Wednesday, Feb. 1--After School Update
Today we took the Unit 9 vocab quiz. Students received the all-important second-semester hall passes as well as a hand-out with procedure reminders/scheduling info. Information on it is not repeated here; be sure you've gotten, read it, and kept it. After the vocab quiz, we talked about the origins of the eight parts of speech as well as some anomalies that have resulted from applying grammatical analysis that worked for Greek to the very different structure of English.
Homework: Study pp. 1021-1022 and pp. 1038-1039 and use the information to correct your own answers to 1-30 of the diagnostic quiz. Due Thursday.

February 1,2006: New Month, New Semester
What we've done on the first two days of the new semester:

Monday--went over Unit 9 vocabulary, took a diagnostic grammar quiz (parts of speech; subjects and predicates), started filling out an error worksheet connecting the "20 Most Common Errors" with relevant sections in the Language Handbook part of your Elements text.
Homework Monday night: finish the sheet, including looking up the 20 errors online and checking exactly what each one means.

Tuesday--Overview of next few weeks leading up to the WASL dates for Writing and Reading: March 13-16. Received copies of _All Quiet on the Western Front_, and had about 30 minutes of reading time. (BTW, this blog format apparently lacks underlining. I will use a standard electronic alternative for texts which should actually be underlined. Please don't adopt this in your own written work!)
Homework: study for vocab unit 9 quiz

Reading Schedule for _All Quiet on the Western Front_:
Ch. 1-3 by Friday, 2/3
Ch. 4-6 by Thursday, 2/9
Ch. 7-9 by Friday, 2/17
Ch. 10-end by Thursday, 3/2

Wednesday, Jan. 11--Brainstorming and Pre-writing
All classes went through several steps to generate ideas about "moral complexity" related to _Night_ and other Holocaust-related material. The basic idea was to consider situations that are morally or ethically ambiguous, not offering the clear right/wrong, black/white distinction that Herr Knopp says young people believe in, but rather lead to compromise or outright violation. How do one's traditional values or ways of thinking change or become tested during times of extreme duress? You will examine the issue and come to a conclusion based on evidence from this unit.

We did three class activities to prepare for the actual homework; people who were absent on Wednesday do not need to repeat these steps, but DO ask to see the front side only of the "Messy Sheet from Class" from several of your friends. Then, on your own and NOT copying material from the back, do the homework that was due on Thursday: prepare a thesis and method statement for an essay about moral complexity. This involves only two sentences, one for your topic plus opinion, and the next indicating the three supporting examples (2 must be from Wiesel's book and one from other unit sources). However, these sentences will become the main idea and "road map" for an essay.

Also tomorrow: Vocab Quiz 8; turn in unit HWP.

Tuesday, Jan. 10--Split activities again
2nd, 3rd, 4th--Guest speaker, Holocaust survivor Jack Pariser
5th and 6th--finished "Swing Kids" video. Vocab 8 checked (but not stamped) in 5th period; 6th
period will do that first thing tomorrow. Assigned 3 "Essential Questions" as #10 in HWP (see yesterday's explanation).

Monday, Jan. 9th--Activities varied according to class period.
2nd, 3rd, 4th: Finished watching "Swing Kids" film; checked Vocab Unit 8 (NOT stamped)
5th, 6th: Guest speaker, a Holocaust survivor who showed a video, spoke further about personal experiences, and answered questions.
Assignment updates for everyone:
HWP due on Thursday, Jan. 12--#9 is the completed "Swing Kids" Character Chart, and #10 is to write three "Essential Questions" for this unit that capture important ideas pertaining to any of the material (see full list on board).
Vocab Quiz 8 will be on Thursday in all classes

Friday, Jan. 6--All classes continued watching the video "Swing Kids." All classes will also prepare Vocab Unit 8 for next week. Unit 8 will be stamped and checked on Monday in periods 2, 3, and 4; periods 5 and 6 will do this on Tuesday.

Tuesday, Jan. 3: Welcome back. Checked Vocab Unit 7 (quiz Thursday). Viewed 1955 French video "Night and Fog."

Wednesday, Jan. 4: Two hand-outs: Solid-sentence I.D.'s (turn in Thurs.) and response to Leitner's "New York, May 1945" (stamped Thurs.) Read two selections from hard-back edition of Night: Weitz, "Mauthausen, May 1945" (pp. 145-148) and Unsdorfer, "The Yellow Star" (pp. 151-158). Jot down notes as needed for your own use.

Thursday, Jan. 5: Turned in practice I.D.'s, stamped Leitner response. Took Vocab Quiz 7. Started "Swing Kids" video--keep character chart updated daily.