What an exciting week we have had!

We began this week by finishing up with The Crucible and the Puritans.  John Proctor on the scaffold in the position of the Christ figure is always a #provocative moment.  Monday we watched the end of the movie and then worked in groups to create posters that explained the theme we followed.  These were really interesting to see as we did a gallery crawl. In the Honors classroom there was a final task on the poster that asked the students to compare the theme in The Crucible to its use in The Scarlet Letter.  Students were #engaged with the fact that the themes were so similar and you could find evidence to develop the theme in both pieces of literature.  We also began the period with an article and analysis.  Students were asked to analyze the article for the argument and either refute or support the author’s point of view with their own personal support.  These were very interesting and offer us another avenue to practice writing style and author’s voice.

Later to rise, not earlier to bed, for today’s tired teens, doctors say

Tuesday I was out with my son who had a slight cardiac episode Monday night, so the students worked on a pair of letters written by Phillis Wheatley and Abigail Adams.  These helped us to identify traits in primary sources and the impact letter writing had in Early American Writing.

Wednesday we learned about rhetorical devices and how advertisers use different forms of persuasion to get us to buy their products.  We were amused by the Old Spice commercial-great use of pathos-

Thursday we played a fun game of Puritan Rhetoric.  We analyzed the Puritan sermon by Jonathan Edwards titled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”  Students worked on a graphic organizers in their groups while I posted speed questions to socrative.  Although it was a bit chaotic at times, it was so #engaging one student tweeted out

Yestarday in English was hype. The best part was getting free cornbread and learning about the “Sinners” story #engaging #MrsGEng3

— Kevin Magnanti (@KevinMagnanti) September 12, 2014

The PRIZE: an apple and a piece of homemade cornbread for each member of the winning team!  Such a Puritan Prize!

Finally, today is FANTASTIC FRIDAY!  We had an #awesome vocabulary quiz that some of us forgot about and then watched a #provocative TEDTalk by Zac Ebrahim, the son of one of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers.  He chose not to be his father’s son-a good message about peace, the day after  9/11 .