V.Lane BHS 2nd Period Assignments

OPTIONAL -- this is a 20 multiple choice question “test” on all 3 short stories we’ve read. Should you choose to take it, the grade you make can count as a replacement grade for your lowest non-writing, non-0 grade (writing grades and zeroes are not allowed to be replaced). If you choose to take it, you should have it finished and submitted by 11:59PM Thursday, May 7th.

In this unit we read three short stories, "Ruthless", "Wallet", and "Worry." On a MLA formatted Google Doc, select what you felt was the best short story of the three and defend your choice. Compose a paragraph explaining which story you chose and why it was the best. Use your notes on your Google Doc to help you with your response (25 point writing grade).

Benchmark Two consists of 25 multiple choice questions drawn from 2 reading passages, Word Clues, and MLA.

If you are satisfied with your grade from Benchmark One, you can choose to opt out of Benchmark Two by posting a comment here "Opt Out". When I see this comment, I will take your Benchmark One score and copy it into your Benchmark Two score.

If you take Benchmark Two but score higher on Benchmark One, I will disregard your score on Benchmark Two and instead copy your score from Benchmark One for Benchmark Two.

All that's to say, I strongly encourage you to take Benchmark Two, regardless of how you did on Benchmark One. I can not put in a score lower than your Benchmark One grade.

So today - either take Benchmark Two, *OR* reply in a comment "Opt Out." Everyone must do one or the other.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are days to draft, revise, edit, and then submit your Reflection Essay.

In an essay that you write on a Google Doc, drawing from the work you’ve already done in your Writer’s Journal and your timeline, write a reflection on the larger lessons you’ve learned about relationships, education, isolation, community, or even things this event made you realize you’ve taken for granted in the past. In essence, this reflection should consider how this event has changed you (consider both what’s been lost, but also what’s been gained, or even rediscovered).

I recommend having a minimum of 3 well-developed paragraphs and connecting what you’ve learned to specific moments and experiences (for example, if you write that this month has helped you to remember how important “X” is to you, then what did you see/hear/do/feel that made you remember this?).

Your essay will be graded for the development and maturity of your ideas, the organization and clarity of your writing, conventions/grammar/MLA formatting, and that your lessons are connected to specific moments you experienced or witnessed.

This is due Thursday by midnight for a 50 point major writing assignment grade.

You have Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to work on your Coronavirus Timeline, if needed.

Submit your finished Timeline here by Thursday before midnight for a 50 point major test grade. You are not required to add anything new to your Timeline this week, other than to tidy up the entries you have already made (you should have 6 entries of your own with at least a paragraph per entry updated through spring break week).

Your timeline will be graded for the thoughtfulness of each entry, the clarity and organization of your paragraph entries, proper conventions/grammar, and that it is chronologically ordered.

Describe a favorite game you’ve played at some point in the last two weeks WITHOUT telling us its name. Describe it in the form of a poem. For example, instead of LEGOs, I would post:

Enthusiastic hands reach out for
red, yellow, green, blue plastic blocks.
Snap. Click. They connect and
form in hand what was once only imagined.
Castles, pirate ships, space stations, whatever you guess:
with these, possibilities are endless.

Your poem should be six lines, with the final two lines being a rhyming couplet (like mine above).

After you’ve posted a poem of your favorite game (don’t name the game in your post - we have to guess it), view two other poems posted by others and guess the game being described.

Read Allison Glock’s narrative essay “Now I Finally Understand What My Grandparents Knew.”
Then, complete the 3/30 Reading Check. You may reference the article as you complete the Reading Check. There are ten questions, each worth two points (20 point daily grade).

1) Locate your Coronavirus Timeline Google Doc that you created last Wednesday.
2) Update your timeline with two entries from the past week, our second week out of school. Think: Which moments stand out the most in your memory as it relates to the coronavirus? Was it something you heard on the news? Something you witnessed in the community? Something you read about off a newsfeed? With each moment you add to your timeline, in a paragraph reflect on your response to it. Consider: How did this moment make me feel? How did my perspective change (or not)? How did my behavior change (or not)?
3) Attach your Coronavirus Timeline Google Doc here BUT DO NOT CLICK SUBMIT (by just attaching it, you will be able to continue editing it for future posts).

1) Integrate your journals from last week into a single Google Doc titled Writer’s Journal. Those posts from last week include Monday and Thursday (I returned these to you, so you have access to them again). Copy your responses from those two entries and paste them into this new Google Doc titled Writer’s Journal.
2) Then, read the New York Times Article “I Spent a Year in Space…”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/21/opinion/scott-kelly-coronavirus-isolation.html
3) Respond to the article in your Writer’s Journal. Come down below your previous two entries and title this one 3/24 Scott Kelly Isolation Article Response. Questions you might consider in your journal include: How am I handling isolation? In what ways am I already following Scott Kelly’s advice? Which tips are more difficult to follow for me? Which tip seems like something I’d like to keep up after this over? What other tips have I found in my own experience that I would add to his list?
4) Attach your Writer’s Journal GDoc here BUT DO NOT CLICK SUBMIT (by just attaching it, you will be able to continue editing it for future posts).
5) HOMEWORK FOR TOMORROW: Read 15-20 pages of your book. (If you don’t have a book, choose an article online about a topic of personal interest, and read it for tomorrow.)

