Class News
Welcome to the class information page!
This space will periodically update what we are doing in class.
For information about specific assignments or detail on individual issues, please e-mail me
For information about specific assignments or detail on individual issues, please e-mail me
This Week In Class
5/21/18- Web Work and the End of the Year- Web design work continues this week, as well as odds and ends for individuals who have work to finish. An overview of the final classes is posted here.
5/17/18- Web Design Work-Students (except for a few stragglers) have submitted review drafts of their projects and gotten them back from me after a writing conference. Final copies will be due 5/31 or 6/1 depending on what day they have class. We are combining project presentations with the finale of our media studies unit by creating websites that can be used to share information. they will be ready next week. When the time comes, you can see links to the sites here.
5/2/18- Media Studies- Students are submitting review drafts of their long-term project to me this week, and each student will get an individual writers conference over the next several classes. While this review is ongoing, we are beginning work on our last major unit, Media Studies. Students will examine explicit and implicit bias on various media platforms, and work to design a website that shares an idea in an engaging format. Students will also be selecting a book for an independent read that will allow them to apply reading strategies used this year.
4/26/18- Bringing the Pieces Together- Over the past week we have been doing targeted lessons in different aspects of writing . Students completed workshops on introductions and conclusion, revision and editing, and developing transitions to improve readers' experience. This process is culminating in peer reviews of our projects so far. Students will use these lessons and peer feedback to create a completed draft for final peer review. Following that, they will be submitted to me next week. Each student will have and individual conference with me to review the work and to prepare a final copy. Our last weeks of class will be used to study web design. Skills here will be used to develop a website devoted to the topic of our papers.
4/16/18- Advocacy, Writing, and Projects- This week students are working on a number of in-class lessons on writing. We have covered writing introductions and conclusions, developing close reading techniques with all media, and revision versus editing. Outside of class, students should be wrapping up their Advocacy activity, we will share their work in class on Wednesday and Thursday. Starting next week, all these threads will be pulled together as we begin the process of compiling and editing their long-term project. It is very important that everyone be caught up with their project work and has it with them in class, as this will be the cornerstone of our activities for the next week or two.
3/27/18- A Late Update- Hopefully we are done with snow! ELA exam prep is finished at long last. Our final exam will be in Regents exam format, so the topic will be revisited. Students are now working on the rhetorical concepts of ethos, logos, and pathos and examining youth movements in society. When we return from break, students will consider what traditional and social media platforms they can use to get the word out about a cause that matters to them, and work on creating a campaign to persuade others to support their ideas.
3/20/18- Catching Up-Two more snow day last week have pushed everything back again. We will finish ELA Regents training this week and begin the new unit on advocacy, persuasion, and social causes at the end of the week or early next week.
3/12/18-NYS ELA Exam Strategy- Thanks to another nor'easter last week and two half days, things are running a bit behind schedule, but we will get back on track this week. After A-day classes wrap up their survival unit presentations, students will complete their thorough analysis of the NYS ELA Regent's exam they will take next year, and practice one. Another page of the semester project will be due by the end of the week. Looking ahead, Next week we will begin a unit on social causes that students can tie to their semester project.
3/5/18- Understanding Assessment- Back to work after a snow day on Friday! Watch this space for an update on how the schedule will change in light of our extra snow days. At the beginning of this week classes will devote a half block to completing the Rensselaer County Needs Assessment survey, which documents substance use and other needs for support and intervention. This is a county mandate, not part of our regular curriculum. While work on the semester project continues with another page due by the end of the week, we will spend class time dissecting the NYS ELA examination to understand how it is graded, what the test designers are assessing, and to brainstorm strategies for success on this important test.
2/26/18- Welcome Back!- I hope everyone had a relaxing break. This week students will be working on presentations based on the themes and content of their survival unit book. Work will be also begin in earnest on semester projects, with a one page introductory section telling readers about the topic. The goal will be to use good writing technique to engage readers.
2/19-2/23- February Break- Over break students should complete reading their book for the Survival unit. When we return students will have one or two classes together to develop group presentations on themes, concepts, or techniques in their text.
2/12/18- Survival & Writing Technique- As students work independently to read books for the survival unit, they are asked to pay special attention to techniques employed by authors to encourage engagement, and to examine how writers structure longer works. This will apply directly to their long-term project, as they will practice techniques they identify. Nearly everyone has submitted proposals for the semester project at this point, so work can begin in depth. Survival unit books are to be completed by the time we return from February break.
