GREEN WEDNESDAY/ PURPLE FRIDAY

Transcendentalism 1.2

Do now: What do you consider to be dominant American Values?  List.

Objectives:

• to try and identify American Values
• consider how a founding father approached “being an American”

Agenda:

1. Do now

2. Make a class list of values

3. Franklin’s aphorisms:

• Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
• Lost time is never found again.
• A place for everything, everything in its place.
• By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

In pairs, consider: What do these quotes suggest about Franklin’s attitude toward life?

3. Franklin’s list of virtues: In pairs, review the list.  Do you agree with all of them?  Would you remove any?  Add any?  Are they still relevant in the 21st century?

4. Begin the American Art Presentation activity NOTES

5. Summarizer

HW: Research Transcendentalism.  Write one paragraph (5-8) describing the philosophy’s main tenets.

PURPLE MONDAY Race for the American Dream

Do now: what questions/concerns do you have about the course thus far? (socrative)

Objectives:

• identify literary devices in poetry
• make connections between poem and course essential questions
• understand the complications of the concept of the American Dream

Agenda:

1. do now

2. (in groups) review Hughes' poem and answer the discussion questions

3. Brainstorm "American Concepts" 

4. Race for the American Dream

5. SUMMARIZER: Connect this activity to our poetry discussions: How are they similar and/or different?

HW: Summer Reading Letter Assignment due THURSDAY

GREEN TUESDAY/ PURPLE THURSDAY

Transcendentalism 1.1

Do Now: how was writing the summer reading letter?  What is a strength?  What is a weakness? (socrative)  Hand in letter to front table

Objectives:

• get to know peers in class
• practice inference
• identify personal beliefs

Agenda:

1. Do now

2. With a partner, try to make sense of each six word memoir.

1. Moving again.  Goodbye strangers.  Hello strangers.
2. Leap!  Catch football.  Crunch.  Goodbye scholarship.
3. Mistaken verdict.  Life sentence.  I'm appealing.
4. Little brother.  Big game.  Last laugh. (Eli Manning)
5. Actually, I never had a mother.
6. Bleached blonde.  Everyone knew.  Never cared.
7. Waited a lifetime for that moment.  (Boo Radley)
8. Small hand in mine.  Hello suburbs!

3. Write your own six-word memoir, summing up your life so far.

4. Introduce the “This I Believe” assignment

5. Listen/read samples

6. Brainstorm ideas

7. Summarizer

HW: Read Ben Franklin Handout (In Google Drive Handouts- in "First Days" folder. Called "Ben Franklin's List of Good Qualities"

Day Two

Do now: Take out Hughes' "Let America Be America Again." Spend 5 minutes reviewing and adding annotations

Objectives:

• identify meaning in a piece of poetry
• brainstorm the options and obstacles surrounding the American Dream

Agenda:

1. do now

2. In table groups: (answer on the poem packet)

• 1. How is the dream described in this poem?  What is its effect on the reader?
• 2. What is Hughes’ tone, and how do you know?
• 3. Why are some people exempt from accessing the dream?
• 4. What does Hughes want America to be?
• 5. What is Hughes saying about the American Dream?
• 6. Do you agree or disagree with Hughes’ interpretation of the American Dream?

3. Race for the American Dream activity- outside

4. If time, brainstorm Summer Reading Letter

5. Summarizer: How do the poems and the activity connect?

HW: Summer Reading Letter due (PRINTED) TUESDAY

Day One

Do now: “Being an American is so much more than just having citizenship. It’s that beat in your heart to  be free, to be your own man, to have control over your own destiny. America has always been an idea. It has nothing to do with papers, documents, or immigration laws. It has a lot to do with ideals and dreams” (Paul Cuadros, A Home on the Field).  

Write a statement, as Caudros has done for himself, of what “being American” means to you.

Objectives:

• review the course overview and expectations
• brainstorm possible answers to "what does being American mean to you?"

Agenda:

1. do now

2. Review course overview and expectations

3. Read and annotate Hughes' poem "Harlem"

4. Introduce summer reading letter assignment

5. Read/annotate Hughes' America poem

6. Summarizer

HW: Create a Google Drive shared folder, move our class shared handouts to your Google Drive, and complete the student information survey

Welcome to English 11 Honors!

You can find directions about using Google Shared Folders HERE

You can find our shared handouts folder HERE.  Click on it and "add to my drive" on your belmontschools.net account.

Please fill out the student survey HERE