ELA 10: Jan.4-8

I hope you all had a restful and fun-filled holiday!  This will be a short post because my kids have friends over and my house is currently overrun with three and six  year olds. I need to have my wits about me because I’m severely outnumbered today!!

We have three weeks before midterms begin, and we will spend them tying up loose ends and preparing for that exam.  This week and next we will wrap up our work with the Art of Protest unit. Before break we focused on “reading” alternate texts (visual art, cartoons, graffiti, music) and understanding the writer’s argument.  Students turned in their informational essays about their chosen pieces of art  prior to break. Those will be returned by the end of this week.  This week, we’ll work on preparing speeches about those pieces of art. This week we’ll turn the essays into speeches and practice delivery.  Students will deliver those speeches on FRIDAY of this week.  

Please, please, ask your student to practice for you! Public speaking is considered one of the greatest fears of most people. I know some of your students are terrified to speak in front of their peers. Please help them understand that I really don’t do this to make them miserable!! This is a small, low pressure environment to get them more comfortable in speaking situations. With more practice, it will be less scary. Click here to take a look at the assignment and the grading rubric.

Enjoy the weekend!

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