Summer Reading Part Deux

Okay, to move to the next step in the summer reading process, we need volunteers to

• select a book or two from each grade level to eliminate and replace with a work that is in the public domain and therefore free to students
• devise and create materials for this marathon of reading contest. We'll need something we can get into the hands of the students
  

In addition to this, we all need to

• iron out the details. What did we decide the reading requirements would be (was it one book, and accompanying film, and an accompanying article? Then, reward the kids who read widely beyond that (books of their own choosing))?
• What will the September assessment be? I think we've decided this but I forgot.
  
• Blog/automated phone call (I volunteer to work on this aspect.)
  

If I've forgotten something crucial, remind me in the comments. Methinks I need to improve my record keeping (although two weeks off can make a brain wonderfully mushy). I'd love to hit the ground running when we get back so we can get this to students during the 1st or 2nd week of May.

As a quasi deadline, please respond to this post by Thursday evening and we'll call a meeting to order for the following Thursday. Also, if you remember the other major things we were planning to discuss (like portfolio, etc.) pop a comment or a new post. Peace.

Summer Reading Meeting

(Sorry I didn't get this up earlier. Busy day.)

Ok, so we met this morning and man were we ever productive. Has there ever been a department meeting when there a lull in a conversation occured? I can't remember any in the 7 years I've been at Mack High. I seriously think that the comment period on the blog beforehand really made today's meeting successful. So many good ideas. Here's what I recorded, in somewhat randomish I've got to go to bed because I'm exhausted order:

• project bulletin board (to display projects in September)
• eliminate selections and replace with cheap books, online materials, etc.
• howsa bout a film/book/article combo?
• advertising push - teacher visits to classrooms, etc.
• an incentive reward program...a marathon of reading contest
• most active blog participant, 1st person online, most books read, parent signatures, etc.
• other incentives
  
• automated phone call

I know I missed some things, but I'll revisit and update this bad boy tomorrow. In the meantime, if you see that I missed something, drop a comment yo.

• 
  

Western New York Writing Project

Hey guys. I've been involved with the Western New York Writing Project since 2003. I went through the Summer Institute in 2003 and have been in charge of the Teen Writing Workshop for the past four years. This experience has helped me immeasurably as it has helped me become part of a progressive and highly motivated group of educators.

I am attaching applications for their Summer Institute in case you're interested. It is a 17 day experience in July and man is it worth it. I don't gush about many things but will freely sing the praises of WNYWP.

I am also attaching a brochure for the Teen Writing Workshop. If you have any students who love to write and are highly motivated, please encourage them to look into the workshop. It is $200, but I can easily procure a $100 scholarship for a student. It really is a great experience. Students meet everyday with a mentor and 7-8 other writers. Students are expected to publish their writing and record podcasts of their writing. It's a great time.

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Also, if anyone is interested, we are holding a free workshop this Saturday at Canisius. Four or five teachers are bringing in materials and stories of experiences related to technology in the classroom. We are meeting at Canisius College in Old Main 214 at 10 am as part of the WNYWP "Saturdays at 10" series. Hope to see you there.

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Lastly, we are having a meeting about our summer reading program. Please visit the blog and add your comments before the meeting. The sooner you comment, the deeper the conversation. We're meeting Thursday at 7:40 in the Library.

Summer Reading List Discussion

MEETING! MEETING! MEETING!

THURSDAY, MARCH 6TH!
7:40 AM IN THE LIBRARY!

Today we started to discuss the summer reading list. Use the comments section to toss some ideas around. What can we do to make our students more successful? (By the way, I have no idea why the second two sheets are screwed up. Sorry.

gaggle

OK, everything seems to be working well for me!!! Here is the gaggle website that I was talking about. I know that Buffalo has not blocked this site yet. It is my impression that it is owned by google. Either way it is made for students and teachers to communicate.

http://www.gaggle.net/

Task II Observations

Meets or Exceeds Expectations

• Great work using both graph and passage
• good work avoiding plagiarism
• good work citing text and chart in essay
  
• overall, good job in development
• established purpose very well
• good voice and appropriate tone
• Good attention to your task...most answered both parts of the question completely
  

In Need of Improvement

• Thesis not fully established or unclear
• quotations misused, cited incorrectly, or information awkwardly integrated into the sentence structure
• quotations not being used to support ideas (usually found in topic sentences)...random facts and tidbits arranged with no apparent purpose...these become lists of facts, which are not connected to any sort of commentary or analysis
• conclusions need some work
• Topic sentence, topic sentence, topic sentence needed. Connect your paragraphs to your thesis
• Transitions needed
  
• make sure to separate big ideas into paragraphs
• avoid using I
• more of a hook/lead/attention grabber to start introduction (Do not use the task as an intro)

Newsweek March 3rd

We've been receiving Newsweek since the beginning of the year. I haven't been able to use them as much as I'd have liked to. The frequency with which they've appeared on my door has become a wee bit overwhelming. Also, issues have become very election centric. Therefore, I'm going to do my best not to be blogbad. I'm going to do my best to share the table of contents from every issue via this blog and our school email. That'll be the best way to make sure they do not end up in my recycling bing.

Writing Contest

The National Bar Association is holding an essay contest. The deadline is April 1st. I've attached the documents I've received. Click to enlarge and print.

