6th Term Blueprint

Dear students,

The end of the year will be upon us before we know it. This post will be a general guide to help you navigate what is coming.

We have, including this upcoming week of May 16 – 20 (week 14) SIX weeks before the end. I will be leaving a bit early for a trip to Italy, so we must wrap things up before then.

1       Week 14 (May 16 – 20) read first quarter of your book

2       Week 15 (May 23 – 27) quiz on first quarter, read second quarter, autobiographical writing, part one

3       Week 16 (May 30 – June 3) quiz on second quarter, read third quarter, autobiographical writing, part two

4       Week 17 (June 7 – June 10) (Monday June 6^th is off for Dragon Boat festival) quiz on third quarter, read 4^th quarter, autobiographical writing, first draft

5       Week 18 (June 13 – June 17) quiz on 4^th quarter, hand in autobiographical writing final draft

6       Week 19 (June 20 – June 22) (I leave Thursday June 23^rd) Final exam on book (formal assessment)

You can expect to address all of the standards shown in our course syllabus. Notice that in addition to writing an autobiographical narrative, you will be speaking about it. We will also have a homework assignment on writing a business letter. Otherwise, I feel homework will be limited to answering questions about the assigned reading, with possibly an article reaction put in there, and one or two graded blog assignments in which your reflections and comments will be considered.

PLEASE NOTE, that at this point, some students have not turned in all of the work for the second marking period (5^th term) and must do so by 10 P.M. Tuesday night or risk getting a zero for that assignment. I will attempt to email students to let them know if I feel they have something missing Sunday night (today).

Regards,

Mr. Catlin

End of Term 5 notes

The week of May 9th, which is week 13 by my count, is our last week of the 2nd marking period of this spring semester 2011. I'd call it the end of the 5th term of this academic year.

I do hope we enjoy these last weeks together, and continue to set up the foundation for a successful next year for you. I hope we can keep using our time well, but I do hope we can enjoy ourselves a bit more.

I will put here on this post some information concerning us now. I plan to put some extra credit details that I just put on the e-learning platform, general plans for the next marking period, and later I will update it with results and comments about our mid-semester surveys from last week.

Extra credit, exactly as it appears on the e-learning platform calendar:

Bike trip report: If you would like to do a mini report on your biking trip for two weeks then I will accept that if it is done by 5/15 and if you agree to let me post or link that to either the class blog or Kang Chiao Creates blog. You'll need a minimum of 250 words describing what you learned about yourself, your classmates, perseverance, Taiwan, and also describe something special or unusual that happened, at 50 to 100 words apiece. For each 50-word block of excellent writing, you will receive ONE to TWO points on a quiz or homework assignment. You’ll get an extra one or two points for a photo and an extra one or two points for good storytelling if I think it’s good (remember examples discussed in class). This would be worth 7 to 14 points to be applied to either a quiz or homework grade, wherever it is needed most.

Articles: There is the Times of Upheaval article and When We Hated Mom article. For the first one, you can do a 150-word summary and a 250-word reaction, and for the second only a 250-word reaction is possible. Each fifty (good) words gets you one or two bonus points on a homework assignment. That is up to 26 points available.

General plans for the next marking period

Read Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – make sure you have your book this week.

Do Autobiographical writing – get started early writing memorable scenes from your early life.

Maintain the availability of good articles every week, but if they are required, make the time to go over them in class.

Increase speaking in class – warm-up discussion, group work, literature circles, mini-presentations, debates, speaking activities and games, speaking tests (practice and for a grade).

Please continue weekly posts on your blog every Friday – that should make for five more.

Watch one movie – book to literature, preferably something related to something we are reading. Honestly, this movie watching may take place after I leave for break, see below.

Note –I will likely be leaving for Italy some days early, and this WILL affect our formal assessment, which will have to be moved up. The writing portion must be completed early, by 6/17, I think. Your test will be one period long and will happen on Wednesday 6/22. Make sure you get and read the Curious Incident book asap!

Welcome back!

Update Wednesday 4 May 2011
Besides the more obvious goals of this project, including improving research, presentation, and getting more personal with the content, I hope you understand there are other goals. It is my hope that you will have had a chance to connect with the community, either local or global, though doing this project. One way of accomplishing this is by posting some of your information on one of our blogs. A blog allows you to have an authentic audience, which means readers beyond your usual teacher. This could include other students at our school, people in your family or community, our country, or other countries.

