Hi everyone!

NOTE: Don’t forget — This Wednesday, May 1, is SPRING PICTURE DAY! All spring athletes need their uniforms to be included in the team photos. We will begin at 8:30 a.m. and are hoping to be finished by 11:30 a.m. Wednesday is also a 1:55 p.m. dismissal.

Here’s what’s happening this week in English 3 and 4.

English 3 Honors will be continuing with Eudora Welty and Mark Twain short stories. Three are short homework assignments for each author. On Wednesday, May 1, students will have a test over Tim O’Brien and Eudora Welty. We will begin Twain on Thursday.

English 3 students are continuing with “Devil in the White City.” They have a quiz today that covers pages 110-166. The reading schedule is as follows for the week:

Monday night to p. 182

Tuesday night to p. 191

Wednesday night to p. 205

Thursday night to p. 216

Friday night to p. 231 (end of Part II)

A part II test will be either Monday or Tuesday next week. (We will adjust if necessary based on in-class assignments and discussions that ensure understanding of the text.)

English 4 students are continuing with their poetry analyses. Students in 3rd hour have a paper due TODAY which compare the three Blackberry poems we have covered in class. Along with the paper, students will be turning in their completed graphic organizers and pre-writing activities for an additional grade.

English 4 Honors students are also working with poetry. They are currently finishing up a short unit that focuses on imagery. Tomorrow, students will take a quiz over this particular aspect of poetry. They will then receive the next unit, focusing on poetic structures. Assignments for this unit will primarily be completed in class; however, there may be a few homework assignments.

Thanks for reading! Happy learning!

Mrs. Koehler

Welcome!

It’s hard to believe that Spring Break has already come to an end! Hopefully you find yourselves well-rested and looking forward to a productive fourth quarter.

Seniors….

This week, seniors in both the regular and honors classes will be in the lab working on their final paper for “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.” These papers are due Monday, April 8. The assignment asks them to compare the experiences and stories found within “Denisovich” to those in Elie Wiesel’s “Night.”

Preparing for testing…

With the ACT and PSAE tests coming up the end of this month (April 23-24), juniors will be completing a number of exercises to help them review the skills they’ll find on the standardized tests. My main focuses include inferences, sentence structure, grammar and testing pace. Students will be taking a few practice tests to familiarize themselves with the style of questions and the pace at which they must answer them. I am confident in their ability to do well on both the ACT and PSAE!

In the classroom…

We will NOT, however, only be focusing on test preparation!

English 3 Honors are working on a paper — an analysis of one particular aspect of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter.” We finished this novel prior to break and students have already chosen their topics. They will have lab time this week to work on their papers, which will tentatively be due this Friday, April 5.

English 3 students have started Erik Larson’s “Devil in the White City” and will continue reading this week. We will be completing some in-class assignments that accompany the text. More specific details on these assignments will be posted after I gauge how well we resume after having 10 days off!

Thanks for visiting. As always, should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me.

Happy Learning!

Mrs. Koehler

Hi everyone,

PLEASE NOTE THAT I HAVE BEEN OUT WITH THE FLU TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY. I PLAN TO RETURN TO WORK ON THURSDAY AND WILL RETURN ANY CALLS AND/OR EMAILS THEN. WE WILL PICK UP WITH THE ASSIGNMENTS BELOW WHEN I RETURN. THANKS! ~MRS. KOEHLER

I hope you enjoyed (or are currently enjoying!) the three-day weekend! Second semester is off to a great start!

Here’s what’s coming up this week in my English classes:

English 3 will be starting John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” on Tuesday. A study guide will be handed out, as well as a reading schedule. Quizzes will be given for each chapter. Some reading will be done together in class, but students should expect some out-of-school reading assignments; they should also be prepared to answer study guide questions and/or complete activities on their own time. A more specific schedule of “OMAM Due Dates” will be posted soon. Please be advised that a final paper will be required to accompany this novel. A tentative due date for the paper is Friday, Feb. 15.

English 3 Honors has finished their work on Transcendentalist authors (Emerson, Whitman and Dickinson) and will be starting Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” on Tuesday. This is a fairly long novel and students will be expected to complete reading assignments for homework. A reading schedule will be posted soon. Students should expect pop quizzes over reading material. They will also be responsible for study guide questions and activities while we complete the novel.

