Semester 2
January 30 – February 3
Warm-ups this week include writing conventions including verb tense usage, using colons, and fixing run-on sentences. Students make a final draft of a model essay they wrote about the innocence of Johnny Cade in the self-defense killing of Bob Sheldon in The Outsiders. Students used the novel, and the legal definitions of self-defense, and murder as evidence. The four-paragraph essay is accompanied by a bibliography, or works cited page, and a mind mirror about Johnny.
February 6 – February 10.
Warm-ups this week include verb conjugations and plural forms of nouns. Students are introduced to Plato’s three persuasive techniques – Pathos – Ethos and Logos. They will do a “card sort” in which they match up commercial scenarios with the persuasive technique being used in them. Next, students watch 13 commercials, and determine what persuasive technique was used in each, and how the technique was shown in each ad. Lastly, students begin drafting an advertising campaign for a product they create, which will be presented orally in the next couple of weeks.
February 13 – February 16
Warm ups include sentence structure and verb usage. Students finish drafting ad campaigns and work on final drafts.
February 21- February 24
Warm ups include dialogue formatting, punctuation and sentence structure. Students complete ad campaigns and write and rehearse oral component. Oral presentations begin Thursday, and continue until next week.
February 27 – March 2
This week warm ups include working with colons and semi-colons, and apostrophes. Students finish oral presentations, and begin a group project. Each group receives a different expository or persuasive article. They split it up, and summarize its parts. Then, they will reach a consensus on a persuasive position, or thesis on the topic, and select the two to three best pieces of supporting evidence. Next, they will construct a counterargument and rebuttal. Finally, students present the data to their classmates, as a way of exposing them to different national and international issues.
March 5 – March 9
Warm-ups include using dashes, semicolons, and colons, as well as commas in a series. Students work on nonfiction collaborative posters in groups. Presentations will begin next week.
March 12 – March 16
Students create posters about world issues, using a persuasive paper format, and present the poster and topic orally to the class. No warm-ups.
March 19- March 23
Students choose a topic, and collect evidence for a persuasive research paper. Each class will also take benchmark 3 test.No warm ups.
March 26 – March 30
Students collect evidence, read it thoroughly, define unknown words, develop an argument and thesis, and decide where the facts should go in their persuasive outlines.
April 9 – April 13
No warm-ups this week. Students draft the first two paragraphs of their research persuasive paper.
April 16-April 20
No warm-ups this week. Students finish drafting their second paragraph, and move onto paragraph 3. Three of this week’s four lessons will be review of all three benchmarks taken this year, in preparation for the CST’s which begin next week.
April 23-April 27
CST testing.
April 30-May 4
CST testing.
May 7-May 11
This week students will complete warm-up packet 2 and turn it in. We will complete the draft of our persuasive essays, the bibliography, and the cover page. Depending on students’ progress, the essay may be submitted on Friday – depending on if there is time for editing and revision.
May 14 – May 18
No warm-ups this week. Periods 1,2,3,7 begin reading Freak the Mighty for Response to Literature. Students read chapters 1-10, and take a quiz on chapters 1-5. Monday the 21st, they will have a quiz on chapters 6-10. Periods 5 and 6 begin reading Fahrenheit 451. Students complete the reading of three-quarters of the first section – “The Hearth and the Salamander.”
