11/13/15 - LA MESA ONLY11/13/2015 In today's class, we watched a TED talk by a contemporary African author. This talk touches on the cultural significance of the novel, Things Fall Apart, and the importance of being able to tell your own story. Students then wrote on and discussed the following questions: Have you ever believed a “single story” about a person, place, or group of people? What was the story? How did you come to hear the other sides of this story? Have you ever been the victim of a single story? What was the situation? What is the relationship between power and storytelling? How did this talk affect your view of the novel, Things Fall Apart? Your homework is attached below. The reading assignment is to read to the end of Part 2 in Things Fall Apart.
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11/12/15 - CHULA VISTA ONLY11/13/2015 In today's class, students had additional time to work on the literature questions handed out last class. Your packet of homework for next week is attached below.
11/10/15 - CHULA VISTA ONLY11/12/2015 We began today's class by going over the response questions for the article on US involvement in Syria. I then collected the news article homework as well as your literature questions homework. Next, I handed out a second set of literature questions for your novels. These questions were in-class work. You will have more time to complete them next class. There is no homework since tomorrow is Veterans Day.
11/5/15 - 11/6/1511/12/2015 In today's class, we focused on a recent news story. We began by watching some short videos that outlined this news story and why it is significant. These videos can be found at the bottom of this webpage: http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/daily-news-article/u-s-to-deploy-special-forces-to-syria-in-about-face-for-obama/ After watching the videos and discussing their contents, I handed out a news article on the story. It is attached below with some response questions. Students collaborated to complete the response questions. Your homework is to read chapters 11-13 in Things Fall Apart and complete the response questions attached below.
11/3/15 - 11/4/1511/5/2015 In today's class, we worked on some discussion questions for chapters 7 and 8 of Things Fall Apart. We will be discussing them next class. Your homework is to complete any of the discussion questions that you didn't finish in class. In addition please begin another independent vocab list. It is due in one week.
CHULA VISTA ONLY: If you are reading a novel other than Things Fall Apart, your homework is, instead of the above, to complete the attached assignments. They are due in one week. The first one can be completed before beginning your novel. The second one should be completed after making some progress in your novel.
10/29/15 - 10/30/1510/29/2015 In today's class, I collected your homework for chapters 5 and 6 of Things Fall Apart. Then, we did an in-class writing assignment. It is attached below. Your homework is to read chapters 7-8 of Things Fall Apart. We will be doing an in-class assignment on those chapters next class.
Note: If you are one of the students who spoke with me today about your reservations regarding the novel, you should be getting another novel from the list I provided; it can be a library copy, an online or PDF copy, or a purchased copy. Please get ahold of your book and begin reading it ASAP. We will talk more about what you'll be doing with these books next class. 10/27/15 - 10/28/1510/29/2015 We began today's class with a brief quickwrite: -What do you think of the novel, Things Fall Apart, so far? What do you like and/or dislike about it? We discussed student responses and then went over the homework for chapters 1-4 of Things Fall Apart. Next, I gave a powerpoint presentation on the historical and cultural context of the novel. It also covered some of the themes of the novel. It is attached below. Next, we read an article by a social psychologist and applied his theories to Things Fall Apart. Your homework is to read chapters 5-6 of the novel and complete the attached homework.
10/22/15 - 10/23/1510/26/2015 In today's class we focused on some current events involving whistleblowers and the US government. We began with definitions and a quickwrite:
A whistleblower is a person who exposes any kind of information or activity that is deemed illegal, dishonest, or not correct within an organization that is either private or public. Whistleblowers have emerged from different government agencies, such as military and intelligence agencies (like the CIA), to expose wrongdoings on the part of the US government. 1. Why do you think a whistleblower would be willing to come out against activities of the US government even though they will be labelled a traitor and face serious criminal charges? 2. Who is Edward Snowden? What is he famous for? 3. Why do you think people seek positions of power in the government? Think of as many different reasons as possible. We discussed student responses to the quickwrite questions and then read an article on the disclosures of a recent whistleblower on the US's military drone program. Students read the article and wrote a one-paragraph summary of the main points. In groups, we then read a few other articles and discussed the implications of what the anonymous whistleblower revealed. All of the articles from this class are available in the "Resources" section of the website. 10/20/15 - 10/21/1510/23/2015 In today's class, I handed back all of your work from LP 1. Then, I handed out our class novel, Things Fall Apart. If you chose to read the book on the computer instead of checking out a hard copy, an online version of the novel is located in the "Resources" section of this website. We then did an activity involving some of the main topics and themes of the novel. We wrote about and discussed these topics. Lastly, I handed out your homework. It is attached below.
10/15/15 - 10/16/1510/19/2015 Today, we finished the film that we began last class. After completing the film, students had time to finish the questions for the film that were handed out last class. After that, students were divided into four groups and each group had one question to answer in depth with examples from the film. Each group discussed their assigned question and presented an answer to the class. The questions were as follows: Group 1: How does Chaplin characterize the relationship between people and machines? How does he specifically do this through the use of on-screen images and character interactions? Group 2: What do you think is the message of this movie? Do you agree or disagree with it? How did Chaplin communicate this message? What scenes or events particularly helped him communicate this? Group 3: How does Chaplin manage to create comedy without sound? Compare to today: how do most comedy movies today make you laugh? Group 4: What kind of social issues are involved in this film? Why do you think Chaplin wanted to take on such serious issues in a comedy movie? Lastly, I handed out the homework. It is attached below and due next class. Have a nice weekend :)
AuthorChris Trompas - English teacher at the Learning Choice Academy in Chula Vista and La Mesa, CA. Archives
June 2016
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