It’s my intention to ask you to put your writing and/or Power Point information on to one of the blogs. I feel others should see the results of your hard work. Please let me know if there is any reason not to do this. With that in mind, things in the individual papers would be more likely to be things not posted online, I’d expect. Let’s assume for now that the papers will not be posted unless I specifically ask, and the information in the Power Points will be unless you say not to.

Here is cool website called "Bibme" http://www.bibme.org/ It is awesome, because you just set it to MLA format and type in the title of the book, and it does the rest. It will spit out a bibliography for you!

What you create is yours. It is your choice if it is put on a public forum such as a blog or not. I am encouraging you to do it, though, because I feel your work is praiseworthy, from what I can see of it. However, I do want to see the Power Points, for example, before they are posted. I hope you will get a good feel for the "authenticity" of it after more experience using the medium.

If you have worries about the schedule, or trouble accessing the school's e-learning platform, please let me know. Enjoy your upcoming days!

Sunday 1 May 2011
I hope your last two weeks was interesting! Perhaps you can write about it, and put the key points on your blogs (just a little, maybe with a photograph). Save most of the writing for later, as we will be doing autobiographical writing in the third marking period of this semester (6^th term of this year) and the last two weeks can be used as practice. This week, I hope you can share some impressions or information with me and your classmates in class.

We have material to cover in our readers this week, and quizzes and homework to go over from before the two week you were gone. And this week you must hand in your writing for the projects. For that I said I want one or two pages of writing with at least one reference. Now, to be more specific, I want MLA format. Use default margins, Calibri 12 point, and single spaced papers. You need at least 600 words.

The presentations themselves will take place next week. Follow the guidelines given before or email me with any questions, or ask in class this week. I am looking forward to seeing the results of your work!

Also, after you have prepared videos or Power Points for your projects, I would like to have access to them, meaning I would like the files transferred to the computer in our classroom. This part is for viewing and assessment purposes. Please discuss it among your group if it is OK to share it with future students, teachers, or on the Kang Chiao Creates blog, if worthy. I encourage you to post group efforts such as movies and Power Points to your personal blogs. When making such productions, keep in mind your global audience, and ask yourself what you have to say to them about what you have learned and can now do

Project ideas

Here is the update, which can also be found on e-learning:

10B

Group A (Jack, James, Diana)

Stresses on Modern Life – Single Parent Families

Essay topics:

Jack- Compare and contrast traditional families to single parent families.

Diana- The difficulties and situations that single parents and the kids have to face.

James- The cause and effect of Single parent families.

Ways of presenting:

Power point- combining all three of our essays into slides including a video clip or two from websites like youtube.com.

Poster- a chart based on Jack’s topic of showing the difference between single and traditional.

Speech- written in palm cards by Diana and will be about 7-10 minutes long and will be presented with the power point slides.

Role Play - team up with the other group and do a play linking both our ideas.

Group B (Cecilia, Sarah, Jasmine, Nini)

Topic: Divorce

-        Causes and effects of divorce, compare rates in different subjects, and how to prevent divorce.

Works:

-Cecilia: how to prevent divorce, power point (suggestion – third presenter)

-Sarah: affects, poster (suggestion – fourth presenter)

-Jasmine: rates, poster (suggestion – second presenter)

-Nini: causes, power point (suggestion – first presenter)

Play:

-Cecilia: dad (male)

-Sarah: child (female)

-Jasmine: mom (male)

-Nini: third person (male)

This class has been talking about doing something related to The Curious Incident Book. The class expressed a lack of desire to do an autism/Asperger's related topic. So, I have identified another theme in that book which is how stresses of modern life affect families. Christopher's family (the main character) has an absent parent, and when one parent needs to take care of a son, especially with a mental challenge such as Asperger's, it is very difficult. Some families could experience divorce in this kind of circumstance. We mentioned divorce in Taiwan as a possible topic or subtopic.

I hope to divide the class into two groups as follows:

A: Jack, James, Diana
B: Cecelia, Sarah, Jasmine, Nini

The groups decided what to focus on, and I will try to post more information here later in the weekend. Group A is doing stresses on single parent families. Here is the document I gave you in class called stresses on single parent families, and here is the PDF file I found that may help you. For group B, which is focusing on the causes and effects of divorce, besides lending you two John Gottman books (The Seven Principles that Make Marriage Work and Why Marriages Succeed and Fail) and The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: a 25 Year Landmark Study by Lewis and Blakeslee, I made a causes of divorce document for you. I hope these links help!

