Q3 Debates & Assignments

This post will be updated as we progress into the middle of Q3, but we have a few unusual assignments this quarter. We will revisit debates and have informational speaking. This quarter students have been challenged to write creatively as well, by submitting a poem. Students may write a persuasive essay instead for the New York Times contest - either the poem or essay is due on March 9th. Everyone's been working hard, so please enjoy any breaks you get, especially lunar New Year with your family!

Q3 Final News Source
The first test will have 30 graded questions on comprehension & literary focus: 

HW27 Soldier’s Home by Ernest Hemingway TEST 1 (4 questions) Essay

HW28 Winter Dreams by F. Scott Fitzgerald TEST 2 (4 questions) Vocab Essay

HW30 Leader of the People by John Steinbeck TEST 3 (5 questions) Vocab Essay

HW33 Mending Wall by Robert Frost TEST 4 (3 questions)

HW36 Poems by William Carlos Williams: The Red Wheelbarrow, The Great Figure, This is Just to Say TEST 5 (6 questions)

HW39 Poems by Langston Hughes: The Weary Blues & Harlem TEST 6 (4 questions)

HW42 In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens by Alice Walker (4 questions) Vocab Essay
The second test will include vocabulary and essays related to the stories above. There are 10 vocab questions (5 multiple choice, 5 synonym/antonym) and two essays, for 50 total points. 

There are no grammar questions this time, nor are there Wordly Wise questions on the final.



An earlier post on the final said:

There are questions on the Q3 Final from these stories or poems – including vocab for short stories:

HW27 Soldier’s Home – E. Hemmingway – p. 693: 7,8,9,10 TEST 1 (due Thurs. 1/8)

HW28 Winter Dreams – F. Scott Fitzgerald – p. 715: 3,7,8,9 TEST 2 (due Thurs. 1/22)

HW30 Leader of the People – J. Steinbeck – p. 756: 6,8,10 TEST 3 (due Thurs. 1/29)

HW33 Mending Wall – R. Frost – p. 804: 8,9,10 TEST 4 (due Tues. 2/3)

HW36 Poems by W. C. Williams: The Red Wheelbarrow, The Great Figure, This is Just to Say – p. 670: 4,6,7 TEST 5 (due Thurs. 2/7)

HW39 Poems by L. Hughes: The Weary Blues & Harlem – p. 832: 4,5 for Weary Blues and 1,5 for Harlem (due Thurs. 2/12)  TEST 6

HW42 In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens – A. Walker – p. 1109: 5,7,9 (due Wed. 3/11)

Poem or Essay?
Students are required to either write their own poem in an acceptable format or join the persuasive essay contest hosted by the New York Times by March 9th. In both cases, revisions should be expected. Don't think about which is easier or how you grades may be affected right now, but think about expanding your horizons and getting good writing experience. One little point for honors students is that if they choose to do the essay, their needed book count will be reduced by one book.

Guidelines for Poems
Please do not attempt to do a free verse poem. For this one I'd like students to stick to a format - any set format is probably OK but I have mentioned Sonnet form as a good one to try. This is because I'd like you to get into some of the usual things poets go through - counting syllables, playing with formats, rhyme schemes, and imagery. Another way to see it: before you can break the rules, you should follow the rules!

So, try writing between 8 and 14 lines of poetry, and have an an even number of syllables on each line, keeping it the same throughout the poem, perhaps 10 syllables. There should be end rhymes, meaning that the last word of each line of the poem will rhyme with another last word on a different line. These should make a recognizable pattern, like ababcdcdefefgg (Shakespearean Sonnet form) or another one you choose, such as ababcdcd. Next, make sure to link your images so that they send a message related to your theme - a poem lacking images becomes too brainy or just not memorable. Use sensory words that make your images real and bring home sights, smells, and tastes. And if you can, work in some figurative language like alliteration or onomatopoeia. You are well familiar with these terms by now from the reader's point of view - now see what it is like from the writer's viewpoint!

Guidelines for Persuasive Essays
Please open the link at the right of the blog to see contest rules and a list of topics. Your topic must be from that list, and you should email me the topic so I can at least be informed, or possibly help with ideas. Here are some of the rules I remember - the essay must be 450 words or less, you must cite (i.e., have a "works cited" area, also known as a bibliography) at least two sources, one from the New York Times and one from somewhere else, and you can choose to write individually or in a group, but not both. If you submit an essay as a group, you must list the names of all participants in that group. Recently we have realized how challenging it could be to fit your ideas into only 450 words, which may be around 3 big paragraphs or 4 small ones. Anyway, follow their rules, show it to me before submitting it to The New York Times, and really send it to them before 6 PM Taiwan time on March 9th.

Sometimes you may need to define something in the beginning of the essay to restrict the topic or make sure "everyone is on the same sheet of music." For example, topic 144 says "How Should Parents Handle a Bad Report Card?" Before discussing this, you would need to define what a bad report card means briefly, because for some people "bad" only means having a Failing grade, for others it is anything less than top marks, or "A's." Other topics need explanation or cultural sensitivity, like topic 115 "Should the United States Stop Using the Death Penalty?" Here you would need to realize that a person in Taiwan would be more likely to support the death penalty, probably, than many Americans would. Other topics ought to be avoided simply because they are hard to prove or persuade, no matter how fun they may be to write about, like topic 33 "What Were the Best Movies You Saw in the Past Year?" If you found "Boyhood" and "Still Alice" fascinating and touching, but the reader found those insipid and was a fan of "Birdman" and "Whiplash" do you think having great citations or writing persuasively will easily change their minds?

