Monday December 7, 2009

• It has been a while since I've updated my Blog, so I apologize for my oversight. After being out sick for almost a week, I got very behind, and this was one of the things I had to overlook for a time in order to stay afloat.

Comp/Lit 10: Short Stories

• The students took a quiz on the short story "The Lady or the Tiger?" While they took their quiz, I check the homework-VFA #15 & 16 (the last one of the semester), and "The Lady or the Tiger?" Questions.
• After the quiz, we discussed grammar-The types of sentences. The students took notes on phrases, clauses (independent and dependent), simple sentences, compound sentences, complex sentences and compound-complex sentences. We then reviewed pages 103-106 in the grammar workbook (the students had completed the work last week).
• There will be a grammar quiz next time. The quiz will ask the students to identify groups of words as either an independent clause or a dependent clause. The section section will ask students to identify a sentence as either simple, compound, complex or compound-complex.
• I then introduced the Short Story Presentation Project. The students will work in groups of 6-8 to teach a story ("A Pair of Silk Stockings", "Anteaus", "Harrison Bergeron", or "By the Waters of Babylon") to the class. See the full explanation on my website.
• I assigned each student to a story.
• The students them took notes on the elements of the short story based on a power point presentation. They will be responsible for all of this information.
• We then began our discussion of "The Lady or The Tiger?" I handed out "charges" to selected students in the class. Each "charged" student came to the front of the room and read the "charges" to the class. They, then, had the choice of one of two cups. If they picked the cup with no candy underneath, they were considered guilty. If they found the candy, they were considered innocent. This is a reenactment of the king's justice system in the story.
• We ended by reviewing the discussion questions for the story..
• Homework: Read "All Summer in a Day" and complete the notes in the back of the packet. Study for the grammar quiz. Read your assigned short story to be prepared for working with your group on Wednesday. You will have about 45 minutes to work as a group on December 9.