1) Complete the Word Clues 14 Quiz. This will count as a 20 point daily grade.
2) Post the title and author of the book you will be reading here. Remember to have this in hand and ready to start for tomorrow.
3) Review the Writer's Journal Assignment attached below. This is the final writing assignment we are working towards in our current unit.

Review your Word Clues 14 Notes. The Word Clues 14 Quiz will be Monday.

For today’s post, simply share what you’re watching, reading, or doing to pass the time this week. What Netflix show, book, game, music, social media/youtube account, etc should we know about? Create a short list of your favorites with a brief explanation of what each is and post that list here. After you post your list, reply to one of your peers’ posts (once you post, you’ll be able to see others’ posts).

For example, I've been watching the HBO Miniseries *Band of Brothers* (2001) on Amazon Prime Video. It is adapted from Stephen Ambrose's book of the same title about the soldiers of Easy Company in the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division who fought in Europe during World War II. Each episode is around an hour long and is great for fans of military history. It does contain some strong graphic violence.
I also discovered the free app "Houseparty" that takes the video chat function like Facetime and adds games you can play like HeadsUp, Trivia, Quick Draw, and Chips & Guac while video chatting with multiple people.

HOMEWORK OVER THE WEEKEND: Identify and acquire a copy (digital or print) of a book you’d like to read. It should be a book you haven’t read this year or last year in ninth grade, and ideally a book you haven’t read before. Next week you’ll be asked to do some work with passages from it so you should have it by Tuesday at the latest.

All Buford students have digital library cards with the Gwinnett County Public Library. Your library card number is their lunch number, and the pin/password is the first four numbers of your birthday, Month(##) Day(##). Information about how you can log on through the Libby App and access these digital resources is attached.

WEEK ONE REFLECTION JOURNAL. On a Google Doc, journal about what you have personally experienced this first week home. Possible questions you might reflect on in your journal include (do not feel you have to answer them all, these are just meant to help you get started): When you’re not doing school work, what does being home look like? How did you feel about being home when the week began? How do you feel now? How have you managed to stay connected with others? Have you practiced social distancing? What are your hopes? What are your fears? Include a picture in your journal response that shows what this week has looked/felt like for you. Submit your Google Doc with your typed response (2-4 paragraphs) to complete today’s assignment.

Make a copy of the 2020 Coronavirus Timeline GDoc attached below. On your copied GDoc, add 3 personal moments to the existing timeline that stand out most in your memory. These moments you add do not have to necessarily be moments that everyone experienced (see mine for examples of what I mean by this). With each moment you add to your timeline, in a paragraph reflect on your personal attitude and response to it. Consider: How did this moment make me feel? How did my perspective change (or not)? How did my behavior change (or not)? When you’ve finished personalizing the timeline with these 3 moments, submit the GDoc on GClassroom. See my sample timeline as an example.
For homework: gather together previously taken pictures and take pictures today of what this first week of the coronavirus “break” looks like for you. Be prepared to share and write on these pictures tomorrow.

Read the following articles--
1) https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/16/816490025/quarantine-self-isolation-social-distancing-what-they-mean-and-when-to-do-them
2) https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-what-does-social-distancing-mean/607927/
Then, complete the reading check questions on the attached Google Form. This will be for a 10 point daily grade. You may consult your readings while taking the quiz.

For Monday, March 16th read "Why Outbreaks Like Coronavirus Spread Exponentially..." (linked below). Then, on a separate Google Doc that you will attach and submit here, respond to the following questions (in complete sentences):
1) In a brief paragraph, summarize the results of the four models (no response, forced quarantine, ¾ social distancing, ⅞ social distancing).
2) In a longer second paragraph, explain if/how your family has discussed changing your behavior this week. Explain what you expect this week will look like.

Post the Google Doc of your response to the performance essay here. It is due in class.

Casca
Indeed, they say the senators tomorrow
Mean to establish Caesar as a king,
And he shall wear his crown by sea and land,
In every place save here in Italy.

Cassius
I know where I will wear this dagger then;
Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius.
Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong;
Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat.
Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
If I know this, know all the world besides,
That part of tyranny that I do bear
I can shake off at pleasure.
[Thunder still]

Casca
So can I.
So every bondman in his own hand bears
The power to cancel his captivity.

Cassius
And why should Caesar be a tyrant then?
Poor man, I know he would not be a wolf,
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep.
He were no lion were not Romans hinds.
Those that with haste will make a mighty fire
Begin it with weak straws. What trash is Rome,
What rubbish and what offal, when it serves
For the base matter to illuminate
So vile a thing as Caesar! But, O grief,
Where hast thou led me? I perhaps speak this
Before a willing bondman; then I know
My answer must be made. But I am armed,
And dangers are to me indifferent.

Submit the Google Slides link to your poetry presentation here.

Attach your GDoc here for your Lord of the Flies narrative.

We will take a reading check quiz Friday over Night chapters 4-6.

Attach your GDoc Performance Essay response here.