Assignments
8/5/2020 Your first assignment on week 1 is to create a slide show of 5 (or more) things you did over summer, or things you generally like to do. Use images or photos you've taken to represent activities you did over summer or hobbies and interests that make up who you are. You will be expected to share the slideshow with me via my email at sruble@ipakanni.com be prepared to share some of these things with your classmates on Zoom Thursday 8/6/2020.
8/10/2020
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PEAK
7th/8th grade: Begin Introduction and Unit 1.
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PEAK
9th/10th/11th/12th: Begin Introduction and Unit 1.
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7-12th grade
Journal Entry 1: When most of us think of environment, we often think of what is around us like plants, animals, weather, and whether the space around us is clean or dirty, or chaotic and peaceful. What kind of environment best supports the way you like to learn best in? How do you like the environment to be? What does that environment include and look like? Does it have people, objects, music? Is it indoors or outdoors? What is the worst kind of environment for your learning and feels too chaotic to you? What does that environment look like for you?
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This should be a minimum of 3 paragraphs at 5 sentences each for full credit. I am looking for thoughtful, original responses. Do your best!
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Week 2
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8/17/2020-8/21/2020
All assignments are due Friday by 12:25 P.M.
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Reminder: All students are to be continuing on Unit 1 in PEAK or starting Unit 2. Work at your own pace. The weekly units assigned each week are just a way to help pace you. If you have not started PEAK, you should begin your unit introduction.
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Please turn in PE logs daily!
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Journals
7-8th Middle School
9th-12th High school
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(*note please keep all of these journal entries in one single document for the semester and include the date for each one. You will not need to create any new documents for journals*)
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Day 1: Journal (1 paragraph 3-5 sentences)-- How do you personally see the world? Do you see it as an optimistic place where, despite chaos, there is always some hope things will turn out for the better? Do you think of it as a Murphey's Law that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong? Or are you more realistic in that there are times where things will turn out for the best, and times where things simply won't go your way or for the worst, but life still needs to go on? ​Why do you hold this way of seeing the world? Is it from past experience, personal attitude towards life, or a spiritual belief?
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Day 2 Journal: Think of a time you had a significant conflict with a person that was life changing or life-impacting. What was it that started the conflict? How did you and/or the other person escalate the conflict? What was the resolution and how did it get resolved if at all? How did this conflict change your life? How might you have changed the other person's life?
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Day 3 Journal: What is the hardest thing in life you've had to overcome? How did you overcome it? It could be a situation, realization, or a personal struggle. If it's a lesson in life that you had to accept in order to move forward, what was that harsh lesson? How did you get the courage to accept it and move forward?
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Day 4 Journal: Free Creative Writing.
Begin writing your own short story, the beginning of a novel, a political persuasive speech about a current social issue, a poem, a play, a biography, a comical situation, or the script to a game, film, or cartoon.
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7th-8th Middle School Assignment
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You're going to play the Bad Grammar game. You will write about something you really like to do or something you enjoy. If you get stuck, switch topics and keep writing. Simply keep writing about this topic until you fill a page (double spaced) . The goal here is to write it with many grammatical mistakes and misspellings. What we will then do is take each of your writings and correct them as a class to get used to correcting spelling and grammar mistakes. We will be working on these daily throughout the week.
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High school 9th-12th Creative Writing and Honors.
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Narrator Exercise Assignment: Choose a memory in your life be it happy, funny, sad, frustrating, shocking event (something you witnessed), or awe inspiring. Tell this moment in time from your viewpoint. Include what you are thinking and feeling during this memory. Next, tell this memory from someone else's perspective as the narrator. It could be a bystander watching, a friend, or a family member. Notes: How would they tell the same memory from their perspective? How would they see you and experience the situation from their perspective? Finally, tell this memory from the perspective of an unknown force that sees, hears, and knows all thoughts and feelings of everyone. (see videos in blog)
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Honors Students: You will do the same assignment, however you will do one of two things: you can either manipulate the memory and add things in it that didn't even happen, but make it appear as if it did. The second option is you can create a situation you never experienced, but use the different narrators to show these perspectives of the same situation.
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This assignment should be a page and a half minimum. Each perspective should take up about half a page.
