Author: litalive

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Assignments for 09/28/2020

Assignments due for the week of September 28th, 2020

PSAT/SAT/ACT Test Prep

Finish the last of the practice Reading sections — the historical analysis passage on “The Great Seal” — and answer the ten questions. (Pages 19-22 in your notebook) We will go over this last section and then take the practice Reading PSAT test. (60 minutes) You will get to keep the test booklet, and I will return your graded answer sheet the following week.

Quick Looks at Great Books

Next week we will take our quiz on the historical pages in your study guide. (Pages 2-33) Read the brief Background Information on pages 38 and 39. Start your reading of the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens by reading “Book One – Recalled to Life” Chapters 1-6. Try to answer questions 1-14 on pages 40 and 41 to check your comprehension. We will go over all of this and answer any questions you may have before we take a quiz.

U.S. Government

Great discussion on the current situation in the Supreme Court! Watch for the new Supreme Court nomination this Friday or Saturday. Know who it is and find out some basic facts about the nominee.

Complete pages 6-8 in your notebook and prepare for a quiz on Lessons 1 and 2. (Matching section with terms on pages 4 and 8) Know the three branches of government, each of their functions, the two parts of Congress, and the length of terms for a U.S. Senator and a U.S. Representative. Watch this brief video for a review of information on the three branches of government:

Adventures in American Literature

Read the historical accounts written by John Smith and William Bradford and answer the questions on pages 9-14 in your American literature notebook. Read the poem by Edward Taylor and answer the questions on pages 15-16. Lastly, read Anne Bradstreet’s poem about the burning of her house and notice how her Puritan beliefs are evidenced in her reaction to her loss.

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Assignments for 09/21/2020

Assignments due for the week of September 21st, 2020

PSAT/SAT/ACT Test Prep

Great first day of class!! Make sure you can share with your parents what you learned today about the PSAT: format, content, dates given, etc. Don’t forget to bring your syllabus back to class as we will be doing some practice sessions to prepare for the PSAT Reading test. No homework! 🙂

Quick Looks at Great Books

Great job thinking about the comparisons between the American Revolution and the French Revolution! We will discuss more later, but there really was a difference in the bottom line! For next week, read pages 2-33 in your purple study guide and be prepared for a quiz. We will go over all of these pages BEFORE the quiz. Also, be prepared to share with the class the information you found on the subject you were assigned. Just give us some extra facts about each person or subject you were given. (relating to the French Revolution 1789-1799) This is only oral and not a report to be turned in to me.

View the following video to review the events of the Revolution:

U.S. Government

Nice participation in our game on government facts today. You will be amazed at the end of the semester how much you know and how easy it will be when we try this same game again!! In the “textbook” you were given, complete pages 2, 3, and 4. For the discussion questions on page 2, you do not need to answer them on a separate sheet of paper. Just look over them and be prepared to discuss them in class. Lesson 1 will be working on select government terms. Here are the answers to the Crossword on page 1. These are the terms you will be using throughout the lesson.

ACROSS              DOWN
1. communism   2. monarchy
5. aristocracy     3. fascism
6. socialism        4. common
7. capitalism      8. autocracy
9. democracy    10. cabinet
12. civil               11. right wing
14. amendment 13. law

Do you know what special holiday occurs this week? Watch this video, and we’ll learn more next week.

Adventures in American Literature

Nice work compiling a time line of major American history events. Our literature was written about and affected by what was going on around the authors. In your “textbook” read the paragraphs on page 2 (“Different Drummers”) and answer the question there. On pages 3 and 4, list the 50 U.S. states in alphabetical order. We will add to the other columns together in class. On page 5, see how many U.S. states you can name without looking at a map. (Note that this is only the contiguous states. Alaska and Hawaii are not included.)

Also, go to the following links to view Charles Kuralt’s journalistic examples of “local color”. (Local color – writing that brings to life a specific region of a country – dialect, customs, clothes, mannerisms, landscape, descriptions, character types, and attitudes.)

Previous Assignments:

  • No previous assignments for the 2020 school year.
litalive

Assignments for 05/25/2020

Assignments due for the week of May 25th, 2020

Debate

Nice job on your final debate. You have done a great job adapting to the video format. Don’t forget to email me with the evaluation of your team members for this last debate. You will receive my evaluation as well as that of the judges along with your grade for this debate. You will also receive your final grade and transcript via email.

