We are still working on the three strands mentioned the Monday I was back:  )Personal Writing, All the Pretty Horses,  and the short story unit.  Here is how they fall together for this week (Sept. 15-19):

• Personal writing:  
• Self-definitions turned in Sept. 12 (both hard copy and on turnitin.com--a very few individuals are missing one or the other)
• Personal essay ("college application essay") Information given out on Wednesday; draft due Sept. 24; final draft to be graded due Oct. 1.  
• Culminating Project--NOT an English grade, but stay tuned for links and dates (still TBD!) 
• All the Pretty Horses:
• Week-end character assignment collected today; DO IT if you spaced on checking the blog (end of freebies)
• Tomorrow there will be some group work, briefly focussed on some of what you did re: character for today, as well as whether you primarily see the work as a hero's journey or a bildungsroman [make sure you've read the links Friday's post]; also on the intersection of style/punctuation (or the lack thereof)/POV.  
• Thursday we'll be looking at theme/thematic ideas; also on Thursday--a counselor will be in to discuss their advice/procedures re: the college application process.
• Friday, Sept. 19-- in-class closed-book assessment essay
• Short Story Unit
• Underway with "imagery" passage analysis (limited quickwrite) on the first 3 paragraphs of John Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums"
• Today we micro-discussed the rest of the hand-out (not quite all in 4th)
• For Wednesday, Sept. 17--read the entire story.  I completely forgot that this story is NOT in our new book (but was in Kennedy/Gioia).  So here is the text link:  Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums"   Use it to read in preparation for Wednesday.  You will need a copy for class discussion and potential future writing; let me know tomorrow if it won't be possible for you to print this at home. (I do not want to make 64 copies . . . . )
• BUT the good news about that is that you do NOT have to bring the Perrine text on Wednesday.  
• More details about this unit will be forthcoming shortly.