2/6/18- Semester Projects and Survival-This week students are selecting topics for their semester project and developing a project proposal. Students will identify a topic that will sustain their interest, create an annotated bibliography of resources, interview experts, participate in practical experiments where possible, and write an extended work on the topic. They will present findings in late May. We will also be beginning a unit on the theme of Survival. In addition to the traditional tenth grade reading, Lord of the Flies, students may choose to read John Krakauer's Into the Wild or Into Thin Air, or Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Angelou may seem out of place on that list, but there is a thin selection of works that have a strong survival theme featuring women. Note that students who choose her book will have a permission slip to bring home, as there are unsettling moment describing her experience as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and a high school relationship.
1/29/18- Wrapping Up Steinbeck, Looking Ahead- We are using the first part of the week to finish up with Of Mice and Men. Students will be writing an in-class essay that asks them to develop an inference about the author's intentions in the text. We will use Thursday and Friday to start organizing our major semester two project. Students will complete an extended self-guided exploration of their choice, with activities to include independent reading, developing an annotated bibliography, creating inferences and drawing conclusions, and developing an extended piece of writing and presentation on the topic.
1/22/18-Regents Week & Publication- This week faculty are reviewing assessment data to plan how to best meet student needs over the upcoming semester. At home, students should be finishing up reading Of Mice and Men and evaluating the text for information related to their specialty reading area. In other news, students have submitted their social science papers, and they are available for review here. Take a look at the work our students are producing. You will be seeing the student's own work, not a version edited by a teacher. Issues that you may find in the writing are being evaluated, and will be addressed over the course of the next semester.
1/16/18- Old & New- There is still some finishing work that needs to happen on our social science papers, mostly in B-day classes because of our snow days... and there may be another of those on the horizon. This might be a good point to mention that I am always available via email for info on what might be due or need to be made up. The social science paper will be the last grade of the second semester. In other news, we are beginning Of Mice and Men which will renew our efforts to look closely at literature. The focus here will be on social justice themes, and working independently. Students will be allowed to use reading notes on paper (not phones) during quizzes.
1/8/18- Catching Up- After two snow days and an early dismissal, we are working to get things back on track. We will use this week to finally wrap the Social science project inspired by iGen. Parents, watch for notification that our papers have been published here on the class website. We will have a brief summary review for the first semester, but there will be no formal midterm. Over Regents Week there will be an independent reading assignment, so watch for upcoming information on that.
1/2/18- Happy New Year! This week students are revising drafts of their social science essays and collaborating to assemble them into a journal on their topic. We will be using peer review skills and writing shared conclusions. Our B-day classes will need to use one day to make-up the shared 10th grade assessment we missed because of the snow day before break.
12/18/17- Finishing iGen and Building our Projects- This last week before break, students will be sharing group presentations on assigned chapters of iGen. Everyone also has a self-selected topic for our social science project, first drafts of materials will be due immediately following break. Before we head out for a week of rest, students will complete a required common assessment to generate data for administrators about how our tenth grade students are currently functioning.
12/11/17-Beginning our Social Science Project- This week students will begin class-wide projects on a group social science study. Each class has identified a study area (all related to either stress or extra-curricular activities) and will be working to research, gather their own data, and interpret the results Work on this project will be gathered into a class magazine for publication and will be shared with appropriate audiences. The remainder of iGen will broken up between groups, with each group responsible for presenting a chapter to the rest of the class.
12/5/17 iGen begins- Students are reading iGen and critiquing Twenge's approach to writing and using data. We have begun the process of designing our own data based study project in each class. Students will be researching studies of their topic, gathering their own data, using analysis skills to draw conclusions, and designing reports and presentations of their findings.
11/27/17 Back to Work- Students are using annotation techniques to better understand material from Machiavelli and make concrete textual connections with Macbeth. The unit will cap with an in-class essay this Wednesday and Thursday. Students will begin work on our unit about the effects of digital media on their lives at the end of the week. I encourage parents to pick-up and read a copy of Twenge's iGen, the book that will structure our work.
11/20/17 Happy Thanksgiving! Just two days of classes this week, but time enough to finish the text of Macbeth. Students have been active readers, and generally good about maintaining notes and quotes. Next week we work on close reading technique and write an in-class essay as a final assessment.
11/15/17 Macbeth continues... We have transitioned from full class group reading of the play to small group reading of scenes, with checks for understanding at the end of each act. We are on schedule to finish the play before Thanksgiving. We will revisit the material right after break, pairing close-reading of scenes and soliloquies with analysis of chapters from Machiavelli. This will lead to an in-class essay to assess learning.
