Poetry

Old Assignments: Week 17 - 18

Week 22

Monday
2/8 Reflect on the saying “Good fences make good neighbors.” What does it mean and do you agree? Write at least one page.

Tuesday
2/9 Finish the questions on "Mending Wall."

Wednesday
2/10 Complete the reflection on the Dickinson poems.

Thursday
2/11 Work on the first draft of your poetry essay. First drafts will be due the Tuesday after we return from the February break.

Friday
2/12 Read in your IR book—read a lot if you got behind from speech practice over the last few weeks.

Week 21

Monday
2/1 Practice delivering your speech. Now that you know the entire speech really well, focus on your delivery. Practice emphasizing key words, pausing, and gesturing. Practice in front of the mirror or someone who will give you feedback on your delivery. If for some reason you still do not know the content of your speech really well, make sure you get that down tonight.

Tuesday
2/2 Continue working on delivering your speech. Practice pausing, adding emphasis, speaking loudly and clearly, appearing interested, and gesturing. Final delivery on Thursday.

Wednesday
2/3 Finish practicing your speech. You will deliver it to the entire school tomorrow. Remember, the best way to feel confident tomorrow is to be over prepared. Know your speech perfectly.

Thursday
2/4 No homework!

Friday
2/5 Read in your IR book—read a lot if you got behind from speech practice over the last two weekends.

Week 20

Monday
1/25 Continue learning your speech. Make sure you know the first 2 pages of your speech by Thursday, January 28th.

Tuesday
1/26 Continue working on delivering your speech. Practice pausing, varying your intonation, speaking loudly and clearly, and memorizing your speech.

Wednesday
1/27 Finish learning the first 2 pages of your speech.

Thursday
1/28 Continue working on your speech. Make sure you learn your entire speech by Monday, February 1. Work on your delivery techniques.

Friday
1/29 Read in your IR book and finish learning all of your speech. You will deliver your entire speech to the class on Monday, February 1st.

Week 19

Tuesday
1/19 Work on revising and writing the final draft of your speech, due Thursday.

Wednesday
1/20 Finish the final draft of your speech. Due tomorrow.

Thursday
1/21 In-class: Read the poem “The History Teacher” several times and annotate it. Write a one page think write on the poem. Pick out specific lines to support your reflections.

Homework: Read the poem“Storm Warnings” several times and annotate it. Write a one page think write on the poem. Pick out specific lines to support your reflections.

Friday
1/22 Read in your IR book and finish learning the first page of your speech. You will deliver your opening to the class on Monday.

Week 18

Monday
1/11 Work on the first draft of your speech, due Wednesday. Remember to think about your speech length. If you want your speech to be about 5 minutes, write about 3 pages, 10 minutes = 6 pages (or a little less).

Tuesday
1/12 Finish writing the first draft of your speech. Due tomorrow.

Wednesday
1/13 Finish reading your IR book if you have not done so already. Most IR tests must be taken this week. You may take a test on a single book on Tuesday the 19th if you can’t get everything done this week. Schedule your book tests today. Start working on the second draft of your speech, due Friday.

Thursday
1/14 Based on peer editing comments and your own ideas, revise and write the second draft of your speech. Due tomorrow.

Friday
1/15 Finish up your Independent Reading if you have not done so already. Tuesday is the last chance for a final book test.

Week 17
2009/2010

Monday
1/4 Begin researching for this year’s speech contest topic: Universal Health Care: How Will it Affect Us? Go to the GoogleDoc and browse articles there first, then move on to researching on your own. Be sure to get facts, statistics, and general information only from reputable sources and not from random websites. Your speech will be much stronger when you quote CNN or Time Magazine rather than wisegeek.com, Universal Health Care Action Network.org, or Bill O’Reilly’s blog. If you’re looking for opinions or thought-provoking quotations, a blog or politically aligned source is fine, but when you’re looking for facts, do the best you can to get information from neutral sources. See the GoogleDoc for examples. Bring in your highlighted articles. Schedule an IR test this week if you can. Otherwise, finish up your reading ASAP. All tests must be taken by next week.

Tuesday
1/5 Continue researching for your speech. Bring in all the highlighted articles that you read yesterday and today to class tomorrow. Read in your IR book if you haven’t finished yet.

Wednesday
1/6 Continue researching. Begin finding the article you need for your particular angle. Bring in your highlighted articles.

Thursday
1/7 Continue researching and finish your IR books.

Friday
1/8 Work on writing the first draft of your speech and finish up your Independent Reading if you have not done so already. First drafts are due Wednesday. Schedule your IR test for next week if you have not done so already.

Week 23

Monday
2/23 Work on your poetry presentation. See the link for details. Bring everything you complete to class tomorrow because we will work on them in class.

Tuesday
2/24 Begin memorizing your poem and work on your presentation. See the link to make sure you’re completing each assignment.

Wednesday
2/25            Write a reflection on “Blades.” Write more than a page and quote specific lines to focus on. A reflection is more than a think write but less than an essay. Make sure you have your poem memorized for the practice recitation Thursday and Friday.

Thursday
2/26            Write a reflection on “The Word.” Write more than a page and quote specific lines to focus on. A reflection is more than a think write but less than an essay. Make sure you have your presentation outline ready to show me tomorrow.

Friday
2/27 Read in your IR book. Finish your prewriting for the poetry essay if you have not done so already. Finish preparing for your poetry presentation next week. Make sure you have your poem memorized and you’ve completed all the assignments.

