ENGLISH 7

Met with Literature Circles. Finished up discussing Chapters 5 & 6.

Took a short quiz on Call of the Wild. Handed in. 

Completed STAR writing tests. All the pretests were worth it, weren't they?

HW: Weds: Planner check; Read Chapter 7
Thurs: Mugshots  30/31.
Fri: Spelling exercises Unit 25, 1-20, p.119 and test.

ENGLISH 8

Checked in ideas. Did you have one? Did you brainstorm?

A few speeches to listen to on AmericanRhetoric.com

A teenager (Clueless); Coach (Friday Night Lights); Retired baseball player (Field of Dreams); Queen (Queen Elizabeth I); And one courageous fellow (The Wizard of Oz)

For help on your speech, go to p. 416 of literature textbook and pgs. 347-354 in The Write Source.

Purposes of a speech:

• To Stimulate: what do you want your listener to feel?
• To Inform: what do you want your listener to know?
• To Persuade: what do you want your listener to think or believe?
• To Activate: what do you want your listener to do?
• To Entertain: What do you want your listener to have experienced?
  
  
  Guidelines for choosing and speaking: Pick a topic you care about; get a strong thesis. Find examples; direct it to your audience; Give speech a title, and answer title in the thesis statement, like a prompt.
  RD due Weds. Speeches start on Friday. 

Started watching The Great Debaters, a 2007 movie directed by and starring Denzel Washington, inspired by the true story of a real-life team of African-American debaters from a black, Texas college in 1935 who go on to debate Harvard students. Amid the racism and prejudice of the time the team manages to take on other “Negro” colleges, as well as established white colleges, including the prestigious Harvard University.

Watching for pointers on speaking and engaging your audience. While we are not debating, the rules of good public speaking still apply.

HW: Weds: RD speech due.  Thursday: Practice with peer.

Fri: Speeches start.