Welcome back from Minimester! We heard excellent reports about you all, and it sounds like a great experience all around.

Volleyball Team:

a. Please go over the entire Civil War Dialogue Letter Packet. We read both letters, discussed techniques used in each that you can use when you write your letters. We also looked at the rubric. Please be sure you do so and ask me any questions.

b. Please read the attached handout to give you background to help you when you start your Civil War books! Civil War Cheat Sheet

Due Tuesday:

1. TBAS-Read ch. 5, the last chapter on slave resistance.  Select two more examples of resistance that interest you, give their page numbers, say why you chose them and what the goal for the slaves was of each example. 

2. Read your Civil War book for 25 minutes at least.

O N G O I N G

Due Friday: Your first Civil War letter to your partner!  Minimum 1 and a half pages, 1.5 spacing.

Minimester is here! Meet at high school at 8:30 AM sharp on Wednesday. If you are unsure about how to get there, meet in front of our 6th Avenue Building at 8:20 to meet up with Niles to walk you over to 40 Charlton Street (Thanks, Niles!). You will continue to meet at the high school through Friday afternoon, according to the agreements of your group. I’ll see you there! It’s going to F U N. :)

Minimester Reminders:

• Josh, Adam, Cheyenne, Violet: You will need bag lunches and drinks on both Wednesday and Thursday.
• Lenny–bring in 5 songs you think are well written and great on iPod or CD. Bring your guitar, if possible.
• Olivia, Parker, Catherine–remember to bring in or wear yoga clothes
• CROSS COUNTRY: Meet Carin on Thursday in the lobby for your meet at 2:00PM.
• If you are on campus for lunch, 8th and 9th graders may not leave the building to eat or for any other reason.

Due Monday, October 26:  * Please plan ahead so you don’t have to do all this work over the weekend. In fact, why not complete it before then? *

1. Civil War Fiction: Bring in your own copy of your Civil War book (see posts earlier this week for details & list to choose from). Start looking and ordering NOW!
2. TBAS: Complete “Assignment II on Resistance to Slavery: The Second Half of Chapter 4” (which is on the reverse side/bottom of the handout posted yesterday).
3. Lincoln ch. 3: Complete vocabulary, read the chapter and answer the questions on this handout on the chapter. Lincoln3vocab&questions

Check out the “Theme for English B”-inspired poems on the bulletin board in the lobby when you come to school on Monday! Great job, everyone.  :)

Due Monday, October 19:

• Read Lincoln: A Photobiography, ch. 1 & 2. Be ready for a reading quiz on the material, much like the one you did today on TBAS ch. 3.

• Select and order or buy in a bookstore your Civil War Independent Book Project book due Monday, October 26. Start this process now so you have it in your hand on time for this important due date. Remember, you will have about one month to read the book and you will also want to select something on your reading level or a bit above it so you are able to fulfill the assignment.  Here is the list from which you may select. CivilWarBookChoices0910

Due Friday:

Read To Be a Slave ch. 3.  Be ready for a reading quiz (16 pages).  Compose two discussion questions that the chapter makes you think of.

Due Monday:

Read Lincoln ch. 1 & 2. Be ready for a reading quiz on the material.

Due Wednesday:

Launching Writer’s Workshop

• You need your writer’s notebook in school on Wednesday
• Complete the first entry for this year in your writer’s notebook using the handout. WritingWorkshopLaunch

To Be a Slave–Chapter 2 “The Auction Block”

• Read pp. 39-49 carefully (you may want to look at the assignment for tomorrow night to have in mind as you read  or even to use post-its as you go).

Due Thursday:

To Be a Slave (TBAS)–Chapter 2 “The Auction Block”–Writing a Response

• Make a list of at least 4 things one can do when responding to a text.  You may look at your notes about annotating to help you.
• Finish reading chapter 2, pp. 49-58 in TBAS
• Write a 3/4 page, typed response to the chapter. Your response must demonstrate you have read the chapter by including references to the text, including page numbers.

Reminder: I will be out tomorrow, Friday! You will have a sub. Please be sure I receive an excellent report from him/her. Have a great weekend! :)

Due Friday:

• Based our activity in class, revise your family/friend interview, add in your photo if you haven’t.

• Turn it in your final draft with your rough draft and your peer edit sheet.

• Consider reading ahead before the weekend.

Note: you will be sharing your work aloud in groups of 3 tomorrow.

Due Tuesday, October 13:

1.    Read chapter 1 of TBAS and select 3 passages you find striking, interesting or important. Copy down the page # and then write a paragraph about each passage, saying why you chose it, responding to it and/or connecting it to other parts of the text.

2.    Complete reading the article about Michelle Obama and slavery from Thursday’s NYTimes.  Underline important sections.  Write a letter that is ¾ of a page long to Michelle Obama. Begin with [Dear Ms. Obama] and sign your name. In your letter, detail your reaction to the article about her family history, including at least one quotation from the article. You may want to connect it to our study of To Be a Slave.

Note: Here is a link to the article:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/us/politics/08genealogy.html.  There are also 35 primary source documents loaded onto the NYTimes webiste that show how the historian did her work! Very cool. We will look at these next week.

Continue reading →

Due Thursday:

• Bring in a rough draft of your interview, typed up 1-2 pages.  Be sure you: 1/have the proper heading shown in the assignment sheet 2/ use at least 3 direct quotations c/ anyone can understand the event your interviewee is talking about, even if he/she has never heard of it.
• BE SURE YOU HAVE AN ELECTRONIC COPY OF YOUR INTERVIEW SO THAT WE CAN WORK ON IT IN CLASS.  Use email or your flash drive to get it here.

Due Friday:

• Revise your interview based on our peer-editing in class; add in the photograph and turn it in!

Due Wednesday:

• Read TBAS pages 13-27 (the original author’s note and the prologue). Remember what we discussed: Julius Lester’s writing explaining the primary sources is in regular type. The italics are for the quotations/primary souces from the slaves or documents. Read carefully and be ready for a quiz!
• Complete your family/friend historical interview and if you have time, begin typing.

Due Thursday:

• Bring in a rough draft of your interview, typed up 1-2 pages.

Due Friday:

• Complete typing up your interview, add in the photograph and turn it in!

Due Tuesday:

• Read pages 3-11 in To Be a Slave and then complete the assignment. TBASPREVIEW

Due Wednesday:

• Complete your interview with your subject by today (look for the assignment posted on Friday, if needed).
• You will be getting other homework so plan accordingly! :)

Due Thursday:

• Bring in a rough draft of your interview, typed up 1-2 pages.

Due Friday:

• Complete typing up your interview, add in the photograph and turn it in!