I'm so bad at walking.

So I'm an idiot.  And I broke my toe yesterday.  And was at the emergency room until rougly 2am.

So really, embarassment and fatigue have led to yet another absence.

I'm sorry.

We will finish Act III of the movie tomorrow AND we will have the quiz.  I will check photos.  And then, hopefully, we will move on to the end of the play.

TODAY, I want you to peer edit your letter with one special friend.  Or at least someone you like.

Here is the proofreading assignment:

1.  Read the entire letter(your partner's) to yourself.  Don't write anything.  Think a minute.

2.  Now, pick up a pen or pencil. Read it again, but this time, correct simple errors: spelling, mechanics, grammar/

3.  Read it through again.  Look at each sentence.  If you think a detail is unnecessary or doesn't fit the letter, put an asterisk(*) next to its first word.

4.  If a section seems underdeveloped, or needs more details, tell the author: MORE!  If you can specifically tell them what you would like to see/know, you may do that as well.

5.  Read the letter one more time, looking carefully at the words chosen.  If you do not agree with a word, or think there is a better choice, place a box around the word.

Once this is completed, hand the letter back, say nice things, and start to correct your letter.  The new draft is due on Friday.

I miss you.  Enjoy your day.

Rock

Romeo and Juliet

Here is a link to the full text, if you need for your study guide...

Get it

Extra Credit abounds!

I'm about to link the TWO extra credit assignments that are possible this marking period.  The first one has a due date.

Shakespeare Birthday Food 

Source for recipes: A bunch of selections
The assignment requirements:What to do


Shakespeare is Everywhere

Find them

Journals due Monday

Please read Chapter 13 AND complete your journal for collection.

Remember that the dates of your journals may be slightly off; this is due to PARCC.

2/11: 7yr. old you or now you--how do you react to snow day.

2/18: Watch "Fight the Power" and react

2/20: Freewrite

2/23: What is your favorite musical genre?

2/24: Are you for or against standardized testing?  Why?

2/25: Reaction to blues clips/freewrite

2/26: Are you a crier?  Why or why not?

2/27: Freewrite

3/4: 10 most significant moments of your life?

3/12: Rank the 5 Greek qualities: Family, Friendship, Love, Health, Wealth

3/18: PARCC Reaction

3/20: Freewrite

3/23: How important is fidelity in a relationship?  Explain.

The Little Prince essay

Here is the link to the full pdf of the text:

TLP

Here is the sample MLA-formatted paper:

MLA Paper

Please submit all essays to my school email: erock@gehrhsd.net by 11:59PM on 2/27/15.

Journals due tomorrow

And here, for the slackers, are the topics, complete with dates.  Thanks Jess!

12/4/14: Describe your best school experience.

12/5/14: Freewrite

12/8/14: Describe a time you failed, and explain how it changed you.

12/10/14: Describe a place where you are perfectly content.

12/11/14: Is ignorance bliss? Explain.

12/12/14: Freewrite

12/15/14: Make a list of five things that would "loop" on your perfect T.V. channel.

1/5/15: Make a list of 5 or more reasons you would rather be home right now/are happy to be here.

Sample Speech outline

I.

          A. Ever wonder why kids really dread moving? Well its not cause our peers are the easiest to get along with.

          B. When kids move from one district to another its not that bad because they might know someone that lives there. When they move state to state that’s a WHOLE other story.

          C. By the end of this I would hope to make it easier to understand why in my opinion moving really sucks.

          D. Moving isn’t really as great as parents make it to seem.

II.

          A. A few months ago I lived in nice sunny Charlotte, North Carolina.

                   1. There everything was just so much fun. I guess living with your older cousins has its perks to.

                   2. The atmosphere was just much more chilled in relaxed I didn’t really worry bout anything.

                   3. I just got so accustomed to everything out there.

                   4. Then I got hit with the big surprise. I was moving back to good old Jersey.

             B. Have you ever watched a cartoon and in the cartoon that character just gets whacked across the face with  something hard and painful?  

                   1. Well that’s exactly how I felt at that moment. My jaw just dropped.  

                   2. I stood there so long with my jaw dropped it actually started to ache a little.

                   3. Everything was just so surreal. I thought to myself maybe if I mope long enough and just look flat out depressed my mom would change her mind.

                   4. NOPE… We wee still moving and my life was still ruined forever.

          C. Parents don’t understand the struggle to make new friends.

                   1. To make new friends we would actually have to be sociable in a new school and hope that the person who your trying to make friends with doesn’t think your downright weird.  

