March 23 and on--

Check Google classroom-- Long distance learning begins!

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

ENGLISH 7
Euphemisms and questions.
After being the Receiver-in-training for a year, Jonas saw his father release the baby boy who had been born an identical twin. It was then that he learned the true meaning of the word.
A release was the deliberate taking of life, a killing, an execution. 
In saying that the baby was released instead of put to death or killed, the community was employing the use of a euphemism, or a mild, harmless-sounding word used in the place of a more harsh or frightening term. Euphemisms are common in our own language. People pass away (die), for example, are let go (get fired), and engage in altercations (fights).
  1. Can you spot several other euphemisms that were used in the community? What were their actual meanings?
  2. Why wouldn’t the community use the word death, or in this case, killing?
  3. Make a list of ten euphemisms from our world (sanitary landfill, pre-owned, senior citizen, etc.). Identify their actual meanings. Write a sentence with each euphemism and a companion sentence with its harsher term. Do the euphemisms create better statements?
  4. What do political correctness and euphemisms have in common? Practice with these.
HW: Thurs: Mug shots (Test on Friday.)
Fri:  Final Test on The Giver.
Weds: Feb 22: Final project on Jonas

ENGLISH 8
More "Algernon." Are you taking notes?


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Annie

Annie
National Dog Day

Contacts

msilver@twinhillsusd.org

About Me

Sebastopol, CA
After many years as a newspaper reporter and writer, a job that I was lucky enough to love, I got my English teaching credential, hoping to pass on to kids how to find their unique voice and clearly communicate what they think and feel. Public school educated in Philadelphia, college in New York City (Barnard College), transferred to and graduated from UC Berkeley in English and received a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. Yay, my son, my student in 8th grade, is now a Cal alumni, too, a 2017 graduate with a degree in computer science, now working at Google (You Tube) as a product manager. William Faulkner is one of my favorite writers, as well as Anne Lamott, Langston Hughes and many of the nighttime, satirical comedy shows. On my top bookshelf sit Nobel Prize winning writers Toni Morrison and Orhan Pamuk, along with friends who have won Pulitzer Prizes in journalism, who started writing in junior high or in writing groups in Sonoma County. Go public education in California!

"Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction"

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