Holiday Break is fast approaching as is the due dates for many assignments!!! 

Freshmen: Romeo and Juliet Creative Portfolios and Quote Hunting Packets are due December 20th by the end of the day.

Sophomores: We will be completing Duality Presentations for A Tale of Two Cities next class. 

Film as Lit: We will be viewing The Pianist as part of the Social Realism Unit. 

Film as Lit: After concluding Hitchcock, I encourage students to be observant of any Hitchcockian influence on contemporary films. We began the Social Realism unit by each researching various social injustices/issues. Students will have Research Projects due December 3rd.The main focus in the Social Realism unit is to make students understand the importance of acceptance and looking at social issues through the lens of an individual or a family rather than a statistic or number.

Please note the Essential Questions for this unit:

1. Can film be used as vehicle to help end social injustices?
2. How does film serve to evoke emotional responses in the audience on real-world issues?
3. What are the motivations behind certain films that portray real-world issues?
4. Is it true that “history repeats itself”?
5. Is studying history through film effective in sharing important life messages?

Sophomores: We began A Tale of Two Cities this week. Students will be completing various writing activities during workshops in class to prepare for MCAS.

Freshmen English: We started Romeo and Juliet this week...with enthusiasm! After performing 32-second versions of Romeo and Juliet, the class is ready to learn all about the intricacies of Romeo and Juliet. Students should stay current with their QUOTE HUNTING PACKETS. Use NoFearShakespeare as a resource for interpreting and studying Shakespeare.

 

 

 

IMPORTANT: DUE DATES FOR ENGLISH ESSAYS

Essay Due Dates (Early Essays** Accepted):

F&C Block: Due by Friday November 15.

D&E Block: Due by Tuesday November 19 in class.

**What's Due? All Process Materials and Final Draft.**

Sophomores: We just completed A Raisin in the Sun and are finalizing essays on Friday. We watched a short film clip on the French Revolution today as we prepare to study A Tale of Two Cities.

Film as Literature: We finished Hitchcock after watching A Shadow of  Doubt. Students are working on creating Facebook Profiles for some of Hitchcock's most famous characters. We also begin the Social Realism with Philadelphia today. 

Freshmen English: Below are the motif posters that Freshmen completed in pairs. Before this, we brainstormed all the motifs in The Glass Castle and groups chose a motif to artistically represent. These are all originally created by the students. They traced the motif throughout the story and created thesis statements that explain the importance of the motif to the story.

Last Week of October

English Classes: We are ending The Glass Castle Unit and A Raisin in the Sun Unit next week. We will conclude the units with discussions and then move to brainstorming, outlining, drafting, editing and finalizing essays. For both English I and II, the writing process for your essays will count as one test grade and the final draft will count as two test grades. Please know that this will greatly impact your first term grade.

Film as Literature: This week we are comparing and contrasting the formal and cultural elements of Hitchcock's three films to the contemporary film, Disturbia. After completing Psycho, everyone has the skills necessary to compare and contrast the formal (film techniques) aspects and the cultural (culture/themes) aspects of the films. Students will go beyond viewing for pure entertainment and work towards critiquing contemporary film. 

Pistachio's Psycho Commercial (Staying true to Hitchcock's montage in this scene!)

Happy Halloween!

Remember that first term grades close officially on November 12th. 

This Week...

It's spirit week!!! Show your school pride!! GO LANCERS.

Also, great work to all my students this week. Everyone has put forth tremendous amounts of effort so far this year...keep it up! I'm proud of you. 

Film as Literature students began viewing Psycho yesterday. In this viewing, they began identifying elements of pure cinema and mise en scene. These two techniques encompass all of the film terms we have covered this year. After we complete our study with Psycho, we will be doing a compare/contrast analysis to Disturbia. Students will need to have a strong understanding of formal and cultural elements of film to be able to do this. 

Sophomores began analyzing A Raisin in the Sun character Lindner as he attempts to dissuade the Younger family from moving into an all-white and racist neighborhood. The students will be analyzing his rhetorical devices in his speech--particularly by studying logos, ethos and pathos--and write a rebuttal to Mr. Lindner in the form of a letter. They will be using close reading strategies they learn to, not only critique Mr. Lindner's writing, but also they will be apply these persuasive writing techniques to their own writing. 

Freshmen are finishing The Glass Castle this week. They have been doing a great job in their jigsaw discussions. We will be discussing some tough yet real issues that real-life people face everyday. In addition to discussion major themes, we will be doing a creative study of motifs that are largely present in the novel. After the unit test, we will apply our knowledge and study nonfiction articles on themes we learned about in the novel. 