Remember, the project must have creative, presentation, and writing components. I expect that each student will produce a short written part and that the group will make a power point or a video and then have a presentation together. It is my strong wish that each group also have either a dramatization or a game for the class to enjoy as part of their presentation. You must at least do reflective posts on your individual blogs about your projects (perhaps multiple times), but if there is a Power Point or video, I hope you will link it to your blogs as well. Grading will be discussed clarified later, but expect an individual grade for your writing and a group grade for group effort. There may be some self and/or peer evaluation involved.

About Homework

Students always have access to their homework through blogs. The main blog should be checked over the weekend for the upcoming weekly agenda, which contains a reminder of the reading assignment, as well as any homework assignments or announcements common to all classes I teach. However, this class blog for the 10B class, that I call 10MLit34, will have much information right here. Homework will be abbreviated as "HW" below.

HW1 - a two-part writing assignment about your reading habits and how you spend your personal time, available on the main blog.

HW2 - a response to the updated questions to the article handed out during week one called Equal Rights Ascending. You can find a link below in the article post.

HW3 - About section one, chapters I to IV (pages 3 to 44) of Animal Farm.

1.      Analyze one of the characters in Animal Farm and relate it to allegory.

2.      Explain the importance of work in one’s life. Do you believe that we are all ultimately slaves in some way in our lives?

HW4 - This homework is about section two of Animal Farm, chapters V – VII, (pages 45 – 89), and is due Thursday, 3 March 2011.

1.      For what reasons did Snowball want to build the windmill?

2.      What happened to Snowball during the vote about the windmill?

3.      When the animals did not have enough food to eat (chapter VI) what human activity did Napoleon ask them to do? How did the animals feel about this?

4.      What other human-like activity did the pigs do in chapter VI? How did Squealer explain it?

HW5 - follow this link or go to the e-learning site. Due 10 March 2011.

Animal Farm part 3 (chapters 8 to 10; pages 91 – 141) (20 parts in total)

1.     Why do you think the animals called Napoleon “Father of all animals?” For what reason would they say things like “Thanks to the leadership of Comrade Napoleon, how excellent this water tastes!” What did the poem Minimus wrote say every young pig’s first words should be? What was done with the poem? (4 parts)

2.     What happened to the windmill in chapter 8 after the timber was sold? What was the immediate reaction of the animals? After that, what did the animals do for two days? (3 parts)

3.     Which two commandments were altered in chapter 8, and how? Write the new or altered commandments down for me. (2 parts)

4.     Describe what happened to Boxer as he was working alone at night. When they were taking him away, what did Benjamin help them to understand? What did the animals do then, and what did Boxer do? How did Squealer explain the situation later? How does the author make us suspect Squealer is lying both during the time he’s speaking and at the end of chapter 9? (7 parts)

5.   After “All animals were equal,” the author describes something that amazed and terrified the animals. What was it? When Benjamin read the commandment to Clover at the end of the story, what did it say? When the animals saw the pigs meeting with the farmers in the last scene of the book, what did they hear Pilkington say? What did they see at the end? (4 parts)

HW6 - When Rich People Do Stupid Things has questions due 3/14.
HW7 - Descriptive writing task has already been on the main blog for a week and is also available on the school's new e-learning platform at http://e-learning.kcbs.tpc.edu.tw/ due 3/14.

Second Marking Period (term 5 of this academic year)
HW8 - article: One Hundred Years of Multitude due 3/31 (questions attached, see link below)
HW9 - blog creation: blog up using blogger.com with link to main class blog (this one) and one other link (first gadget), two other gadgets, a welcome post, and one reflective post for the homework that week. Every Friday after that there must be at least one additional reflective post saying what you learned or what went through your mind while you were reading something for our class that week.
HW10 - article: children with Asperger often live in fear of teasing - due 4/14 with 150-word summary and 250 reaction
HW11 Article: 10 Natural Wonders of the World to See Before They Disappear Reaction only: 250 words due 5/6
HW12 reflective posts on your blog 5/13

Third marking period:
HW13: 6/8 All four scenes must be completed by class time for a grade! We will collect the four scenes already written into one "mini-autobiography." We will choose one to work on more intensely for the formal assessment writing grade(final draft due 6/15).

HW14 6/12 This grade will primarily be made up of the four reflective posts on the four parts of Curious Incident (20% each part). Quality of writing and thoughts will be assessed. For the last 20%, anything else you have posted about this marking period will be considered, plus creativity of your blog (template, links, music, videos, etc.), along with quality of writing and thoughts on other posts besides Curious Incident.

HW15 6/17 write a business letter of at least 150 words for a topic posted on the class blog and e-learning no later than Saturday morning 6/11. Students will also have an opportunity to write for 20 minutes on Friday.

