Humanities: Continuing to RAFT Merryweather High

We'll start the day with Roots 9 because that didn't happen yesterday.

From there, we'll split into work areas, both Ryder's and Dunbar's rooms, to work on the Merryweather High Orientation RAFT.    Remember, this is an orientation design for Melinda's high school; not Mt. Blue.  We are doing this as a prototype in our design process for designing the Mt. Blue Transition.

At 1:25, we will get back to Speak.  One room will be for independent reading and the other will be a read-aloud-get-questions-answered with Mr. Ryder

HOMEWORK
Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Posts:
2 Req'd Post for the Week
1) Give yourself grades for the first semester, similar to how Melinda grades herself.  Notice that she grades herself in things that aren't just academic classes. After grading yourself, include the reasons behind your grades.  Be specific and clear.

2) Brainstorm the video/transition experience for the incoming ninth graders in April.  List every idea of what that video could be, what the activities could look like, or what else could happen next fall.

Need ideas for more blog posts?  Check out the tag "Blogger Fodder" and the videos/links that have been posted.

Read: Complete the "First Ranking Period" (pg 46)

Due: Thursday, Feb 6

Roots: Roots 9 Product & Quiz

Roots Quiz 9 (6, 7, 8, 9) & Product Due: Thursday, Feb 6

AP Lit: Literary 3x3s: James Joyce & Dubliners

Here's the work we've been doing with Literary 3x3s & Joyce's Dubliners.

We only read four of the stories:

• "Araby"
• "Eveline"
• "The Boarding House"
• "The Dead"

The selection was chosen because of common threads running across those particular texts, relative ease of reading and lack of background knowledge required to understand even the nuances, and because they represent something of a life arc, beginning with childhood in "Araby," late adolescence in "Eveline," early adulthood in "The Boarding House," and mature adulthood and old age in "The Dead."

After creating literary 3x3s for each of the stories, we put them on index cards to build Joyce decks.  (We used letters in the corners of each to indicate which cards belong to which story.)

We did a variety of activities with them including:

• Finding common threads across the four stories by "tapping" (a la Magic: The Gathering) related cards.
• Shuffling the deck, laying out nine cards, and trying to determine which story emerges from the deal.
• Swapping decks and trying to determine the original creators' intended 3x3s layouts.
• Partners dealing out nine cards each and finding common threads across two different decks.

We will be keeping these decks and coming back to them using other author's works as we try to identify common threads across the other literature we read this year.

Here are some pics of the work we've done.

AP Lit 2B/3B: Joycean 3x3s & Frankliners

We start with MUGS Apostrophes 3 Quiz.

And from there . . .

We pull out our 3x3 decks from Joyce's Dubliners stories.  (If you weren't here the other day, you need to finish building yours.)

We will experiment a bit with those decks as we try to uncover common threads and big thinking across the four stories.

Then we deep dive in Joyce's actual language, uncovering evidence of his style in across these four stories.

• Fusion of Fiction w Reality
• Real places, real buildings, even real people appear amongst the fiction
• Epiphany
• awakening/understanding
• appeals to all 5 senses
• Free Indirect Discourse 
• a particular style of stream of consciousness
• fluid movement between narrator and character
• Manipulation of Language and Aesthetics
• experiments with word play, structure, linguistics, genre

All of this in the service of writing brilliant "Frankliners" short stories and narrative poetry.

What am I talking about?  THIS!  

Frankliners Project!

HOMEWORK

Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post: Create a visual 3x3 of the town (or county) where you live.  What does that place mean to you?  How can you capture your relationship with your town through pictures?  Consider taking or drawing/painting your own.  Give considerable thought to how you arrange them.

MUGS: Apostrophes 3 on NoRedInk.com
Quiz: Thursday/Friday Feb 6 & 7


Read & Annotate: How to Read Lit Like a Professor "Geography Matters . . ."
Post: Annotations on the blog

Heads Up: Frankenstein is next!  Will need to be read by Thursday AFTER Feb break.  Let me know if you need a hard copy.  Many, many, many places to get it free online including here.