                   2. To kids or at least to me its so hard to just meet new people.

                   3. Honestly I’d rather be that loner kid that no one talks to just so I don’t have to actually strike up a conversation with someone.

          D. When I moved to Mays Landing and started Oakcrest I had idea and one idea only:     

                   1. “If anyone talks to me that’s fine talk to them make friends. If they don’t oh well you’ll forever be alone.”

                   2. That is exactly how I went my first week at Oakcrest.
                   3. To my advantage people were actually nice and wanted to talk to me.        

III.

          A.  The second week of school wasn’t as bad I actually survived.

          B. I say all this to say moving can be a great thing if the kids not a teenage kid that’s probably all emotional and pumped up on 

Project Samples

Here's a few samples that you can look at for tomorrow's hero project:

Lindsay Lohan

Watchmen

Sample Sentences Unit 4

Vocabulary Unit 4 Sample Sentences

1.        My mom just surmised that I ate the cookies out of the cookie jar without seeing me take it.  (Natashia Cooper)

2.       The marauding of the bear stopped when he found food.  (Sam Corso)

3.       Oedipus defiled his own mother and it’s disgusting.  (Cameron Garcia)

4.       For an artist, their hearth is the studio; whether it’s long hours recording, painting or dancing, it feels like a second home.  (Cece Holeschak)

5.       Although the bus took the brunt of the impact, there were still passengers who were injured severely in the accident.  (Alex Ho)

6.       You could tell they lived a life of piety when they prayed each night before dinner.  (Melissa Zou)

7.       His complexion was swarthy, almost the same shade as his dark hair.  (Etimbuk Ukpe)

8.       The police are struggling to contain the onslaught of riots and protesting going on in Ferguson.  (Brooke Szarzynski)

9.       In the Hunger Games, Katniss sang a dirge to Rue as she is slowly dying.  (Kaitlyn Scardino)

10.   The sanctimonious attitude of some celebrities is not attractive to the public audience.  (Jessica Bixha)

**Study for the quiz tomorrow!

Vocabulary Words: Oedipus

1. kindred
2. dirge
3. gouge
4. blasphemy
5. onslaught
6. brunt
7. hearth
8. defile
9. marauding
10. sanctimonious
11. surmise
12. swarthy
13.  begot
14. vagabond

Email me your essays here:

Please email me your essays: Times New Roman, Double-spaced, 12-point font by Saturday at 11:59PM.

Email an attachment(and put in the body of email)to: emailmrsrock@gmail.com

Thanks, and have a fabulous Turkey Day: )

Oh Oedipus, You So Tragic!

Your assignment: Find a parallel tragic hero in modern history, literature, movies, television,etc.

Complete a full, written sketch of your modern tragic hero. Follow Aristotle's definition. You will have a chart(which we will get on Monday) that very nicely illustrates these qualities. Use the chart!!!

Yeah, you can probably Google this. You can find millions of professor-given examples online. But c'mon, this isn't so hard. Utilize your interests to get this done. Me, I love celebrity gossip, so I'm likely to pick some sad starlet. Or Steve Jobs. Maybe.

Is anyone off-limits? Of course. Actual tragic heroes, from literature? Off-limits. And what constitutes modern, you may ask? For me, it should be a figure that existed or was created anywhere from 1900 to the present. That's a pretty big window.

This can't be emailed to me because I'd like it to be pretty. I'd like a picture of your hero, surrounded by their Aristotlian, (is that a word?) tragic qualities. You should be as specific as possible. If every hero needs a flaw, for example, you should name that flaw. Maybe even give an example of it in action. If I was doing Steve Jobs(ahem...this another no-no for you guys), then I may say his flaw was his ego. That ego was deadly, in fact, because it led to him believing he could cure his cancer without modern medicine, which, in turn, killed him. Tragic stuff.

Here's my pathetic example...here

I only completed one of the six characteristics, but I hope you get the point. Contact me at any point before the due date(January 2nd!) if you have a question.

Rock out.

Some Essay Resources

Tomorrow, your rough draft is due.

On the side, I have posted citationmachine.net and the handy-dandy powerpoint-ish thing you saw today.

Here is a sample MLA paper, complete with works cited:

MLA Paper

Tomorrow, we will peer edit and talk conclusions and MLA format.