11/6/17 Macbeth begins! After exploring characters & themes via the film Scotland, PA, we are diving into the text. Students will maintain reading notes for comprehension and vocabulary. After we finish the text, passages will be re-examined as close reading exercises, and portions will compared to passages from Machiavelli's The Prince.
5/17/18- Web Design Work-Students (except for a few stragglers) have submitted review drafts of their projects and gotten them back from me after a writing conference. Final copies will be due 5/31 or 6/1 depending on what day they have class. We are combining project presentations with the finale of our media studies unit by creating websites that can be used to share information. they will be ready next week. When the time comes, you can see links to the sites here.
5/2/18- Media Studies- Students are submitting review drafts of their long-term project to me this week, and each student will get an individual writers conference over the next several classes. While this review is ongoing, we are beginning work on our last major unit, Media Studies. Students will examine explicit and implicit bias on various media platforms, and work to design a website that shares an idea in an engaging format. Students will also be selecting a book for an independent read that will allow them to apply reading strategies used this year.
4/26/18- Bringing the Pieces Together- Over the past week we have been doing targeted lessons in different aspects of writing . Students completed workshops on introductions and conclusion, revision and editing, and developing transitions to improve readers' experience. This process is culminating in peer reviews of our projects so far. Students will use these lessons and peer feedback to create a completed draft for final peer review. Following that, they will be submitted to me next week. Each student will have and individual conference with me to review the work and to prepare a final copy. Our last weeks of class will be used to study web design. Skills here will be used to develop a website devoted to the topic of our papers.
4/16/18- Advocacy, Writing, and Projects- This week students are working on a number of in-class lessons on writing. We have covered writing introductions and conclusions, developing close reading techniques with all media, and revision versus editing. Outside of class, students should be wrapping up their Advocacy activity, we will share their work in class on Wednesday and Thursday. Starting next week, all these threads will be pulled together as we begin the process of compiling and editing their long-term project. It is very important that everyone be caught up with their project work and has it with them in class, as this will be the cornerstone of our activities for the next week or two.
3/27/18- A Late Update- Hopefully we are done with snow! ELA exam prep is finished at long last. Our final exam will be in Regents exam format, so the topic will be revisited. Students are now working on the rhetorical concepts of ethos, logos, and pathos and examining youth movements in society. When we return from break, students will consider what traditional and social media platforms they can use to get the word out about a cause that matters to them, and work on creating a campaign to persuade others to support their ideas.
3/20/18- Catching Up-Two more snow day last week have pushed everything back again. We will finish ELA Regents training this week and begin the new unit on advocacy, persuasion, and social causes at the end of the week or early next week.
3/12/18-NYS ELA Exam Strategy- Thanks to another nor'easter last week and two half days, things are running a bit behind schedule, but we will get back on track this week. After A-day classes wrap up their survival unit presentations, students will complete their thorough analysis of the NYS ELA Regent's exam they will take next year, and practice one. Another page of the semester project will be due by the end of the week. Looking ahead, Next week we will begin a unit on social causes that students can tie to their semester project.
3/5/18- Understanding Assessment- Back to work after a snow day on Friday! Watch this space for an update on how the schedule will change in light of our extra snow days. At the beginning of this week classes will devote a half block to completing the Rensselaer County Needs Assessment survey, which documents substance use and other needs for support and intervention. This is a county mandate, not part of our regular curriculum. While work on the semester project continues with another page due by the end of the week, we will spend class time dissecting the NYS ELA examination to understand how it is graded, what the test designers are assessing, and to brainstorm strategies for success on this important test.
2/26/18- Welcome Back!- I hope everyone had a relaxing break. This week students will be working on presentations based on the themes and content of their survival unit book. Work will be also begin in earnest on semester projects, with a one page introductory section telling readers about the topic. The goal will be to use good writing technique to engage readers.
2/19-2/23- February Break- Over break students should complete reading their book for the Survival unit. When we return students will have one or two classes together to develop group presentations on themes, concepts, or techniques in their text.
2/12/18- Survival & Writing Technique- As students work independently to read books for the survival unit, they are asked to pay special attention to techniques employed by authors to encourage engagement, and to examine how writers structure longer works. This will apply directly to their long-term project, as they will practice techniques they identify. Nearly everyone has submitted proposals for the semester project at this point, so work can begin in depth. Survival unit books are to be completed by the time we return from February break.
