March 24

We've started our work on A Midsummer Night's Dream and are on schedule.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Schedule

March 24 - intro and Act I sc. i
March 26 - I ii
March 30 - II i
April 1 - II ii
April 7 - III i
April 9 - III ii (long)
April 13 - IV i and ii
April 15 - V (only one scene but long)
April 17/21 - Watching Mamma Mia! and making an outline for making connections
April 23 - in-class making connections paper using notes and book
April 27 - journals, casting list, and play list due
April 29 - student choice project due

Feb. 25

The last of the speeches! Who will move on to the next round?

Next class: Love poetry

Feb. 23

We got through four more speeches. The rest will be done next class.

Feb. 19, 2015

We had four speeches today. We'll do four more next day and the rest on Wednesday.

Be sure to have your AR books so that we can do silent reading after the speeches each class.

Feb. 4

• AR
• speech work

Next class, bring cue cards so you can start preparing for your speech.

Feb. 2, 2015

• AR
• speech work
• went over rubrics and had feedback
• If you have pretty much finished your speech, try to finalize it for next class so I can have a look and you can start preparing your cue cards. If not, the absolute deadline would be Friday. The sooner you have it done, the better. The later you turn it in, the less feedback you are likely to get.

Jan. 27

• AR
• final class to work on speech

Speeches due Thursday. Share (enabling edit) with me at afilipovic-bajamic@myndrs.com.

Jan. 19

Speech News:

• 1st draft of speeches due Jan. 29
• 2nd draft of speeches due Feb. 4
• in-class speeches Feb. 19, 23, 25, and possibly 27

Order of speakers (randomly drawn)

1. Jessie
2. Marianna
3. Kelly
4. Danica
5. Alexa
6. Mica
7. Vanessa
8. Chiara
9. Lily
10. Jennifer
11. Angelica
12. Evelyn
13. Monica

There will be four speeches each day (five on the last day). If any speaker is not present, we will take the next speaker, so be sure to be ready to do your speech as of Feb. 19.

Be relaxed.

Be confident.

Be prepared.

Speakers that we watched exhibited the following attributes:

• made eye contact
• had feet firmly planted
• were prepared
• had appropriate emotions (passionate/calm depending on topic)
• used gestures where appropriate
• were loud and clear
• were focused (not going off topic)
• used pauses and pace effectively
• used repetition well
• varied volume effectively

Jan. 9, 2015

• AR
• impromptu speeches for those wanting to redo them or who had not yet done them
• persuasive speech/essay video and exercises
• topic sentence video and exercises

Homework

• If you don't yet have an approved topic for your persuasive speech, try coming up with one or two potential topics for me to approve.
• If you have an approved topic, come up with your three main points.

Jan. 7, 2015

• AR
• impromptu speeches

• either try coming up with a topic for your persuasive speech or, if you've already had a topic approved, come up with your three main points

Jan. 5, 2015

• AR
• discussion
• impromptu speeches - explanation and practice
• argument video

HW

• read for AR
• start thinking of a topic for your persuasive speech