Hi all!

It's been a while since I posted anything on the blog. Below you will find a list of the most pervasive patterns I noticed on your Jimmy Santiago Baca's "Coming Into Language" essays. Please go through the list and your individual comments and revise your essays as necessary.  Essays are due on Sunday, March 1st by midnight (Per. 3).

Best,
Ms. Parra

1. Do Now: Annotate William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 116."

Sonnet 116  By William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
   If this be error and upon me proved,
   I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

2. TPCASTT for "Sonnet 116" 
 Make sure to use complete sentences!

3.  Choose a second topic from your list "10 things I know to be true" and draft a poem on a separate sheet of paper.


4. Turn in all work.


5. If you are done early, grab a book and read!


I'll see you all Wednesday! Sorry I can't be with you tomorrow…I'll miss you guys!

Warrior Scholars,

I wanted to thank you for your evaluations.  They really validated what I feel I'm doing well in the classroom (plus, I'm a blue so it helped to get such great positive comments) and it also helped me set goals for myself.  My three goals: 1) Try to talk slower, 2) Update our Google Calendar to reflect the homework assignments for the entire week, and 3) Make my expectations for homework clearer.

As you know, I will be out for the next two days working on our district benchmarks.  Below you will find the assignments I expect to be completed while I'm gone:


Tuesday:
1. Bring your textbooks to class.
2. Read the Edgar Allan Poe biography and answer the questions on the handout (What do you know about EAP? What did you learn about EAP? How does an author's life affect his/her writing?)

3. Complete the nine word maps for "The Cask of Amontillado" words to own.
4. If you are done early, please start reading the story. If you don't get to step #4, please read the story for homework.


Wednesday:
1. Close read of "The Cask of Amontillado" with text dependent questions. You may work with your group to answer the questions.  Remember to use complete sentences.

2. If you are done, you may begin your homework assignments: Indirect characterization chart for Fortunato and evidence chart (analysis of quotes). 

"The Most Dangerous Game" words to own quiz will take place on Friday.
Have a great two days! I will miss you all!

Best,

Ms. Parra

Warrior Scholars,
Below, you will find the awesome Google Doc tutorial narrated by none other than the wonderful Ms. Parra! 

Reminder: You will NOT need your notebooks tomorrow. You will automatically start reading the story, "The Most Dangerous Game" and filling out your word maps.  You need two examples for each word map. Please be productive! I expect to have all the work completed by Thursday. Also, remember that on Thursday you will be having a vocabulary test on your words from "The Scarlet Ibis" and "Harrison Bergeron." The format of the test is fill in the blank.

You're all great students and I expect you to behave in a manner that reflects positively on our school, our class, and on me as your teacher. 

Have a great day tomorrow! I'll miss you all!

-Ms. Parra

Prompt: Choose a well known religious, national, or cultural symbol.

Write a paragraph analyzing its meaning. Include the standard meaning along with a personal interpretation and a personal interpretation from someone else.

Example (Rough Draft):
The symbolism of the owl relates back to Ancient Greece and their reverence to Athena --goddess of wisdom and courage (amongst other qualities).  The owl represents intuition and wisdom.  In other cultures, owls are seen as symbols of death who help souls journey into the realm of death (guardians of the afterlife).  Because owls are nocturnal creatures, they are often credited with being able to see from great distances.  The owl, currently holds a more personal meaning to me.  My best friend had a liking for owls.  Two years ago when I went to visit her in Chicago, I remembered seeing owl decorations in her room and then I went home and bought her owl print mugs.  I never sent her the gifts because I was never great at snail mail.  Now, the owl represents my best friend, Sam. She is the owl, wise and courageous, who looks after me. To my mother, owls are associated with night and death.  My mother believes the symbolism of owls relates back to witchcraft and death.  She does not hold the same interpretation as I do. 
 

Warrior Scholars,

The week flew by! Most of our week was spent on preparing for our benchmark and reading Jimmy Santiago Baca's personal narrative, "Coming Into Language." This is a powerful piece that highlights the importance of language in our lives.  Although we don't always stop to think about it, language provides us with the power to communicate --to express our emotions, aspirations, and fears.  Remember that language is power. Your voice matters!

