English I Honors
English Honors will focus on various elements of literature, close reading, and grammar skills.
What's happening....
Thursday, November 21: There was no class today due to the exam schedule.
Wednesday, November 20: Students crafted a prepared essay in class. Homework: One pager or Black Out Poem is due tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 19: In today's class students were able to prepare for tomorrow's essay test after reviewing the elements of essays. Homework: Prepare for the test and finish your one-pager or black out poem as needed.
Monday, November 18: Today was the last meeting day for each Literature Circle group. Homework: Anything you owe me.
Friday, November 15: Mrs. Thibodeau was absent today and so students worked on either a One-Pager or a Black Out Poem. Homework: Prepare for you last meeting on Monday and any other work that is owed.
Thursday, November 14: Students had group meetings today. Homework: As assigned by the group along with work from yesterday.
Wednesday, November 13: Today, students began a Select-A-Sentence essay. This highly formatted essay is designed to help students practice analysis. Homework: As determined by the group. Please remember that test corrections are due on Monday. And, the Select-A-Sentence is due on Monday also.
Tuesday, November 12: After Mrs. Thibodeau handed back the tests and explained test corrections, students had time to work with their groups. Homework: As determined by the group. Test corrections are due Monday.
Monday, November 11: No School ~ Veterans' Day
Friday, November 8: Today's class was spent with some background work as a means to make meaning in the story and to consider the author's purpose. Homework: As determined by the group, but make sure to get your paragraph done.
Thursday, November 7: Group meeting day. Homework: As determined by the group.
Wednesday, November 6: In today's class students worked as a group to analyze Santiago's character and to craft a 1-2 paragraph analysis of who he is as a character. Homework: Homework as assigned by the group. The paragraph should be done no later than next week (utilize group time to get it done).
Tuesday, November 5: No School. Election Day.
Monday, November 4: Today students had their first Literature Circle meeting. Homework: As determined by the group.
Friday, November 1: Mrs. Thibodeau started class with a "'Tell me something good' about your learning." This was followed by a quick overview of elements of the novel The Alchemist. Students then worked with their groups to plan their reading schedule and other work of their Literature Circle. Homework: As determined by your group.
Thursday, October 31: After reviewing prepositional phrases, students worked to practice the roles for the literature circles. Homework: None
Wednesday, October 30: Mrs. Thibodeau introduced the last work/task of the trimester. After a review of the Literature Circle work, students took notes on prepositions and prepositional phrases. Homework: Read "Echo and Narcissus."
Tuesday, October 29: Today was Unit I test day. Homework: None
Monday, October 28: In today's class students discussed how to prepare for an English test, specifically a cold-reading test and the class did some review work. Homework: Student for the test.
Friday, October 25: Students continued to work with their selected short stories by working with their groups through a protocol to share each of the stories. Homework: None unless you owe me something. Please remember, as per our conversation, there will be a test on Tuesday. In the test you will read a short story and answer 20 multiple choice questions. You will also answer a short essay prompt.
Thursday, October 24: Students worked with others to create meaning for their short story as a way to move beyond simply identifying elements of fiction. Homework: None, unless you owe me something.
Wednesday, October 23: In today's class students had the opportunity to "Ketchup and Relish." This time was designed for students to catch up on any work or to improve work to relish their accomplishments! Homework: None, unless you owe me something still.
Mrs. Thibodeau was out on Monday and Tuesday for a conference... She's been working on getting caught up! Both day's work is listed on Google Classroom. So please see that for information.
Friday, October 18: After looking at an essay for pointers, students had time to rewrite one of their Commonlit.org essays. Homework: None, unless you need to finish your rewrite. Please remember, I will be out on Monday and Tuesday. All of you work is posted on Google Classroom and on the board.
Thursday, October 17: In today's class students examined essays for evaluation. Homework: Write a reflection in which you consider what you do well in essay writing and why you want to improve upon.
Wednesday, October 16: During our fifteen minute class students analyzed a body paragraph for MEAL and then submitted their essay on Google. Homework: Finish your essay work as needed.
Tuesday, October 15: In today's class students took notes on theme and creating a theme statement. Homework: Have your essay complete, to hand in, tomorrow.
Friday, October 11: So that Mrs. Thibodeau would have time to conference, students were given time to work on their essays. Homework: Have your essay complete, to hand in, on Wednesday. Have a great long weekend!
Thursday, October 10: In class today, students took notes on how to write introductory paragraphs and body paragraphs for an analytical essay. Homework: Write your essay for Wednesday.
