Incite on English 9
By Sarah Bollinger
Introduction
Hey Shenango's new freshmen! I'm Sarah Bollinger. Sadly, I'm leaving the 9th grade and becoming a sophomore. Are you excited for English 9? Neither was I. With all that Mrs. Fleming and Mrs. Barron put us through, I'm sure you're all pretty tired of English Classes. Well, I have some good news for you. You do not have an English class for your 9th grade year. Okay, so I kind of lied about that last part, but some real good news is that your English teacher will be Mrs. Allen. She adds some real spice into your school life.
What to look forward to
- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
- Group literature circles
- The Odyssey by Homer
- Poetry
- Independent Reading
- My favorites and my not so favorites
- My advice for surviving the year
- Top 5 list: How to Survive English 9
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Everyone knows the story of Romeo and Juliet, but do you know the details of the actual story? Sure, everyone knows that a forbidden love blossoms and the two love birds both die in the end, but do you know why the two are not to be together? Do you know how they commit suicide? I sure know I didn't know until we read about it. What I liked most about this unit is learning about the terms used in Shakespearean times.
Group Literature Circle
So, this project is somewhat like Independent Reading. You are assigned one book out of "Okay for Now," "Gym Candy," "Speak," and a few couple of others. You do a few individual projects along with a few group projects. I highly recommend "Okay for Now" and "Speak." I hadn't read the others, but From the ones i did read, they are a few of my favorite books I have read in Mrs. Allen's class. All in all, I found this unit of English 9 an exceedingly enjoyable time period.
Okay for Now
By: Gary D. Schmidt
Thousand Words
By: Jennifer Brown
Gym Candy
By: Carl Deuker
Odyssey By: Homer
I liked this unit so much because I enjoy learning about something that was so big in history that everyone knows about, but no one knows what actually happened. I, personally, would prefer the Iliad, because it is about the actual war itself and the Odyssey was about after the war, the tale of what happened with Odysseus and his encounters. The Iliad shows what Achilles did during the Trojan War. Everyone knows about the Trojan War, but, why I like this unit so much, no one really knows what the war was about, what happened in the time, or pretty much anything else that lead up to the wooden horse.
Poetry
Okay, okay. I know what you're thinking. You already went through the torture of poetry with Mrs. Barron. That's what I was thinking when Mrs. Allen introduced the new section. But its okay, Mrs. Allen's ways of teaching poetry is more exciting. So do you want the good news first or the bad news? Lets go with the bad news first and get that out of the way. You write a long poem. It has to be a minimal of two pages. Now for the good news, now that I can hear you all groaning with disappointment. The good news is, you only have one poem. And its free verse, so you don't have to make it rhyme.
Independent Reading
This is my favorite part of English 9. Its a lot like the independent reading in Mrs. Mattis's class, but its like 10x better! The main difference between the two is the book reports versus the book talks. Confused? It's okay. The book talks are similar to the reports, but you don't write down anything and then turn it in. Instead, you talk with Mrs. Allen about the book of you're choosing. You can even do the talk in private rather than talk to the whole class about it. Believe me, if you want a good read, go for the S. E. Hinton. More specifically, "Rumble Fish" and "The Outsiders." Also, I'm not entirely done with it at the moment, but "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher is, so far, an amazing book and I'm anticipating the ending.
My favorites
My favorites throughout the year are, from least(5) to greatest(5):
4.Monster
3.Group Literary Circles
2.Poetry
1.Independent Reading
My Advice
I suggest that you keep ALL of your papers and put them in your binder and make sure that you are organized, because you have just about 5 binder checks and you have a final test, which is open study. If you pay attention throughout the year, I'm sure you'll do fine. Advice for other classes, because Mrs. Allen has already embarrassed this idea, I highly recommend using dividers in all of your binders. It has helped me a lot, and I'm sure that, if your have not yet found out this, it will help you to have a main binder and make sure to use folders, notebooks, dividers, and an assignment book. Of all, just use common sense and organization and you'll be just fine.
Top 5 List: How to Survive English 9
5.Use common sense, which is only common sense
4.Stay organized
3.Pay attention in class
2.Keep all of your papers. You'll need them!
1.Make a friend in your class. A lot of the times, its so much easier.