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Over thanksgiving interview a grandparent about their lives. Ask them 20 questions about their youth, their relationships with their family and friends, their hobbies, any advice, etc. Bring answers to the questions with you to class on Monday, 12/1.

Drafts are due on Friday, 12/5.  Have two people read and respond using the editing sheets you received in class.  Final draft is due on Monday, 12/8.  Be sure to hand in the draft, completed editing sheets, and revision all on Monday, 12/8.

You should also be looking at which contest you’ll enter.

Over the break, photograph Thanksgiving. That could mean taking photos of people or things you’re thankful for, or anything that’s symbolic of Thanksgiving.

Post a discussion on Youth Voices using either your own images or Creative Commons images that illustrate what you’re thankful for.

Upcoming essay assignment: Proposal to solve a problem, due 12/5. The revision should be in the form of a letter addressed to a person who can help effect a solution, due 12/15.

Write an essay, proposing a solution to a clearly defined problem affecting a group or community to which you belong. Your task is to establish that the problem exists, to offer a solution that can reasonably be implemented, to lay out the particulars by which your proposal would be put into effect, and to consider objections and alternative solutions. If you’re not sure what to write about, here’s a link to some suggested topics.

Also, bring Dead Man Walking to class starting 12/1. Finish the book before (or over) Christmas vacation, so that we can discuss it when we return in January.

If you want to use other people’s images in your online writing, make sure the images are Creative Commons – otherwise you’re violating copyright laws.  Here’s a link to a web page that has links to copyright-friendly places.

Browse a number of these sites today, looking for images that you’re interested in.  For instance if you’ve taken a lot of photos of nature, search these portals for images of nature.  Keep track of which sites provided the best images and which ones were the most user-friendly.

By the end of the block class this week, you’ll write a post on Youth Voices where you compare the sites you looked at.  In your post be sure to include a representative image and be sure to cite the source of the image correctly.

For Friday, annotate the “Shooting an Elephant” essay.

Using Orwell’s essay as a model, write a reflection in which the narration of a “tiny incident” (like paragraph 3) illustrates a larger social or political problem. The “tiny incident” can come from your own experience, your reading, or observations.  This is due in your writers notebook on 11/24; bring your notebook to class that day.

Complete vocabulary, unit 3 for Monday.

Your post on Youth Voices this week is a self-assessment. First update your inquiry questions in your Google Document. Next, read the Youth Voices curriculum. Edit your profile, make at least one comment on another post, and compose your self-assessment. Like every week you have until Friday to complete this post, so make it a thoughtful reflection and use specific examples to illustrate your points.

For Tuesday, 11/18 (or 11/19 for period 6), your group will complete a Google presentation about your book. Create a Google Doc as a place to collect your group’s resources and thinking. Share both of these with Mr. Sloan.

• Summarize the book by citing important passages. Choose enough passages to represent the book’s key ideas. You’ll read the passages out loud to the group, or you may record it as a podcast.
• Present information about the author and events from the era that influenced the ideas of the book. Choose appropriate historical and biographical information. Consider other works by the same author.
• Demonstrate that the author and/or the book’s message are still relevant today. Here’s an example blog post I put together about Orwell’s 1984.

Read the essay, “Don’t Eat the Flan,” pp. 515-517, and answer questions 1-6 in “Questions for Study and Discussion” in your Writers Notebook.

Read Swift’s essay, “A Modest Proposal,” pp. 473-477, and then do all six questions.