Week #1 February 4-8

Monday: Aim - Writers' Workshop

• Students are introduced to the process of reading the task, brainstorming, and note-taking.
  
• Topic: personal narrative.
• Teacher models brainstorming, organizing ideas graphically, and taking notes.
• Students begin writing the first draft.
  

Tuesday: Aim - What does "status" mean today?

• Do Now: Write about things that people have to show their status in the society.
• Class discussion: why do people have the need to show their wealth? On the other hand, why do they try to hide their lack of money? Do those who show off have low self-esteem?
• Read-Aloud: Text "The Necklace" Guy de Maupassant
• Students make a T-chart that contrasts the protagonist's dream lifestyle and her real situation.

Wednesday: Aim - What information goes into Exposition?

• Do now: What is a story? Why do people tell/write stories? How many parts should the story have?
• Literary Elements Focus: Exposition is the introduction of the story. It is the part of the story where the main character appears, the setting is described, the tone is set, and the initial event takes place.
• Reading Strategies Focus: finding textual support for clarification and specific details. Why is the woman so unhappy?
  
• If Time Allows: Amirezza's podcast presentation on status symbols throughout history.

Thursday: Aim - What lies between happiness and misery?

• Do Now: What lies between hot and cold? Anger and love? Dead and alive?
• Literary Elements focus: Climax is the turning point of the story, the suspense reaches its peak, main character changes.
• Reading Strategies Focus: making connections to the text.

Friday: Aim - Does everyone learn from their mistakes?

• Do Now: Choose a topic for quick write

1. Can money buy happiness? or
2. Describe a selfless individual.

• Literary Analysis Focus: What a punchline! Why doesn't the author choose to explain what happened to the characters afterwards? - Discuss the emotional power of abrupt resolution.
• Reading Strategies Focus: Inference - What, do you think, will happen next to the protagonist? Her husband?
  
• Summary: answer the question posed in the aim based on your inferences.
  

Poetry Unit - January 10-14

The last part of this class is dedicated to poetry.

• Students are introduced to rhyme, rhythm, imagery, personification, metaphor, and theme.
• Text: poems by Hughes, Hugo, Garcia, and others
• Assessment: students listen and write down song lyrics of their favorite songs (classroom appropriate and in English) and identify rhyme, rhythm, imagery, personification, metaphor, and theme.

Black History Unit

January 7 - 9 Looking for Main Idea.

• Targeted Reading Skills:

  · Condense or summarize ideas from one text.

  · Distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information.

  · Compare/contrast information from one or more texts.

  
  

• Independent Reading: students read about famous African-American inventors.
  
• Writing: Students take notes in GoogleDocs - one sentence per paragraph that relates the main idea of each paragraph.
• Writing: students use their notes to write a report on African-American contributions to the world of inventions.
  

Athletes' Stories - January 2-4, 2008

Think of the athlete you most admire. What problems did he or she overcome? What helped them succeed? Search the Internet for stories about this person and respond in a paragraph by posting a comment to this post. Don't forget the following:

• Name of the athlete
• Sport
• Description of the problem
• Brief description of how this athlete overcame this adversity
• Do NOT use the same athlete from your biography project
• Use Standard English