Both English 3 and English 3 Honors students turned in their Gothic Tales last week. Some of the stories are really amazing and I am proud of their work! Their writing continues to improve and I’m proud of the strides they have made since the beginning of the year. Students will be receiving these papers back this week. Please remember that if you are not satisfied with the grade, the paper may be revised and resubmitted for additional points. My belief is that writing is a constant process and is ALWAYS allowed to be revised and improved. Any of my students are welcome and encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity for improvement!

English 4 students are continuing their work on Elie Wiesel’s “Night.” Students are also working to complete a portfolio of pieces that relate to this novel; PORTFOLIOS ARE DUE FRIDAY, FEB. 1 and are worth 125 points. Late portfolios will be penalized each DAY they are late! We are doing some of the work together in class, but seniors in this class should plan to create the cover, the three (3) reflections, the personal story and the language of the Holocaust essay on their own time. If you have ANY questions about this assignment or would like me to look at the contents of the portfolio in advance, I am happy to do so. Please just email me and we can set up a personal appointment or work together via email to proofread/comment on the student’s work.

English 4 Honors students are continuing their work with William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” We will begin Act 3 this week and should be finished with the play sometime in the next 3-4 weeks. This week, the students will be receiving the paper assignment. Specifics of the assignment will be posted here when it is handed out.Each act requires a study guide and “activity pack.” Extra copies are available in my classroom if you need one! Packets are due at the completion of each act.

As always, should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call or email me. I am happy to help you and your kids in any way I can!

Happy learning,

Mrs. Koehler

Welcome back everyone! I hope you enjoyed a relaxing and restful holiday break.

Here’s what you can expect in English this week. The main “event” to be aware of is the ETA (End of Term Assessment) on Friday (Jan. 11) for ALL of my classes. The test is multiple choice only (no essay).

Both English 3 and English 3 Honors will be working on a short unit which covers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Assignments are as follows (all are in the English textbook):

Read “Self-Reliance” by Emerson: complete Questions 1, 3, 5 and 7; Read “I Hear America Singing” and “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman — assignments will be discussed/distributed in class; Read the poems by Emily Dickinson. Choose 4 of the poems to analyze more closely; create a set of 2-column notes that shows the poem’s text on the left and your interpretation, questions and/or comments on the right. Complete a “Dickinson Diamond” to best characterize Dickinson’s work, personality or style and tone.

Reminder: All English 3 Gothic Tales are due Thursday, Jan. 17. (There is no school for students on Jan. 18 due to a Teacher Institute Day). Honors papers should be 4-5 pages in length; English 3 papers are 3-4 pages in length.

English 4 students have just begun reading Elie Wiesel’s “Night.” By Friday, the students should be up to approximately page 40 (depending on in-class reading) with the study guide questions for the corresponding pages completed.

English 4 Honors students are just beginning William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” An Act 1 packet will be due at the end of the week. Students will be receiving this packet tomorrow (Tuesday).

Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!

Mrs. Koehler

Hi everyone,

Here’s what you can expect in English classes for juniors and seniors over the next few weeks.

English 3 Honors and English 3 students are working on a Gothic Literature unit.

On Monday, Dec. 10, both classes will have a test. Students are responsible for information about: English 3 — Gothic Literature, E.A. Poe, “The Raven,” and “The Masque of Red Death”. Students should study the vocabulary words from “The Masque of Red Death” and also be able to identify/define examples of assonance, consonace, alliteration, imagery and internal rhyme.

English 3 Honors — The test is virtually the same as above; however, students are also responsible for information found in Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum.”

Both English 3 classes (i.e. all juniors) will be assigned a creative writing assignment next week. They will each be writing their own Gothic Tales. These will be due after Christmas break. The tentative due date is 1/19/13.

Following the Poe test, students will move into stories and literary techniques for William Faulkner (”A Rose for Emily”), Charlotte Perkins Gilman (”The Yellow Wallpaper”) and Kate Chopin (”The Story of an Hour”). Stay tuned for assignment links and more information on my blog regarding these authors.

English 4 students finished their work with Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and have just begun a unit of short stories and poetry centered around the Seven Deadly Sins. They have finished the first story and are beginning Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” next week. Students will be expected to complete a reader’s guidesheet/packet for this story.

