Linking your Google docs essay to the wiki page

This assignment is due before class starts on Tuesday, Jan. 13

This assignment should be done after you have completed your Privacy Issues Mini-essay on Google documents. For this assignment, I am asking that you do the following to share your essay with the class and with others. Here is what you need to do:

1. Publish your document
2. Add a link to your document on the class wiki page.

Here are the directions for doing each of the tasks above.

To publish your document, open your essay on Google docs and click the share button in the upper right hand corner. There will be an option there to "Publish as web page." Click it.

To add the link, you need to get the html address of your published document. With your document still open, click share again and select "View as webpage." Once you see it as a web page, highlight the address. Your address should look something like this: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgqgx5g5_122c59mntfm

Next, go to the class wiki page and find the page called - Student Privacy Essays. You can access it directly here. It did a sample entry to show you how it should look.

Log in to the wiki (using your username and password with the animals, numbers, and fruit). Write your name and underneath it, paste your essay address. Save the changes and you are done.

Using Google Documents

This blog response is due before class starts on Monday, Dec. 8

For the last two days, we've utilized Google documents in class to put together a working definition of good literature. Occasionally, we struggled with the technology and the best way to use it.

The assignment was simple enough - brainstorm some criteria for what makes good literature and then write a more coherent paragraph definition. However, you had to complete the assignment as a group and you had to use Google documents to collaborate and work together. Educational experts have identified collaboration as a vital skill in today's society.

For our purposes in class, I'd like to know your reactions to the activity and the use of the technology. In your answer, consider the following guiding questions: What was difficult about using Google documents? In what ways (if any) did the technology help make the process easier? How did it challenge you? How could collaborative tools like this one could be used in our English class? Give some specific examples. How do you imagine that Google docs tools will be used in your future as a college student or as a member of the work force? What do we need to know and understand to be able to effectively use digital tools like this in the future?

Using participles to write descriptive sentences

In class, we've begun studying the use of participles and participle phrases to help us write more descriptive, evocative sentences. You will also need to do this as part of the Vivid Vignette assignment.

As a way to practice, I'd like you to share an example of a sentence that includes a participle or participle phrase in it. Post your sentence in the comment section. I have posted the first one in the comments as a model ...

Here are the definitions to remind you:

Participle: An -ing word tagged onto the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence

Participle phrase: An -ing phrase tagged onto the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence

If you need help writing a grammatically correct sentence, refer to the following resource page to review the notes and definitions that we have used in class. And remember, if it is a participle or participle phrase, you will need commas to set it off from the base sentence.

1984 and Fahrenheit 451: Just what kind of world are they?

Note: This blog spells out the assignment for the wiki post #1 due Tuesday, Jan. 29 on the class calendar.

As we continue with our Dystopian Literature unit, we will begin using the class wiki page to compile and gather ideas about the novel. Directions for creating this wiki resource page can be found at that site, but I will continue to post information on assignments here.


Each group will create their own page where they will record their ideas. It is expected to grow and evolve as more ideas are added. The first posting I'd like each group to create involves describing just how the world of their novel is a dystopia. Describe what makes the London of 1984 or the nameless country in Fahrenheit 451 a dystopia. What are the dystopian characteristics of those worlds?


Each group should collaborate in class to write and post a well-developed paragraph that makes mention of events and ideas in the novels and connects it to the definitions of dystopia we've used in class. Post your paragraph on your new wiki resource page.

Assignment: Submitting an essay from MyAccess

Twice this semester, we have used the MyAccess writing program to write, submit, and revise an essay assignment. Both essays that we completed - An Important Change and A Lesson Learned - are now part of your portfolio in MyAccess. You are required to have both of those essays submitted to the MyAccess online scoring program.

In addition, you are required to hand in one of the essays to be graded outside the online scoring program. To do this, you need to print out your essay. Select the one essays you like the best and make any final revisions and submissions. I expect that what you submit will be final essay qualilty work. Use the feedback from MyAccess to help you achieve that. Once you are done editing, print it out from MyAccess and turn it in.

