507/508 Updates and Optional Enrichment Opportunities
Things to Know from 507/508
Office Hours:
Mrs. Thomas and Ms. Jennings will each have office hours Monday through Friday, 8 am to 1 pm (except April 10, 13, and May 25, which are non-school days). During these hours, we will be responding to student questions and reviewing submitted make-up work and optional enrichment assignments.
At this time, we will only be communicating via e-mail with students and parents. Please use ParentSquare or our direct e-mail addresses for communication.
Missing Assignments:
We encourage you to check Infinite Campus for missing assignments from the first part of the semester. If you missed a writing or reading assignment, we can discuss options for making those up. After checking IC, contact your teacher of record for instructions on making up the assignment.
Enrichment Opportunities:
Moving forward, we cannot assign any mandatory work, but we are offering some enrichment opportunities that can help raise your percentage some and hopefully get you to a higher grade.
Opportunity #1 – Core Novel Theme Analysis:
Applied Medical English – On your own, finish reading A Year of Wonders (sorry that it is even more timely than when we first started reading). Once you’ve completed the novel, write a two-page response analyzing the main theme of the work. Remember, a theme is the author’s statement about human nature or the world (it is not one word). You can create as many paragraphs as you need to express your idea. Please use at least three pieces of textual evidence from the reading. There must be NO QUESTION that the response is your ideas, and your ideas only. If any part of the paper is plagiarized, you cannot get credit. Please type in MLA format. E-mail as an attachment to your teacher of record.
English 11 – Our final unit was to be on John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men. If you choose this enrichment opportunity, read the work on your own. The full text is available on a secure site at https://www.nhc.ac.uk/media/2840/steinbeck-john-of-mice-and-men.pdf . Or you can try to find another copy of the story. You will need to use the printed story (and not just the audio) because you will need textual evidence. Once you’ve completed the novel, write a two-page response analyzing the main theme of the work. Remember, a theme is the author’s statement about human nature or the world (it is not one word). You can create as many paragraphs as you need to express your idea. Please use at least three pieces of textual evidence from the reading. There must be NO QUESTION that the response is your ideas, and your ideas only. If any part of the paper is plagiarized, you cannot get credit. Please type in MLA format. E-mail as an attachment to your teacher of record.
English 10 – On your own, finish reading Fahrenheit 451. There are fewer than 50 pages left. Once you’ve completed the novel, write a two-page response analyzing the main theme of the work. The theme we want you to analyze is without free thought there is no ability to connect emotionally to oneself or others. You can create as many paragraphs as you need to express your idea. Please use at least three pieces of textual evidence from the reading. There must be NO QUESTION that the response is your ideas, and your ideas only. If any part of the paper is plagiarized, you cannot get credit. Please type in MLA format. E-mail as an attachment to your teacher of record.
Opportunity #2 – Creative Book Response (all classes): We cannot assign a mandatory SSR book, but we have a creative option if you want to read a book of your choice. After reading the book, we want to see your creative response. It’s up to you what you create, but here are some ideas.
- Book Critique Video – Film yourself giving a critique of what you liked and didn’t like about the book. Would you recommend it to other students your age? Why or why not?
- Video Reenactment – Film yourself reenacting key scenes from the book. (Disclaimer, you cannot reenact anything that is potentially dangerous or inappropriate for a classroom setting).
- TikTok—Mrs. Thomas and I are not experts on TikTok, but if you want to do a creative response to the book in this format, go for it!
- Book-inspired Artwork—Create a piece of art (painting, sculpture, poem, etc.) inspired by your reading of the book. Include a short artist’s statement that summarizes your motivation for the piece.
Submitting Creative Book Response: If you make a video, you can either e-mail us the video file or upload it to YouTube and send us the link. Same thing with your TikTok (however you do that!). If you create a piece of art, you can photograph it and attach the photograph and artist statement to e-mail.
Opportunity #3 – “Dear Virus” Poem: April is National Poetry Month and we are inviting you to submit a letter or poem written based on the prompt “Dear Virus.” Write about how you feel about COVID-19 or how it’s affected your life. Poetry is personal and the style and format are open ended. Submit your poem or letter by e-mail.
Deadlines:
In order to make sure we get everything graded and entered into the gradebook, please have all make up work and optional enrichment opportunity responses submitted by Friday, May 22.
