Tony's English Blog

 Today in class we learned about Robert Frost. We read one of his poems titles "Out, Out" and analyzed it. We determined 2 themes, one of them being that life is short and you should enjoy every moment. The second theme is that children should not be doing a grown persons job. Below is a picture of the work we did.

      Today in class we learned about theme vs central idea. Theme is  the moral, lesson, or message of a text. Central idea is what the story is mainly about but not the topic of the text. We then analyzed 2 texts and drew themes from both of them. Afterwards, we continued our origin myth stories.

 Today in class we started with a bellringer about theme. We watched two short films, the first one was called "The Elevator". We determined that one of the themes was to never judge a book by it's cover. The second short film was called "2+2=5". We determined this ones theme was to never back down from your beliefs. Afterwards, we started writing our origin myth stories.

     Today in class we started our Origin Myth Creation assignment. We went over the rubric and made a cluster to brainstorm our ideas. My origin myth is about 3 elemental demigods who created the Earth on accident while clashing. They take the forms of a Lion, Blue whale, and a Snake. Their elements are wind, fire, and water.

 Today in class we talked about Native American literature. We took notes on Origin Myths and it's components. We also discussed the difference between Myth and Religion. The difference is that Myths are known to be false and Religion is known to be true. We then read about the Navajo Creation and pointed out all of it's components of an origin myth. 

 Today Mr. Reese was absent. We read and analyzed a short story by James Baldwin called "The Rockpile". The story was about a Black community living during Depression-era Harlem. We answered 20 questions about it.

 Today we went over the poem "I, Too" by Langston Hughes that we worked on yesterday. We came up with 3 themes, the first one being that no matter how bad things may seem, things eventually get better. The second theme we came up with was that "this is my country too". The last theme we developed was to not let discrimination get to you. Afterwards, we took a test on all of the Langston Hughes poems we worked on this week.

 Today in class we started with a bell ringer about the American Dream. We then discussed whether or not the American dream was attainable by everyone. Afterwards we continued with analyzing poems by Langston Hughes. We started with "Dream Deferred" and concluded it to be about not giving up on your dreams and to go after them. Afterwards we independently worked on the second poem "I, Too". The first poem we did together is shown below.

 Today in class we started with a paragraph about receiving advice from a parent. From this we transitioned into analyzing the poem "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes. In the poem, the Mother was speaking to her son about how life can be difficult but it isn't hard. She also talked about the importance of never giving up. Attached is a picture of the sheet we worked on. 

 Today we started class with an infinite campus check. Our bell ringer was to watch a video on Langston Hughes and answer some questions.  We then read and analyzed a poem of his called "The Negro Speaks of Rivers". We also talked about the differences between race, ethnicity, and nationality. Below is a picture of the annotations we did today.

 Today in English we learned about complex texts. We did this by analyzing the poem "We Real Cool". We also learned the Multi-Draft reading strategy. Step one is to read the text to get a feel for it. Step two is to Analyze the text to determine it's meaning. Lastly, step 3 is to make connections and relate it to you or something/someone you're familiar with. Below are the annotations I made today.

Here's another cluster we did in class about the scenario of moving cities for a job.

Today we learned some brainstorming techniques. We learned about clustering , listing, and free writing. Here is the cluster that I made in class: And here are the list and free write that I wrote:

     Hello my name is Tony Dorsey. My birthday is December 27, 2004 and I’m in the 11th grade taking Mr. Rease’s 3rd block American Literature course. I like to edit and draw in my free time and I also enjoy cooking. Am I good at it? To be continued. My goal for this semester is to improve my writing skills & technique. Academically, my goal is to receive an A as my grade. My favorite colors are white & purple. My favorite musician would be between Adele and Drake. My favorite place is Maryland because that’s where I’m from, and that’s also where I moved here from last year!