Tuesday, October 8 and Wednesday, October 9: Mrs. Thibodeau was out for these two days. In her absence, students worked on reading two short stories on commonlit.org and working on their essay draft for Thursday. Homework: As deemed by the student.
Monday, October 7: In today's class students took notes on irony. After this work students identified examples of irony in the short stories that we've read and the purpose of the irony. The class then took notes on point of view. Homework: Draft your essay for Thursday.
Friday, October 4: In today's class small groups began to discuss "Lamb to the Slaughter" while Mrs. Thibodeau held grading conferences. Then, the whole class discussed the story.
Homework: Work on your essay for Thursday.
Thursday, October 3: After a riddle, the class reviewed the basics of essay writing. Students then had time to outline, plan, and draft an essay in response to a selected prompt.
Homework: Read "Lamb to the Slaughter" for tomorrow and draft your essay for next Thursday.
Wednesday, October 2: In today's class students worked to evaluate thesis statements that were written in class. Students then wrote a thesis in response to a prompt about setting. Homework: Tonight, gather evidence for the prompt you want to address in an essay. The character prompt is on the Google Doc with the thesis statements and the setting prompt is on the Google Classroom stream. For Friday, read "Lamb to the Slaughter."
Tuesday, October 1: After taking notes on the definition of "mood" and "tone" and how to locate them, students worked to find examples of setting and categorize them for each short story read. Homework: None. Enjoy your evening!
Monday, September 29: Today's class started with "Stupid Questions" which was followed by discussing the setting of each short story and a reflection. Homework: None. Enjoy the evening!
Friday, September 27: Students continued to work with setting by identifying examples of the setting in each short story, and then analyzing key words, images, and other elements for author's purpose. Homework: None. Enjoy the weekend!
Thursday, September 26: In today's class students finished their work with thesis statements by writing a thesis for a short story of their choice about character. Then, students worked to find incidents of setting in both short stories. Homework: None. Enjoy the nice day.
Wednesday, September 25: During today's Writing Wednesday class, students took notes on thesis statements and analyzed good thesis statements as a means to learn how to write their own. Homework: Make sure you've submitted your character's "Instagram Account," and have your other short story read and annotated for setting. (Purpose: to practice analysis independently.)
Tuesday, September 24: After a review of the Instagram Project rubric, students practiced highlighting/annotating skills using an article about the element of literature, setting. Students then had time to work on one of the two homework tasks. (Instagram or reading) Homework: Complete your character's "Instagram Account" for Wednesday. Remember, you are not retelling the story. Instead, your character's account should reflect the adjectives you used to describe them. AND, for Thursday, have the short story read and annotated for setting. (Purpose: to practice analysis independently and to be prepared for Wednesday's class.)
Monday, September 23: Today's class began with a warm up that had students characterize their selected character with adjectives. Students were then directed to the posted Google Classroom assignment under Classwork. Homework: Complete your character's "Instagram Account" for Wednesday. Remember, you are not retelling the story. Instead, your character's account should reflect the adjectives you used to describe them. (Purpose: to practice analysis independently and to be prepared for Wednesday's class.)
Friday, September 20: Class began with a quick review of the short stories. Students then worked on completing a STEAL chart to analyze a chosen character. Homework: Complete your chart as needed.
Thursday, September 19: After reviewing the last sentence structure, students worked to practice identifying the sentence structures in several sentences. Finally, groups started to discuss the plot of the stories that they read. Homework: None.
Wednesday, September 18: Today was our first Writing Wednesday! The class took notes on clauses and sentence structures after working with quotes in the classroom and a discussion protocol. Homework: The same as Tuesday night's.
Tuesday, September 17: We were finally able to have our class discussion about The Book of Unknown Americans! Overall, the discussion went well and students had the opportunity to reflect on what they could take away from the discussion. The class then began taking notes on "characterization." Homework: Read either "The Sniper" or "Desiree's Baby" for Thursday. (Ignore the pages beyond the story. We will not be using those.) (Purpose: to independently practice reading for understanding and analysis.)
Monday, September 16: In today's class students practiced having a class discussion. The class then discussed what went well and what could have changed. Finally, students spent time reflecting on their involvement. Homework: Be prepared for tomorrow's conversation and, in your notes, write down all you know or think you know about "character" and "characterization." (Purpose: to give us a starting point for tomorrow's class by working independently to gather ideas.)
Friday, September 13: Class started with a "Tell Me Something Good" check in and was followed by the English I pretest. Students worked on that for the entire class. Homework: Prepare for Monday's discussions by reading the article and by creating questions for the Summer Literacy book. Remember, you should try to have answers for your own questions. (See the explanation below.)
