Theme: perseverance often allows us to become stronger individuals

Coyotes,

As I reflect back on this past week, the first word that comes to my mind is ‘perseverance’.  We were tested emotionally with the tragic loss of one of our beloved Coyotes, we were tested physically/mentally with late night homework marathons, and we were tested on our ability, amidst the already challenging tasks this week, to persevere through challenge and loss, which is the greatest test you’ll ever take. Fortunately, a growth mindset welcomes challenge as a means of becoming better/stronger, and it was an honor to see you all ‘grow’ this week.

This week, we read Ursula K LeGuin’s ‘The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas’ before practicing summary and analysis of the theme ‘we often make great sacrifices for what we believe in’. We then compared the ways in which Harrison Bergeron and the teens who left Omelas approached their conflicts by writing a comparative analysis.  We will culminate our analysis on Monday by creating a dual diorama depicting the scenes discussed in our analyses.  Many of your responses have been insightful thus far, and I am pleased to see that you are beginning to make ‘analysis’ a natural part of your reading/writing.

Enjoy the weekend, take time to 'smell the roses', and I'll see you Tuesday/Wednesday.

~Mr. Allen

RAFTs Are In!

Hey Coyotes,

Let me begin by offering a well-deserved congratulations for the personal narratives that you showcased in class yesterday! The hard work and creative effort you invested into your RAFTs during the past three weeks was evident in the responses elicited by your peers upon reviewing/listening to your pieces, and I was certainly pleased with the level of writing that I saw emerge from your papers.  You have effectively employed the narrative strategies that we practiced in class, but more importantly you took risks with your writing by trying these new strategies while openly discussing very personal, meaningful moments in your life. I am honored to have been able to read them. Thank you.

Upon submitting the final RAFTs, we used laptops and iPads to respond to fellow authors, providing feedback and recognizing the strengths of each paper. We then conducted an 'Authors Chair' in order to provide authors with a larger audience with which to share their narratives. Great pieces!

In regards to reading, we began practicing strategies for identifying and correctly stating a theme from a given piece of literature. Your insight and discussion regarding ‘Harrison Bergeron’ and ‘Fahrenheit 451’ demonstrated your ability to take the greater themes of the pieces and apply them to our current world. Well done!

As we head into our next week, we will focus on comparing and contrasting the motivations of literary characters in these stories, performing analysis of author styles, and begin using our reading blogs to track our reading progress.

Be well, enjoy the weekend, and I’ll see you Monday morning.

Mr. Allen

Characters, Setting, Mood, Oh My!

Hey, Coyotes!

Thank you for another week of hard work and "creative elbow grease". As a result of your focus, we were able to analyze the various ways in which authors use "setting" to enhance the "mood" of a text. You then utilized the same strategy by incorporating "mood makers" into your RAFT personal narratives, which are coming along beautifully.  Along with enhancing your setting, you practiced "exploding" various 'big moments' in your pieces by slowing down the action and flooding those scenes with sensory details for the reader to chew on -- nice work!

By the end of the week, you appeared confident and ready to show me what you knew by taking the narrative unit quiz.  To prepare for the exam, you wrote an "on demand" creative fiction piece that utilized the concepts, strategies, skills, and vocabulary that you had learned during the prior weeks, simultaneously making you eligible to submit your piece on NPR's website as an entry in their "3-Minute Fiction" writing contest (remember to submit your piece by 9pm on Sunday).

All in all, I'd say you were "in it to win it" this week, and I thank you for your effort.  Let's carry that same energy and effort into this next week when we analyze theme, begin using our reading blogs, and place the finishing touches on our RAFTs (final due Friday).

Have a great weekend, good luck in your games/tournaments/

performances, and I hope to see you rested and refreshed Monday morning.

~Mr. Allen

Back to School!

It pleases me to welcome everyone to a new school year, and to what I anticipate to be a thoroughly enjoyable and challenging experience in English class!

Our initial Unit of Study is titled 'Everyone Has a Story', and thus far we've analyzed two short, fictional narratives ('Rules of the Game' & 'The Treasure of Lemon Brown') in which we took a closer look at the themes of 'emerging sense of independence' and 'static vs. dynamic characters'. The resulting conversations prepared us to draft two written pieces (letter to parents & a defining moment in our life) that examined the way in which these themes are reflected in our own daily experiences.

Students have impressed me with the degree of effort they've invested into our readings and conversations over the course of three weeks -- as is evident in their written pieces -- and I greatly look forward to further developing what already appear to be strong reading/writing skill foundations.

Thank you, students and parents, for a great beginning to what will surely prove to be another memorable year.

~Mr. Allen

Giving Voice to Expository Writing

 Anne Frank theme dioramas are in, and they look great! Our students worked hard to ensure that they were able not only to depict their theme visually, but were able to support that depiction with a CEE paragraph (Claim, Evidence, & Explanation).  Videos will be posted soon!

We also completed our latest RAFTs in which students chose a Role, an Audience, a Format, and a Topic about which they could write.  To enhance these pieces, we focused on “word choice”, specifically the way in which vivid, yet precise words strengthen the author’s message and effect felt by her audience.

This week, we are focusing on two new components of writing: the expository writing genre, and the “voice” writing trait. I’ve noticed that the overwhelming majority of students appear to uphold the impression that expository writing – research writing in particular – is dry, dull, and uninspiring.  Let’s be honest: it can be.  Therefore, in an effort to support the students’ Civil War research projects in History class, we will focus on strategies for using “voice” to give pizazz to their writing.  My goal is to demonstrate how research and informative writing can be fun! (we began with an article about Steven Tyler from Rolling Stone Magazine to make the point). 

Stay tuned, and please write-in with any questions or concerns.

Back-to-Business!

I hope that the week-long hiatus rejuvenated students, teachers, and families alike.  As we return to our regularly scheduled program in English this week, we will focus on examining the various themes in the screenplay version of The Diary of Anne Frank. 

Students will be working in collaborative groups to create 360 degree dioramas depicting various scenes from the play that visually support their designated thematic statement. The visual element will be supported by a writing component, which, when combined (1 analytic paragraph per student = 4 paragraphs), will construct a response to literature essay analyzing the ways in which the authors of the play depicted the theme throughout the narrative.

Students will utilize analysis of text skills, persuasive writing techniques, collaborative strategies, and effective elements of presentation to communicate their findings.  In order to accommodate students' various learning styles, the theme diorama projects honors multiple intelligences and provides an artistic/creative medium as a means of demonstrating knowledge. 

I will update this entry with videos and photos of the projects as they begin to unfold in class. Stay tuned!

~Mr. Allen

Spring Break!

Have a safe, relaxing, and fun Spring Break! I can't wait to hear stories of what you did and what you read.

~Mr. Allen