Thursday / Friday 29/30 September

There was a quiz.

We discussed the opening of Persepolis.

Students worked first individually, then in groups to fill in an "Open Mind" digram of what Marji, the protagonist spends time thinking about.

HOMEWORK:
Students are to write a short essay comparing themselves to Marji. Students should use a Venn Diagram as prewriting. We discussed ways to organize a compare and contrast essay. Most students will choose the version with a body paragraph devoted to similarities and one to differences.

Also due for Monday is reading Persepolis through page 39.
Students should be reading and filling out their SSR sheet.

Tuesday/ Wednesday 27/28 September

Today students received their SSR Tracking Sheet . Students are required to set a goal of 100, 150, or 200 pages a week to read on their own. Students can always change their goal to a higher number, but can not lower their goal. Students receive points each month (two weeks for this first sheet) for reaching their goal, and for meeting the requirement of reading at least five (5) times a week for twenty (20) minutes.

Students also considered and discussed a variety of questions that relate to Persepolis including:
What are some types of education that you have heard about?
How would you define family?
What kinds of social class differences are there?
What does it mean to be religious?
What does your clothing communicate to others?
What society pressures are placed on us because of gender?
Give examples of imperialism - one nation having authority over another - from the last century.

Students wrote on the prompt:
Write about a time that your clothing embarrassed you.

HOMEWORK:
Students are to have read through page 25 of Persepolis.

Friday / Monday 23 / 26 September.

In class we read the introduction to Persepolis.

Students responded to the last line of the introduction, "One can forgive but one should never forget." We discussed the meaning of this line.

Each student was then given a difficult text on the subject of Iran. Each student became an expert, then shared their new knowledge with their groups. Information was added to the group posters.

Themes included that Iran is a diverse nation; Iran has been treated with hostility by the United States; people in Iran may support their government, but some don't; many Iranians are interested in Western culture.

The SSR reading program for credit will begin on Wednesday.

The vocabulary list for this class consists of the following words:
corpus
transmigrating
codex
non-linear
hajib
proocative
nomad

Wednesday/ Thursday 21-22 September

In class students worked in their groups to analyze a "Provocative Text" and to add to the group posters what was learned about Iran.

Students were reminded about SSR.  Each student should be creating a chart that tracks their time reading and the number of pages read.

Monday/ Tuesday 19/20 September

In class today we had SSR.

But we spent most of our class time interpreting "mystery texts". We considered four photos of Iranian women first individually, then in groups. Groups made posters illustrating their understandings.

HOMEWORK:

Students received a handout called "Provocative text." For next class students need to have created at least five responses to the handout.

Students went to the library and checked out their own copy of Persepolis.

Mr. Zartler announced that he will have a guest teacher on Wednesday through Friday of this week.

Thursday / Friday 15/16 September

In class today students learned about the main characters in Persepolis through a "Tea Party" activity.

Welcome!

Welcome students and parents to the new school year.

I'm Mr. Zartler, and in this blog I will try to keep you posted about our English 3-4 World Literature course.

You can email me at jzartler@pps.net

This year we will be studying four primary texts: Persepolis; Night; Macbeth; and Lord of the Flies. Of course we will study many other stories, books, and articles too, but these will be the core texts each quarter.

Every student needs to have a book of their choice for SSR each day. Next week we will begin a formal goal setting and tracking program for your reading.