Thursday, September 12: After logging into various websites for the first time, for future use, the class found we didn't really have enough time, due to the half day schedule, to complete a practice discussion. We will move it to Monday, before our book discussion. Remember, tomorrow will be out pretest. Homework: Read the article for the 4 As (Assumptions that the author seems to have. Things you agree with. Things you want to argue with, and things that you aspire to or want to act upon as a result of the article. Also, sow that you have some questions for Monday, you should consider your answers to them as a means to gauge your ideas and their progression. (Purpose: To independently prepare for both our practice discussion and book discussion on Monday.)
Wednesday, September 11: In today's class, students took notes on various topics regarding reading and questioning, and they practiced making inference as a means to prepare for Monday's discussion about the required honors book, The Book of Unknown Americans. Homework: Begin to prepare for Monday's discussion. Consider your questions to be answered and ideas you want to share. (Please remind your families that Open House is tonight. We look forward to seeing them!)
Tuesday, September 10: Today's class was spent "unpacking" the grade 9-10 ELA standards so that students can use them and consider them while they are learning. Homework: Watch the linked video and take notes on the Three Levels of Reading. As you watch and take notes, consider the types of questions that accompany each level. (Purpose: To be prepared for tomorrow's class and to move into discussion about these ideas and practice work.)
Monday, September 9: After wrapping up our mindset work, students worked on goals and inspiration, setting up their binder, and looking at the standards, which we will continue with tomorrow. Homework: Finish whatever wasn't finished in class today as a means to be prepared for tomorrow's class.
Friday, September 6: In today's class, students reviewed the Code of Conduct, discussed consequences, and then signed the code. The class then discussed the various types of mindset and how they can impact a person. Homework: None. Have an awesome weekend!
Thursday, September 5: After a review of yesterday's student created behaviors, students worked together to get closer to creating a classroom Code of Conduct. Homework: None. HOWEVER, if your video is not done or your letter is not signed, please get those things done. Thank you!!
Wednesday, September 4: In today's class students began to consider the importance of rules and began to craft a classroom Code of Conduct. Homework: None. HOWEVER, if your video is not done or your letter is not signed, please get those things done. Thank you!!
Tuesday, September 3: After a check-in, scholars worked to demonstrate various ways to give and receive communication. Homework: Finish your Flipgrid task as needed.
Thursday, August 29: Today in class scholars received the Welcome Letter as a means to review the class and the expectations. Homework: Please have the letter signed for Tuesday.
Wednesday, November 20: Students crafted a prepared essay in class. Homework: One pager or Black Out Poem is due tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 19: In today's class students were able to prepare for tomorrow's essay test after reviewing the elements of essays. Homework: Prepare for the test and finish your one-pager or black out poem as needed.
Monday, November 18: Today was the last meeting day for each Literature Circle group. Homework: Anything you owe me.
Friday, November 15: Mrs. Thibodeau was absent today and so students worked on either a One-Pager or a Black Out Poem. Homework: Prepare for you last meeting on Monday and any other work that is owed.
Thursday, November 14: Students had group meetings today. Homework: As assigned by the group along with work from yesterday.
Wednesday, November 13: Today, students began a Select-A-Sentence essay. This highly formatted essay is designed to help students practice analysis. Homework: As determined by the group. Please remember that test corrections are due on Monday. And, the Select-A-Sentence is due on Monday also.
Tuesday, November 12: After Mrs. Thibodeau handed back the tests and explained test corrections, students had time to work with their groups. Homework: As determined by the group. Test corrections are due Monday.
Monday, November 11: No School ~ Veterans' Day
Friday, November 8: Today's class was spent with some background work as a means to make meaning in the story and to consider the author's purpose. Homework: As determined by the group, but make sure to get your paragraph done.
Thursday, November 7: Group meeting day. Homework: As determined by the group.
Wednesday, November 6: In today's class students worked as a group to analyze Santiago's character and to craft a 1-2 paragraph analysis of who he is as a character. Homework: Homework as assigned by the group. The paragraph should be done no later than next week (utilize group time to get it done).
Tuesday, November 5: No School. Election Day.
Monday, November 4: Today students had their first Literature Circle meeting. Homework: As determined by the group.
Friday, November 1: Mrs. Thibodeau started class with a "'Tell me something good' about your learning." This was followed by a quick overview of elements of the novel The Alchemist. Students then worked with their groups to plan their reading schedule and other work of their Literature Circle. Homework: As determined by your group.
Thursday, October 31: After reviewing prepositional phrases, students worked to practice the roles for the literature circles. Homework: None
Wednesday, October 30: Mrs. Thibodeau introduced the last work/task of the trimester. After a review of the Literature Circle work, students took notes on prepositions and prepositional phrases. Homework: Read "Echo and Narcissus."
