz over it.

AMERICAN LIT

• Students received some notes on editing papers.
• They then used these notes to do a peer edit of their work, reading through each other's essays.
• THESE ESSAYS ARE DUE ON THURSDAY/FRIDAY!!!
• REMINDER: I will be staying after school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to edit papers!!

Day 14

NINTH LIT

• Students wrote a journal on the topic of 'fear'.
• We continued our note taking and reading of "The Most Dangerous Game".

AMERICAN LIT

• After being given back last class's writing, students watched Ms. Robbins model a brainstorm, organizer, essay-writing, and editing.  This was then used as a model for students' editing.
• Students must have their edited essay ready to go next class!!

Day 13

NINTH LIT

• Students did a journal activity on 'reason' versus 'instinct'
• We then took notes on our lit terms, finding examples as we read Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game

AMERICAN LIT

• Students looked back at their "Top Ten" strategies then had an in-class write that took all period, concerning the topic of slacking in school.

Day 12

NINTH LIT:

• Students took a vocabulary quiz over their twenty words.
• We then took a diagnostic lit terms pop quiz.
• Students began a 'body biography' activity where pictures became symbols assigned to a specific character, symbolizing their heart, lungs, hands, etc.

AMERICAN LIT

• Students looked at another example of good Writing Tests, taking notes on the "Top Ten Writing Test Strategies"
• We then did test corrections for the Puritan poetry test.

Day 11

NINTH LIT

• Students did a vocabulary activity that will be collected next class for homework.  They had to:
• Choose 5 words and find synonyms
• Choose 5 (different) words and find antonyms
• Use 5 (different) words in a small paragraph
• Choose 5 (different) words and create a picture for each one.
• They should use all 20 words by the end of this assignment
• VOCABULARY QUIZ NEXT CLASS!!!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students did a short letter writing activity before having a good model of persuasive writing presented for them.
• We then did Puritan Poetry test corrections where the students corrected their answers and TPFASTT-ed "Huswifery"

Day 10

NINTH LIT

• Students went over their new vocabulary words: admonish, breach, brigand, circumspect, commandeer, cumbersome, deadlock, debris, diffuse, dilemma, efface, muddle, opinionated, perennial, predispose, relinquish, salvage, spasmodic, spurious, unbridled.
• We then discussed the previous stories we had read and began our reading of "The Scarlet Ibis."

AMERICAN LIT

• Students completed a short writing assignment before listening to a clip of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"
• We then annotated "Sinners" to find Puritan Plain Style, conceit, apostrophe, ethos, logos, pathos, metaphor, and simile.

Day 9

NINTH LIT

• Students turned in their DGP work and took their first quiz.
• We then discussed the idea of theme and came up with three themes for "The Cask of Amontillado."
• Irony was discussed, which led to our reading of Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace."

AMERICAN LIT

• Students finished their TAP writing on the 4-day versus 5-day workweek.
• We read and TPFASTTed two poems: "To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet and "Huswifery" by Edward Taylor.  We then took a short test over the two poems.

Day 8

NINTH LIT

• Students did the second half of DGP 1. They will have a quiz over this next class!
• We read "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe and discussed the irony and suspense within the short story.  Students then completed a packet of worksheets.  Any work not finished in class is homework!!
• If students do not have their books, they need to get them ASAP from the bookroom before school.  An online copy of "TCoA" can be found here.
• Students will need their books next class!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students completed a TAP brainstorm on four-day workweeks.
• We then finished watching The Crucible and took a short quiz over it.
• Students will need their books next class!

Day 7

NINTH LIT

• Students did their first DGP exercise
• We then finished any summer reading presentations.  Any presentations not given in class will need to be given before or after school.
• Students will need their books next class!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students continued watching The Crucible and took Cornell notes while doing so.

Day 6

NINTH LIT

•  Students finished their grammar notes!! We will begin DGP shortly
• Students began their summer reading music presentations.  Any presentations that were not ready to go today will be docked 20 points for being late and should be presented by next class or they will receive a zero.

AMERICAN LIT

• Students wrote a small in-class essay based on their brainstorming from last class over the topic of banned books.
• We took notes from a PowerPoint on the Puritans and began a short discussion about the Salem Witch Trials.
• We then began watching "The Crucible," a film adaptation of the Arthur Miller play while we took Cornell notes. 

