Shifts in Fences: February 28, 2019

Focus: What's shifting in Fences, and why?

1. Warming up with a quick editing exercise on redundancy and a celebration of one of your blogs

2. Performing and analyzing 2.1 and 2.2-4...FINALLY!

3. Wrapping up with Connect, Extend, Challenge: Try to focus on something that's shifting in the play in terms of characters, conflicts, relationships, symbols, etc.

HW:
For FRIDAY:
Make sure all of your Connect, Extend, Challenge questions for Fences are complete except for the final scene, which we will perform tomorrow (see rubric below). Remember that if you missed class on a Reader's Theater day, you still need to complete that entry.

Check out the Fences journal/blog rubric I will use to assess and give feedback to your blogs.

Drafting the Monologue: February 27, 2019

Focus: How do we start writing the rough draft of the empathy monologue?

1. Warming up with a quick review of the overview and goals of the Empathy Monologue (5 minutes)

• Click HERE and refresh your understanding of the Empathy Monologue end product.

2. Composing your draft (45 minutes)

• Start a new Google doc and call it "Empathy Monologue Draft."

• Save it in your shared folder so that I can access it this week.

• Follow the writing exercises linked HERE. 

HW:
1. For TOMORROW: Acting companies will (finally) give their performances.

2. For MONDAY: All Connect, Extend, Challenge Entries need to be complete and posted.

Analyzing Symbolic Choices in Fences: February 26, 2019

Focus: How can we connect, extend, and challenge our understanding of Fences?

1. Warming up with Grammar Focus #8: Redundancy (in pink grammar packets)

2. Enjoying the film version of Fences with a note catcher

3. Turning in your note catcher before you leave

HW:
For FRIDAY:
Make sure all of your Connect, Extend, Challenge questions for Fences are complete (see rubric above). Remember that if you missed class on a Reader's Theater day, you still need to complete that entry.

Troy's Backstory: February 25, 2019

Focus: How does learning Troy's backstory change your understanding of his character?

1. Warming up with three good things and a glimpse of this week

2. Revealing the Fences journal/blog rubric

3. Enjoying Reader's Theater: Act 1, Scene 4; Act 2, Scene 1; and Act 2, Scenes 2, 3, and 4

4. Discussing the reflection questions (but saving Connect, Extend, Challenge for tomorrow)

HW:
For FRIDAY:
Make sure all of your Connect, Extend, Challenge questions for Fences are complete (see rubric above). Remember that if you missed class on a Reader's Theater day, you still need to complete that entry.

Creating Your Character's World: February 23, 2019

Focus: What can we learn about our characters by examining their worlds?

1. Warming up with a short quiz on your Fences vocabulary

2. Performing and discussing Act 1, Scene 3

3. Enjoying the Empathy Monologue Writing Exercises: Creating a World


HW:
1. Spend 20 more minutes on this writing exercise; next Monday, we will start pulling your exercises together into a rough draft of your actual monologue.

2. If you fell behind in your Act 1 blog entries, please catch up by Monday. Click HERE for the rubric I will be using to grade your entries next wee.

Performing Fences, Day 1: February 21, 2019

Focus: How can performance help us analyze a text?

1. Warming up a few rounds of Quizlet Live to test your retention of Fences vocabulary!

2. Giving you an overview of your journal entries for Fences

On your personal blog each day/night, you will need to complete the following:

• Respond thoughtfully and specifically to the Level 2 or 3 question posed by the Acting Companies that performed that day (3-5 sentences). You may be able to do this in class.

• Complete a Connect, Extend, Challenge entry for one specific line/passage from EACH SCENE performed that day. The line can be spoken aloud or from the scene descriptions. This will be homework.

• These should be published on your personal blog before you walk into class the next day. Be sure to label clearly in the title of your post which scenes each post is addressing.

3. Enjoying Reader's Theater: 1.2 and hopefully 1.3

HW:
FOR TOMORROW: 

• Complete your first Reader's Theater journal entries for the scene(s) performed in class today. See the full description under #2 on today's class blog.

• Study the Fences vocabulary terms to prepare for a short quiz.

Reader's Theatre Prep: February 20, 2019

Focus: How do we use Reader's Theater to understand, analyze, and create meaning?

1. Warming up with a quick overview of your Reader's Theater Rubric

2. Working with your acting companies to prepare your scene for Reader's Theater

• If needed, finish reading your assigned scene aloud.

• Work on your symbolic choice.

• Create Google slides that pose a Level 2 or 3 question and help us think deeply about your scene.

• Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse until you get the rhythm of the scene. You should know how to pronounce the words, when to pause, when to shout, whisper, etc.

• Stage your scene. Avoid the pitfall of everybody standing awkwardly in a row.

• Complete your Project Work Log.

