The sophomores started the year by reading one of my all-time favorite novels, Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. After finishing the novel and taking the test, the students then watched the movie, one of the best productions to ever come out of Hollywood. To conclude this lengthy unit, I instructed them on writing formal essays, focusing on a contrast between the novel and the movie.
It was around this time that an EIU practicum student, Ms. Kelly Knox, began working with me and the students in 1st hour. Her first unit was another essay which asked the students to identify issues and offers suggestions for school improvement.
Next, we moved into the How To Speech unit followed by Ms. Knox's Poetry unit. She did such an excellent job, I implemented the unit into 6th hour class and have permanently added it into my course plan. To wrap up this unit, and first semester, students were tested and then given the opportunity to display their poetry knowledge by creating posters analyzing song lyrics of their choice.
Second semester began with William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. After completing the reading and the test, students experimented with writing in different genres, something I learned in my EIU night class this semester. The task was to announce Caesar's assassination in at least three different genres. They were allowed to choose from text, facebook status update, email, tweet, newspaper article, tv news report, personal letter, telephone call, diary/journal entry, encyclopedia/Wikipedia entry. They did such an incredible job that I had to take samples to show my professor, Dr. Binns! She was as impressed as I was, so we shared the students' work with my fellow students.
Finally, we've been spending 4th quarter by reading various short stories. After every three stories, we have a test, and the last one is coming up next week.
