Tue, Sep 16, 2014 Daily Agenda

Mon, Sep 15, 2014 Daily Agenda

Pre-AP English 10 Awarded Art Start Grant

The Pre-AP English 10 team is excited to announce that today we were awarded an Art Start grant for the third year in a row.  Art Start grants are funded through Minnesota Legacy Funds and given to educators and organizations committed to preserving Minnesota's heritage.

Last year we used the grant to take 60 EHS students on a two-day seminar to Ft. Snelling State Park to learn the Dakota language, write poetry, create art, explore the park's ecology, and discuss the history of Minnesota. Our teachers for those two days were: Dr. Gwen Westerman, an English professor and poet from Mankato State University and author of Mni Sota Makoce and Follow the Blackbirds; Glenn Wasicuna, a first speaker of the Dakota language and teacher at Dakota Wicohan; and Julie Boada, an Anishinabe artist and puppeteer.

Read this Sun Current article to find out more about last year's amazing experience.

Passion Project Pep Talks

EHS juniors having been visiting Pre-AP English 10 classrooms this week discussing their Passion Projects and encouraging sophomores to make the most of this awesome personalized learning opportunity. In this photo Amelia B. provides a sample passion project to Ms. Hatten's 1st hour.

Ongoing Reading and Reflection for Slaughterhouse-5

There are ten chapters in this book.  You have already read the first chapter.  Set aside one entry in your blog for each of the nine remaining reading assignments.

You may select from two tiers.  Select the assignment that best suits your reading and thinking needs

 TIER 1
•Give each chapter a meaningful title
•List 3-5 important plot developments and/or character revelations in each chapter
•Select and write out (word-for-word) the single most significant passage from the reading.  Cite the page number.
•Follow each passage with a thoughtful and thorough commentary about why the passage is important.  This discussion should include attention to theme, character development, conflict development, symbol, etc. 

 TIER 2
•Give each chapter a meaningful title
•Select and write out (word-for-word) 2 to 3 significant passages from the reading overall.  Cite the page numbers. 
•Follow each passage with a thoughtful and thorough commentary/analysis of theme, character development, tension/conflict development, etc.
•Basically, you are writing CERs where you TWIST the passage.

 

Minnesota Colonialism Blog Assignments

Blog Post #1 (worth 3 points)
Title your post "Introductory Reflection"
Please do a 300 word free write on the following topics:
What you know, think, or kind of think about Native American culture
What you know, think, or kind of think about Native American culture in Minnesota
What you know, think or kind of think about the Dakota Nation
What you know, think or kind of think about the Dakota-US War of 1862

Blog Post #2 (worth 5 points)
Title your post "Dakota Spirituality, Myths, and my Spirituality"
Step 1: Research Dakota Spirituality and list 5 main ideas or values in Dakota Spirituality
Step 2: Find a Dakota Myth and put a link to it in your blog
Step 3: Briefly summarize this Dakota Myth
Step 4: Write a CER paragraph that identifies one of the main ideas/values from Step 1 in your myth
Step 5: Write a thoughtful reflection that compares and contrasts your spiritual beliefs with what you identified in the previous steps about Dakota Spirituality. 

Blog Post #3 (worth 5 points)
Title your post "The Oral Tradition"
Step 1: research the Oral Tradition and put a link to a background article(s) in your blog
Step 2: explain in your own words what the oral tradition is
Step 3: describe an oral tradition from your own culture/background/family
Step 4: reflect, using personal experience, what makes an oral storytelling tradition unique, special or valuable
Step 5: discuss how the oral tradition fits with your understanding of Dakota Spirituality from Blog Post #2

HW Blog - "How To Write About..."

For this assignment write a short, sarcastic essay to parody the Single Story of some group you belong to.  Title your piece, "How to Write About..."

Write 3 short paragraphs that emphasize some of the stereotypes of the people being described.

 Due by 8:10 AM Friday, November 9, published to blog
Worth 4 classwork points

For example:

How To Write About An English Teacher

Use key words like "bookish," "nerdy," "stuffy," "pretentious," and "awkward."  English teachers are all insecure and self-conscious.  Their personalities reflect an over-intellectual attitude that borders on arrogance.  They like to use big words, mostly just to impress their friends - the few that they have.  The love proper grammar and jump at the chance to correct your mistakes.

Be sure to highlight the old-fashioned way they look.  Tweed is a must and probably cardigan sweaters and wool - slacks for men, skirts for women.   Black turtlenecks are a must, for when they go to the coffee shop to read poetry.  The men have conservative, short-cropped hairstyles, with the occasional longhair, counterculture, ponytail type mixed in.  Women have straight, unremarkable hairstyles, often pulled into a ponytail or bun.  If they wear make-up, it's minimal, and you'll find a smear of lipstick on a front tooth.

The most exciting thing in an English teacher's life is to talk about Shakespeare or any other boring old, dead, white guy - Hemingway or Steinbeck.  If you really want to get on their good side, talk about a British author and use words like "mood," "tone," symbolic," "allegory."  Extra points if you prefer the book version better than the movie version.  Whole evenings can be spent complaining about the attention span or unsophisticated interests of the students.   Video games and YouTube are equal to the devil.