AGENDA 11/18

Prepare for Thursday's seminar on The Crucible:
Select and copy a passage from The Crucible that is worth discussing (this could be one long monologue or a series of lines, or something from Miller's narration). Read and annotate "Why I Wrote The Crucible" by Arthur Miller. Then generate 5 "springboards" for discussion--comments, opinions, or questions to generate productive talk about these two texts. Your questions/comments can refer either to your passage from The Crucible or to Miller's essay about the play.

Possible issues we might be discuss include:

• Where does morality stem from?
• Using religion to justify controversial behavior
• Separation of Church and State (politics tied to religion)
• Mob Mentality: What makes normal people get swept up in hysteria?
• Individual vs. government
• What’s right to stand up for--honor, freedom, etc.
  
• Gender hierarchy
• Rights of the accused
• Can innocence survive?
• Superstition/supernatural explanation

AGENDA 11/17

Finish "micro-scenes" from The Crucible, Act II

HW: Finish reading The Crucible if you haven't already. Study for vocabulary quiz (which will probably be on Thursday...).

Complete and submit two rhetorical terms entries on Friday (typed). For the two terms entries, ONE must be from EITHER The Crucible or your fall nonfiction independent reading book. The other is a "free choice" and can come from any text--your favorite song lyrics, a Harry Potter book, the Sunday comics, a history textbook, a famous speech, your favorite film...the possibilities are endless! :-)

AGENDA 11/14

Debrief yesterday's field trip

Vocabulary bingo

Start editing scenes down to "micro-scenes" for Monday's presentations

HW: Finish reading The Crucible for Tuesday!

AGENDA 11/13

FIELD TRIP TO UCLA!

Begin amassing sources for your source packet!

HW: Study vocabulary. Finish reading The Crucible for next Tuesday. Begin collecting your 20 sources for your research paper source packet.

AGENDA 11/12

Information for tomorrow's field trip: departure/arrival times and procedures

Source packets:
Amass 20 sources on your chosen topic. Of those 20 sources, 5 must follow these special restrictions:

2 published in the last year (2008)
1 from a non-commercial website (.org, .gov, .edu)
1 tangible "print" source (photocopy from a book or a magazine/newspaper clipping. The trick here is that it CAN'T come from the internet)
1 "experience": personal interview, film that you watch, podcast you listen to, etc...the point is that you must EXPERIENCE this one yourself!

It's ok for these "special" sources to overlap a little, meaning that if your non-commercial website source was published in 2008, then it can fill both roles. Please see me or email me for further help narrowing topics or amassing source material. We will be in the computer lab at school on Friday 11/21 and Monday 11/24, and you'll have a "reading" day on Tuesday 11/25 to read through and annotate your source packet.

AGENDA 11/11

HOLIDAY - NO SCHOOL

Thank you to our veterans and troops for securing and protecting the freedoms we all too often take for granted.

AGENDA 11/7

Invisible Children assembly