3. Wrapping up with your project work logs and goal-setting for tonight: What needs to get done  so that you're ready to present on Wednesday?

HW:
1. TOMORROW: Performances will begin. 

• Bring in your props and costumes, and place your Google slide in your shared folder.

• Make sure your Connect, Extend, Challenge entry for your scene is posted on your blog.

2. FRIDAY: Quiz on Fences vocabulary (Quizlet)

Happy, Efficient Acting Companies: February 19, 2019

Focus: How do we set up our Acting Companies to make sure we work happily and efficiently together?

1. Warming up with your Fences vocabulary and circle story telling

2. Setting up expectations for your acting companies and Reader's Theater

3. Working with your acting companies

• Setting up your project work log to function happily and efficiently together

• Reading the plot summary  of the play and of your specific scene together:

• What is your brain connecting the characters/conflicts/situations/word choices to?

• How can you use part of your scene to extend your thinking? What does it help you understand better or differently?

• What are you wondering? What questions can you pose to challenge the text?

HW:
1. For TOMORROW: Complete your Connect, Extend, Challenge blog entry for the scene you read with your acting company today. You need to select THREE lines from your scene; compose your connection, extension, and challenge for each one. These should be published on your personal blog.

2. THURSDAY: Acting companies will begin their performances.

3. FRIDAY: Vocabulary quiz on the 15 Fences words (in Quizlet).

Creating a World: February 15, 2019

Focus: How does our dynamic world contribute our dynamic selves?

1. Warming up with Grammar Quiz #7: Sentence Fragments

2. Engaging in Empathy Monologue writing exercises: Creating a World (Zooming Out)

3. Viewing the film adaptation of Act 1, Scene 1 and reflecting on it with this exit ticket

HW:
1. If you were absent today or switched characters, please complete the Zooming Out exercises for "Creating a World" (linked to #2 on the agenda).

2. TODAY, Friday, February 15, marks the end of the first 6 weeks. Please submit all make-up work, revised work, and missing work by 3:45 this Friday. Also, if any of your grades are incorrect, please e-mail me by Friday. After Friday, all grades in IC will stand as they are. CHECK YOUR GRADES.

Troy's Conflicts: February 14, 2019

Focus: What central conflicts are set up in the first scene of Fences?

1. Warming up with a Valentines introduction to your Fences vocabulary!

2. Finishing Act 1, Scene 1 in Fences together with a focus on Troy's conflicts

3. Viewing the film adaptation of Act 1, Scene 1 and reflecting on it with this exit ticket

HW:
1. Make sure you have completed the three Connect, Extend, Challenge blog entries: 

• Connect, Extend, Challenge #1: The photograph of the police officer and the KKK child.

• Connect, Extend, Challenge #2: Brainstorming the word "fence"; investigating a passage from Act 1, Scene 1.

• Connect, Extend, Challenge #3: Responding to the Ta-Nehisi interview from today's warm-up.

2. TOMORROW, Friday, February 15, marks the end of the first 6 weeks. Please submit all make-up work, revised work, and missing work by 3:45 this Friday. Also, if any of your grades are incorrect, please e-mail me by Friday. After Friday, all grades in IC will stand as they are. CHECK YOUR GRADES.

Why We Don't Say the N-Word: February 13, 2019

Focus: How come Troy can say the N-word but we can't?

1. Warming up with Ta-Nehisi and why white people can't say the N-word: Using Connect, Extend, Challenge to think through this (click here for the soundbytes)

2. Checking out a sample Connect, Extend, Challenge from last night

3. Finishing Act 1, scene 1 with a focus on Troy's conflicts (see packet)

HW:
1. Make sure you have completed Connect, Extend, Challenge #2; it should investigate a small section of Act 1, Scene 1.

• Connect, Extend, Challenge #1: The photograph of the police officer and the KKK child.

• Connect, Extend, Challenge #2: Brainstorming the word "fence"; investigating a passage from Act 1, Scene 1.

• Connect, Extend, Challenge #3: Responding to the Ta-Nehisi interview from today's warm-up.

2. This Friday, February 15, marks the end of the first 6 weeks. Please submit all make-up work, revised work, and missing work by 3:45 this Friday. Also, if any of your grades are incorrect, please e-mail me by Friday. After Friday, all grades in IC will stand as they are. CHECK YOUR GRADES.

Fences and Family Dynamics: February 12, 2019

Focus: What can we learn about family dynamics and symbols from the first scene in Fences?

1. Warming up with Grammar Focus #7: Sentence Fragments

2. brainstorming the significance of the word, "fences"

• Look up "fence" on Google images.

• What are the purposes of different fences? Why do we build fences?

• What metaphorical significance can we ascribe to a fence? In other words, in literature and film, what might fences symbolize and how?