HW16 6/17 article reaction (250 words) 96 year-old Dutch woman confesses to World War II-era murder

Class Notes

These notes are meant to help you study for your weekly quizzes. Sometimes I will put other special topics here that only our class has talked about. The earliest information is at the bottom, and the most recent is at the top.

Week Four
We went over descriptive writing using a Power Point and I should have given some advice about using sensory language, interesting adjectives, and complex sentences. As to Animal Farm, there will be no posting of new vocabulary from the third section of the book. Please review the vocabulary from the previous two sections for synonyms, and expect that other words from section three will be shown with the original sentence, and that you should be able to explain the meaning of the word from context. Key passages have been alluded to in HW5, but any others you should find from your own critical thinking and our class discussion during week five.

Week Three
New vocab to notice:
Pretext (45), publican (46), dynamo (48), incubators (49), peculiar (52), moonshine (55), arable (62), solicitor (64), regarded (67), gale (69), malignity (70), indignation (70), capitulated (76), categorically (82), cowered (82), collaborated (83), countenance (83), retribution (85)

Highlights of Chapters V – VII
Chapter V
Mollie disappears (46), “The whole farm was deeply divided on the subject of the windmill.” (50), Napoleon forces Snowball off Animal Farm (52 – 53), no more debates (54), Boxer adds a second personal maxim (56), Napoleon plans to build the windmill in two years and claims it as his own idea (57).
Chapter VI
Napoleon decides to engage in trade by selling hay, wheat, and eggs (63), gets Mr. Whymper to handle business and legal affairs for the farm (64 – 65), pigs sleep in beds (66 – 67), a storm blows over the windmill but Napoleon blames Snowball (70).
Chapter VII
Whymper is deceived and reports to the outside world that there is no food shortage on Animal farm (75), the hens rebel against Napoleon but are starved into submission (76 – 77), Snowball’s courage at the battle of Cowshed is attributed to Napoleon (80 – 82), four pigs confess their crimes (83 – 84) and are killed immediately, then other animals confess too, and they are killed as well. Clover notices the changes in Animal Farm (87), the animals sing the Beasts of England sadly (87), but then are told by Squealer (88) that the song has been outlawed.

We used Wednesday and part of Thursday preparing for the quiz, and the rest of Thursday taking it. HW4 should have been received by me Thursday. Friday we can examine chapter V in some depth, and perhaps get into chapter VI as well. The quiz on part two of the book is still scheduled for next Wednesday right now. Please check back this weekend for vocabulary help on part two of the book.

Week Two

Vocabulary helps: (21 words from chapters one to four; the nine bolded words are already on your 75 SAT College Prep word list, and 25 more words from that list will be given below, without definitions, but with page numbers so you can find them)
Hideous (page 7) – terrible, horrible

Apathy (page 16) – lack of concern, no feelings

Maxim (page 34) – saying, motto, proverb

Adjoin (page 38) – border, be next to

Shrewd (page 38) – clever, sharp-witted

Cannibalism (page 39) – the idea of humans eating other humans, eating your own kind

Tractable (page 39) – obedient, dutiful

Irrepressible (page 40) – unmanageable, out of control

Skirmish (page 41) – initial combat, early battle

Maneuver (page 41) – tactic, battle plan (British spelling adds an “o”)

Flight (page 41) – escape, running away

Ambush (page 41) – surprise attack, trap

Stone (page 42) – a British unit of weight equal to 14 pounds (6.4kg)

Bolt (page 42) – a sprint, dash, or quick run

Ignominious (page 42) – shameful, disgraceful, dishonorable, embarrassing

Sentimentality (page 43) – over-romanticizing, sappiness, corniness, over-emotionality

Impromptu (page 43) – spontaneous, unplanned, unrehearsed

Unanimously (page 44) – undisputedly, “with one voice,” a vote with no opposition

Decoration (page 44) – honor, medal, award

Confer (page 44) – to give, present, or award

Posthumous (page 44) – done after death

Other words from Animal Farm 75 SAT College Prep vocabulary words list appearing in chapters one to four (if you know of others, please email me): abolish (7), benevolent (4), cryptic (30), dole (28), ensconce (4), falter (10), forelock (33), fortnight (38), gambol (22), generation (9), hoist (30), implement (27), inscribe (24), league (32), leisure (7), prosperity (10), scullery (23), seclusion (35), toil (13), trotter (10), unison (13), vicious (41), wean (35), whelp (35), windfall (35).


In class, we went through chapter one in some detail, both in small groups and as a whole class, and discussed why Old Major's speech was persuasive. We found four parts of the talk that night in the barn (chapter one), and the class was given HW3 (see post above). Then, we discussed a break-down of the highlights of the four chapters, which I will put at the bottom for you.

