• Welcome to 10th Grade English:  Course guidelines, classroom procedures, etc.
• Warm-up journal response to quote from Roman Titus Maccius Plautus.
• Divide into groups to begin investigating major symbols, motifs, and themes in The Kite Runner.

In your journal, record at least three quotations relevant to your group's topic.

Read this summary of Afghanistan's history from the BBC Online.

• Discussion:  Hosseini's tactics in crafting his story.  How does he use foreshadowing, symbolism, recurring ideas, etc., and to what end?
• Introduction to salient features.
• Continue working on group presentations (20 minutes).

• Discussion:  The Kite Runner's secondary characters.  Baba, Rahim Khan, Hassan, Assef, Soraya.  What role doeas each play in Amir's story?
• Continue working on group presentations (20 minutes).

• Group Presentations

• Summer Reading Test

• Review Friday's test.
• Handbook mini-lesson.
• Discussion:  Plot/characters in The House of the Spirits. 

• Discussion:  Magical realism as a genre.  Allende's use of foreshadowing, changes in narration, etc.
• Introduction to comparative essay.

• Discussion:  Creating a strong thesis statement.

• Comparative essay workday:  Developing an outline.

• Workday:  Comparative Analysis
• Writing conferences with Mrs. H.

Optional rough draft of comparative analysis due at the beginning of class.

Bring Things Fall Apart to class tomorrow.

• Introductory discussion: Things Fall Apart - William Butler Yeats's "The Second Coming"

• Discussion:  First impressions, Okonkwo, and Things Fall Apart chapters 1-3.

• Blitz Scribble:  Write a conversation that takes place in the pouring rain.
• Read Chapter 7.
• Discussion: Rhythm in Things Fall Apart 

• Discussion:  Concepts of masculinity in Things Fall Apart
• Writing conferences.

• Comparative Analysis due. 
• Discussion:  Chapter 8 of Things Fall Apart.

• Introduction to first W assignment; in-class writing time.
• Discussion:   Female relationships in Things Fall Apart.

• Historical Context:  Reclaiming the story of colonization.

• Vocabulary Quiz
• Turn in journals for assessment

• Read Achebe's "Dead Men's Path."
• Group discussions to respond to short story.

• Turn in first W assignment.
• Introduction to second W assignment:  My Family Migration story.
• Begin reading Chapters 14-16.

• Discuss Chapters 14-16.
• Putting it in perspective:  Retelling the story of the Abame massacre through the eyes of the white man.

• Continue working on your version of the Abame massacre.
• Begin reading Chapters 17-18.

• Graphing the rising conflict between the villagers and the missionaries.

• Discuss Things Fall Apart, chapters 19-21.
• Begin drafting "My Family Migration" story:  Conferences with Mrs. H.

• Finish Things Fall Apart in class.

• Final discussion:  Things Fall Apart.

• Vocabulary Quiz #2
• Writers' Workshop:  "My Family Migration" story

"My Family Migration" project due Tuesday!

• Begin Athol Fugard's Valley Song.

Rest up for the PSATs.  If you read The Color of Water, attend and participate in tonight's discussion at Summit Coffee for a bonus grade.

*Get your grade record sheet signed tonight.

• No Class:  PSATs

• Prepare for today's "My Family Migration" luncheon.
• Valley Song, continued.

Salient feature for pages 1-18 of Valley Song.

• Valley Song, continued.

• Continue reading Valley Song aloud, pp. 32-48.
• Reader's Response:  With whom do you identify more in the "scene of secrets"?  Why?

• Prepare for in-class viewing of Daughters of the Dust.

• Daughters of the Dust

• Daughters of the Dust

Prepare for tomorrow's in-class discussion and review: Things Fall Apart, Valley Song, and Daughters of the Dust.

• In-class discussion and review for next week's test.

• Final review for tomorrow's test.
• Introduction to W assignment 4.

• Unit Test:  Things Fall Apart, Valley Song, and Daughters of the Dust.

• Unit Test: Part III.

• Introduction to W#4:  Begin working on it in class today.

Continue working on your W #4.

• Introduction to Nectar in a Sieve:  Historical context.

• Examine Coleridge's "Work Without Hope" as an introduction to Nectar in a Sieve.

• Discuss Nectar in a Sieve, chapters 1-3.  Introduction to theme project, due November 18.
• Turn in journals for evaluation.

• No Class - Field Trip.

• Nectar discussion, chapters 4 - 10. 
• In-Class reader's response.

Read Chapters 11-15 by Monday.

• No Class - Half Day.

• Discuss Nectar in a Sieve chapters 1-15:  Small groups.

• Continue yesterday's discussion re:  Nectar in a Sieve:  Kenny's role, effect of narration, generation gaps, etc.
• In-class work time:  Thematic project.

• Vocab review activity.
• Discuss chapters 18-20.

• Vocabulary Quiz.
• In-class work time:  Thematic project.

Read Chapters 21-23.

• Thematic project work time.  Begin preparing for final exam.

• In-Class Reader's Response.
• Discuss Nectar in a Sieve  Part II.

• Thematic project:  Final in-class workday.
• Continue discussing Nectar.

• Prepare in small groups for tomorrow's review.

• Final review for tomorrow's exam!

Study for finals.

• FINAL EXAM.

• Present Nectar in a Sieve projects.
• Introduction to the Industrial Revolution, Charles Dickens.

• Read and discuss Chapter 1 of Hard Times.

• No Class:  PLAN.

• Fact vs. Fancy:  What are the potential effects of the system Dickens presents?

Read Chapters 4-5.

• John Stuart Mill and utilitarianism. 

• New vocabulary list (quiz Friday).
• John Stuart Mill and utilitarianism.
• Meta-fiction:  How does Dickens's narrator defend the Victorian novel?

• Introduction to our hero:  Stephen Blackpool
• Discuss the chapter titles and their significance.
• W assignment (due next Tuesday).

• Prepare for student-led discussion on Friday.

• No Class

• Student-led discussion.