Creating an American identity

Essential Question: How do the realities of immigrant experiences reflect or fail to reflect American ideals?

Goal: To understand how someone takes on an American identity

Agenda:
1. Read silently
2. Read "Rules of the Game" AUDIO

As we read this selection from the novel Joy Luck Club, make sure you highlight the following things:

Notice how Waverly learns and gets better at chess.
Advice Waverly's mother gives to her.
Conflicts between Waverly and her mom.

When we finish answer the questions on this FORMATIVE

Finally, work on your vocabulary assignment together. The next twelve words are due on September 8th.

Small Group Work Day 1

Essential Question: Are narratives good evidence in arguments about freedom?

Goal: Practice working together. How can you help each other pick out what is important?

Agenda:

1. Read

2. i-Time activity
3. Begin Working as a Team

You will complete pages 60-61 as a team

1. Take a position: Make sure each member of the group has a chance to speak.

2. List your group rules. What do you need to do to be successful?

3. Apply the rules. Discuss what you have learned about American identity so far.

4. Come up with a group name.

5. Work on your vocabulary chart together. The next twelve words are due next week. At the end of the period, we will play a Quizlet Live! game.

Reading Diagnostic Day 2

Today we will be finishing the reading diagnostic. When you are finished you will do the following activities IN ORDER:

• Finish any missing assignments
• Vocabulary from last week (1-12)
• Your Explanatory essay
• The pre-writing document
• If you are behind in reading take extra time to read
• Watch one of the videos below if you are done with the above activities
• Penn and Teller Fool Us
• Anything from this website

Reading Diagnostic

Today we will be taking a break from our usual schedule and taking a reading assessment. 

The i-Ready assessment lets you and I know how well you read. This data will help me recommend books to you and give the support you need in reading.

Finishing our first essay

Essential Question: What is the meaning of Freedom?

Goal: to finish our first essay about what it means to be an American

Agenda:
1. Read- go to Google Play Books and upload the book you are reading. It keeps track of the page number and your progress.

Go to Google Classroom and open the assignment called Explanatory Essay and begin writing.

Here are some sentences you can use to complete your conclusion:

In conclusion, to be an American means...Both (Name) and (Name) demonstrate these qualities. These qualities are important because they help our nation...

YOUR ESSAY IS DUE BY SUNDAY.

When you are finished with everything:
1. Finish the first twelve words on your vocabulary chart

What does it mean to be American

Essential Question: What does it mean to be American?

Goal: to plan and begin drafting our first essay

Agenda:
1. Read and fill out Reading Progress form
2. Prewriting and drafting for our first essay

You will find the directions and prewriting activities for our first essay on Google Classroom.

When you are finished with everything:
1. First twelve words on your vocabulary chart are due tomorrow.

American History discussion

Essential Question: What does it mean to be American?

Goal: Annotate the text you highlighted yesterday

Agenda:
1. Finish the Formative from yesterday and then read.
2. Close read the short story American History.

Close Reading: Today you will add notes to the items you highlighted yesterday. We will then have a class discussion about what it means to be American.

Discussion Question 1: What passage from the text shows someone pursuing the American dream? Using this evidence, is the American dream only an ideal or is it also a reality?

Discussion Question 2: Where in the text do you see immigrants being excluded? How has America changed in the past fifty years? What do we still need to work on?

Discussion Question 3: How does JFK's death unite the characters in the book? Is it true that Americans are only united by tragedy?

Narrative Structure: Conflict. Complete chart on page 47


When you are finished with everything:
1. Work on vocabulary chart
2. Read silently

Reading our first short story

Essential Question: What does it mean to be American?

Goal: Understand the opportunities and limitations available to American immigrants

Agenda:
1. Read
2. Read a narrative about one girl's immigrant experience

First, we will add to our English Journal (in Google Docs)

Make a top ten list of what means to be an American.

We will read a selection about a ninth grader named Elena. TEXT AUDIO

Notice details about where the author lives, about her family and neighbors.

Annotate passages that show:
1. How tragic events unite Americans
2. People searching for the American dream
3. Immigrants being seen as outsiders

Formative to check understanding.

When you are finished with everything:
1. The first twelve words on your vocabulary chart are due on Friday.
2. Read silently
3. Check your grades and make sure you turn in missing assignments

The Immigrant Contribution

Essential Question: What is the meaning of Freedom?

Goal: To understand JFK's defense of the role of immigrants in American history.

Agenda:
1. Read: You should be halfway done with your book by the end of the book
2. Read and annotate immigrant contribution

First, read of the Immigrant Contribution AUDIO. Notice how JFK defines and describe immigrants. Annotate his main ideas about immigrants.

Formative to check for understanding

Next, you will explain the annotations you made in the text. We will also practice close reading together.

Research to Clarify and Explore: Look up one person or food from the article that you did already know about.


When you are finished with everything:
1. Work on your vocabulary chart I will grade the first 12 words this week
2. Study your vocabulary words
3. Take extra time to read

Newsela Close Reading Practice

Goal: To practice your close reading skills independently.

Agenda:

1. Silent Reading
2. Newsela

Here are the steps for today's Newsela:
1. Go to Clever (You will find it under your apps)
2. Login with Google
3. Choose Newsela from the menu
4. Under Your Assignments you will see the 3 articles you need to read.

ALL THREE ARTICLES ARE DUE BY THE END OF THE PERIOD.

In order to receive full credit you MUST:
1. Annotate each article
2. Try to get a good score on the multiple choice questions
3. Complete the writing assignment. Make sure your write a paragraph and not just a few sentences.