Important for Sophomores

*********************Important for Sophomores***************************

Sophomore English: I have uploaded an up-to-date syllabus for homework and class activities. Please refer to this from now on.



 

 



Important for Freshmen

****************************IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT***********************
Freshmen English Classes: I have uploaded an up-to-date syllabus for the next two weeks onto our Edline Pages. Make sure to reference this for homework, class activities and the final test date. Thanks for being flexible.

Film as Literature: Hitchcock Unit

Film as Literature: We have begun the Hitchcock Unit with Vertigo! During this unit, students will practice identifying and explaining the use and purpose of montage, voyeurism, point of view, sound/music and pure cinema. In addition, they will continue to study the use of close-ups, medium-shots and long shots in film.

In addition to the study of film techniques, we will also discuss Hitchcock's use of reoccurring themes and symbols...and his reoccurring use of Jimmy Stewart!

Important to remember: Hitchcock began his career in silent films. We will continue to discuss how this impacted his career as a "talkie"director. Pure cinema, a term coined by Hitchcock, focuses on the film techniques and acting as the means to convey the story and experience of film, not the dialogue...could this be his silent film influence?

What is the significance of the spiral motif in Vertigo?

October 15, 2013

Freshmen English: This week Freshmen will be continuing their discussions and readings on The Glass Castle. This question has guided many of our talking points:

In The Glass Castle, some characters seek complete freedom from society's rules while others seek the comforts and security that come from a "normal" life. What is more important to children: freedom or security?

What do you think?

To the left, you 
can see where the family travels throughout Jeannette's childhood. The family just got to Welch, West Virginia and yes...it does get worse before it gets better!

Film as Literature: Here is another Silent Film produced by Morgan, Sam, Joe, Sam, Sean and Nick! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAisr16vdfE&feature=youtu.be

Film as Literature: Look at this wonderfully made Silent Film by Bella, Julie, Kaitlin, Chris and Phillip! Kudos to Bella for doing such a skillful job editing, wow! Click on the youtube link below.

The Monster: A Silent Film (film link--working on making this accessible from the blog)

Sophomore English: Today we also reviewed vocabulary using the Smartboard. Below you can see a picture of the synonyms and antonyms for list 1 vocab words. After vocab review, we continued reading A Raisin in the Sun.

Freshmen English D&F: Today we reviewed vocab list 2 words. Below you can see pictures of personal connections and pictures for these words. More important, you can see Mr. Langmead facilitating vocabulary discussion! We are lucky to have Mr. Langmead as a co-teacher for D-block, thanks Mr. Langmead!!

Sophomore English: They did a nice job collaborating and completing the CWBS charts before we moved on to discussions and group readings. This was the first of many times that we will be using the Smartboard to help us learn.

Freshmen English F Block: Students wrote some creative Patterned Poems that help them learn to vary their sentence structures in all types of writing. They also demonstrate their understanding of plot, theme and characters through these poems. Also, you will see the working on the COW (computers on wheels) by drafting their Memoir "Snippets". Drafts are due next class and should be typed.

Freshmen English D Block: Here, students are working on varying their sentence structure through Patterned Poems--see the example below titled "Skedaddle." The "skedaddle" is a motif in The Glass Castle. Also, this was the first day we wrote on the Smart Board in class!

 

 

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It's October tomorrow!

Below is an overview of what we will be doing this week:

Sophomores: We will continue reading and discussing A Raisin in the Sun. We will practice summarizing what we read using CWBS strategy (Character-Wants-But-So).

Film as Literature: Students are finalizing their Silent Films. We will view them this week and I will hopefully we able to upload a few.

Freshmen English C, D, & F: We will be writing Memoir "Snippets" in class this week using the COW. We all found Jeannette's hot dog story an intriguing way to begin her memoir (or Mrs. Boudreau's "toothless Julie" story snippet). In addition, we will continue reading and discussing The Glass Castle.

Beginning of the Year

The beginning of the year has started off great! Below is a recap of what students did this week:

Sophomores: We just began A Raisin in the Sun today, after having worked tirelessly on our Research Papers. We also reviewed Freshmen Vocab words and learned about the PSATs. PSATs are on October 16.

Film as Literature: We are working on creating our own Silent Films after having watched three (okay maybe two) also silent films, The Kid (1921) and The Artist (2011). Everyone seems to be enjoying the process and are working on their acting skills! Films are due next class, I will post videos then! Below is a pic of the father and the kid from The Kid, scamming again! (But still how likeable!)

 

Freshmen English C, D & F: We have been reading and studying The Glass Castle, so far everyone is intrigued by the craziness of the Walls family. Last class we learned how to characterize using the STEAL strategy.

Below is some student work and as you can see it looks great!