• After reading the introduction to Fences: What do you predict the fence might symbolize in this play in particular?

3. Exploring and questioning the family tree and set-up of Fences

• Sketch the family tree.

• What are you seeing? 
• What does it make you think about individual characters? About this family?
• What wonderings (questions) do you have?

• Read the opening summary with the same inquiry-based focus: See, think, wonder

4. Reading Scene 1 together with a focus on characterization:

• Keep adding to your family/friend tree with facts and inferences about what we're learning about these characters.

• What are you seeing? 
• What are you thinking? 
• What are you wondering about?
• Look for complexities and contradictions.

• Mark any passages you might want for your first Connect, Extend, Challenge blog entry.

5. Wrapping up by investigating any piece of what we read today with Connect, Extend, Challenge

HW:
1. For TOMORROW: Finish your Act 1, Scene 1 Connect, Extend, Challenge blog entry if you did not finish in class. MAKE SURE YOU POST/PUBLISH IT. If you were absent today, please read Act 1, Scene 1 on your own and follow the directions.

2. This Friday, February 15, marks the end of the first 6 weeks. Please submit all make-up work, revised work, and missing work by 3:45 this Friday. Also, if any of your grades are incorrect, please e-mail me by Friday. After Friday, all grades in IC will stand as they are.

Finding the Quirks: February 11, 2019

Focus: How can we lay a strong foundation for our Fences unit?

1. Warming up with three good things and Connect, Extend, Challenge

2. Enjoying a quirky writing exercise on your empathy monologue family member; sharing your discoveries with the class

3. Exploring and questioning the family tree and set-up of Fences

• Sketch the family tree.

• What are you seeing? 
• What does it make you think about individual characters? About this family?
• What wonderings (questions) do you have?

• Read the opening summary with the same inquiry-based focus: Connect, Extend, Challenge

HW:
1. If you missed out on any of today's writing exercises because you weren't sure which family member you were going to choose, or you were absent, please make up the exercises tonight.

2. This Friday, February 15, marks the end of the first 6 weeks. Please submit all make-up work, revised work, and missing work by 3:45 this Friday. Also, if any of your grades are incorrect, please e-mail me by Friday. After Friday, all grades in IC will stand as they are.

The Doll Test: February 8, 2019

Focus: How does racism affect self-perception?

1. Warming up with a quick assessment on Grammar Focus #6: Verb Tenses

2. Investigating and interpreting the doll test

• Click HERE for the document and follow the directions.

HW:
For Monday: Please finish the doll test document if you did not finish in class.

Analyzing Power and Empathy in the 1950s: February 7, 2019

Focus: What do we need understand about power and empathy in 1950s America?

Offering you a quick preview of tomorrow...

1. Warming up with a 1950s timeline

On the back of your note catcher, try to analyze the larger patterns of the 1950s by making a complex claim:

• The 1950s was a time of ___________ but also _____________.

2. Jigsawing on the 1950s Color Line topics; gathering background using this note catcher

2nd Hour Links:
Neighborhoods and the Color Line
Racial Terrorism

3. Considering the play's title, Fences

• Find an image of a fence. Copy and paste it into a document inside your "Race and Power" folder.
• What do fences keep in?
• What do fences keep out?
• Read the opening descriptions in the play:
• What connections can you make between what you learned about in our jigsaw discussions and what you're seeing in the play so far? 
• Why might the play be called Fences? What does this have to do with the color line?

HW:
1. For TOMORROW: Be ready to teach others about your 1950s topic in a jigsaw format.

2. For FRIDAY: Click on THIS WEBSITE and follow the three steps below:

Step 1: Read the short article under the photographs for a little context. The embedded 4 minute video on Jim Crow and the rise of the KKK is optional.

Step 2: Click on the gallery and peruse the 33 photos of race relations in 1950s America. Be sure to read the little blurbs to the right so that you know what you're looking at.

Step 3: Select ONE photo that particularly strikes you, and paste it into your blog. Perform and MMM reading on it on your blog and post it.

M = Moments (which particular details in the photograph make you pause / take a moment?)

M = Movement (what larger movements / patterns do you notice? For this assignment, feel free to compare this photo to the others you perused as well.)

M= Meaning (what larger meaning can you take away from this photo? What do you think this photographer wants us to understand better or differently by reading this photo?)

Reaching and Teaching the 1950s Color Line, Part 2: February 6, 2019

Focus: How can we inform ourselves and others about the 1950s color line?

1. Warming up by surveying our class's learning styles

• Taking a short self-quiz: What Kind of Learner Are You?

• What are the different learning types?

• What learning types do we have in this classroom?

• How can we teach each other way that engages everybody's styles of learning?