20 Outstanding SAT Essays

The College Board is offering a free copy of 20 Outstanding SAT Essays. Their blurb is:

This free publication, featuring reproductions of original handwritten essays along with commentary and an index, will help teach students to write effectively for the SAT and beyond.

Hello people

Well hello esteemed colleagues. I hope you are enjoying your January (yes, I'm serious). Just dropping a line to say hi. Joel I'm going to check out some of the websites you mentioned as they sound interesting.

American Rhetoric

I found this site today that might benefit some of you. It's the American Rhetoric Top 100 site. It not only has the text of the speeches, but also a downloadable .mp3 version of most.

One last update...

So, I enjoyed the website I mentioned, figurospeech, so much that I went out and bought the writer's book. It's called Thank You For Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion. I started reading it last night, and I have to tell you it is highly readable and brings in some of the concepts of AP Language. It does take the whole rhetoric idea to an extreme that I don't think our kids will have to know, though so far in my reading it seems very promising in terms of helping kids understand arguments.

I've enjoyed it a lot and would love to have a copy for our English department library as well...we do have one of those don't we?

Sorry I've monopolized the blog...

The Big Read

Yesterday at the Inter-High Student Council meeting, Laurie Torrell from the Just Buffalo Literary Center spoke with us about The Big Read. The Big Read is a program promoting reading that is supported by the NEA. The book for the month of February is To Kill A Mockingbird. Ms. Torrell said that they had roughly 2000 books to give away for it, though about 1500 had been spoken for. If anyone is interested, there are (hopefully) 500 copies of the book, a print reader's guide, and an audio guide. So if you are interested and act fast you may be able to participate in this year's program.

Any further information you might need would be available on the Just Buffalo website. Pretty easy to find, but here's a link.

An interesting website...

that you might want to check out is one I stumbled upon yesterday. And in an attempt to be blogbetter (or rather, because I was told to do so...ahem) here is a link: figarospeech.

It's pretty interesting, funny, and should be helpful to anyone in the AP Language and Composition curriculum.

Rhetoric Rhocks!!

:)

Department Meeting 12/12

Today we met in our department from 12:00-1:00 and discussed the following:

• signing up for Blogger
• signing up for Google Docs
• discussed __________ via Google Docs

Next Meeting: Talk about uses of department website.

Meeting 12/6

So we met yesterday and basically discussed the things laid out in the agenda. Here's a report of the major stuff:

Testing

• We will be holding the common midterm assessments during the week of January 7th-11th.
  
• Language! students will simply follow the assessment schedule.
• 9th graders will take the McDougall mid year assessment
• 10th graders will take the McDougall mid year assessment for 10th grade
• 11th graders will take task 2&3 of the Regents

Furthermore, we determined that we're shooting for February for the 1st practice ELA task. More information about the TOSCRF test will be delivered after my meeting on December 20th.

Tabled Items to be Developed Using Google Docs

• ELA vertical team planning
• Possible Electives
• All of McKinley Reads the same book...
• Writing Portfolio Per Grade Level
  

Agenda for Tomorrow's Meeting

Agenda - December 5th Meeting (Revised)

1. Donors Choose--submitting proposals
2. Extra Current Events magazines (esp. for Cheryl and Lauren)
3. Extra Newsweek
4. Setting up uniform mid-term assessments/per grade level
5. ELA Regents practice task (Organizing a practice Regents tasks 2 and 3 scheduled arond half-days for correcting (will be difficult with the ELA?)
6. Mandatory TOSCRF test in January and June for 9th T& 10th graders
7. Examine list of current senior cohort who must still pass 11th grade ELA...strategies
8. Possibility of the Redistribution of Mrs. Williams classes
9. Vertical Team items-dual-entry journals, portfolios, ssr, major works alignment
10. proposals of possible 12th grade electives for next year and possibly using as an alternative (Mrs. Barton)
11. Heavier utilization of the department blog, Using Google Docs to supplement physical meetings and stay in touch
    
12. A book for "If all mckinley read.." for this year if at all

Extra Class Sets of Books

No, I'm not trying to be humorous. Veronica inquired into the availability of novels in the building. She's trying to figure out any possibilities for her freshmen. Anyway, I've got the following books for the 9th grade level. If anyone else has any, add them to the list via comments.

• Solitary Blue, Cynthia Voigt
• Anthem, Ayn Rand (I may have lent these to someone. Any ideas anyone?)
• My Side of the Mountain (about 18 copies)

I know these aren't 9th grade books, but for the record, here are some other things I have in my room:

• White Oleander (about 100 copies) - Please. Someone. Take these. Them been in my room for like four years.
• Huckleberry Finn - about 20 copies

The following are books I use with my seniors for literature circles. If anyone could guarantee their safety, I'd lend them out:

• Feed, MT Anderson
• Enrique's Journey
• Pretty Birds (probably not appropriate for under 12th grade)
• The Things They Carried
• 1984
• Persepolis

I also have about 25 copies of The House on Mango Street. They were Cleary's, and I can't remember if anyone already dibbed them.

Meeting Thursday

We're going to be meeting Thursday in the Library at 7:40. We've got some important things to discuss. Here is a list of the items so far, and I know Mia has some things she'd like to toss around. Feel free to comment or add to the list. I've invited you all to join via email.