Honors English 9 Weekly #1

August 28-September 1 , 2017

This Week in 102:

1. Monday Pre-Test One Word Bio
Complete the Protest Pretest-Reflection
Finish a rough draft that will be typed up on Google Docs through Google
Classroom due on Thursday, August 31.
2. Tuesday Starting Persepolis/Socratic Seminar Instructions
Persepolis handed out last week read to the end (pg 64) for Thursday, August 31.
Bring five open ended questions using the Socratic Seminar Stems.
Major Works Data Sheet (MWDS)- Begin to fill this out to take notes.
3. Wednesday Socratic Seminar Persepolis
You must bring in your FIVE questions to participate in this discussion.
Failure to bring them in will give you an automatic ZERO for this Socratic seminar.
4. Thursday Socratic Seminar Persepolis Reflection
Using your Socratic Seminar notes, reflect on what you understand of the novel
and the discussion we had.
5. Friday Off for Labor Day Weekend
 Learning Objective for the Week:

Students will be able to respond in discussions and in writing, using

personal, literal, interpretative, and evaluative stances, to works of non-
fiction by using the exemplar text of Persepolis.
Students will be able to use strategies before, during, and after reading to
aid in the construction and enhancement of meaning by reading and
annotating the Persepolis.
Students will be able to engage in informal writing assignments (i.e. reader
response, freewriting, focused freewriting, prediction, response journals,
dialectical notebook entries, and other pieces of writing that they do not
take through the entire writing process) by using a writers journal.

Students will be able to engage in formal writing assignments that require

utilization of all stages of the writing process by using the writers journal for
pre-writing and rough drafts

The One Word Biography

In one of my favorite novels, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar Schell meets Mr. Black, an eccentric man who
keeps a card catalog full of names and very brief biographies.

"How many cards do you have?" "Ive never counted! There must be tens of thousands by this point! Maybe
hundreds of thousands!" "What do you write on them?" I write the name of the person and a one-word
biography!" "Just one word?" "Everyone gets boiled down to one word!" "And thats helpful?" "Its hugely
helpful! I read an article about Latin American currencies this morning! It referred to the work of someone
named Manuel Escobar! So I came and looked up Escobar! Sure enough, he was in there! Manuel Escobar:
unionist!" "But hes also probably a husband, or dad, or Beatles fan, or jogger, or who knows what else."
"Sure! You could write a book about Manuel Escobar! And that would leave things out, too! You could write ten
books! You could never stop writing!"

This passage made me think of how oftentimes many words define who we are. All of our life experiences make
us who we are, but what is the most important of those experiences?

What if you could boil everything that is you down to one word? What one word defines you?

For this assignment, you will be writing a 200-400 word piece about that one word that defines you. What is the
one word that defines you, and why? While the one word will be interesting, I am more excited to read the why?
that one word defines you.

Rules for this one word biography

KEEP IT SHORT

Describe yourself in 200-400 words. Sometimes it can be more difficult to write less and say more than it is to write
more and say less.
WRITE IN THIRD PERSON

People generally write a bio in the third person, rather than first person. Think of yourself as a story that you are
describing to someone else in one short paragraph.

NAME YOURSELF

Use your full name (first and last) when you first describe yourself. After that, you can opt to continue describing
yourself with your full name, only your first name, or only your last name.
Write a bio using your first name if you want to develop a friendly relationship with the reader (for example,
when applying for a job) and write a bio with your last name if you want to be a bit more formal and
authoritative.
Whether you choose to write your bio with your first or last name, remember to stay consistent.

WRITE ABOUT YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS

Now that you know which point of view to use, start writing a brief account of your achievements. When you write a
bio, only discuss your high points and not a full description of your life. The key is to remain brief.

SHOW YOUR CHARACTER

While you write a bio, make sure your personality shows through. If you're humorous, put some humor in the bio (be
careful with humor though). If you have a passion, talk about it! A bio is more interesting if it conveys something unique
about the writer.

A few things to keep in mind:

One word means one wordnot one sentence.

Words are powerful; they contain connotation and denotation. Pay attention to both.
How can you change the structure of your piece in order to be creative?