WARMUP:  10 Minutes of VOCAB

LEARNING TARGETS: As a result of today’s lesson you should be able to

• Define (in your own words) multiple poetry terms.
• Identify these terms when reading poetic works
• Use them in your own writing.

POETIC  Devices

WARMUP:  Read this quote from Robert Pollard, lead singer/songwriter/genius behind legendary indie rock band GUIDED BY VOICES.  What do you think his process says about what it takes to create art, be it written or visual?

LEARNING TARGETS: as a result of today’s class you should be able to

• Explain and use specific strategies for reading poetry

MATERIALS USED:

• VIDEO: HOW TO READ A POEM
• Poetry collection at Google Classroom
• poetryreadingstrategies
• inferencegraphicorganizer

POEM:  THE PITCHER

POEM: THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

IN CLASS: after warmup/good things

• Watched video “How to Read a Poem”
• Read document/discussed poetry strategies
• C.E. led full class read/discussion of “The Pitcher”
• Read THE ROAD NOT TAKEN.

HOMEWORK: When you arrive at class tomorrow, be prepared to show you have tried to understand THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED.

WARMUP:  10 minutes of vocabulary (work on your exercises or do whatever best helps you master your words.  You can make flashcards, Kahoots etc.  Whatever you like.  You cannot be playing non-related games, screwing around on your phones etc.

LEARNING TARGETS: By the end of today’s class, you should be able to

1. Explain what you need to know for the poetry unit
2. Explain the difference between LITERAL and FIGURATIVE language
3. Explain why poets use figurative language

Read the following poem and list any examples of FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE that you find.

• What examples of FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE does Sandburg use?
• Why does he use them?  (Why not just say “The fog comes in silently, hangs in the air for a bit then drifts off?”)
  • How is  Sandburg’s use of figurative language doing something similar to what TOTO the dog does in this video clip.

• Steve Shilling Buccaneer poet

NOTE: At start of class we received our first vocab packet.  (Practice quiz 9/20.  Final Quiz 9/22)  1 VOCAB PACKET

Warmup: Use your writers’ notebook

1. Make a list of the following

• The five best things about being 15-16 years old in 2017.
• The five worst things about 15-16 years old in 2017

Learning Targets:  As a result of today’s lesson you will be able to

• Make an inventory of things that are important to you/teens today.
• Discuss strategies that writers can use to incorporate the things that are important to them into their writing.

ACTIVITIES

READ THIS:  I was born on 9/11/2001 and I’m about to turn 15

After you read, answer the following:

• What things worry Hillary?
• What things seem to excite/interest Hillary?
• What would you say about Hillary as a writer?  (Why do you say that–point to evidence in the text to support your point).
• Why do you think the editors started with a story rather than just saying “Hillary was born on 9/11/2001 and this is her story.”
• Reading this, did you feel that Hillary reminded you of kids you know?  Why/why not?

 
I’m About to Turn 15 Years Old. I Was Born on 9/11.
I came into the world just outside New York City on America’s darkest day.
As Told To Sarah Rense

Sep 7, 2016
752

At 6:30 a.m. on the morning of September 11, 2001, Heather and Glenn O’Neill drove to Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Connecticut. Heather was preparing to give birth to their second child and first daughter, Hillary. The sky was blue that morning, remarkably blue. “What a beautiful day to have a baby,” Heather said to her husband.

Heather, a landscape designer, and Glenn, a sixth grade social studies teacher, arrived at the hospital, started the epidural, and looked for something normal to pass the time. So they turned on Good Morning America. They were still watching as the events of 9/11 began to unfold, when it became clear that this was a terrorist attack, not a small private plane, not an accident. Doctors and nurses rushed about the hospital, counting IV bottles and gathering supplies. Norwalk was preparing itself for overflow from Manhattan emergency rooms. At one point, Glenn, already awake for 38 straight hours, wandered downstairs and saw the makeshift triage center, about 30 beds lined up along a hallway waiting for injured New Yorkers that would never arrive.

As the hours passed, the news kept unfolding, the doctors and nurses kept rushing around, and the baby, Hillary, kept coming. Everyone was distracted. Heather thought, “Wait a minute. I’m having a baby, and the world’s falling apart.” She asked to turn the TV off at 1:30 p.m. By then, the Pentagon had been hit, Flight 93 had crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, and both towers had fallen. At 2:55 p.m., Hillary was born via C-section—Heather had nothing left in her physically or emotionally to push—two full weeks before her scheduled delivery date. Over the next days, as an eerie silence covered the hospital, Heather and Glenn felt they were the only two people in the world with a reason to be happy.

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“A child being born—something that is an act of God or an act of nature, which you have absolutely no control over when or how it happens—was about the only thing you could honestly feel good about,” Glenn told me.

For nine days of her life, Hillary O’Neill lived in a United States without war. Then, when Hillary was exactly nine days old, President Bush declared a War on Terror. When she was 26 days old, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. When she was 45 days old, President Bush signed the Patriot Act into law. When she was just over two months old, the U.S. founded the TSA. Hillary can’t remember a time before “terror.” But despite her unlucky—to put it mildly—birthday, she is “very emotionally connected,” as her father says, and “sensitive, an old soul,” as her mother says.

Hillary, who realized years ago that her name had two Ls in it, like “11,” like the Twin Towers, turns 15 years old on September 11, 2016. What follows are her hopes, her fears, and how she processes the complicated story of her birthday, as told in her own words.
My parents never tried to hide it from me. As I got older, they showed me videos and news stories from 9/11, and it sunk in. What people around the world were feeling on 9/11, I feel watching the videos. You can hear the panic in people’s voices, how people have no idea what the world is going to be like the next day. It was the first time that I realized the world wasn’t just this little bubble that I’d always imagined it to be when I was little.

