F - The one about making connections.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: Why and how do we create "other"?

Learners shared their notes and annotations from Greene's "The Destructors." We discussed character and conflict. I used the short story checklist to guide discussion and reviewed the prompts for the literary essay on character.

We discussed the interim learning update coming up at the end of October. I spoke briefly about Learning Inventories and scheduled Learner Conferences for next class.

READ: Valgardson's "Identities", Camus's The Outsider (see the link to the left), Kingsolver's "Naming Myself"

PRACTISE:

• Make a copy, save to your drive, and complete your Learning Inventory
• Outline the literary essay on "The Destructors"

NEXT CLASS: Learner Conferences

B - The one with sea shanties.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: Why is it important to look for patterns in literature?

Learners shared their sea shanties.

We looked at Venerable Bede and the excerpt from History of the English Church and People. I suggested that Anglo-Saxon literature wasn't just epic poetry. Learners talked about what the excerpt shows about Anglo-Saxon society.

Learners read and offered summaries on sections from the Introduction to the Medieval Period.

READ: 

• Growth of the English Language: Old English and the Anglo-Saxon Period
• The Medieval Period
• Chaucer's bio

NEXT CLASS: middle English, Learner Conferences

F - The one when we started to put things together in order to arrive at social commentary.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What happens when a leader doesn't fit the ideal?

Learners took a few minutes to make some aura points using the prompts from the questions from the last two classes. They posted responses via the Digital Chalkboard - see the link to the left. A ♥️ from me earns you an aura point! 

Learners reflected on their annotations and notes. I reviewed The Short Story Checklist and modelled how to make sense of the deeper ideas in the story.

PRACTISE:

• Finish annotating Greene's short story
• Use The Short Story Checklist to make notes
• Trace conflict: How is it set up? How does it escalate? Is there dilemma? Is there resolution?

READ: Valgardson's "Identities" and Camus's The Outsider

B - The one that was repetitive, honestly.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: Why is the sea such an important feature in Anglo-Saxon literature?

Learners took their essays on Anglo-Saxon ideals and asked AI to "roast them." They shared their results.

Learners discussed if it was better to live a safe life, unchallenged by anything difficult or live a life full of adventure with loads of difficulty and challenge. I linked the conversation to the duality that the Anglo-Saxons faced living on an island nation, where the sea was both terrifying and beautiful.

We looked at "The Seafarer" together and learners searched for examples of kennings, alliteration, imagery connected to the sea, and imagery connected to the land. We also discussed the shift in the poem from a tale of loneliness and hardship on the sea to a reflective, prayers mediation on the meaning of life when one faces the alienation and challenges life brings.

PRACTISE: Write a sea shanty! Make it at least 12 lines. You may use lines from the poem. Here's a sample:

READ:

• excerpt from A History of the English Church and People
• Intro to the Medieval Period

NEXT CLASS: the medieval period, Middle English, Chaucer, from the Prologue to Canterubry Tales

F - The one with Ms. Salgadoe.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: When a leader's ideals clash with social norms, is destruction an act of creation or purely chaos?

I wish I could say that Ms. Salgadoe reviewed some of your responses to the digital chalkboard, but I don't see anything on it! We will review this next class and I'll give you a chance to post by putting the two prompts below (one when you had Ms. Villaceran, the other when you had Ms. Salgadoe):

• How does T. fit or subvert the definition of "leader" in a chaotic environment?
• When a leader's ideals go against society's expectations, does it lead to meaningful change or total destruction?

Please post your responses before coming to next class.

Today, you should've worked in pairs and continued a close reading of Greene's "The Destructors." Hopefully, you made annotations and notes on character and conflict (internal and external ONLY)! And, maybe you were also able to "map" symbol, using a t-chart.

PRACTISE: See above + finishing annotating "The Destructors"

READ: Valgardson's "Identities" and Camus's The Outsider

NEXT CLASS: Working the short story checklist

B - The one with two people and the evacuation drill.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How can using AI to be our worst critics improve writing?

Thank you the Ahn and Stella for carrying the heavy supply bag during our evacuation drill!

Ahn and Stella plugged in their essays (on Anglo-Saxon ideals) into Gemini and Claude and asked it to roast their essays. They used quite generic prompts at first: "how do I make this better?" I encouraged the two to go back and refine their prompts and have fun with asking AI about their essays.

PRACTISE:

• Ask AI to suggest edits for your essay. Make edits to your essay based on what AI said, but do NOT copy and paste any text from the AI suggestions. Select a different font colour for the edits. Below your essay, write 5-6 sentences reflecting on whether or not you agree or disagree with what AI told you.
• Then, create a separate document in your e-folder. Label it: "I AI-ed the Beowulf Essay". Copy and paste the prompt(s) you gave AI and then copy and paste the result AI gave you. Write a short reflection of the results AI generated for your prompt. Was it what you expected?

READ: the excerpt from A History of the English Church and People, "The Seafarer"

NEXT CLASS: the sea, elegiac epic

F - The one about motives.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: Why should we challenge conventional ideas of leadership and order?

Learners worked in paira to continue reading and annotating Greene's "The Destructors," Learners took note of T. 's character traits, and highlighted evidence that demonstrates T.'s authority. The TTOC asked learners to discuss:

• How does T. take leadership (away from Blackie)?
• Does T. destroy the house for personal gain or for an ideal/principle?

PRACTISE: Answer the question below and post your response to the digital whiteboard.

How does T. fit/subvert the definition of "leader" in a chaotic environment?

NEXT CLASS: character & conflict