American Street - Day 15

Happy Friday! We'll start with this short activity:

• What's Up This Weekend?

We will turn our attention to quote selection and use, including the "quote sandwich" and "show-mean-matter" approach. Use this worksheet to guide your work.

• Quotation workshop

You'll have the rest of the time to work with your thesis statements.

Over the weekend you should (but nothing is required):

• Revise your thesis
• Complete the evidence selection
• Organize your essay
• Start writing?

American Street - Day 14

On Wednesday we discussed writing thesis statements. We did this "crafting a thesis" activity.

For homework, you completed this Thesis and Evidence-gathering activity.

American Street - Day 13

On Tuesday we reviewed the assignment and completed this brainstorming activity.

American Street - Day 12

Happy Monday! Congratulations on finishing the novel!

We'll spend some time today talking about the last chapters of the book and our impressions about where the story ends.

Your homework for tonight is to read the essay assignment and think about what questions you have about it. We'll talk about it and get the process started tomorrow!

• American Street essay assignment

American Street - Day 11

Happy Friday!

We'll start out the day with time to read "Kasim's Story" and chapter 29.

Then we will have time to discuss what has been happening in the book as the action has been building over the past several chapters. I will give you three slips of paper:

• Question - something you want to clarify, something you want to explore further
• Text - a specific quotation from the book you want to include in our conversation
• Response - a comment you want to make about a question, piece of text, character, part of the story, or just about anything else you think will be a positive contribution to our conversation

In our discussion you will have three opportunities to speak, using the structure of those slips of paper.

Over the weekend, your homework is to finish the book and write a journal response to those chapters.

American Street - Day 10

We'll start off the day with the presentations about background information you have been working on with your group. Here are links to the presentations:

1. Haiti - Earthquake
2. Haiti - Voudou culture and beliefs
3. Haiti - Immigration
4. Detroit - Geography and Race
5. Culture - Alvin Ailey Dance Company / J. Dilla

After that, there is a second paragraph to add to what you wrote yesterday. I'll give you the prompt in class and you'll submit your work to Schoology.

Then we will turn our attention to the book and the developments in chapters 21 and 22. We'll have a short discussion, followed by time for you to read chapters 23 and 24.

For Friday, you are reading chapters 25-28 and writing a journal response.

American Street - Day 9

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend!

Today we have several things to do, starting with a little reading. Please read chapter 20 on your own. While you are doing that, I will come around and check in several recent journal responses.

Next, you'll get back into your groups from Friday. You were researching background information to deepen your understanding of the novel. Your group focused on one of these topics:

1. Haiti - the earthquake of 2010
2. Haiti - voudou culture and practices (especially those named and used by Fabiola)
3. Haiti - immigration - policies, practices, challenges
4. Detroit - where in the city does the story take place? what role does race play in the story of contemporary Detroit?
5. Culture - Kasim takes Fabiola to see the Alvin Ailey dance group - who are they? Why is that significant? Kasim is also listening to J. Dilla in his car - who is that? Why is he significant?

• How should you research these? It's up to you! I recommend starting with where you would typically start - a Google search, a YouTube search, or even Wikipedia. 
• Watch videos, read articles, listen to recordings - build your knowledge about the topic.
• Discuss your findings with your group - in what ways does your new knowledge help you to better understand the world of the novel?
• Present your findings in a digital format. You can do this in a number of ways - a document filled with pictures and text; a slideshow with videos and titles; a Prezi - whatever you'd like!
• Share your presentation with me - I will be posting them on the blog.

You'll have about 15 minutes to finish your group work. This includes a discussion of your findings and the preparation of your presentation. Before you present, each person in the group will write a short response. You will write another part of the response after the presentations, which will probably happen tomorrow.

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Tonight's homework is to read chapters 21 & 22, and "The Story of 8800 American Street" + write a journal response.

American Street - Day 8

Happy Friday! We'll start today by watching a few more of the videos we made at the start of the year - almost four weeks ago!

Next, you'll read chapter 16 and "Marjorie & Valerie's Story"

Then, you'll get back into your groups. The goal today is to research some background information to deepen our understanding of the novel. Your group will focus on:

1. Haiti - the earthquake of 2010
2. Haiti - voudou culture and practices (especially those named and used by Fabiola)
3. Haiti - immigration - policies, practices, challenges
4. Detroit - where in the city does the story take place? what role does race play in the story of contemporary Detroit?
5. Culture - Kasim takes Fabiola to see the Alvin Ailey dance group - who are they? Why is that significant? Kasim is also listening to J. Dilla in his car - who is that? Why is he significant?

• How should you research these? It's up to you! I recommend starting with where you would typically start - a Google search, a YouTube search, or even Wikipedia. 
• Watch videos, read articles, listen to recordings - build your knowledge about the topic.
• Discuss your findings with your group - in what ways does your new knowledge help you to better understand the world of the novel?
• Present your findings in a digital format. You can do this in a number of ways - a document filled with pictures and text; a slideshow with videos and titles; a Prezi - whatever you'd like!
• Share your presentation with me - I will be posting them on the blog.

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Your homework for the weekend is to read chapters 17-19 and write a journal response.

American Street - Day 7

Happy Wednesday!

Today we'll check in with various characters to get a sense of how the story is developing for them. I'll assign you one of these characters:

1. Fabiola
2. Pri
3. Donna
4. Chantal
5. Kasim
6. Dray
7. Imani

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

• Major concerns - what things are most important to this character?
• Personality traits - what emotions or other aspects of their personality do they show? To whom?
• 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 - instead, use your annotations and notes to prepare.

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 Tuesday! I hope you had a great weekend - relaxing, celebrating the new year, whatever!

We'll start today with some poems about 9-11 and the events of that day 17 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

Happy Friday! I hope you enjoyed the extra bit of time to sleep in!

Today we'll continue our focus on the topics we've been exploring in the novel. You'll have the first 10 minutes to meet with your group and add to your chart. Try to be sure you

• Have something for each row
• Include information from chapters 5-8

Next, you'll separate from your group to focus on writing an individual paragraph. While you are of course free to use your book, notes, and group chart to help you, this is individual work.  

Click here for the directions.

Over the weekend, please read chapters 9 & 10 and write a journal response.

American Street - Day 4

Today you'll work with your group to find places in the book, starting in chapter 4 and the chapter "Princess's Story," where different issues appear. Have one person in your group make a copy of this document and share it with the other members of your group.

• American Street - Topics/Issues

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 on Friday.

For Friday, you are reading chapters 7 & 8 and writing a journal response.

Remind your parents to come to Open House tomorrow night!

American Street - Day 3

Happy Tuesday! Happy September! I hope you had a great weekend!

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

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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Tonight, you will be reading chapters 5, "Matant Jo's Story," and 6. Please write a journal response as well.