Old Major's speech is persuasive because:
1. He treats the other animals as equals
2. He builds their anticipation (leaves some mystery)
3. Uses simple, direct language
4. Uses emotional language to appeal to each group of animals
5. Asks emotional questions, then gives logical answers
6. Appeals to unity by identifying common problems among all animals
7. Identifies a common enemy for all animals - Man
8. Appeals to a sense of duty to destiny, ancestors or religion by use of a dream
9. Uses an easy-to-remember song to stir emotions
10. Plants the idea of freedom as a legacy to future generations, with no immediate self gain.
11. Uses a vote during his speech to show he is listening to the opinions of his audience
12. Draws on his respect on the farm, and his comparatively long years of wisdom

The four parts of the talk that night:
1. The speech, which is interrupted by the vote
2. The vote on whether or not wild animals are comrades
3. The dream
4. The song - Beasts of England

Highlights in Animal Farm chapters 1 to 4
I. Old Major's Speech (see above)
II. The Rebellion
Moses the Raven and Sugarcandy mountain (pages 17-18) - heaven for animals?
The Rebellion (page 19) - lack of food and mistreatment
Pigs can read! (page 23)
The Seven Commandments (pages 24-25)
III. The Republic of Animal Farm
Benjamin's attitude towards Rebellion is neutral (page 30)
Meetings and debates (page 31) Snowball and Napoleon both active and in opposition
Snowball's committees (page 32)
Animalism's single maxim (page 34) - four legs good, two legs bad (how about birds?)
Napoleon concentrates on education of the young (page 34)
Squealer persuades other animals why pigs need milk and apples (page 36)
IV. The Battle of Cowshed
The Enemy approaches (page 40)
Skirmish (page 41)
Feint (41)
Attack from the rear and cut them off (41)
Heat of Battle (42)
The Enemy retreats (42)
Animal Hero, First Class (44) for Snowball and Boxer

Articles (usually The New York Times)

If the article is required, it will be handed out in class. If not required, please search for the title on The New York Times web site, Google, or follow the link below. Required articles often have special questions I've made for them. If there are no questions provided, I expect a 150-word minimum summary and a 250-minimum reaction to the article.

Here is a list of the articles we will do, which will be updated as we do them:

Week One: New York Times - Equal Rights Ascending - questions were amended!
Week Two: (not required) New York Times - Why Does College Cost So Much?
Week Three: (not required) New York Times - Absorbing the Pain
Week Four: Fool.com - When Rich People Do Stupid Things HW6 questions due 3/14
Week Five: (not required) New York Times - China's Winning Schools - 7 questions attached
Week Six: no article (testing week)
Week Seven: New York Times - One Hundred Years of Multitude - 5 questions attached: HW8
Week Eight: Long weekend for tomb sweeping day: spend time with your family - no article.
Week Nine: HW10: article on autism called "children with Asperger often live in fear of teasing due on Thursday, 14 April - 150 summary and 250-word reaction (opinion).
Weeks Ten and Week Eleven: You will be away on your bike trip around Taiwan. There is a New York Times article for homework extra credit called Times of Upheaval for which you should provide the usual summary and reaction. I hope at some point you can put a reflection on your blog about your bike trip, perhaps with some photos. Good luck and enjoy!
Week Twelve: HW11 Article due Friday 5/6 250-word reaction only on 10 Natural Wonders to See Before They Disapppear
Week Thirteen: When We Hated Mom for extra credit by 5/15 - 250-word reaction only (+ 5 points)
Week Seventeen: an extra article to read and post on if interested:

D-Day Veterans Recall World War II Turning Point

Week Eighteen: article reaction (250 words) 96 year-old Dutch woman confesses to World War II-era murder due 6/17

My main reasons for offering articles are:
To give you more examples of "authentic text," which are things written in English that are meant for native speakers, not for students. This gives you a real feel for the language, and a goal to shoot for.
To introduce some non-fiction into the curriculum. We do a lot of fiction in literature class, but as a reading class it is doing you a disservice to not let you read at least some non-fiction, which will be readily apparent in your lives both at university and work. It can also be useful and quite interesting.
To support the themes that are in our books, and provide more information about them, perhaps for projects or further research.
To tie-in with other courses or subjects you are studying now, or other book themes you have done in the past, or current events that shape our world, or for insight into other culture through those events or articles.
Finally, just to have interesting discussions or writing topics. It's good at times to get away for the usual things we do.