For printing, the best way to do it is to select the publish icon from the My Portfolio screen. See diagram below. Once you select publish, you will be given a choice on the layout you'd like.

A copy of your printed essay from MyAccess is due in class on Tuesday, Dec. 18. You will not be given class time to print. If you have problems accessing MyAccess and printing your essay, please let me know BEFORE the day it's due.

Writing an impromptu essay

Our next unit is devoted to discussing several short stories, and during that time we will examine the difficulties faced by several of the characters in those stories. In several instances, those difficulties are caused by poor decisions made by the main character. It is something we can all relate to. Your first assignment, then, is to examine a decision from your own life which you regret. Read the following prompt and write a well-formed, thoughtful essay.

Each person has been in trouble at one time or another because he or she did something bad or said something wrong. Write a multi-paragraph essay describing an instance when you did something wrong you later regretted and the lesson you learned in the process.

Before writing, you should:

• brainstorm your thoughts or create an idea web
• Select a topic worthy of writing about
• Sketch out a rough organization for your essay

The essay is due Tuesday, Sept. 18

To complete this writing assignment, open up a Microsoft Word document and write it there. You will be given class time, but will also likely need to work on it outside class. You will hand in an electronic copy of the assignment.

Getting started with classroom laptops

As you may have noticed in the front of our classroom sits a big metal box. Inside are 25 laptops, purchased for use in this classroom. Having such technology at our fingertips provides a wonderful opportunity to utilize the latest technology as we learn 21st Century literacy skills and concepts.

However, it is more than simply putting laptops in a classroom. Some schools across the country who have experimented with laptops have reconsidered their decision. In Liverpool, N.Y., officials have decided to phase out the laptops in their school starting this year. Their decision made the front page of the New York Times in May. It also prompted many people in education to think harder about the best way to use laptops in the classroom. In response to Liverpool's decision, one educator criticized schools for giving up on technology so easily.

I want you to think about the issue and help us craft a set of classroom guidelines for the use of our laptops. Click on the two links from the above paragraph and read the first page of both articles. Then, as a writing assignment, make suggestions about what we can do in F14 to get the best use out of the laptops. How should we use them in class? What should we be using them to learn? What guidelines do we need? What would you suggest the teacher do to make the most out of the laptops?

Post your response in the comment section of the blog. Write your answer in a few paragraphs, using complete sentences and proper grammar. An honors-level answer will properly make reference to one of the articles. Sign your first name (no last names) and class period after your posting.

Beginning a new venture to write online

As we begin our new unit with 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, we will also be undertaking a new venture to do more of our writing and responding to the texts online. In the past, we have used this blog as a way for me to post a prompt and for you to respond to it in the comment section. However, that method limited your ability to revise your writing and to comment on one another's ideas. That, to me, are two important components of an English classroom.

For this unit, you will create your own personal blog. You will be in charge of regularly posting ideas and thoughts related to the novels. This space - Miller's English 10 Homework blog - will become the area you will receive your assignments and information.

With a blog, you can post your thoughts and responses to the novels, allowing your classmates to read what you've written and to build on your ideas. Likewise, you will read the writing of your classmates and be able to connect to their thinking and ideas. On a more individual note, the blog will become the primary area where you will maintain a record of your thinking and writing. In a sense it will become an online notebook that will be graded, both for content and writing quality.

Like almost everything we've done this year, I ask you to keep an open mind. It may be foreign to you at first, but do not give up. One skill that's going to make you successful in this world is the ability to adapt and adjust to new situations. Maybe this is one of them.

To get started, click the "create blog" link in the upper right hand corner of this page. If you already have a Google log-in (for example if you have a g-mail account) use that to sign in and name your blog. If not, use your school e-mail address and create a free account. The name of your blog should be something you can remember and I can easily identify as yours.

Once you create your blog, cut and paste the address into the comment section of this post so I can begin compiling all the student blogs in one place. Good luck.