Tuesday, October 29: Today was Unit I test day. Homework: None
Monday, October 28: In today's class students discussed how to prepare for an English test, specifically a cold-reading test and the class did some review work. Homework: Student for the test.
Friday, October 25: Students continued to work with their selected short stories by working with their groups through a protocol to share each of the stories. Homework: None unless you owe me something. Please remember, as per our conversation, there will be a test on Tuesday. In the test you will read a short story and answer 20 multiple choice questions. You will also answer a short essay prompt.
Thursday, October 24: Students worked with others to create meaning for their short story as a way to move beyond simply identifying elements of fiction. Homework: None, unless you owe me something.
Wednesday, October 23: In today's class students had the opportunity to "Ketchup and Relish." This time was designed for students to catch up on any work or to improve work to relish their accomplishments! Homework: None, unless you owe me something still.
Mrs. Thibodeau was out on Monday and Tuesday for a conference... She's been working on getting caught up! Both day's work is listed on Google Classroom. So please see that for information.
Friday, October 18: After looking at an essay for pointers, students had time to rewrite one of their Commonlit.org essays. Homework: None, unless you need to finish your rewrite. Please remember, I will be out on Monday and Tuesday. All of you work is posted on Google Classroom and on the board.
Thursday, October 17: In today's class students examined essays for evaluation. Homework: Write a reflection in which you consider what you do well in essay writing and why you want to improve upon.
Wednesday, October 16: During our fifteen minute class students analyzed a body paragraph for MEAL and then submitted their essay on Google. Homework: Finish your essay work as needed.
Tuesday, October 15: In today's class students took notes on theme and creating a theme statement. Homework: Have your essay complete, to hand in, tomorrow.
Friday, October 11: So that Mrs. Thibodeau would have time to conference, students were given time to work on their essays. Homework: Have your essay complete, to hand in, on Wednesday. Have a great long weekend!
Thursday, October 10: In class today, students took notes on how to write introductory paragraphs and body paragraphs for an analytical essay. Homework: Write your essay for Wednesday.
Tuesday, October 8 and Wednesday, October 9: Mrs. Thibodeau was out for these two days. In her absence, students worked on reading two short stories on commonlit.org and working on their essay draft for Thursday. Homework: As deemed by the student.
Monday, October 7: In today's class students took notes on irony. After this work students identified examples of irony in the short stories that we've read and the purpose of the irony. The class then took notes on point of view. Homework: Draft your essay for Thursday.
Friday, October 4: In today's class small groups began to discuss "Lamb to the Slaughter" while Mrs. Thibodeau held grading conferences. Then, the whole class discussed the story.
Homework: Work on your essay for Thursday.
Thursday, October 3: After a riddle, the class reviewed the basics of essay writing. Students then had time to outline, plan, and draft an essay in response to a selected prompt.
Homework: Read "Lamb to the Slaughter" for tomorrow and draft your essay for next Thursday.
Wednesday, October 2: In today's class students worked to evaluate thesis statements that were written in class. Students then wrote a thesis in response to a prompt about setting. Homework: Tonight, gather evidence for the prompt you want to address in an essay. The character prompt is on the Google Doc with the thesis statements and the setting prompt is on the Google Classroom stream. For Friday, read "Lamb to the Slaughter."
Tuesday, October 1: After taking notes on the definition of "mood" and "tone" and how to locate them, students worked to find examples of setting and categorize them for each short story read. Homework: None. Enjoy your evening!
Monday, September 29: Today's class started with "Stupid Questions" which was followed by discussing the setting of each short story and a reflection. Homework: None. Enjoy the evening!
Friday, September 27: Students continued to work with setting by identifying examples of the setting in each short story, and then analyzing key words, images, and other elements for author's purpose. Homework: None. Enjoy the weekend!
Thursday, September 26: In today's class students finished their work with thesis statements by writing a thesis for a short story of their choice about character. Then, students worked to find incidents of setting in both short stories. Homework: None. Enjoy the nice day.
Wednesday, September 25: During today's Writing Wednesday class, students took notes on thesis statements and analyzed good thesis statements as a means to learn how to write their own. Homework: Make sure you've submitted your character's "Instagram Account," and have your other short story read and annotated for setting. (Purpose: to practice analysis independently.)
Tuesday, September 24: After a review of the Instagram Project rubric, students practiced highlighting/annotating skills using an article about the element of literature, setting. Students then had time to work on one of the two homework tasks. (Instagram or reading) Homework: Complete your character's "Instagram Account" for Wednesday. Remember, you are not retelling the story. Instead, your character's account should reflect the adjectives you used to describe them. AND, for Thursday, have the short story read and annotated for setting. (Purpose: to practice analysis independently and to be prepared for Wednesday's class.)