When you are finished:
1. Work on your vocabulary assignment

2. Read Silently

Practice Close Reading Skills

Goal: Practice our close reading skills

Agenda:
1. Read
2. A Quilt of a Country

First, we review the most difficult parts of the text. Then, we will answer the close read questions for A Quilt of a Country.

Then we will create a word network for Identity.
Finally, we will summarize A Quilt of a Country to solidify our understanding of the article.

Research to Clarify: Choose one idea, person, or event that you are unfamiliar with.

Top ten list for English Journal

English9 Journal #2: Summary and Top 10 List

Vocabulary and Quizlet Live

Goal: Learn our vocabulary procedure

Agenda:
1. Read
2. Learn how to complete the vocabulary chart
3. Play Quizlet Live!
4. NoRedInk Pretest 

Our vocabulary charts are on Google Classroom. I will walk you through the instructions today.

Today we will play our first Quizlet Live! game. I will also help you signup for my class on Quizlet.

Finally, we will complete a pretest on NoRedInk to take a pretest for the grammar skills

Reading our first Whole Class text

Essential Question: What does it mean to be "American"?

Goal: To understand that a country made up of different cultures can be complicated

Agenda:
1. Read silently
2. Introduce Whole Class strategies
3. Read our first nonfiction text


First read of A Quilt of a Country You can access the audio HERE

Today we will sign up for GoFormative. It is a tool we will use to check for your understanding.

Steps to Sign-up for Formative:

1. Click on http://goformative.com
2. Click on "I Am A New Student"
3. Google Sign Up
4. Click on Join a Class or Assignment
5. I will give you the code in class.

Click HERE to access the questions for A Quilt of a Country.

I will also explain how our vocabulary assignments will work. The assignment is on Google Classroom.

Research to Clarify
Research to Explore

Introducing our first unit

Essential Question: What does it mean to be "American"?

Goal: Introduce first unit AMERICAN VOICES

Agenda:

Read
Introduce our first unit
Write a summary

After reading today, we will fill out our first reading progress form: https://goo.gl/forms/5sIIfTtyiBwesIEo2

Pearson Realize

Watch "Define American" video
Unit Goals form: https://goo.gl/forms/8vLZkRWRUtGBKo653
Read Music for My Mother; Listen to audio if needed.
Word Network for Identity
Summary of Music for My Mother

To create this summary, we will make a new document called "English Journal." Here are the steps:

• Open Google Drive
• Click on NEW and choose GOOGLE DOCS
• The title of the document should be LASTNAME FIRSTNAME English Journal
• Your first entry should look like this:

In your summary, be sure to:

Write in the present tense
Include the title of the work
Be concise; A summary is shorter
No opinions

Another Test of Your Google Skills

Goal: Learn New Things About Google Slides

Read:

1. By this time you should be at least on chapter two of your book.
2. At this point, you should be making a decision on whether to stick with this book or not.
3. If you are "breaking up" with your book, please see me if you need a book recommendation.

Google Slides Scavenger Hunt

Open Google Classroom and start the Google Slides assignment. This scavenger hunt is more difficult than the last one. You will definitely need to work together in order to finish it.

If you finish early you have extra time to read today. Try to get through the first two chapters!

Reminder:

1. Fill out the Student Data Form
2. Fill out the Reading Survey
3. Finish and publish your Six Word Memoir ASAP

Textbook check out day aka bicep improvement day

Textbook check out day aka bicep improvement day.

GOAL: Textbook check out, reading, and six word memoirs.

READ: get out your book or borrow a new one. 

Textbook check out:

• We will all go to the library to check out our textbooks.
• Bring your ID and your schedule.

Back in the Classroom:

Six Word Memoir Project

• Watch the videos from the bottom of yesterday's blog to help you understand what a Six Word Memoir is.
• Open the assignment from Google Classroom entitled Six Word Memoir and complete the document.

If you finish early you have extra time to read today. Try to get through the first two chapters!

Reminder:

1. Fill out the Student Data Form
2. Fill out the Reading Survey

Day two, let's get going.

First Step: Read!

If you brought a book today, make sure you take it out and beginning reading for ten minutes. If you do not have one, follow these steps:

1. Open this Google Drive folder.
2. View these Google Slides for book recommendations.


3. Right click on one of the files and choose download.
4. Install this app from the Chrome Web Store.
5. Open the app and choose the PLUS SIGN in the upper right corner.
6. Click on the book file you downloaded.
7. Start reading the book!

WATCH THIS VIDEO if you are having trouble.

Second Step:
Fill out the reading survey. This survey will help me know what kind of reader you are.

Third step:
Sign-up for our Google Classroom. I will give you the code in class.

How good are your Google Doc skills? Complete this assignment in Google Classroom to find out.

Once everyone has successfully achieved these goals, our first project of the year will be to write a Six Word Memoir. We will talk about this, but here are some helpful videos and websites to get you started in this process:

• Six Word Memoirs written by Teens
• Six tips for writing six wword memoirs (video)
• Six Word Memoirs written by Teens (video)

Welcome to BHS and High School English

Hello and Welcome to Beaumont High School!

We're going to have a fantastic year of learning together, and that means we have a lot to do today. The first thing to know is that this blog will be where we start each day, and it will link you to everything else you will need for our class. We're very excited to get to know all of you, so let's get started!

Reminders for Wednesday (that's tomorrow):

• Review the syllabus.
• Fill out the student data form.
• Bring a book for reading in class.