Explorations in British Literature

Your moms will receive your final exam via email. After you have studied your study guide sheets and literary terms pages, take the exam and send it back to me. You will receive your final grade and transcript via email.

No-Spin Economics

After you have finished reviewing your last test and your handouts from the Crash Course Economics videos, you can take your final exam. (That will be sent to the moms.) After you receive your exam grade, I will send you your transcript sheet and your two semester grades and final grade via email.

Quick Looks at Great Books

Great job reviewing the entire year’s work!! Review your literary terms and the characters and authors of our six books for this year and take your final exam. I’m excited to see how well you do on this comprehensive test! After you have received your grade for the final exam, I will send you a transcript sheet.

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Assignments for 05/18/2020

Assignments due for the week of May 18th, 2020

Debate

Nice job on the “Balloon Debates” in class! Don’t forget to connect with your teammates as you finish your preparations for our final debate of the year next Monday. Try to apply all the suggestions you have been given over the past weeks to present your best performance ever! Communicate as needed by phone or email and implement the suggestions of your group today.

Explorations in British Literature

The moms will receive the final test for Animal Farm and the matching quiz of authors and their works. Please look over your notes and then take the test and the quiz. Email them to me before next week’s class. Use the study guide you will receive to begin studying for your final exam. We will go over it and also play a review game to prepare for the exam.

No-Spin Economics

After you have finished your review, take the test on Whatever to Penny Candy? Chapters 1-13. Begin your review for the final exam by reviewing your handouts for Crash Course Economics videos 1-7 and 9-12. The exam will cover some of the information from your Penny Candy book as well. (We will play another review game next week!)

Quick Looks at Great Books

Complete the final test on The Old Man and the Sea and return it to me before next week’s class. Begin your review for our final exam by going over your Literary Terms notebook and reviewing your study guides for the six novels we have read this year. I have great expectations of how well you’ll do and how much you know!

Watch the following video to review some of our most common literary terms:

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Assignments for 05/11/2020

Assignments due for the week of May 11th, 2020

Debate

Nice job in the game of Triple Speak today honing your impromptu speech skills! You have a good start for your next team debate. Prepare your assigned role for next week so that your team members can assist you in the revision and execution. Keep researching your details and preparing to rebut the other side’s arguments.

Explorations in British Literature

Your moms will receive the quizzes for Animal Farm. Please return those to me by next week’s class. Review the characters, event, and themes for the book for our final test. We will do a Jeopardy game review before the test. Review the authors and works on pages 146 and 147 in your notebook for a matching quiz next week.

Review Animal Farm by watching these short videos:

No-Spin Economics

Study Chapters 1-13 in Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? We will do a game review over the book before we take the test. The following week will be our final exam, which will cover the book as well as Crash Course Economics videos 1-7 and 9-12.

Here is the final Crash Course video from last week that we will go over next week in class. Be sure to have your worksheet completed.

Quick Looks at Great Books

Review The Old Man and the Sea and its plot and characters for our review game and test next week. Continue to review the terms in you Literary Terms notebook for our final exam.

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Assignments for 05/04/2020

Assignments due for the week of May 4th, 2020

Debate

Great improvement on the debates today! You did a super job implementing suggestions from the one-on-one debates! Don’t forget to send me your team peer evaluations if you have not already done so. Email if you have any questions. We will finish our last one-on-one debate next week. Research both sides of the new debate this week. You will meet separately with your group in our next class to plan and strategize. (Come to your group with research you have done to promote your side and rebut the other team.

The teams for the next debate are as follows:
PRO—Self-driving cars should be pursued and promoted as technology allows.
Jack, Josiah, Conlan, Rebecca, Micah, Ricky

CON–Self-driving cars should be prevented and limited to protect the people.
Nolan, Ben, Zach, Anna, Daren

Explorations in British Literature

Read Animal Farm by George Orwell for our next class (or listen to it online). We will discuss the entire book and its symbolism in class. You will have a quiz on the book which will be sent to your moms after our discussion and answering of your questions.

Watch this brief bio of George Orwell:

Watch this clip of Orson Welles’s famous radio broadcast based on The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.

No-Spin Economics

Read Chapter 13, the final summary, in Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? (You will receive notes on this chapter to include in your notebook.)