Note: We will be covering each perspective individually throughout the week. Day 1 will be focused on 1st person. Day 2 will be focused on 2nd person. Day 3 will be focused on 3rd person. Day 4 is a touch up day where you tidy up your final draft before turning it in on Friday. You do not have to complete this assignment all at once as each perspective is going to be explained individually.
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Week 3
August 24th-28th
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Reminder: Please turn in your PE logs daily! PEAK work should be worked on daily or at your own pace with the projected goal of completing all PEAK assignments with 70% or above by the end of the semester! All assignments are due Friday by 12:25 P.M.
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7th/8th Grade Grammar
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We are going to review Unit 1 in PEAK together this week and get you started on Unit 2.
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9-12th Grade and Honors
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I have set up a forum for you guys to complete your assignments this week. You will need to create a member account on the forum so you can make posts and threads. You need to use your first and last name, otherwise you will not receive credit for your posts and assignments. If you have trouble making an account, please let me know so I can fix the bugs.
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Discussion Post Day 1 "What is Truth?"
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Please make a post that is roughly 2 paragraphs in length detailing your perspective on "What is Truth?" Remember, this is a reflective topic. Once you make your post, respond to at least two other peers. Your response should be thoughtful and engaging to show you really took time to understand. If you don't understand your peer's post, ask questions to show you are making an effort to understand a different idea. You will complete this assignment once we have a discussion as a whole class.
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Discussion Post Day 2 "Shifting Perspectives"
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Write an opinion on a meaningful or controversial topic i.e. death penalty, abortion, presidency, gun laws, whether or not aid should be sent to other countries during disasters, whether or not we should pay taxes, etc. This opinion should be about 8-10 sentences. You need to state your main claim, and three basic reasons why you think that's true. Then pose questions that advocate for your opinion or reference examples to support your ideas. After completing your example you can do one of two things: Either create your own argument against your opinion, or respond to a peer's opinion whom you agree with, but advocate the opposing point of view.
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Discussion Post Day 3 "Character Personalities Dialogue"
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Please see the assignment guidelines for discussion post 3 in the Forum.
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Thursday will be a day to work on your creative writing pieces we started with last Thursday and get help developing your writing skills, help on PEAK, and answer questions you have on assignments throughout the week.
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All assignments are due Friday by 12:25 P.M.
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Week 4
8/31/20 - 9/04/20
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All grades 7th-12th grade should be working on PEAK. You should be, around unit 2 or 3 in your PEAK course if you are following a steady pace. Do PEAK at your own pace, just make sure to complete all coursework by Winter break. All students should be turning in PE logs daily.
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7th/8th Grade
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We will be doing parts of speech analysis on various passages of writing so you can get practice and application in identifying and using parts of speech grammatical tools in your writing. Please make an account on the forum and find your post under 7th-8th grade.
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9th-12th and Honors
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Day 1 Ideal Setting Post: You will be creating an ideal setting in writing. The guidelines are in the discussion forum. Your post should be about 6-8 sentences or more.
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Day 2 Not So Ideal Setting Post: You will be creating a less-ideal setting in writing. The guidelines are in the discussion forum. Your post should be about 6-8 sentences or more.
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Day 3 Character and Setting: You will be putting the pieces together with your character and setting. The goal here is to make your environment and character interact with each other.
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Remember that all assignments are due by Friday at 12:25 P.M.
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Week 5
9/8-9/11
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All grades should be turning in PE logs daily and completing assignments on PEAK daily. Remember, all assignments on PEAK are due by the end of the semester. If you have not been actively doing PEAK, please begin as to not fall behind on credits.
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7th/8th grade
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Journal Day 1: What is your most greatest success? What was that moment like for you? If you can't think of one, what do you think you are really good at? Why?
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Journal Day 2: What is your biggest regret? How did you overcome that regret or how are you in the process of overcoming that regret?
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Journal Day 3: If you could change something or impact the world in some way, what would you change and how would you like to impact the world?
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Assignments: We will be continuing our lessons on grammatical parts of speech starting with a review of adjectives and moving on to adverbs, nouns, and prepositions.
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9th-12th Creative Writing and Honors
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Day 1: You will be reading an excerpt from Henry David Thoreau and analyzing the passage. You will then respond to questions that are based on the passage and respond to personal questions and relate the ideas to your own life.
