Whether you are a student in English 12, or a student in Dual Credit Senior English, this blog is the place to look for info concerning our class.

I also hope this blog is a resource for information for the parents and grandparents of my students.

Don’t forget to sign up for our class’s Facebook page, as well — another way to receive 21st Century Communication about assignments and expectations.

I look forward to the new school year!

Students are reminded to check their emails for infomation about senior projects in the LHS Senior Electronic Newsletter.

In class today we continued our discussion of extended definition essays.  In the morning classes we discussed both “The Company Man” and “What is Crime”.  In the afternoon classes we discussed “The Company Man”. 

Homework is to read the two essays on “What is Patriotism” by Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama, and be prepared to discuss in class tomorrow in terms of how these essays meet the criteria of extended definition essays.

In periods 3, 6 and 7 I held individual writing conferences with students today, and reviewed their research papers.  Anyone who was absent and needs to conference with me can see me at 7 a.m. in my classroom on either Thursday or Friday of this week.

Tomorrow students in periods 3, 6 and 7 will have reading time, as all students must complete SPEAK by Monday of next week.  Students in 4th period will have writing conferences along with reading time tomrrow.

Additionally I will give out SPEAK project sheets tomorrow in class.

Also, remember that students were given a new novel on Monday of this week, and students should have finished readying SPEAK by Monday, Decmeber 14th.

 Students know that I will be gone for a professional conference on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week. During this time students will complete their research papers. Wednesday through Friday students have time to word process their papers. Mrs. Queen will be the substitute teacher, and class will continue as it would if I were at school. I expect no behavior disruptions or interruptions to class work. Students are reminded: • Before Mrs. Queen will allow any student to be at the computer she must see a printed copy of the first draft of the research paper. This can be either a printed copy that students have written on during revision groups, or it can be the hand-written copy that students have used for revision groups. Any student who does not have a hard-copy of their first draft in hand WILL NOT be allowed to go to the computer and will receive a grade of zero for daily grade. • Students must bring their own flash drives with them to use for word processing. No files should be saved to the computers, they must be saved to the flash drives. • Students are reminded that they need 4 (four) files when they are finished word processing. Files should be: cover page, outline, body pages, work cited page. • Remember to safe all files as RICH TEXT FORMAT files. • The work cited page must be created from www.easybib.com. Students should log into easybib and make the necessary changes to the working bibliography that was started two weeks ago. Remember that if there is a citation in the paper from a source there must be a corresponding entry on the work cited page, and if there is a source on the work cited page there must be at least one corresponding citation within the body of the paper. • By the end of the week students should have completely finished the research paper. They will not be turned in until Monday November 30, when we return from Thanksgiving break, but they should be done before students leave for the break. Students are reminded to bring a printed, hard copy on Nov 30th. It WILL NOT be in a plastic binder or folder. It should be stapled once in the upper left hand corner. Students should also keep a copy for themselves, and have their flash drives and electronic copies on Nov. 30th, because after break students will IMMEDIATELY begin working on an oral presentation of the research paper, and they will not have the copies that the instructor is grading.

Tomorrow in class students should have a full and complete first draft of the paper with them.  All pages should be included, in their entireity. 

tomorrow students are responsible for having all body pages of the paper, and for having the correct work cited page printed from Easybib.com

Hey Guys! I’m sorry I won’t be at school on Friday, but it turns out that while I’ve been at my conference I have caught a terrible cold –-so hopefully all goes well and I’ll be back at school on Monday.

As you know, today, Friday November 6th, your thesis statements for your paper need to be approved. Instead of me being there to check them in person, you need to email them to me. I need to get your thesis statement email NO LATER THAN 9 p.m. on Friday, November 6, 2009.

Remember that you need to write a 3P thesis statement. It needs to: Preview the paper, be Parallel, and have 3 Prongs (the three things that will defend the stance you take on the issue).

Here’s a silly example that matches the criteria:

Logan High School teachers should have movie days on every Friday because it would improve morale, it would increase attendance, and it would be an interesting activity.
Notice how in the example above the topic is named, as well as the author’s specific view point (topic is movie day, view point is that it should happen every Friday at LHS). Notice that this thesis statement DOES NOT say “I believe”, “I think” or anything of that nature. Neither should your thesis statement. Notice also that there are 3 reasons (prongs) why this author thinks this statement is true. Those three prongs are going to be the 3 major sections of the author’s paper that support the thesis.
Again, email your correct thesis statement to me no later than 9 p.m. on Friday the 6th of November.
Now, what about next week?
Next week we will be revising our research paper.
All students should bring FIRSTDRAFTS of their papers each day next week. Each day we will work in peer revision group to revise the paper. These first drafts can be word processed ( in either Microsoft Word or Works Word Processor) or they can be hand written NEATLY, DOUBLE SPACED. If the first draft is word processed and you need to print it in my room make sure to save it as a RICH TEXT FORMAT file, and that you print BEFORE your class period begins.
Here’s the schedule for next week:
Monday—Bring the entire body text. Make sure to have citations in the paper, whether it’s word processed or a hand written draft.
Tuesday—Bring a correct works cited page and the body text
Wednesday—Holiday, NO School
Thursday—Bring a correct outline, and cover page, as well as body and work cited page
Friday—Bring all pages of the paper.
I appreciate all your hard work this week while I’ve been working in Charleston – I understand that you’ve done really well, and I can’t wait to read the notes that Mrs. Queen and today’s substitute leave for me. Mrs. Ellis says that you seem to be working efficiently, and I am proud of you!
Email me if you need help with something, and don’t forget to email the thesis statement today!
L. T. Baisden