Research Day 2, Question 6

Follow these links to some very popular sites and stories.  Tell me if they're credible or not, and explain why.

1. Kanye

2. Facebook

3. Vick

4. Dogs

5. Ebola

6. Speak 1

7. Speak 2

Unit 2 Samples

Name____________________

English I Honors

Mrs. Rock           

Vocabulary Unit 2 Sample Sentences

1.        The girl didn’t want anyone to know about her sadness, so she went through her day smiling superficially. (Wilfred Salvatierra)

2.       It was indisputable; he was going to be grounded no matter what he had to say.  (Ben Delano)

3.       As I approached the volcano, I could hear an ominous rumbling.  (Matthew Carter)

4.       Hypothetically, Olaf shouldn’t be alive!  Elsa has ice powers, not life power.  (Hannah DuBois)

5.       The modernity of the building stood out against the old buildings surrounding it.  (Lena Nguyen)

6.       When my brother’s eyes gleamed with joy as soon as he saw chocolate sitting on the counter, I preemptively snatched it away and stuffed it inside my mouth.  (Melissa Zou)

7.       Many of us have a hard time with the infiltration of a straw through a Caprisun, which is why we usually have to ask someone nearby for help.  (Alexa Dimino)

8.       One student rebel went in the principal’s office and created a very violent coup against the grading policies.  (Bernice Ntambwe)

9.       The boy’s rationale for being late to class was that he tripped and his books flew all over the hallways.  (Louis DiFabio)

10.   The inception of my relationship with Ms. Chiappini was the moment we realized we shared a mutual love of the Baby Sitters Club book series.  (Mrs. Rock)

**Study for the quiz tomorrow!

Vocabulary Unit 2 Definitions

Vocabulary Unit 2

1.       Indisputable-unable to be challenged or denied, beyond doubt

2.       Preemptive-taken as a measure against something possible

3.       Superficially-concerned with outward appearance or what’s on the surface; fakely

4.       Ominous-the feeling that something bad or unpleasant is going to happen

5.       Coup-a highly successfully, unexpected attack or takeover

6.       Hypothetical-based on a guess, not well-supported by available evidence

7.       Inception-beginning

8.       Modernity-the quality of being present or with recent times

9.       Rationale-reasons

       Infiltration-to break into stealthily 

Watch your Tone! (this weekend...)

This weekend, please read through page 77, stopping at "Coloring..."

Also, please complete the tone sheet I gave you in class for pages 65-66 ONLY.  ("Peeled and Cored.")


(

Downloading Speak

There are a couple of options here.

Click the link on the right.  You should get a .pdf file.  If you're on a tablet or phone, you may have to selection "view web version" before you can see the links.

Once you click on it, download it if you are using a computer.

If on your phone/tablet, save it somewhere.  Here's what my iphone looks like when I click it:

I just open in iBooks and go.

Read through page 20 for tonight's homework, and thank you so much for volunteering: )

Sample Sentences Unit 1

1. Hitler believed that the German people had supremacy over all other races and religions, which resulted in the Holocaust and World War II. (Megan Miller)

2. Erin imagined her near future to be a dystopia when she found out her mom had cancer. (Sarah Putiri)

3. Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only president who served a tenure of 12 years. (Preston Phommathep)

4. The insurgency gave up their plans when they realized how indestructible the U.S. Government is. (Wilfred Salvatierra)

5. Superstorm Sandy was so cataclysmic that we are still re-building houses in Ocean City, Atlantic City, and Ventnor. (Layla M)

6. The main impetus of his fear of death was his inability to comprehend it. (Ben Delano)

7. Most of the populace of Mays Landing goes to Oakcrest High School. ( Matt Carter)

8. The viceroy learned everything he could about the country before it was time to take the throne from the current ruler. (Melissa Zou)

9. The team became complacent when they were up by three touchdowns; then they lost to the mighty Falcons! (Tobi Fadugba)

10. The Thanksgiving community pantry was stocked with a plethora of canned goods. (Bernice Ntambwe)

It's Vocab. Time...(plethora of groans)...

Tonight, I would like you to complete one sentence for each vocabulary word(10 total), complete with context clue. Please be aware that sentences that are either illegible or fail to contain context clues will be counted as a zero.

 Here are some helpful links in relation to this week's vocabulary:

Old sample sentences, for ideas: Sample Sentences 2013
Old quiz, to get a vibe on my style: Old Vocab 2013