Silent Socratic: September 29, 2017

Focus: How are Cal and Aron (d)evolving?

1. Warming up by graphing the Cal's and Aron's (d)evolvement

For each character, try the following:

• Find a description of this character as a young child, a description of this character as an older child, and a description of this character as a teenager. 

• Read these three passages for each character closely, examining Steinbeck's diction.

• What has aspects of this character's personality have changed over time?  Why have these aspects changed / what prompted these changes?

• What has aspects of this character have remained unchanged?  Why haven't these parts of the character changed?

• Consider some of the timeless dualities at war in both characters (good vs. evil, nature vs. nurture, white vs. black, love vs. hate, fate vs, free will, sight vs. blindness, empathetic vs. selfish, etc).  

• Put one side of the duality at the top of the Y axis, and the other duality at the bottom of Y axis.

• Use the X axis for the time from the characters were born until now. 

• Graph both character's development/deterioration/fluctuations on the same piece of graph paper. Be sure to annotate your graph with key words and phrases from the passages you examined.

2. Enjoying a new variation on Socratic: Silent Night

3. Wrapping up (out loud)

HW:
1. If you have revised / created your first Big Question Blog (or you simply need to notify me that it's done), please do so by 3:00 pm today as it is the end of 6 weeks.

2. Read Chapters 44 through 49; create a reading ticket for Monday's Socratic. We have just two discussions left!!! In your final reading tickets, start putting all the pieces together. What larger patterns have emerged, and what do they mean?

Puzzling Through the Sonnet: September 28, 2017

Focus: How does your mind puzzle through a sonnet?

1. Warming up everyone's favorite game: Name that sonnet!

2. Getting metacognitive with your selected sonnet

• Click HERE for an overview of the method and purpose of the metacognitive.

• Click HERE for a sample metacognitive.

• If you handwrote, please turn in your metacognitive at the end of class.

• If you typed, please make sure your metacognitive is inside your shared A.P. folder.

HW:

1. For Friday: Follow the East of Eden reading assignment: Chapters 41, 42, and 43; reading ticket can be any of the options you've been using, and it can (and probably should) address some of the events from Chapters 34-40 as well.

2. For Friday: This Friday is the end of 6 weeks. All work from the first 6 weeks is due by the end of the day on Friday. Make sure you have finished your first Big Question Blog post and e-mailed me.

A Mathematical Journey: September 27, 2017

Focus: How does Steinbeck depict Cal and Aron's coming of age?

1. Warming up with the importance of the "the last inch" and returning your timed writings

2. Returning to sonnets with Foster's "If It's Square, It's a Sonnet" and the Sonnet Essay Overview

3. Graphing the Cal's and Aron's (d)evolvement

For each character, try the following:

• Find a description of this character as a young child, a description of this character as an older child, and a description of this character as an teenager. 

• Read these three passages for each character closely, examining Steinbeck's diction.

• What has aspects of this character's personality have changed over time?  Why have these aspects changed / what prompted these changes?

• What has aspects of this character have remained unchanged?  Why haven't these parts of the character changed?

• Consider some of the timeless dualities at war in this character (good vs. evil, nature vs. nurture, white vs. black, love vs. hate, fate vs, free will, sight vs. blindness, empathetic vs. selfish, etc).  

• Put one side of the duality at the top of the Y axis, and the other duality at the bottom of Y axis.

• Use the X axis for the time from the characters were born until now. 

• Graph both character's development/deterioration/fluctuations on the same piece of graph paper. Be sure to annotate your graph with key words and phrases from the passages you examined.

3. Recapping terms from the past six glorious weeks with www.quizlet.com 

HW:
1. For tomorrow: Pick one of the four sonnets offered in the packet for your formal metacognitive tomorrow (all handouts are linked to the class website).

2. For Friday: Follow the East of Eden reading assignment: Chapters 41, 42, and 43; reading ticket can be any of the options you've been using, and it can (and probably should) address some of the events from Chapters 34-40 as well.

3. For Friday: This Friday is the end of 6 weeks. All work from the first 6 weeks is due by the end of the day on Friday. Make sure you have finished your first Big Question Blog post and e-mailed me.

Reflecting and Projecting: September 26, 2017

Focus: What do we need to reflect on to help us progress?

1. Warming up recapping last Thursday's MC practice

• What types of questions are there? Give each one a label.

