We're past the grammar...

Just wanted to let parents know what we have been learning now that we've moved past summer reading, get to know yous, and grammar reviews. Take a peek...

Unit One: Personal Narratives – Memoir and Autobiography

Contemporary texts: excerpts from
A Million Little Pieces
Life in Prison
Stick Figure
A Child Called It

Classic texts: excerpts from
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (p. 168)
A Narrative of the Captivity (old book 40)

Essential Questions:
How does literature shape or reflect society?
How can people use their personal stories to change the opinions of society in terms of a certain issue?
How does society shape its individual members (Equiano? Rowlandson?)

SC Standards:
E3-1.2 Evaluate impact of point of view
E3-2.1 theses within informational texts
E3-1.5 Analyze author’s craft (writing style)
E3-1.7 Evaluate author’s use of genre to convey a theme
E3-2.3 Analyze informational texts for author bias
E3-3.2 Analyze meaning of words using Greek and Latin roots and affixes (vocabulary)
E3-4 Conventions of grammar – nouns, verbs, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions
E3-4 Mechanics of editing – Comma usage!!!

Important Literary Terminology:
Slave narrative – book pg. 168
Point of view – handout pg. 6
Author’s purpose
Imagery, descriptive language - handout pg. 4
Memoir – handout
Diction – handout pg. 3
Allusion – handout pg. 1
Voice – handout
Tone – handout
Author bias – handout pg. 2

Pay attention to writing style:
Equiano: descriptive imagery, long sentences, diction (word choice)
Rowlandson: Biblical allusions, imagery, diction
***You will be expected to recreate (emulate) some aspect of their writing style in your own. For example, you may include an allusion to something in popular culture, use a specific dialect in terms of diction, or use imagery or long sentences in your personal narrative.

Minor writing: We will write a small literary analysis of one of the above classics. (1 page)
Major Writing: You will write a personal narrative/memoir about an event in your life. (2 pages)

Upcoming: PARENT WORKSHOP!!!

You are invited!!
When: Wednesday, November 4 or Thursday, November 5
Where: IHS library
Time: 6:30-8 (or whatever part of that you can fit in)

I am excited to announce the upcoming opportunity of a Parent Workshop. I am hosting parents on Wednesday, November 4 and Thursday, November 5 from 6:30 to 8pm (or as long as you can stay) in the Irmo library. I will be giving helpful handouts and lessons on how to encourage, inspire, and assist your child in your home in terms of English III. Believe me, you don't have to be an English scholar to help your child with high school English...you just need the right tools and tricks of the trade. This workshop is meant to help your child improve in the Language Arts areas of reading, writing, and even standardized test taking. Please join me on whichever night works best for you! Also, I would love for you to bring your son or daughter (my student) along with you so that as I give you helpful strategies, you can practice them with your teen.

(If you are worried about childcare for another child (not my student), bring them along if you think they can sit quietly and color or entertain themselves.)

If you are interested in this opportunity, please email me at amoody@lex5.k12.sc.us and be sure to include which night you will be attending, to which student you belong (parent or guardian), and whatever questions you may have. If you do not have email, you may call me at 476-3058 and leave me a message.

Thank you for your interest and support,
Aston Moody

Got opinions??

Got thoughts?

So I know that not everyone out there is super acquainted with the world of blogging!! Believe me, until about a year ago when my friends started having babies and using a blog as their way to post pictures and stay in touch, I had no idea what this realm entailed either. My original hope was that students would read my thoughts on what we are doing in our classroom and then respond to my posts. However, not all too many have caught on. I soon realized that the blog would not only be a great way to hear students and to get them reading outside of the classroom and outside of a leather-bound, reading-in-the-traditional sense book type of way, but it would also be an excellent portal for parent and community feedback.

The only problem with this notion is that some parents, students, and community members are just as clueless as I once was….SO here is a small tutorial, a step-by-step lesson on how to respond to my writing:
--Go to my blog at astonmoody.blogspot.com (Obviously, you’ve mastered step one if you are reading this. Congrats; you’re half way there!)
--Read my post. My posts remain on the blog from most recent (the one you see first) to the older ones, which you can view by scrolling down. If you find yourself unable to view old posts, there is a tab at the very bottom that says, “older posts.” Click it.
--At the bottom of each post (writing), you will see a tab that says,
“Posted by Aston Hetrick Moody at 10:45 AM 4 comments.” Click on the part that says, “# comments.”
--You may read the comments or simply scroll to the bottom where it says, “post a comment.” --In that box, write whatever you would like. You may respond to previous comments, or you may speak what’s on your mind.
--When you are finished, you will see a part below it that asks, “Comment as?” If it is your first time commenting, then you will need to click on “subscribe by email.” That will let you sign in to be a follower according to your email address.
--Then click post comment.
***If none of this works, then do not fret. I would still LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear your feedback, opinions, suggestions, or ideas, and you can email them to me at amoody@lex5.k12.sc.us

Therefore, I ask again: Got opinions??