For our final Crash Course Economics video, watch number #12 and fill out the worksheet you will receive in an email.

Watch this brief video on the Federal Reserve Bank.

Quick Looks at Great Books

Watch this brief bio of Ernest Heminway.

For our next class, read our last book of the year—The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. We will discuss the entire book next week, and the quizzes will be sent to your mom after that. Note the religious symbolism throughout the book.

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Assignments for 04/27/2020

Assignments due for the week of April 27th, 2020

Debate

Nice job finishing up the one-on-one debates from last week. Next week will be our first major team debate. Even though you had time with your team in class, you will probably need to make contact by email or phone as you continue your preparations this week. Research people should be particularly prepared with statistics and points to use in the crossfire as well as being thoroughly prepared to challenge the opposing side. Let team members know how you change your presentation to see if they have other suggestions for you. Please try to improve specifically on the areas we discussed in class. Remember that the key goal in debate is PERSUASION. Use your information as well as your inflection, eye contact, and passion to convince the judges to vote for your side of the topic. Present yourself as fully convinced! 🙂

Explorations in British Literature

Your mom will receive the multiple choice quiz on the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Make sure you take it and return it to me by next week.

Read “The Adventures of the Blue Carbuncle” about Sherlock Holmes and be prepared for discussion and a quiz next week.

Read the excerpt from H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds on pages 157-159 and answer the four questions.

Read T.S. Eliot’s poem “Cats” on page 160. Be prepared to discuss your observations of the cats and their unique names.

Watch the following clip from the Broadway musical “Cats” based on Eliot’s poem.


Watch a few minutes of an example of a song from “Cats”.

Don’t forget to email me your original limerick by next Monday so that our illustrators can do their job! 🙂

Here are more of Lear’s works for examples.

No-Spin Economics

Don’t forget to take the quiz over this week’s assignment and return it to me. (Quiz on Penny Candy Chapters 7-9 and Crash Course Economics # 7)

For our next class read Chapter 13 in Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? Watch Crash Course Economics videos #10 & #11.

Watch for an email with the handouts for videos #10 and #11 and also study notes for the chapters in your book.

Crash Course Economics #10

Crash Course Economics #11

Quick Looks at Great Books

Your moms will receive the final quiz for To Kill a Mockingbird. Please return it to me before next week’s class.

For review for our final test, complete the Chronolog on page 16 of your study guide.

In your Literary Terms notebook, make sure you have completed terms 1-13 and terms 19-40. I will check your notebook, and I will continue to review these pages with you in class.

We will review for our test on To Kill a Mockingbird with a game review next week in our Zoom class and finish our discussion of the author’s themes and motif.

Watch these videos from the book’s concluding chapters:

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Assignments for 04/20/2020

Assignments due for the week of April 20th, 2020

Debate

Great job today adapting to new situations as we did our first one-on-one debates online! Thanks to the moms who helped us and gave great pointers. The goal is to learn from the evaluations and to apply them in the next debate. We will finish these debates next week and meet with your teams to finish preparation for the debate on whether or not the U.S. should continue minting the penny. (Debate on Monday, April 27) Be sure to email your part (Constructive, Summary, or Final Focus) to your team members before next week. Researchers, don’t forget to give pointers to the speakers with any new points or stories you may have found. Don’t forget to email me your opinions on the winners of today’s debates.

Explorations in British Literature

Review the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from the sheets you were given. Complete the study guide of his life and return it to me by next Monday. Read “The Red-Headed League” about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Complete the study guide on this story that you will receive by email before our class next Monday. You may refer to the story to answer the questions.

Watch the following video about the characteristics of Sherlock Holmes.

No-Spin Economics

After next week’s class, we will have a quiz on Crash Course Economics video #7 and Chapters 7-9 in Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?

For next week watch Crash Course Economics videos #7 and #9 and read Chapters 10-12 in Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? Complete the worksheet that you received by email for each one.

Quick Looks at Great Books

Complete your reading of To Kill a Mockingbird by finishing Chapters 15-31 and answering the study guide questions corresponding with those chapters.

Wash these scenes to “illustrate” your reading.