• Regroup with last Thursday's multiple choice partners; you and your partner will become an expert on one MC question and will teach your magic methods to the class.

2. Admiring the perfect beauty of the sonnet with "An Echo from Willow-wood"

• Quick title brainstorm
• Moments: Which images, diction, etc. make you pause/take a moment?
• Movement: What patterns can you uncover? Are there any shifts?
• Multiple Meanings: What do you think the poet is trying to do here (tone/themes)?

*A mini break for a puzzle challenge (and metaphor)*

• What type of sonnet is this? How do you know?
• How does the form contribute to the poem's meaning?

• Reading and marking up Foster's "If It's Square, It's a Sonnet" 

3. Introducing you to your second Literary Essay: The Sonnet Essay

4. Returning your second timed writings with a focus on the poem's last inch

HW:
1. For tomorrow: Pick one of the four sonnets offered in the packet for your formal metacognitive tomorrow.

2. For Friday: Read Chapters 41, 42, and 43; create a reading ticket for Socratic.

3. For Friday: This Friday is the end of 6 weeks. All work from the first 6 weeks is due by the end of the day on Friday. Make sure you have finished your first Big Question Blog post and e-mailed me.

Timshel and the Snowball Effect: September 25, 2017

Focus: What does "timshel" mean, and how does it apply to Steinbeck's characters?

1. Warming up with three good things

2. Recapping and reflecting on Friday's Socratic with the grading rubric (this is also a good time to ask questions if you're confused about the Socratic grades you've been getting)

3. Applying the concept of "timshel," or "thou mayest" to the characters in East of Eden

• Act out the scene in Chapter 24 in which Lee, Samuel, and Adam discuss "timshel." 

• Pick a character out of the hat.

• Does the idea of "timshel" apply to this character? How so, or why not?

4. Enjoying a variation on Socratic: The snowball

5. Wrapping up with lingering questions, epiphanies, and kudos!

HW:
1. For tomorrow: Bring your laptop and headphones to class.

2. For Wednesday: Read Chapters 34 through 40 for Wednesday; no reading ticket required.

3. For Friday: This Friday is the end of 6 weeks. All work from the first 6 weeks is due by the end of the day on Friday. Make sure you have finished your first Big Question Blog post and e-mailed me.

Meet Cal and Aron: September 22, 2017

Focus: What's shifting, and what's staying the same?

Housekeeping Items:

• Braxton (or someone else of Braxton's not here): Please record the conversation.

• Aly: Please scribe and Google share it with me.

• If you're sitting out to read, please let Mrs. Friis know.

1. Warming up with Socratic ticket musical chairs!

Remember to identify yourself at the tops of others' reading tickets!

• Round 1: Ask a question / follow-up question to something on the reading ticket.

• Round 2: Find a specific passage from the book that connects to something on the reading ticket; write down the page number and the first sentence of the passage.

• Round 3: Make a connection between anything on the reading ticket to the concept of "timshel," or "thou mayest."

2. Enjoying our Socratic seminar on Chapters 27-30 (though feel free to reference earlier chapters)

3. Wrapping up: Lingering questions, epiphanies, kudos

*Please turn in your reading tickets (or e-mail them to me).*

HW:
Read Chapters 31, 32, and 33 for Monday; compose a ticket for Monday's Socratic. Try something new! A found poem? A symbolic sketch? A metacognitive? 

The Call of the Whippoorwill: September 21, 2017

Focus: How do we unravel the extended metaphor in a contemporary poem?

1. Warming up with a circle read of "The Whippoorwill in the Woods," sentence by sentence

2. Rereading the first half of the poem with a focus on its extended metaphor (conceit)

Throwback Thursday:

• The paper doll is a metaphor for a fragile woman (the comparison: both are too easily changeable in the hands of another)

• Taking off Emily Dickinson's clothes is a metaphor for reading her poetry (the comparison: both activities involve grappling with tricky "locks," but both expose something vulnerably beautiful when accomplished)

• A prison is a metaphor for traditional prose (the comparison: prose locks up the speaker's mind, while poetry offers her the mental freedom of wonder and curiosity)

• _____ is a metaphor for _____, and here's how:

3. Taking on the MC practice and comparing your choices

(The sound of the whippoorwill)

4. Enjoying 20 minutes of reading time

HW:
Read Chapters 27 through 30 for Friday's Socratic; create a ticket that you will turn in on Friday. Braxton: Please record the Socratic. Someone else: Please scribe.