So, here is how we are winding up 3rd quarter and moving into the last quarter of your high school career!

 

In Justice:  Childhood Love Lessons, we have been re-examining the reading strategies we've learned and pracitced this year as we read through bel hooks' article:  pre-reading, vocabulary, considering how she structured her argument, examining the use and effectiveness of language choices, considering where you stand in relation to her position on the subject of love, punishment, and abuse. 

 

We are also practicing the writing skills we've developed this year:  analyzing the prompt, focusing your rereading to address position on prompt, developing strong claim, organizing paper to develop that claim with a series of subclaims (assertion) , finding appropriate evidence to support the subclaims, explaining sufficiently and in depth the significance of that evidence in supporting your assertions, and considering the most effective order to present those ideas to your reader.

 

This unit will lead directly into the last "process" paper of the year which will be introduced next week.  We will be examining a variety of other student papers for how they establish an argument--some are better than others--however, they are not necessarily all A papers!  You will leave for Spring break with the final "process" paper assignment and its due date.  This paper will be the most significant paper of the year as it will be evaluated for all the elements of writing a strong argument in preparation for college and will be assessed according to that criteria.

 

That will leave us with our final unit--Sophie's World.  This is the "teaching" unit and have a final timed-write paper during final exams.  The rest of the unit will be considering the deepest questions of Man and his/her relationship with the world as considered by the great thinkers in Western culture.  It will be emphasizing questions with no easy answers as they have developed over the centuries and involve a teaching unit that will get you digging deeply into one era or thinker and presenting it to class. 

 

Hang in there--June is getting closer and you'll be crossing stage before you know it!

 

Mrs. C