I also heard about the war going on in the Middle East, but I didn’t understand why. Once I understood it was because of 9/11 and fighting terrorism, it brought the effect of what happened on 9/11 to another level for me. The fight against what happened that day is still not over. Over my entire lifespan, that’s been an issue that still hasn’t been solved. It’s frustrating. I never thought of a world being without war—it’s the norm for me, and I feel like it’s only going to get worse.

“I never thought of a world being without war—it’s the norm for me, and I feel like it’s only going to get worse.”
People my age, we’re starting to get to the age where we can form our own opinions, especially with the really controversial election going on in the U.S. right now. I don’t have that much of a strong opinion either way, but I think Donald Trump is crazy. I think that’s what everyone my age thinks. A really big issue we pay attention to is education. It’s such a big part of our lives. For as long as we can remember, we’ve been going to school. One thing I’ve thought about is student loans. That concerns me, because some people can be paying for their education for a while after they’re in college, and there’s such a high stress on college for kids my age, especially. It’s what we’ve had to work up to our whole lives, which may not necessarily be a good thing. But it seems like education hasn’t been as big an issue this election. Things like immigration have taken the front seat. Our age is what’s going to be affected by education the most, so it’s kind of unfortunate that we don’t get to make those decisions for ourselves. Whatever happens to the country, whoever becomes president, you know it’s going to affect you, but it’s not like we can do anything about it.

One thing that freaks me out is I think there’s so much tension between countries right now; people are always on the edge of their seats. I was thinking about the attacks in Nice recently, and it made me think how things like that can happen, how a war could break out at any moment. There’s just so much tension, and there’s potential, and there’s conflict. One thing we talked about last year in school a lot is the conflict in Syria. There are so many different countries involved, and it’s all so confusing. I’m concerned that the power of our nation—if it falls into the wrong hands, I feel like there are so many consequences because the world is a dangerous place now. That’s a scary thing for a kid to think about. But we don’t necessarily have the power to do anything—we’re not old enough to vote.

In the United States, I generally feel pretty safe, but in the future, I wonder if I’ll still feel that way. I wonder—there’s always a part of me, every single time I see something suspicious. Everyone thinks that, I think. They see a plane flying low or people who make them uncomfortable, and they wonder. After 9/11, I think people realized nothing like that had ever really happened in the United States before.

I like to think that a child being born that day shows that there’s hope among all the bad things. When I heard the stories about how 9/11 was in the days afterwards, I heard how everyone came together, and everyone was nicer to each other. To me, it’s important to be able to be that sense of hope. I know some of our family friends lost their spouses or parents, and on my birthday, they always make sure to send me a card or text. I think it’s such a hard day for them that thinking about it as my birthday is a lot easier—something happy on a day that would otherwise have no joy.

“In the United States, I generally feel pretty safe, but in the future, I wonder if I’ll still feel that way. ”

For me, my birthday is big because it’s happy and marks me getting older, but for the rest of the world, my birthday means one of the worst days they can remember. On my birthday—I don’t know how to put it into words. Conflicting, is what I’m trying to say. It’s conflicting emotions, because I feel like it’s really important to have a day to remember the victims of 9/11, but I also want to celebrate. I’ve come to the point now where I can find a way to do both. Now, honoring victims has become the celebration of my birthday—like volunteering, which I did last year. That’s just as good as any celebration to me.

I’m proud to be an American. I’m glad I live in a country where change can happen, even though it might be difficult. My dad for example, he’s from Ireland, and when he moved here, his whole family wanted to be in America because it represented this hope and future you could have. It’s represented hope for so many people from other countries. I feel like we need to get that feeling back. Being born on 9/11 is a part of who I am. It’s a responsibility to bring hope to the world that I try to carry with me every day

NOTE: by Monday, you need to have one of these with you every day.

We’ll start working from a writers’ notebook and, periodically, these will be checked.

WORK DAY:  See task below

THE TASK:  Write a short (175 word MINIMUM) obituary of yourself, using the New York Times 9/11 portraits that we looked at in class as a model.

EXAMPLES:

• From the NY TIMES  9_11-portraits-example
• C.E.’s Example: obituary_ce-example

TIPS:

• Shoot for interesting active verbs
• Vary your sentence length/style
• Try to write like you’d talk.
• Have fun with it!

Assignment is at your Google Classroom!

• FIRST HOUR: sf82013
• SECOND HOUR: zja8tb
• FIFTH HOUR: i5moe5v
• SIXTH HOUR: sf82013

Started the hour with student handbook review

Gave 10-12 minutes to finish yesterday’s assignment

LEARNING TARGETS: as a result of today’s class you should be able to

1. List at least a couple elements of quality writing.
2. Read a short piece and identify elements of quality writing within that piece.

PORTRAITS/9/11

LEARNING TARGETS: by the end of class you should be able to

1. Say something about the process of close reading
2. Have selected a song to analyze for your assignment

Good morning.  Welcome to English 10.  I’m Mr. C.E. Sikkenga.  You can call me either “C.E.” or “Mr. Sikkenga.”  Whatever you feel comfortable with.

This year we’re going to learn to be more literate (and hopefully have a bit of fun doing so).  This site is your home page for the course.  The first thing you should do every day is log in here.

LEARNING TARGETS: by the end of today’s class you should

• know the location of our class blog.
• have subscribed to our class blog
• know my name