Monday, September 23: Today's class began with a warm up that had students characterize their selected character with adjectives. Students were then directed to the posted Google Classroom assignment under Classwork. Homework: Complete your character's "Instagram Account" for Wednesday. Remember, you are not retelling the story. Instead, your character's account should reflect the adjectives you used to describe them. (Purpose: to practice analysis independently and to be prepared for Wednesday's class.)
Friday, September 20: Class began with a quick review of the short stories. Students then worked on completing a STEAL chart to analyze a chosen character. Homework: Complete your chart as needed.
Thursday, September 19: After reviewing the last sentence structure, students worked to practice identifying the sentence structures in several sentences. Finally, groups started to discuss the plot of the stories that they read. Homework: None.
Wednesday, September 18: Today was our first Writing Wednesday! The class took notes on clauses and sentence structures after working with quotes in the classroom and a discussion protocol. Homework: The same as Tuesday night's.
Tuesday, September 17: We were finally able to have our class discussion about The Book of Unknown Americans! Overall, the discussion went well and students had the opportunity to reflect on what they could take away from the discussion. The class then began taking notes on "characterization." Homework: Read either "The Sniper" or "Desiree's Baby" for Thursday. (Ignore the pages beyond the story. We will not be using those.) (Purpose: to independently practice reading for understanding and analysis.)
Monday, September 16: In today's class students practiced having a class discussion. The class then discussed what went well and what could have changed. Finally, students spent time reflecting on their involvement. Homework: Be prepared for tomorrow's conversation and, in your notes, write down all you know or think you know about "character" and "characterization." (Purpose: to give us a starting point for tomorrow's class by working independently to gather ideas.)
Friday, September 13: Class started with a "Tell Me Something Good" check in and was followed by the English I pretest. Students worked on that for the entire class. Homework: Prepare for Monday's discussions by reading the article and by creating questions for the Summer Literacy book. Remember, you should try to have answers for your own questions. (See the explanation below.)
Thursday, September 12: After logging into various websites for the first time, for future use, the class found we didn't really have enough time, due to the half day schedule, to complete a practice discussion. We will move it to Monday, before our book discussion. Remember, tomorrow will be out pretest. Homework: Read the article for the 4 As (Assumptions that the author seems to have. Things you agree with. Things you want to argue with, and things that you aspire to or want to act upon as a result of the article. Also, sow that you have some questions for Monday, you should consider your answers to them as a means to gauge your ideas and their progression. (Purpose: To independently prepare for both our practice discussion and book discussion on Monday.)
Wednesday, September 11: In today's class, students took notes on various topics regarding reading and questioning, and they practiced making inference as a means to prepare for Monday's discussion about the required honors book, The Book of Unknown Americans. Homework: Begin to prepare for Monday's discussion. Consider your questions to be answered and ideas you want to share. (Please remind your families that Open House is tonight. We look forward to seeing them!)
Tuesday, September 10: Today's class was spent "unpacking" the grade 9-10 ELA standards so that students can use them and consider them while they are learning. Homework: Watch the linked video and take notes on the Three Levels of Reading. As you watch and take notes, consider the types of questions that accompany each level. (Purpose: To be prepared for tomorrow's class and to move into discussion about these ideas and practice work.)
Monday, September 9: After wrapping up our mindset work, students worked on goals and inspiration, setting up their binder, and looking at the standards, which we will continue with tomorrow. Homework: Finish whatever wasn't finished in class today as a means to be prepared for tomorrow's class.
Friday, September 6: In today's class, students reviewed the Code of Conduct, discussed consequences, and then signed the code. The class then discussed the various types of mindset and how they can impact a person. Homework: None. Have an awesome weekend!
Thursday, September 5: After a review of yesterday's student created behaviors, students worked together to get closer to creating a classroom Code of Conduct. Homework: None. HOWEVER, if your video is not done or your letter is not signed, please get those things done. Thank you!!
Wednesday, September 4: In today's class students began to consider the importance of rules and began to craft a classroom Code of Conduct. Homework: None. HOWEVER, if your video is not done or your letter is not signed, please get those things done. Thank you!!
Tuesday, September 3: After a check-in, scholars worked to demonstrate various ways to give and receive communication. Homework: Finish your Flipgrid task as needed.
Thursday, August 29: Today in class scholars received the Welcome Letter as a means to review the class and the expectations. Homework: Please have the letter signed for Tuesday.