Monday / Tuesday 28/29 November

All classes reviewed due dates:
Persepolis essay: Due 1/2 December
SSR Make-Up (Book Poster) Due 5/6 December
SSR for the last two weeks due 30 Nov./1 December
Next SSR due 15/16 December

Students must return Perseoplis to the library when they are done with their essay. The library will consider them overdue after 2 December.

On Thursday / Friday of this week we will be checking out Night, by Ellie Wiesel, from the library.

Students read for SSR. Students received a new bookmark for tracking their SSR. Students entered the data from the previous two weeks in the SSR 3-Rings in class.


2nd / 7th Period:
This class worked on peer review and revision of their Persepolis rough drafts.

3rd Period:
This class reviewed the vocabulary list. This class added the word "craven" which means "without courage" to their vocabulary list.

This class had a homework assignment.

HOMEWORK:
Write at least a page answering one or both of these questions:

What role does religion play in your life? Is religion and faith the same thing?

Has your faith ever been challenged by something? Will you share what the challenge was and how it affected your faith?

Week of November 14-18

I apologize for the delay in posting to the blog this week, I have not been well.
The week was spent working on developing an out line for the Persepolis paper, and turning that outline into a rough draft. All students who turned their rough draft in on time (or late) received the rough draft back with comments.

The final draft due date has been changed to Thursday/ Friday 1/2 December. Students have the opportunity to come in during the Wednesday conference period for additional help.

The extra credit reading assignment was discussed in class. The handout for it is at the end of this entry.

Here are some of the key notes from lectures or in class activities this week.

This notes are about how an outline becomes a rough draft.

Below is a diagram for how an essay is narrowed by it's introduction, and how it is expanded by its conclusion. The conclusion should add something new to the paper, and it should explain how and why the paper is worth reading.

I apologize that these notes are hard to read. This is the process that we followed to have a peer revision conference for rough drafts.

Many students struggle to properly include quotes in their essay. The essay requires both a direct quote used as evidence, and an annotation of an illustration as evidence. Below are notes on embedding the quote properly.

To introduce an annotation use a phrase such as:
A panel on page three shows....
or
In an image showing the devastation of war in the chapter "The Key" one sees ....

Here is the extra credit handout.

See you during conferences, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday / Monday 9 /14 November

Class began with SSR. Students turned in their previous SSR sheet and got a new one.

Mr. Zartler lectured on how outlines work. Here are the notes from the board:

Students then worked to complete excellent outlines.

The end of class was spent watching the video of Persepolis and seeing which predictions about Marji's life turn out to be correct.

HOMEWORK: ROUGH DRAFTS ARE DUE ON THE 15TH AND 16TH.

Monday / Tuesday 8/9 November

In class today we began with SSR. After reading, SSR sheets were collected. Then Mr. Zartler went over the following handouts that give the requirements for the Persepolis essay that is due November 28th / 29th. A rough draft is due November 15th / 16th. An outline is due November 9th or 14th. Students should have completed an acceptable thesis statement in class today.

We watched the Persepolis video from about minute 35 to 50.

Thursday / Friday 2/3 November

Class began with a reminder that the writing / homework assignment from the previous class was designed to help students focus on paper topics.

In class we shared the writing in small groups, and the groups asked probing questions of the writer such as  questions beginning with "What ...?" and "How ....?" or "Tell me more about ......".

Next Mr. Zartler lectured about thesis statements.
Your thesis should
Make a statement about the world that Persepolis supports. (About the world implies related to the themes/ big ideas we've been discussing: Political Revolution; Teen Rebellion; Faith; Individual v. Society; Family; Heroes; Male v. Female roles.

Two possible formats for thesis statements are:
Persepolis teaches / shows/ suggests ____________ about ____________.
and
One important lesson to take from reading and thinking about Persepolis is .......

Then Mr. Zartler pointed out how some of the themes clearly relate to one another; and that by combining two themes and the book, the scope of the paper is narrowed down to a manageable size.

Students then wrote thesis statements. Got feedback from peers on the thesis statement, and revised the thesis statements as necessary

Class ended with SSR.

Tuesday / Wednesday 11/1/11 and 11/2/11

There was a pop quiz.

Students turned in their homework, and the class discussed the sacrifices that Marji's parent's made, and that Marji made at the end of Persepolis.

Students wrote a list of predictions for Marji's life in 1982 and beyond.

SSR sheets were collected, and new ones due on the 7th or 8th of November were handed out.

A brief description of the coming essay based on the Persepolis unit was made: E.g. the essay should not be a summary; it should address a "big issue" or "big question" in some way; the essay's will probably relate to one or more of the themes we have focused on: political revolution; teen rebellion; faith; male vs. female roles; society v. individual; family; heroes.

Students wrote a lengthy response to the following question:

What did I learn about the world (being a teen; being a parent; being political; being religious; etc.) by reading Persepolis and thinking about Marji and what she thought and did?

Students had SSR.