2/6/18- Semester Projects and Survival-This week students are selecting topics for their semester project and developing a project proposal. Students will identify a topic that will sustain their interest, create an annotated bibliography of resources, interview experts, participate in practical experiments where possible, and write an extended work on the topic. They will present findings in late May. We will also be beginning a unit on the theme of Survival. In addition to the traditional tenth grade reading, Lord of the Flies, students may choose to read John Krakauer's Into the Wild or Into Thin Air, or Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Angelou may seem out of place on that list, but there is a thin selection of works that have a strong survival theme featuring women. Note that students who choose her book will have a permission slip to bring home, as there are unsettling moment describing her experience as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and a high school relationship.
1/29/18- Wrapping Up Steinbeck, Looking Ahead- We are using the first part of the week to finish up with Of Mice and Men. Students will be writing an in-class essay that asks them to develop an inference about the author's intentions in the text. We will use Thursday and Friday to start organizing our major semester two project. Students will complete an extended self-guided exploration of their choice, with activities to include independent reading, developing an annotated bibliography, creating inferences and drawing conclusions, and developing an extended piece of writing and presentation on the topic.
1/22/18-Regents Week & Publication- This week faculty are reviewing assessment data to plan how to best meet student needs over the upcoming semester. At home, students should be finishing up reading Of Mice and Men and evaluating the text for information related to their specialty reading area. In other news, students have submitted their social science papers, and they are available for review here. Take a look at the work our students are producing. You will be seeing the student's own work, not a version edited by a teacher. Issues that you may find in the writing are being evaluated, and will be addressed over the course of the next semester.
1/16/18- Old & New- There is still some finishing work that needs to happen on our social science papers, mostly in B-day classes because of our snow days... and there may be another of those on the horizon. This might be a good point to mention that I am always available via email for info on what might be due or need to be made up. The social science paper will be the last grade of the second semester. In other news, we are beginning Of Mice and Men which will renew our efforts to look closely at literature. The focus here will be on social justice themes, and working independently. Students will be allowed to use reading notes on paper (not phones) during quizzes.
1/8/18- Catching Up- After two snow days and an early dismissal, we are working to get things back on track. We will use this week to finally wrap the Social science project inspired by iGen. Parents, watch for notification that our papers have been published here on the class website. We will have a brief summary review for the first semester, but there will be no formal midterm. Over Regents Week there will be an independent reading assignment, so watch for upcoming information on that.
1/2/18- Happy New Year! This week students are revising drafts of their social science essays and collaborating to assemble them into a journal on their topic. We will be using peer review skills and writing shared conclusions. Our B-day classes will need to use one day to make-up the shared 10th grade assessment we missed because of the snow day before break.
12/18/17- Finishing iGen and Building our Projects- This last week before break, students will be sharing group presentations on assigned chapters of iGen. Everyone also has a self-selected topic for our social science project, first drafts of materials will be due immediately following break. Before we head out for a week of rest, students will complete a required common assessment to generate data for administrators about how our tenth grade students are currently functioning.
12/11/17-Beginning our Social Science Project- This week students will begin class-wide projects on a group social science study. Each class has identified a study area (all related to either stress or extra-curricular activities) and will be working to research, gather their own data, and interpret the results Work on this project will be gathered into a class magazine for publication and will be shared with appropriate audiences. The remainder of iGen will broken up between groups, with each group responsible for presenting a chapter to the rest of the class.
12/5/17 iGen begins- Students are reading iGen and critiquing Twenge's approach to writing and using data. We have begun the process of designing our own data based study project in each class. Students will be researching studies of their topic, gathering their own data, using analysis skills to draw conclusions, and designing reports and presentations of their findings.
11/27/17 Back to Work- Students are using annotation techniques to better understand material from Machiavelli and make concrete textual connections with Macbeth. The unit will cap with an in-class essay this Wednesday and Thursday. Students will begin work on our unit about the effects of digital media on their lives at the end of the week. I encourage parents to pick-up and read a copy of Twenge's iGen, the book that will structure our work.
11/20/17 Happy Thanksgiving! Just two days of classes this week, but time enough to finish the text of Macbeth. Students have been active readers, and generally good about maintaining notes and quotes. Next week we work on close reading technique and write an in-class essay as a final assessment.
11/15/17 Macbeth continues... We have transitioned from full class group reading of the play to small group reading of scenes, with checks for understanding at the end of each act. We are on schedule to finish the play before Thanksgiving. We will revisit the material right after break, pairing close-reading of scenes and soliloquies with analysis of chapters from Machiavelli. This will lead to an in-class essay to assess learning.
11/6/17 Macbeth begins! After exploring characters & themes via the film Scotland, PA, we are diving into the text. Students will maintain reading notes for comprehension and vocabulary. After we finish the text, passages will be re-examined as close reading exercises, and portions will compared to passages from Machiavelli's The Prince.