Below you will find my favorite parts of the piece. These are gems that I find poetic and that resonate with me!  This piece meant more to me this time around.  I felt connected to it because writing is currently helping me heal and process what is going on.  Maybe in the future I'll feel comfortable enough to share some of my personal writing pieces! For now here are my favorite parts:

• "I stumblingly repeated the author’s name as I fell asleep, saying it over and over in the dark: Words-worth, Words-worth."  
• "Suddenly, through language, through writing, my grief and my joy could be shared with anyone who would listen. And I could do this all alone; I could do it anywhere."
• "Each word steamed with the hot lava juices of my primordial making, and I crawled out of stanzas dripping with birth-blood, reborn and freed from the chaos of my life. The child in the dark room of my heart, that had never been able to find or reach the light switch, flicked it on now; and I found in the room a stranger, myself, who had waited so many years to speak again."

Symbolism REVIEW:
Definition:  
A symbol is an object that represents, stands for, or suggests an idea, visual image, belief, action, or material entity. Symbols take the form of words, sounds, gestures, people or visual images and are used to convey ideas and beliefs

*Remember that some symbols are universal in meaning and despite language differences, we can all agree on the meaning of it.  Other times, however, symbols can carry a personal significance to us. 

Examples:

• The American flag - symbol for patriotism and freedom (but people in other countries might see it as a sign of hate, anger, etc)/
• The scarlet ibis: The ibis symbolizes Doodle.  They are both beautiful and fragile.
• Stop sign: Symbol to stop
• Bathroom signs: Symbols for the female and male restrooms. 
• McDonald's sign: Symbol for the fast food chain or animal cruelty (up to you to decide).
• Black: Symbol for death or mourning.
• Red: Symbol for love or passion.
• Heart: Symbol for love. 

Homework:
*Answer your discussion posts (remember your group number). Remember to use academic language and to use examples from the text!

Have a great weekend! Stay healthy! Thanks for being supportive of me and for bearing with my Darth Vader voice. :)

Warrior Scholars,

First and foremost, I want to take the time to thank you all for being so supportive this week.  I'm still going through one of the most difficult moments of my life. I've been so emotionally and physically drained, but when I'm in class with you all, you have made me laugh and smile and I am thankful for that! With the help of my family, close friends, writing, and all of you, I will find the strength to move forward. 

This week we read Kurt Vonnegut's short story, "Harrison Bergeron" and focused our class discussions on equality.  We then looked at what techniques Vonnegut used to drive his story forward and defined the literary terms satire and dystopia.  Vonnegut uses satire to criticize the Handicapper General's desire to create "equality" by stripping people of their individuality.  Below you will find a mini review session for the material covered in class this week.

SATIRE REVIEW:
1. Definition: The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics or other topical issues. 

2. Examples of satire:
*Taken from:  http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/satire.htm

"Sexiest Man Alive"
http://www.theonion.com/articles/kim-jongun-named-the-onions-sexiest-man-alive-for,30379/

Dystopia Review:
1. Definition: an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.


Examples of Dystopia:

• "The Hunger Games" series
• "Divergent" series
• "The Maze Runner" series
• "The Uglies" series
• "The Giver"

HW:
1. Find three examples of satire in "Harrison Bergeron" and make sure you use evidence from the text (direct quote or paraphrase) and your rationale for why this example is satire.
2. One example of satire from "The Onion" and a response in which you explain what is being criticized.
3. A short story that emulates Kurt Vonnegut's writing style in "Harrison Bergeron." 3/4 of a page to one full page. You have full artistic license in your short story. Remember this is a rough draft. I don't expect it to be perfect. My main objective with this is to get you writing creatively (we don't always do this in an English classroom, especially once we start writing essays). Have fun!
4. Read the "Scarlet Ibis" in your literature textbook. 
5. Have a great and safe weekend! If you have questions, please email me!
6. Please don't forget your notebooks. We will need them on Tuesday!

Best,
Ms. Parra