Wednesday, February 8, 2012

ENGLISH - 1^st trimester – Day 40

WARMUP: Without looking at your handouts, write down the definitions to each of these 5 words (remembering the tricks?): jaded, advocate, gist, charisma, efface

With the remaining 5 words, come up with memory tricks (ogre, mesmerize, entity, bandy, dastardly)

·         Write down the questions and your response to each of the following:

1.      What surprised me recently?        

2.      What’s bugging me?

3.      What is changing?

4.      What did I expect to happen that didn’t?

5.      Why did something make me so mad?

6.      What do I keep remembering?

7.      What have I learned?

·         In a half-page, tell the story behind one of your answers above.

·         Next, we graded our paragraphs using the same 3 questions as yesterday:

1.      What reactions do you have to your paragraph?

2.      What letter grade do you give it? (explain why)

3.      List 2 questions you would like to ask the writer.

·         We answered the following questions in paragraph fashion:

o   What does “boring” look like?

o   What does “fun” look like?

§  Imagine having taken a picture of “fun” on your phone and describing that picture to a person who is blind.

§  Cedar Point vs. “My knuckles were white, the breeze was ripping my eyebrows out hair by hair, I was glad I had on a pullover top because other passengers buttons were flying past me like bullets, they were screaming like they were being shot at, I tried to focus on the end, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t get past the monstrous hill in front of me...death seemed imminent. But, truth be told, I’d do it again and again and again!”

·         This is a SHOW paragraph.

·         Discuss the difference between tell statements: “It was a really exciting and fun day,” and “Homework is boring” and show statements.

ENGLISH homework:

1.      Study for Friday’s vocabulary test (Lesson 5: jaded, gist, advocate…)

2.      Change the “tell” statement “My room is a mess” into a “show” side of paper

3.      Bring in a non-fiction article of someone making a good choice.

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PLAYWRITING – Day 40

Return graded scripts.

Review script edits in “Amy”

Discussed critics, criticism, and listening

Read article by Brenda Ueland about listening

Combine 2 groups of 2 from yesterday’s pairings. Listen to each other’s scripts (last night’s homework) and write responses according to the following formula (re: Barry Lane):

1. Start positively

2. Praise specifically

3. Ask CURIOUS questions

4. Ask HELPFUL questions

After listening to all 4, choose 1 from each group to perform.

PLAYWRITING homework:

None.