Day 5

NINTH LIT

• Students continued their notes on grammar and will finish these mini-notes next class.
• We read "The Three Little Pigs" and "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" and identified various literary elements in them.
• We then watched a video on terms of literature and used that video to help us identify some terms within our favorite fairy tales and movies.
• REMINDER: Students' summer reading music projects are due Monday the 29th and Tuesday the 30th!!!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students did a brainstorming activity for a previous Georgia High School Writing Test prompt concerning banned books.  This will be used to write a short in-class essay next week.
• We then took a pretest on Puritan literature.
• Afterwards, students gathered characteristics of Native Americans (see below) and were instructed to write a eulogy mourning the passing of Native American culture from the perspective of either a modern-day student, a European settler, or an American Indian.  They had to choose three Native characteristics and write the eulogy to a length of two to three paragraphs.  This is due next class!!!

NATIVE AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS

• Peaceful
• Spiritual (Animistic religion)
• Oral tradition
• Pictographs
• Origin myth
• Hunters, gatherers, fishers
• Tribal community
• Ceremonies
• Powerful Chief
• Nature important
• Dreams as visions
• Symbolic Colors
• Traditional clothing (skins, fringe, feathers, war paint, beads)

Day 4

NINTH LIT

• Students took more notes on the parts of speech
• First period participated in a fire drill
• We then took a short story pre-test using our annotated copies of "Checkouts"
• Students went over their summer reading assignment (finding a clean song that symbolizes their story and presenting it to the class).  This will be due on Monday, August 29!!

AMERICAN LIT

•  Students did a brainstorming activity that they can use for the Georgia High School Writing Test.  The GHSWT is on September 27th!!!
• We then took our summer reading tests and worked on our foldable comic books for "Earth on Turtle's Back."  These comics are due by next class!! If you did not finish, it is homework!

Day 3

NINTH LIT

• Students took note on the rudimentary parts of speech
• Any lit terms notes from the previous day were finished.
• We then read and annotated the story "Checkouts" by Cynthia Rylant

AMERICAN LIT

•  Students wrote a quick journal, discussing alternative ideas for the summer reading test.
• As a special gift, the summer reading test was pushed back
• We then went over our "Earth on Turtle's Back" worksheets, which have been put into the gradebook
• Students began an assignment on turning the myth "Earth on Turtle's Back" into an eight-panel comic strip complete with narration and pictographs.

Day 2

NINTH LIT

• Students turned in any syllabi they had signed before writing a letter to their senior selves as a journal.
• They then took a short lit term pre-test followed by a session of notes on lit terms we will use throughout the year.
• Students will need their books during next class!

AMERICAN LIT

• Students turned in any syllabi they had before continuing their Native American color symbols handout.  This was turned in in class.
• They then took a short grammar diagnostic test.
• We read "The Earth on Turtle's Back" as a class and began an assignment based on the origin myth.  Some students requested a copy of the work.  It can be found in your book or here .
• Students will take their summer reading exams next class!!!! Please have your reading done!

Day 1

NINTH LIT

• Students went over the syllabus, which should be signed and returned ASAP.  They also viewed a PowerPoint on class rules and procedures.
• The students then completed a learning diagnostic test, filled out an info card, and some began a grammar diagnostic test which will be continued the next class.

AMERICAN LIT

• Students went over the syllabus, which should be signed and returned ASAP.  They also viewed a PowerPoint on class rules and procedures.
• The students then completed a learning diagnostic test, filled out an info card, and began an assignment on Native American color symbolization

PARENTS!!! If you did not receive the syllabus from your child, please email me and I will forward a digital version to you.  This will be taken in for a grade.

Please remember your summer reading!!!  Your assignments will be due by next week, and the list can be found here.

Welcome!!!

I wanted to take a moment to welcome everyone to McEachern, my class, and the 2011-2012 school year.  I'm excited to have you as students and parents involved in our amazing classroom.  This blog will be updated at least twice a week with our activities, due dates, assignments, and links to helpful pages.  I would also like to get a weekly email of information sent out and would love to have you parents send me your email address (along with your child's name and class period) so that you can be added.  Please feel free to take a look at the information as noticed and contact me if you have any questions:

SCHEDULE

Odd

1. 9th grade literature
2. American literature
3. American Literature
4. Planning

Even

1. 9th grade literature
2. Planning
3. American literature
4. 9th grade literature

EMAIL: amanda.robbins@cobbk12.org  OR if emailing large files (assignments, essays, etc.) amandalrobbins@gmail.com

Thanks again,

Amanda L. Robbins