Week 22

Monday
2/9 Finish your bibliography if you have not done so already. Complete Vocabulary #1b. See the vocabulary page for the words and directions.

Tuesday
2/10 Write about the adage “Good fences make good neighbors”. What does the saying mean? Do you agree or disagree with it? So you agree or disagree with it when you move beyond the literal meaning? Write at least one page.

Wednesday
2/11 Study for Vocabulary Quiz #1b. Make sure you can use each word in a sentence and that you know the definitions of all 12 words. The quiz will be on Thursday, tomorrow.

Thursday
2/12 Complete a think write comparing Bishop’s “One Art” to one of Dickinson’s poems on loss. Write more than a page comparing the different ways the poets portray the pain of loss.

Friday
2/13 Read in your IR book. You should be at 200 pages or so for this quarter. The week-long vacation should be a good opportunity to catch up if you’re behind.

Week 21

Monday
2/2 Practice delivering your speech. First, make sure you know the entire speech well so that you can focus on your delivery. Second, practice pausing and delivering your speech slowly and clearly—don’t trail off at the end of your sentences. Remember the four Ps: Power, Passion, Poise, and Pausing.

Tuesday
2/3 Keep practicing your speech delivery. Be prepared to give a graded rehearsal of your speech tomorrow (you don’t need to dress up for this).

Wednesday
2/4 Finish preparing for your speech. All students will deliver their speeches to the entire school tomorrow morning, Thursday February 5th. Wear something nice to school tomorrow.

Thursday
2/5 No homework!

Friday
2/6 Read in your IR book. Read a lot this weekend if you’ve not been reading much lately. You should be at 150 pages or so for this quarter.

Week 20

Monday
1/26 Make any necessary last minute changes to your speech and then start learning your speech. Make sure you know the first paragraph (or half page) by tomorrow, Tuesday the 27th.

Tuesday
1/27 Keep practicing your speech delivery. Be prepared to give at least the first page of your speech by tomorrow, Wednesday the 28th.

Wednesday
1/28 Keep practicing your speech delivery. Be prepared to give the first two pages of your speech by Friday.

Thursday
1/29 Keep practicing your speech delivery. Learn as much as you can by Friday, but at least the first two pages. You must know your entire speech by Monday so that you have three days to hone your delivery before the final performance on Thursday, February 5th.

Friday
1/30 Learn as much of your speech as you can, but plan on learning at least the first four pages by Monday. If you have a longer speech, make sure you know the entire speech by Tuesday. Also start practicing your delivery. Be sure to pause and vary your intonation to enhance the meaning and persuasiveness of your speech. Remember, if you spend a lot of time this weekend and start next week knowing your speech well, Thursday’s performance will be a lot less stressful. Read in your IR book if you have time.

Week 19

Tuesday
1/20 Complete the writing assignment on “The History Teacher.” See the link for details.

Wednesday
1/21 Use the writing notes, my comments on your speech, and your own ideas to revise your speech and write a final draft. Spend a lot of time because the better your final draft is, the more confident you’ll feel about delivering your speech to the school on February 5th.

Thursday
1/22 Finish writing the final draft of your speech. Due tomorrow.

Friday
1/23 Begin learning your speech. Practice a lot this weekend and learn as much as you can. The better your know your speech, the less worried you’ll be. Make sure you know at least the entire first page by Monday. Each of you will deliver your first page to the class on Monday.

Week 18

Monday
1/12 Go through the Google Doc links and search on your own to find useful articles to round out your research. Look at the 2009 Water Plan, look at some of the specifics in the plan (South and North Lahontan regions, find the supply and demand numbers), and find specific articles that help you with the angle you’ve chosen for your speech. Read through your articles. Bring your annotated articles to class on Tuesday.

Tuesday
1/13 Finish researching for your speech if necessary and start writing. Bring whatever you have done to class tomorrow because you will have the whole period to work on writing. Be sure to look at the speech writing tips because speeches should be written differently than essays. You may want to take advantage of Wednesday morning to get even more done on your speech because we have a short time frame.

Wednesday
1/14 Work on writing the first draft of your speech. First drafts are due on Friday. Bring whatever you have done to class tomorrow so I can check your progress and give you any necessary help. Finish your IR book if you have not done so already—remember that all IR tests must be taken by tomorrow.

Thursday
1/15 Finish writing the first draft of your speech. Be sure to work in any applicable information, ideas, or quotations from today’s presentations.

Friday
1/16 Based on peer editing comments, the grading criteria, and your own idea, revise your speech and write a second draft—due Tuesday 1/20.

Week 17

Monday
1/5 Finish reading and annotating the Cadillac Desert excerpts. Read the first 14 pages carefully, skim through the next sections, marking those areas that are of interest to you. I have the entire book if you’re interested in reading more.

Tuesday
1/6 Finish reading and annotating the Water Education Foundation overview. Read this whole packet carefully—it should help a lot.

Wednesday
1/7 Finish reading and annotating the California Water Plan summary.

Thursday
1/8 Search for and annotate appropriate articles for your speech. First make sure you’ve browsed through all the articles in the email, then search any of the applicable sites from the email that look like they’ll be helpful to your topic, then go onto Google and look for more specific articles. Bring out printed and annotated articles to class tomorrow.

Friday
1/9 Finish reading IR. Tests will be next week. Finalize your ideas for a speech angle. Do more research and be ready to start writing early next week.