2. Organizing your research and creating a thesis; remember that your teaching is not just a summary of your topic, but an analysis of your topic

• Click HERE for the note catcher from yesterday.

3. Working on your planning sheet; if you'd like me to make copies of any materials for you, please let me know today.

HW:
1. For TOMORROW: Be ready to teach others about your 1950s topic in a jigsaw format.

2. For FRIDAY: Click on THIS WEBSITE and follow the three steps below:

Step 1: Read the short article under the photographs for a little context. The embedded 4 minute video on Jim Crow and the rise of the KKK is optional.

Step 2: Click on the gallery and peruse the 33 photos of race relations in 1950s America. Be sure to read the little blurbs to the right so that you know what you're looking at.

Step 3: Select ONE photo that particularly strikes you, and paste it into your blog. Perform and MMM reading on it on your blog and post it.

M = Moments (which particular details in the photograph make you pause / take a moment?)

M = Movement (what larger movements / patterns do you notice? For this assignment, feel free to compare this photo to the others you perused as well.)

M= Meaning (what larger meaning can you take away from this photo? What do you think this photographer wants us to understand better or differently by reading this photo?)

Reaching and Teaching the 1950s Color Line: February 5, 2019

Focus: What important background information do we need to read Fences, and how can we effectively teach it to each other?

1. Warming up with Grammar You Must Know Focus #6: Verb tenses

2. Getting set up:

• Glimpsing the color line in the 1950s together with a partner art swap (don't click on this yet)

• Moments: Which details strike you?

• Movements: What patterns do you notice?

• Multiple Meanings: What does this suggest about the 1950s? What do you think the term "color line" might mean?

• Offering you the overview of researching the 1950s color line and revealing your research groups

• Taking a short self-quiz: What Kind of Learner Are You?

• What are the different learning types?

• What learning types do we have in this classroom?

• How can we teach each other way that engages everybody's styles of learning?

3. Researching and gathering possible teaching materials on the 1950s color line

• Click HERE for a helpful research note-catcher.

HW:

For FRIDAY: Click on THIS WEBSITE and follow the three steps below:

Step 1: Read the short article under the photographs for a little context. The embedded 4 minute video on Jim Crow and the rise of the KKK is optional.

Step 2: Click on the gallery and peruse the 33 photos of race relations in 1950s America. Be sure to read the little blurbs to the right so that you know what you're looking at.

Step 3: Select ONE photo that particularly strikes you, and paste it into your blog. Perform and MMM reading on it on your blog and post it.

M = Moments (which particular details in the photograph make you pause / take a moment?)

M = Movement (what larger movements / patterns do you notice? For this assignment, feel free to compare this photo to the others you perused as well.)

M= Meaning (what larger meaning can you take away from this photo? What do you think this photographer wants us to understand better or differently by reading this photo?)

Climbing the Family Tree: February 4, 2019

Focus: What complexities of character can we find in a family tree?

1. Warming up with three good things; reflecting on and finalizing your Harlem Renaissance Little Project grades

2. Finding and developing your character for the Empathy Monologues

• Click HERE for the overview.

• Click HERE for the exercises.

3. Offering you an overview of this week's research; selecting topics, assigning partners, and figuring out the distribution of labor

HW:

For FRIDAY: Click on THIS WEBSITE and follow the three steps below:

Step 1: Read the short article under the photographs for a little context. The embedded 4 minute video on Jim Crow and the rise of the KKK is optional.

Step 2: Click on the gallery and peruse the 33 photos of race relations in 1950s America. Be sure to read the little blurbs to the right so that you know what you're looking at.

Step 3: Select ONE photo that particularly strikes you, and paste it into your blog. Perform and MMM reading on it on your blog and post it.

M = Moments (which particular details in the photograph make you pause / take a moment?)

M = Movement (what larger movements / patterns do you notice? For this assignment, feel free to compare this photo to the others you perused as well.)

M= Meaning (what larger meaning can you take away from this photo? What do you think this photographer wants us to understand better or differently by reading this photo?)

Projects, Power, and Empathy: February 1, 2019

Focus: What can we learn about power and empathy by watching each other's Harlem Renaissance projects?

1. Warming up with a short assessment on Grammar Focus #5: Parallel Structure

2. Watching and commenting on each other's videos; start with your blogging buddies, then watch whichever ones you'd like to (also, if anyone wants to show theirs on the big screen, now's the time)

• What did you learn about this person from watching his or her video?
• What worked for you?
• Questions you'd like to ask?
• Make a connection to our semester focus: What is the relationship between power and empathy in America?

HW:
1.  If you have your own copy of Fences, please start bringing it to class on Monday.

2. If you're absent any day next week, please check out and complete the Empathy Monologue exercises (they'll be linked as slides to the daily class blog).