Wednesday, May 28

We began class by close reading the chapter"Father" from the book Living Up the Street. This is Daily Assignment #19.

Following the close reading, we had about 30 minutes of time for typing our memoirs. With five minutes remaining, everyone printed a copy of their work thus far for Mr. Andrews and myself to review. If you were not in class today to print out your draft, please email it to me at ncliedl@gmail.com.

Tuesday, May 27

Today was a memoir work day. Daily Assignment #18 accompanied today's work. Rough drafts are due on Friday.  

Friday, May 23

Today we continued analyzing memoir writing, reading an excerpt from This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff and watched some of the accompanying film. Our work today was Daily Assignment #17.

Thursday, May 22

We began today by analyzing a passage of Richard Wright's Black Boy. The passage uses exceptional description to set the scene. To write a successful memoir, you will also have to use similarly vivid description. 

Following our close reading of Black Boy, we worked on our memoirs for the remainder of the hour. You will be marked on your productivity and in class work for every day we work on memoirs for the remainder of the quarter. You have to be here to get points. Each day you can earn 5 daily work points. If you are on your phone or not working productively, you will receive 1 or 2 points out of 5. 

Tuesday, May 20 and Wednesday May 21

We got started on our written memoirs. To help us get started, we completed Daily Assignment #15, in which we brainstormed some ideas, narrowed them down, and finally, chose one, which we outlined in greater depth. Before you begin writing your memoir, you must complete brainstorming and outlining to show you're ready to write!

Monday, May 19

Three weeks left!!! Today we finished "The Things They Carried" with students reading independently. To wrap up the book, we had a short quiz which is Daily Assignment #14. 

Friday, May 16

We began the chapter "Lives of the Dead," which is the final chapter of the book. The big question we looked at is "How do the different characters/soldiers deal with death?"

Additionally, I provided an overview of the final project, which is a 2-3 page written personal memoir and some kind of visual presentation. Students will present during final exam time during the finals week.

Finally, we had some fun working with Figurative Language, which is Daily Assignment #13. 

Thursday, May 15

Today we read the chapter "Night Life." Our focus was on Narrative Perspective/Point of View, which was Daily Assignment #12.

Monday, May 12 to Wednesday May 14

Mr. Liedl was out during this time. We made progress in the book, completing the chapter "In the Field" and getting started on "Ghost Soldiers."

During this time, we added Daily Assignment #11 and Notebook Assignment 4.10.

Friday, May 9

Today we worked on a Criss Cross puzzle with vocabulary and characters from The Things They Carried. This is Daily Work #10.

Thursday, May 8

Following our independent reading, we worked on Notebook Assignment 4.9 and responded to quotes about courage. Next, we watched more of Tim O'Brien's lecture, focusing on "Ambush" and how truth is not absolute and can evolve. To get through the book more quickly, we started jumping around a bit, reading "Good Form" and "Notes." As always, it's your responsibly to get caught up with the text if you missed class. 

Purpose: Explore how truth can evolve and change. 

Essential Question: Is truth an absolute, fixed thing?

Wednesday, May 7

Today we completed two, related chapters "The Man I Killed" and "Ambush." We took a class vote on whether the story was true and then heard from author Tim O'Brien on its accuracy. As we've found before, the "truth" in "The Things They Carried" is rarely black and white. The "truth" is usually somewhere in between.

Daily Assignment #9 is an exit slip which relates to these two chapters. Borrow a book from class or read Sparknotes to get caught up if you missed and are behind. 

Tuesday, May 6

Today we finished "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong." In groups, we read the chapters "Stockings" and "Church." Then students discussed and completed a worksheet together on those chapters.

Purpose: Analyze and discuss "Stockings" and "Church."

Essential Question: How can fiction help us understand the truth?

Monday, May 5

We finished up the quizzes (Daily Assignment 4.7) from Friday and also finished reading "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong." Notebook Assignment 4.8 went along with our reading of the chapter.

Purpose: Analyze and discuss "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong."

Essential Questions: Is the story true? Why or why not? What parts are true?

Friday, May 2

Today we began listening to the chapter, "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong." We also took a quiz, which is Daily Assignment #7.

Purpose: Support your ideas/opinions with textual evidence (quotes).

Essential Question: Did I use evidence from the book to support my idea/opinion?

Thursday, May 1

We read just one chapter, "The Dentist," from "The Things They Carried."

For the remainder of the hour we used vocabulary.com to study words from the book which will be on our quiz tomorrow.

Purpose: Master vocabulary from the book.

Essential Question: Can I use each word correctly in a sentence?