9/6/07

Unfortunately, I was out with a cold this day. Here are the instructions I left for the sub:

Lesson Plans for 9/6

*Note: The bell cannot be heard out here. Please dismiss students at the proper time, not earlier. (I do not give students extra time to walk to their next class.)

English 4 (Period 1 & 7)

Before students arrive in class, please write the following prompts on the rolling white board:

1. What words would you use to describe yourself and why?
2. Write about someone who has been important to you. Describe the person and explain his/her significance to you.
3. Describe an interesting place you have been to and what your thoughts and impressions were while you were there.
4. Write about an obstacle you have faced. How did you deal with it? How did you overcome it?
5. Describe your home/family. How have they helped make you who you are? In what ways have you broken away from their influence?
6. What is the most important thing you have ever learned? How did you learn it?
7. What activities have you participated in? Why did you choose them? What has the experience been like?
8. Write about the most significant event in your life. How did it change you?
9. Write about some of the goals you have set for yourself. How did you or how do you plan to meet these goals?

As students arrive in class, instruct them to use class time to answer each of the prompts in no less than a paragraph each.

Period 2—Prep.

Study Skills (Period 3)

As students arrive in class, instruct them to get their SSR book from the table. Let them know that they will be doing SSR today and that we will return to the CAHSEE prep workbooks when I return.

English 3 (Periods 4 &6)

Before students arrive, please write the following vocabulary words on one side of the front board. (You will need to retract the screen.)

1. scarce
2. oppress
3. marvel
4. proportion
5. pilfer
6. tavern
7. commonwealth
8. remote
9. bind
10. thatch
11. expedition
12. grim
13. courtier
14. feast
15. barbarous
16. consultation
17. prevail
18. settler
19. attendant
20. provision

Have students work in pairs to define the words and create sentences. (They may turn in one paper for each pair. Students may also work alone if they so choose.) Dictionaries are scattered around the room, but there are only enough for each pair to use one.

AP (Period 5)

Before students arrive, please write the following prompt on one side of the front board:

Critic Roland Barthes has said, “Literature is the question minus the answer.” Choose a novel or play and, considering Barthes’ observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers any answers. Explain how the author’s treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

Instruct students, working in pairs, to rephrase the prompt as a question. Students should then decide in pairs on a novel or play they will use and then brainstorm answers to their question. Students should then use this information to write a thesis statement.

With the time remaining in class, students may work on defining this week’s vocabulary words.