ELA Lessons for 3/23 - 3/30

Poem of the Day:  "Poems Which Talk Back to Me" by Sharon Olds

Overview and Directions:  As discussed, here are five ELA assignments from the English Department to help enrich your time away from school.  If you would like to engage with these together, please let me know in the comments section.  Some of you mentioned books you would like to read as a group.  I can connect students from my five classes for a reading group if you wish.  Just shoot me a quick comment so I know you're out there.

I am currently reading:  The Waves by Virginia Woolf and Arias by Sharon Olds.

I will add a post on Wednesday and Friday to offer a "Poem of the Day" as well as share some of the reading and work I am doing during this time.  Again, if you read a post, please just shoot me a quick comment so I know I am talking to someone. 

Attention AP Students:  Here is an important update from the A.P. Board regarding the test:  Click here.  Your class links to the A.P. College Board Classes are below.  Most of you joined already.  Let me know if you have a problem finding the site. Once you login, you will see that I unlocked all the practice quizzes for you.  You should be able to quiz yourself and get results.  I did not set time limits, etc., so you can practice as you wish.  In the testing situation, you will have roughly 20 minutes for a multiple choice selection and 40 minutes for each essay.  I will continue to make posts with helpful A.P. materials for you.  Again, leave me comments to let me know how you would like to engage.  Zoom, blog, etc.

A.P. College Board (C Block)

View Video: My AP Student Experience
Join Class: Your AP Class Section
Join Code: 432NYK

A.P. College Board (B Block)

View Video: My AP Student Experience
Join Class: Your AP Class Section
Join Code: KP43JX

ELA Lessons for 3/23 - 3/30

Learning Activity 34:  Write a book review about a book you like by describing the book in such a way to make others want to read it. Record this book talk and share it if you would like with a friend or relative.

Learning Activity 61: Interview any adult about a big, national, “event” from their adolescence. Have them recall a memory of a time when life changed and the whole country/world was impacted. What happened? How did their routines change? How did they get through it? When did they return to “normal”?


Learning Activity 6: Humans are social beings and need contact or perceived contact with others. What are you doing right now to maintain a sense of community due to our distance? What are you doing to maintain a sense of normalcy and routine. Write for ten minutes about this experience and your thinking?

Learning Activity 29: Ideas.Ted.Com with Guy Winch https://ideas.ted.com/author/guy-winch/ peruse and select an article, read and respond with your thoughts and connections. ( I enjoyed, “Dear Guy: I’m incredibly anxious about coronavirus, what can I do?” and also the great video at the end of the article, “We all need to practice emotional first aid.”)


Learning Activity 16: Do a virtual museum tour of the one of the 12 museums highlighted in this article. Choose a piece of art perform a visual analysis using the 4-question protocol:

• What do you see?
• Where is your attention drawn?
• What is there to get (i.e. - what is the meaning of the work)?
• What more is there to ask?

Then, write a one-page reflection connecting the piece either to something you’ve read in class (a novel, poem, play, article, etc.) or to one of the essential questions for your grade [insert your grade’s EQs here]. How do these pieces speak to one another? What is the connection between the two, for you?