English 4 Honors students are working on a Holocaust/WWII unit and are reading “Night.” They have been issued a portfolio assignment for this novel. The final project is due Friday, 12/21/12. Other due dates include:

Poetry Presentations — due Monday, 12/10/12; Reader’s Guide/Study Questions — due Friday,  12/14/12

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Enjoy the countdown to the holidays!  Ho! Ho! Ho!

Mrs. Koehler

Hello everyone,

Here’s what you can expect in English 3 and 4 this week and next week.

English 3 students are finishing up with Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.” They will be tested over the play on Tuesday, 11/13. The remainder of the week will be spent in the lab working on the final Crucible paper. This paper is due on Tuesday, 11/20. The prompt is attached to this posting — I hope! (This is the first time I’ve tried to include a document with my blog!) Each student chose one of the options on the prompt and is required to write a 3-4 page paper on the topic, complete with textual support. We will be working on this paper in school quite a bit, and the students have already started writing, but please be aware that final papers are due Tuesday, 11/20.

FINAL CRUCIBLE WRITING PROMPT – Students choose ONE.

English 4 students are continuing to work on Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Act 4 Packets, Questions and the Activity are due Thursday, 11/15. These assignments are “easy points” and are completed in class in many cases; however, students who don’t finish in class are required to do these for homework. Please check to make sure the Act 4 packets are ready to turn in on Thursday.

English 4 students are also working on Shakespeare theme papers. These will be due after Thanksgiving break, but please be advised that students should be working on them over the next 2-3 weeks. A link to the paper’s instructions is provided below.

THEME PAPER DIRECTIONS

English 4 Honors students are continuing their work in a unit on the Seven Deadly Sins. This week, the students finished the last of the stories. They are now required to complete a take-home exam. The exam will be due on Monday, Nov. 26.

SEVEN DEADLY SINS TAKE HOME EXAM

Please enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday. If there’s anything I can do to help you, please let me know!

Mrs. Koehler

Hi everyone,

Thanks for visiting my blog!

As we begin the second quarter of the year, here is what you can expect in English 3 and 4.

English 3 students are continuing their work on Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.” So far, the students seem to enjoy the story. We are in the middle of Act II at this point and will continue to work through the play. Students will be receiving a paper assignment next week (on 10/30) that will focus on the themes and characters presented throughout the play. Papers will be due before Thanksgiving break.

English 4 students are continuing their work on William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” We are in Act III of the play at this point. Each student is required to complete three (3) assignments for each act of the play: a packet, a series of comprehension questions and one additional assignment. All students have received their packets for Act III; these will be due Thursday, 11/1/12.

English 4 Honors students are working through a unit centered on the Seven Deadly Sins. We are reading a story associated with each sin and are working with literary elements such as character, theme, symbolism and criticism. The students are doing a great job! Their papers on Anton Chekhov’s “The House with the Mezzanine” were due this week, as well as an author study about Chekhov himself. Next week, we move into the story about “Gluttony.” Students will be reading “Famine” by Xu Xi and working on some literary analysis regarding theme and flashbacks.

I hope to see you all at parent-teacher conferences next week; however, if you have any questions or would like to speak at any other time, please don’t hesitate to call.

Thanks for your time and HAPPY LEARNING!

Mrs. Koehler

Welcome Back!

It’s hard to believe that summer has already come to a close and we’re back for another year! This week, each English class was given a list of class requirements and a brief overview of what to expect. By Monday, Aug. 27,  ALL students enrolled in English 3 and 4 need the following:

1. A spiral notebook ONLY to be used for English.

2. Blue and/or black pens and at least 1 pencil

3. A folder or binder for handouts.

4. English textbook (provided) and Writer’s Notebook (provided).

5. A signed and submitted copy of the classroom policies and procedures. Many students turned theirs in today, but the rest need to be submitted by Monday! This is worth the first 5 points of the quarter.

I will provide other supplies (i.e. highlighters, sticky notes, etc.) as needed. Though the students won’t need it this week, all students will need a gig stick/thumb drive/flash drive. We will be working on assignments here at school and students will need to be able to access them from home as well. The easiest way to do this is on a small, portable flash drive. Many office supply stores offer them FREE with the purchase of other school supplies.

My email address at school is koehlers@grantpark.k12.il.us. If at ANY time, you’d like to send me an email to ask a question or express a complaint, concern or compliment, please feel free to do so. You may also reach me at mrskoehler@yahoo.com.

I look forward to a wonderful 2012-2013 school year!

Happy Learning!

Mrs. Koehler