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Day 2: We will read through a letter from Ghandi to a dictator. We will analyze the author's purpose for writing the letter and analyze the consequences of the letter along with the controversies. You will then write your own letter to Ghandi stating your opinion as to whether or not it was productive or purposeful for him to write to a dictator.
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Day 3: We will continue to review the first two assignments and then apply the skills of understanding writer's purpose to your own writing.
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Remember, all assignments are due Friday by 12:25 P.M.
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Week 6
9/21-9/24
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7th/8th Grade:
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We will be working on a writing application of adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions in the form of a comical or funny story you experienced from your past. This is posted in the forum under 7th/8th grade writing.
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For reading, we will begin a whole class novel called The Alchemist.
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9-12th Grade:
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We will begin covering the concept of the Hero's Journey and examine the themes and timelines in novels alongside you being able to apply these concepts in your own writing. The assignments for the Hero's Journey will be updated throughout the week to coincide with your novel of choice and as you develop a story of your own.
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Note: Tuesday you will be working on PEAK and will be completing at least one quiz in the unit you are currently working on. I will be out Tuesday for an appointment.
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All students should be working on PEAK at their own pace. You should be completed with Unit 2 of your PEAK course and starting Unit 3 by the end of this month. All students should be turning in PE logs. All assignments are due Friday by 12:25 P.M.
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Week 8
Oct 5-9
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7th/8th: We will continue reading The Alchemist and go through comprehension prompts to coincide with your understanding of the novel.
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9th-12th: We will continue working on the Hero's Journey and you will continue to read your novels and complete a paragraph for each stage of the Hero's Journey once you've identified your character's stage.
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All students should be completing PEAK and all assignments are due Friday by 12:25. You need to have a 70% or above on quizzes and assignments in PEAK to pass. Any incomplete work needs to be turned in by next Friday before it reflects on your quarterly progress report grade. Please continue to turn in PE logs.
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Week of Oct 26-30
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7th/8th: We will continue to cover the comprehension questions and study questions for the Alchemist. You will being a journal or dairy of your goals and your personal experiences in your goals. You will then make connection from the Alchemist and how your journey relates or does not relate to Santiago. You will also write quotes or phrases that speak to you or make you think and reflect on your own personal journey.
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9th-12th
The week of Oct 26-30th will be the last week for the readings and the 12 stages of the hero's journey. We will finish the Documentary on Joseph Campbell (Finding Joe) and the Hero's Journey by Tuesday and you will be finalizing your paragraphs on the 12 stages for your novels. Then, you will either complete a cartoon of what your learned from the Hero's Journey unit and your novel, or you will write up the stages of the hero's journey for your own personal life and experience.
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Please be working on PEAK independently if you are completely done with your in class and online work.
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November 2-6
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7th/8th: You will be continuing your Alchemist Diary and comprehension questions for the Alchemist.
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9th-12th: You will be completing a project on the hero's journey now that you've completed stages 1-12 from your novel. The project can come in multiple forms. You may do a slideshow of the 12 stages of the hero's journey for your own life, you can do a 12 stage write up of the hero's journey for your own life, or you can do a hand-drawn/digitally drawn comic strip or make a cartoon of the hero's journey with your novel using moovly.com
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For the slides or write up, pick a significant or challenging moment in your life where you went through most, if not all of the stages of the hero's journey. Complete a slide show of 12 slides depicting an image and a short description of that stage in your life or write 12 short (3-5 sentences) paragraphs. You can turn the 12 paragraph write up into a diary with drawings or a collage attached to each stage. For the cartoon, do a short video of what you learned of the hero's journey using moovly.com or any other video editing app/site. Include the 12 stages and use visuals to represent them. Include brief notes or descriptions in your cartoon to illustrate the importance of those stages. For a comic strip, you can do 12 drawings with dialogues or visual representations that paint the story of the hero's journey in order. Be creative!
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All students should be working on PEAK independently. By now students should be finished with Unit 3 in grammar (for 7th/8th) and Unit 3 in creative writing/honors (9th-12th) We still have 2 more months til all PEAK work needs to be completed.
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Week of 11/16-11/20
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7th/8th: We will continue with Part 2 of the Alchemist and continue your Alchemist Journal, and comprehension questions
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9th-12th: We will start the novel, Animal Farm and begin a unit on Satire and Satire writing. Please click the forum link with the title (Animal Farm) and you can access the novel there.
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