Short Stories!

We are working towards completing a short story of our own. As we learn about the parts of the short story and how to create them we are reading several classic stories including "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe, "To Build A Fire" by Jack London, and "Thank You Ma'am" by Langston Hughes. Our Writing Journals are filled with entries that will be the building blocks for our stories.

1940's: A Decade of Change

We have finished our work on the 1940's and have learned about the many changes that were a part of this important decade. We welcomed a wonderful speaker, Mr. Peter Etter, who had many experiences that he shared with us. He grew up in Germany in the 40's and moved to Wisconsin after the war.
The last project for our 1940's unit has been a community project. Students have worked towards being a part of change in their communities. Students have volunteered, created environmental projects, and brought about an awareness of issues they feel should be changed in their school. Great work!

1940's: A Decade of Change...The Interviews

Today we started discussing the interviews we'll be doing. Students will be interviewing someone who remembers the 1940's. Everyone will be preparing questions for their interviews, writing a report of the interview, and presenting a favorite story that was shared in the interview. Interview questions are due on 10/27. Reports on the interview are due on 11/15. We will start the presentations on 11/16.

1940's: A Decade of Change

We have started our 1940's unit. It is called: The 1940's: A Decade of Change. Students are reading either The Diary of Anne Frank or The Book Thief. We will be considering an area of interest in our own community of Oregon and ways we can effect change here. We will be interviewing a person who experienced the 1940's. If you know someone who could enrich our learning community through their experience, please let us know!

All the World's a Stage...

We had a great week, enjoying the wonders of American Players Theatre and descriptive writing. On Tuesday we went to Spring Green to see the play, As You Like It. Several of us got sunburned since we were in the sunny section watching the play. The play was funny... especially David Daniels as Touchstone. On Thursday this week we had a visitor, Paul, from APT who led a workshop for us. We performed "tableaus" in which groups performed a "frozen scene that tells a story" for several characters from the play. Everyone has written a paragraph about the figurative language in As You Like It. "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players..." We are continuing our work on descriptive writing and figurative language with our "Descriptor Wars" today.

Welcome Back to School!

We've started out the school year with a great first week. In our Enriched English classes we are starting the year with Shakespeare. We will be performing parts of the play As You Like It in class for our classmates. We are also looking at descriptive writing. On Sept. 14 we will be heading to APT for a field trip to see the play.

Welcome