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Assignments for 04/13/2020

Assignments due for the week of April 13th, 2020

Debate

Enjoy the next week without having a major assignment due!! We will meet in class via Zoom on Monday, April 13. Be prepared for your one-on-one debate to be given online that day. We will have judges present to help decide which person was most persuasive on each of the teams. We will select each in random order, and a toss of the coin will give you, as the winner, the choice of going first or second. After each presenter has given his constructive (approximately 4 minutes), there will be a 3 minute crossfire between the two. You were also assigned a “side” in our next debate as well as a position on that team: first constructive, second constructive, summary, final focus, or research. Research your side and also the points for your presentation so that you can go over them with your team on the 13th.

Explorations in British Literature

Read the poem “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll that we discussed in class.

Watch this version of “Jabberwocky” by the Muppets!

Watch these limericks by Edward Lear:

Watch this excerpt from the musical The Pirates of Penzance. W.S. Gilbert was a master of satire and nonsense. He wrote the lyrics for light operas and is another example of Victorian humor.

Great response to the online class today. Thanks!

No-Spin Economics

Loved seeing 100% of the class online today! Thanks for your patience with my computer dying!! I will keep it plugged in all day from now on! I will send your moms the test on Crash Course Economics videos 1-6. Just make sure I get it back by April 13 when we meet again.

Take a look at the U.S. debt in real time. Look at how fast it is changing (by the second!) Also see that because of the new $2 trillion package, the debt is ahead of the GDP total!

Watch the following video just to comprehend how much a trillion really is. We will get some other great verbal descriptions as we continue in Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?

Quick Looks at Great Books

Read Chapters 1-14 in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and answer questions 1-34 in your study guide. We will discuss the characters and the events when we meet online on April 13th.

Watch this brief scene so that you can get a “visual” for the children you are reading about.

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Assignments for 03/30/2020

Assignments due for the week of March 30th, 2020

Debate

If you have a debate partner now, as well as a topic, make sure you complete the constructive (approximately 4 minutes) for your one-on-one debate. (See the assignment from last week for more specific instructions.) When you have it done, email it to me. We will put these on hold for now and will do them online if our time away from the classroom is extended. We will invite an audience to help us judge the winners. I realize that many of you did not get your topic until later in the week, so if you can finish it this next week, that would be great.

For our next major debate with two teams, we will be debating whether or not the United States should continue to mint the penny. I would like all of you to research both sides of this issue. Next week, I will divide you into two teams, each one debating one side of this issue. You will be able to find lots of information and opinions on this topic. Start gathering info on both sides. That way you will know where your opposing team will be headed. Let me know if you have any questions at all.

Explorations in British Literature

You will be receiving two videos to review for our final test on Oliver Twist. I will be sending Quiz #4 to a parent to give to you first. Then make sure you watch the review videos which would have been done in our class time. After that, you will be ready to take the final test, which I will send to your mom as well. If you could send the quiz and the test back to me by next Tuesday (March 31), that would be great. (Scan the documents back to me, take a picture and email them, or use the free app “Clear Scanner” which takes a picture and emails it as a PDF—if you do not have to have the capability to scan). The review videos you were given last week will also help you see the symbolism in the novel and the significance of the major characters and themes. Here is another commentary on the themes:

As always, please email me if you have any questions at all.

No-Spin Economics

Thank you so much for sending your quizzes to me. If you have not done this yet, please send them this week. Thanks to all of you who joined us on Zoom today. It was great to be able to interact with you and hear your opinions of what is going on currently in our economy! Next week, we will have a test on Crash Course Economic videos 1-6. We will do a game review to cover all the main principles in these videos. Also, read Chapters 8 and 9 in Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? Don’t forget that you already have notes for your notebook for Chapters 7-9 in your book. It’s amazing how so much of the material in the videos and in the book are more pertinent today than even when they were written!! Here is a copy of the last video (#6). You can review the others by going to the past assignments at the bottom of this page. You also have the handout notes for each of these six videos.

Quick Looks at Great Books

Don’t forget to send me the final test for The Count of Monte Cristo as soon as you have taken it. This week, read pages 18-26 in your study guide to familiarize yourself even more with the setting and background of the novel. Make sure you watched the PowerPoint from last week on Harper Lee and the historical background of To Kill a Mockingbird. I will send a quiz on this material to your parent. Please return the completed quiz to me by Tuesday of next week. (March 31) We will spend the next two weeks reading the novel and discussing the characters and events.

Watch this brief video of Harper Lee’s friendship with Truman Capote:

Watch this brief summary of Harper Lee’s life to help you prepare for the quiz:

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