Keep in mind you need a good opening to grab their attention - the "usual suspects" for opening hooks include dialogue, action, onomatopoeia, or a question. These may be used even in persuasive writing, but understand that you will be combining both logical and emotional approaches, with some emphasis on logical, since there will be citations. I'd keep your intro and conclusion short, and remember what I taught you about structure where you clearly state your case, or thesis, in the beginning and remind them with different words at the end. I'll go ahead and recommend two body paragraphs which would correspond with your citations, but I hope they will be rich enough to develop your case within the not-so-long body paragraphs. Flow and structure will be important because of the short length, so there must be no fluff, or extra words. A revision will sound smart, so please don't send it to me at midnight Sunday as I might not be able to get to everybody!



Fast and Furious Debates
First "day" of debates, before break, includes two topics. One change is that the time for arguments will be increased to 2.5 minutes per speaker. There will be 30 seconds in between each speaker, and three minutes for each group to research using the classroom computer before the debate begins.

Topic 1: Should individuals be forced to receive vaccinations (e.g., against the measles), even if unwilling?

Topic 2: Homeschooling & non-traditional education should be encouraged.

Topic 3: Just governments ought to ensure food security for their citizens.

Topic 4: Just governments ought to require that employers pay a (reasonable) minimum wage.

Topic 5: The U.S. federal government should substantially increase its non-military exploration and/or development of the Earth's oceans.

Topic 6: The U.S. federal government should substantially curtail its domestic surveillance.


Go to the National Speech and Debate Association Web Site for more info on the above topics.


Five Beautiful Sentences assignment
Please find five sentences within your Book Group book, and email the following information:
1) The entire sentence and its page number
2) Underline the word for phrase that is "interesting" (see below)
3) Include a brief explanation about why you underlined it. Also helpful is explaining the context of the sentence within the story, or the importance of the sentence.

Underline words that are effectively, or well-written, but look for use of slang, idioms, vernacular (local language), difficult, or fresh.

This assignment it for the vocabulary part of your individual test on the book you read for your group. It will be available this week, most likely after Talent Show. You will have short answer or essay-type questions, with some vocabulary questions based on the beautiful sentences documents submitted by students from that group. If that information is lacking from the group, the teacher will decide which words to test from the book and the students will receive a "lesser" study guide.

Informational Speaking
Speak for at least two minutes about An Good Place to Visit in Taiwan. You may use your blog post as a source of ideas, but you may not read the speech from the blog or paper. It is recommended that a photo from online be prepared for the speech, perhaps attached to your blog post.
Keep in mind this is informational speaking, so include some facts and figures - things like describing the geography or location, population, economics, or some details. Avoid "selling," or persuading, and also avoid too many personal stories, or narratives.


remaining Literature Homework

HW37 Poems by E.E. Cummings p. 678: 5 for both & 6 for second one

HW38 Poems by C. Cullen p. 822: 3 & 4 for both

HW39 Poems by Langston Hughes p. 832: 4,5 for Weary Blues and 1,5 for Harlem TEST 6

HW41 Black Boy – R. Wright – p. 1076: 5,7,9,11

HW42 In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens – A. Walker – p. 1109: 5,7,9

One thing to note that after TEST 6, we will need no more. Some students may choose to take the test for In Search of Our Mother's Gardens, to substitute for a low grade. At this point, no drops are planned in any category. If the whole class avoids plagiarism on written homework, a drop of the lowest homework score may be proposed. We endeavor to help everyone feel ready to answer homework questions on time with their own good ideas!

Grammar Quiz
Now this quiz has been put off to March 10th because we will review the information below using pages from "The Only Grammar Book You'll Ever Need."

Information includes the following three major points:
A) Verb Tenses - know form and use:
     1) Simple Present: "Alvyn is a man." "If you heat ice it melts." "The sun rises in the East and sets in the West." "I brush my teeth every morning." "I usually/sometimes/always play piano at night.
     2) Present Continuous: "I am writing now."
     3) Future: a) "will" for willingness: "I will go with you to Paris." or determination: "Yes I will go see a movie with Arielle." b) "am going to V" for plans: "We are going to visit Italy next summer." c) using present tense to show future with schedules: "I fly tomorrow at 9 AM." d) using present continuous tense for future (probably for plans too): "I am visiting Italy next summer."
     4) Present Perfect: a) for recently completed actions that still affect the present: "I have eaten lunch." b) for experience: "I have visited England before." c) for repeated actions happening from a point in the past, to now, and going into the future, using "for" or "since": "Book has studied Chinese for three years." or "Book has studied Chinese since 2012."
B) Verbals - words that look like verbs but are used as other parts of speech
     1) gerunds - words that look like verbs but are used as nouns: "Wakeboarding is really my favorite sport. Swimming is boring."
     2) participles - they look like verbs (ending in "-ing" or "-ed") but are used as adjectives: The girl sitting over there is my friend.
     3) infinitives - the basic form of the verb with "to" in front of it, usually used as a noun, but may be used as adjective or adverb. We will come back to this later, but for more immediate info, try this link on infinitive use. For now you need to know that we use infinitives to explain why we do something: "Stephen attends university to learn about physical therapy." "Brandon came to Taiwan to study Chinese."
C) An understanding that English is changing and that a lot of what is "right" is that way because a lot of people have decided to speak that way: "I don't recommend having 2 beers with lunch." or "Hey, you are looking good today." Instead, a more formal or traditional way to say these would be: "I'd recommend drinking two bottles of beer on the first Saturday night after graduation." or "You look good today."

For more review, use this link to see the web site we used in class for those verb tenses.