American Street - Day 7

Happy Friday!

Today we'll meet in the library classroom. 

The goal of today is for you to check in with various characters to get a sense of how the story is developing for them. You will not be doing this with your group or a partner, or anyone else in the class. Instead, you will go into the ARC for a short conference with one of the tutors there. 

Look next to the name of the character to see where I have assigned you:

• Fabiola  (Aaron, Lily, Gavin, Matt S.)
• Pri    (Matt F., Morgan, Gracie, Ben S.)
• Donna    (Maggie, Ben G., Jared)
• Chantal    (Augie, Caroline, Josh M.)
• Kasim   (Lauren, Ethan, Hannah)
• Dray   (Emma, Eli, Jessica, Sophia)
• Imani   (Josh D., Adi, Daryn, Keshav)

Here are the points you need to identify for your character:

• Major concerns - what things are most important to this character? how do you know this?
• Personality traits - what emotions or other aspects of their personality do they show? To whom? does their behavior / personality change?
• Quotation - something said about your character and/or something said by your character
• When you are ready, you will go to the ARC for a short conference with one of the teachers there. They will ask you about these aspects of your character and you will explain it to them.
• You do not need to write out anything formal but my expectation is that between your annotations and notes you are prepared for the conference and you keep track of your work

After your conference, you may use the rest of the period to start your homework - read chapters 14 & 15 and write a journal response.

American Street - Day 6

Happy Wednesday!

We'll start today with some poems about 9-11 and the events of that day 18 years ago.

Then we'll turn our attention back to the novel and the set of chapters you read leading up to today. We'll discuss three new characters: Bad Leg, Detective Stevens, and Kasim.

We'll also take some time to read chapter 11 & Chantal's story in class.

Tonight you are reading chapters 12, 13, & Donna's story and then writing a response.

Asson gourd

American Street - Day 5

Today you'll start with your groups to discuss the chart you worked on yesterday.

After some group time and some discussion, you'll be writing a paragraph about one of the rows from the chart.

First, we will review this sample paragraph.

Then, it is time for you to write. This handout explains your assignment.

As a reminder, tonight you are reading chapters 9 & 10 and writing a journal response.

American Street - Day 4

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend.

By now you should have submitted your journal response from the weekend.

Before we get into group work, please open Schoology and review the rubric and my comments about your paragraph analysis of the Vonnegut stories. Since there is another in-class assignment tomorrow, I want to be sure you have a good sense of what to work on with your writing.

Then, you'll meet with your group. Here is a link to the chart you'll use to keep track of your work for today. The second person on the group list is the secretary for today (Morgan, Hannah, Lily, Jessica, and Sophia). Please make a copy of the document and share it with everyone in the group, including me. You'll have about 20 minutes to work on the chart.

• American Street - topics

After group work, we'll move to an all-class discussion. Part of the goal of this exploration is to prepare you to write a paragraph response, focusing on one of these topics, in class tomorrow.

Tonight's homework is to read chapters 7 & 8 and add to your group chart. Spend time reviewing the chart in preparation for tomorrow's writing. There is no journal entry to write tonight.

American Street - Day 3

We'll start today in groups for about 10 minutes to finish the posters from Wednesday.
Please try to add something from the chapters you read for today.

After brief presentations of the posters, we'll move to a discussion of rituals and traditions. We'll write about our own rituals and traditions, then look at the ways in which they appear and play a role in the book. What are the rituals Fabiola performs? Why? In what ways are these similar to / different from our own?

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For this weekend, you will be reading chapters 5, "Matant Jo's Story," and 6.
Please write a journal response as well.
Note - you will type up this journal entry and submit it to Schoology by the start of class on Monday.

American Street - Day 2

Happy Wednesday! Here are the groups for our unit on Zoboi's American Street.

Today you will work with your group to explore the characters and settings of the novel:

1. Fabiola
2. Donna & Dray
3. Pri & Chantal
4. Manman and Haiti (Haitian things)
5. Aunt Jo the house

The first person on the group list is today's secretary. This person will create a document to keep track of your work for today and share it with everyone else in the group. 

• Read your journal responses to chapter 3.
• Spend time looking through the first three chapters for information about your character/setting. Talk with your group - did you write about your character? What did you say? What questions do you have?
• Start your document with a list of these details and questions
• Gather 8-10 quotations - these can be things said by your character, descriptions of them, or actions described in the narrative. Type these, including page numbers, into the document.
• Everyone can help with this part by typing in a quotation or two
• The secretary will submit this document to Schoology

Poster time! Once you have completed your column of the chart, it's time to take that information and turn it into a poster about your character/setting. Your poster needs to include:

• The name(s) of your character/setting in big letters
• A central image - this does not need to be a drawing of a person - maybe there is an object or another type of illustration you create. It should be based on descriptions, details, and even colors mentioned in the text. If you'd like, I can project an image for you to trace.
• All of your quotations. You can organize these and write them out any way you'd like

We will be presenting these towards the end of the period and then hanging them in the classroom!

Your homework for Tuesday is to read chapter 4 & Princess's story, then write a journal response. Enjoy the carnival and the long weekend!

American Street - Day 1

Happy Tuesday! I hope you had a great weekend!

Today we'll start our first novel together: American Street

To help us prepare for our work with the book, here's a link to information about the author, Ibi Zoboi

Here's a map of where Haiti is:

Here's a map of where Detroit is:

We'll read chapters 1 & 2 in class together today. Along the way, the expectation is for you to be annotating and/or taking notes.

Tonight, your homework is to read chapter 3 and write a journal response.