Honors - Your Questions and "Cask"

Choose one of the questions from our QFT exercise yesterday. It does not have to be the question that your group added to the list. Respond to the question in two different ways. First, answer based on your own thoughts and views. Then, answer it in terms of "The Cask of Amontillado." Please write approximately two paragraphs

CP - Generational Conflict

A generational conflict may occur when beliefs and values change from one generation to another.

You and your parents belong to different generations. Think of a time when you and your parents disagreed about something related to your life. What was the situation, and how did it make you feel? Has the conflict been resolved, and if so, how?

Please answer these questions on your blog, in a response of at least one paragraph. You may organize your writing in any way that makes sense. Please feel free to use your own 'voice' when writing this post, but remember that you are writing for school; you should still follow all standard rules of capitalization, spelling, and punctuation.

HONORS - Plot twist!

Please write a brief reaction to the ending of "The Most Dangerous Game." Did the ending of the story fit with your prediction? Were you surprised by the ending? Why or why not?

Additionally, some students have commented that the plot of this story has become a cliche. Do you feel this way? Why or why not? (Note: the story was originally published over 90 years ago, in 1924!)

Toy Story

You have with you today a toy from your childhood that you loved dearly. If you did not bring a childhood toy, come up with a memory of a specific toy now.

OPTION 1
On your blog, please write a paragraph talking about what this toy means to you. You should be sure to explain what the toy is, and you might want to explain how you got the toy and your feelings about owning it.

OPTION 2
On your blog, please write a paragraph from the toy's point of view talking about its relationship to you. You might want to have the toy introduce itself, explain how it came in to your life, talk about how it feels to live in your house/room, etc.

Welcome, Class of 2019!

I look forward to working with you in English class this semester. Let's get started by setting up your blogs!

You will be doing a lot of shorter pieces of writing this year on a blog that you will create today. The more you write, the better you will get at writing. Some posts will be creative, some will ask you to react to a statement or to a reading assignment, and others will provide important analytical writing practice. 

The reason for doing this writing on a blog is simple: You should be writing for an audience beyond this classroom. I hope that you will want to share some of your work with others. You can do so easily, by sending them the link to your blog!

Steps to Set Up Your Blog

1. Log into your school Google account.

2. Navigate to Blogger. (Open this site in a different tab or window.) 

3. Click "New Blog" on the left-hand side of your page to create your blog.

4. Give your blog a title that follows this format: First name Last initial's English Blog. For example, if your name is John Brown, your blog would be called John B. English Blog.

5. Give your blog a custom URL that follows this format: First name Last initial English. For example, if your name is John Smith, your blog URL should be johnbenglishblog.blogspot.com. The .blogspot.com portion of the address will be filled in already. If your address is taken, just add a number somewhere in there. (For example, you could use johnbenglishblog9.blogspot.com.)

6. Choose a template (whichever one you like; feel free to change this later).

7. Next to your blog, you will see a drop-down menu. Choose Settings.

• Under "Privacy," set up your blog so that it is not listed in Blogger's listings and not visible to search engines. 
• Adjust your Blog Reader settings if you wish. I would suggest that you leave this as "public" but if you are concerned about your privacy, you may change the setting to "private" and add me by email.

8. Once your blog is set up, please view your blog in another tab. You will then fill out this form to make sure I have all of your blog information. THIS STEP IS VERY IMPORTANT! I will be reading and commenting on your blogs throughout the semester.

9. Finally, write an introductory post of one or two paragraphs on the following topic. Please use the subject line What I Did On My Summer Vacation* 
What did you do this summer vacation? Rather, what do you wish you did this summer? Use your imagination to write about all the awesome stuff you didn't really do, but wish you had done. Please use this opportunity to show off your sense of humor and creativity, as well as your "accomplishments." You should follow standard rules of spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, but otherwise, the sky is the limit. Click here if you would like to read Ms. Meyer's example. Yours can be longer. You may want to focus on one or two things that "happened" to you or that you "did," but add a lot more details than I included in my example.

Please review this article about online safety for teens. Remember, you should never post personal information online! 

Cartoon from http://backtoschoolimages.com/back-to-school-cartoon.html.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation*

It's always hard coming back to school after having an awesome summer. This year, I became a three-time Jeopardy! champion and celebrated by eating a pound of fudge when I went to the Cape a few days later. I also got to go to Rock Star Camp with about 50 other teachers. After this three-day camp, we all felt pumped to go back to our own bands and give even better concerts than we were giving already. But the highlight of the summer was my trip to London and Paris. When I was in London, Mr. Meyer and I had tea with the Queen and saw One Direction perform four days in a row! In Paris, we bought the Mona Lisa, rang the bell at Notre Dame, and ate Smurf gelato, made from actual Smurfs.

I did a lot of great things this summer--in fact, too many to list here. It was a lot of fun, and I'm sad it has come to an end. But I'm excited to share my stories with all of you, and to hear about the amazing things you did this July and August, too!

*I didn't really do these specific things. Gotcha! But they are all based on events that happened in my life this summer. Care to guess how I stretched the truth???