Honors 10 LAC (Parents)

Thank you for a great year!

Congratulations, students! You've made it to the conclusion of the strangest school year. You braved a snowstorm, floods, a pandemic and the stresses of online learning. However you feel about this year, you deserve to be proud of yourself for the grit and persistence you demonstrated in the face of these challenges.

Students and families, you will now see your updated grades posted on Skyward. Your grade should reflect the highest term grade between MT3, Q3 and S2. Take a moment to look over your grade today (along with your essay feedback on Turnitin.com) and let me know if you have any questions.

Please note that your letter grade will get posted into your transcript and GPA - but your percentage will not. In light of this, I will not prioritize regrading assignments that do not alter your overall letter grade.

Students, for this week's activity in the "assignments" tab, you'll see instructions posted. This is not a required or graded assignment - but it is an opportunity to practice gratitude to the teachers, parents and mentors who have made a difference for you this year.

While this year was not ideal, I've felt blessed by the opportunity to be your teacher. I've loved the energy, curiosity, passion and creativity that you each brought into the classroom (both our physical classroom and the online learning community). I am so excited to see you continue to blossom into the scholars, community leaders and agents of change that you are becoming.

Enjoy your summer!

Best,

Mrs. M

AP Summer Reading

Good afternoon, students and families!

Congratulations on making it through the challenges of remote learning! The year is wrapping up, which gives us an opportunity to reflect and to look forward to next year.

Those of you who are enrolled for AP Lang & Comp should look over the reading list attached HERE. You'll find a series of shorter texts linked directly through the document.

While this reading is optional, it is highly recommended that you make the best use of your summer in order to be fully prepared for the course.

Of course, if you are looking for other reading suggestions over the summer, you can still check out our Honors 10 list of suggestions posted earlier this spring.

Keep reading!

Best,

Mrs. Marshall

Welcome to week nine of digital learning (6/15)

Good morning, students and families!

We are heading into the last full week of the school year, and this is a great opportunity to reflect on what you've accomplished and overcome this school year. While this year didn't look at all like we expected in the fall, you have all braved the challenges of remote learning. Congratulations on making it to this point in the year!

You can find this week's schedule HERE as well as under the assignments tab on my website. We will be wrapping up our work with poetry this week. I will ask you to submit your reflection and poem to Turnitin.com by the end of the week. Any other missing assignments you would like to address with me should be submitted this week, as well. If you have any questions about your assignments or about grading, reach out to me via email.

Best,

Mrs. Marshall

Welcome to week eight of digital learning (6/8)

Good morning, students and families!

Congratulations to everyone who has submitted your synthesis essay! You should all be very proud of your work throughout the writing process. I will be grading these over the next few weeks, so you may wish to keep an eye on your Turitin.com feedback.

Please remember that, regardless of your grade after I enter the score for your essay, you will be earning the highest grade between your baseline scores (Q3 and MT3) and your final score. Feel free to email me any questions you may have surrounding grading.

Families, if you see an asterisk (*) entered for your student's synthesis essay on your Skyward family access, please note that this means I have not yet received your student's synthesis paper. Please support your student in following the updated schedule that I have provided to them - or encourage them to reach out to me right away as this essay is required for this course.

Students, the conversations and events surrounding discrimination and police brutality in our nation may be impacting you emotionally on a range of levels. I want to let you know that I am here to support you, connect you to resources, or just to listen. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you are having a hard time focusing on school work. While we can't be together in person right now, I am still here for you.

On the week at a glance available HERE, you'll find poetry and literature relevant to the Black Lives Matter movement. If you have a suggestion for a text I should read that isn't on the list, please email the title to me. I'd love to check it out!

Best,

Mrs. Marshall

Welcome to week seven of digital learning (6/1)

Good morning, students and families!

I've been so impressed by the hard work I've seen from so many of your synthesis outlines and drafts!

As you know, this Wednesday is the final due date for your synthesis essays. You should be able to view your peer feedback on PeerMark and use that feedback to improve the first draft of your paper. If you have any questions about the synthesis paper, see the checklist posted on this week's plan. You can view that document HERE or under the "assignments" tab on my website.

Once you submit your essays, we'll be switching gears and introducing our final unit on poetry.

As we head into the final weeks of school, it will be important for everyone to confirm that you have submitted both your Night reader's response as well as your synthesis essay. Both of these assignments are essential learning and are required to earn credit for this course. If you have any barriers to completing either of these assignments, please contact me right away so that I can get you any additional support you may need.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Welcome to week six of digital learning (5/26)

Good morning, students and families!

This week, you will be editing your draft of your synthesis paper to prepare it for the final submission next week. This is the last paper you will write for H10 LAC, so take a moment and celebrate that you have made it to the home stretch!

Today you should upload your first draft of your synthesis paper to Turnitin.com. This draft should be a complete version of your paper - including your citations. You will, however, have plenty of time at the end of this week and early next week to make any necessary edits.

You can find the weekly plan for our learning HERE as well as under the "assignments" tab on my website.

We'll be using PeerMark on Turnitin.com for the first time this week, so don't hesitate to reach out to me right away if you have any challenges with technology or if you need any other support.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Welcome to week five of digital learning (5/18)

Good morning, students and families!

This week, you will be writing a draft of your synthesis paper. You can find the weekly plan for our learning HERE as well as under the "assignments" tab on my website.

Again, this week, you will see a bit of extra flexibility for your writing pace and schedule. Each day, the daily slides will cover reminders on portions of your paper - but you may write your draft in any order. You will upload this draft by midnight on Tuesday, May 26th.

Next week, we will be peer editing and polishing your essay drafts for final submission on June 3rd.

Best of luck to those of you taking AP tests this week! Feel free to reach out to me if you need additional support.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Welcome to week four of digital learning (5/11)

Good morning, students and families!

This week, you will be working to create an outline for your synthesis paper. You can find the weekly plan for our learning HERE as well as under the "assignments" tab on my website.

I know many of you may also be balancing AP testing, so you'll notice that there is a bit more flexibility this week. You will be working on your essay outline from Tuesday through Friday, and - while you should log into the daily slides for brief instruction - this is also an opportunity to pace yourself and work as you have time each day. If you need any additional support this week, feel free to reach out to me via email. Best of luck with those AP exams!

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Welcome to week three of digital learning! (5/4)

Good morning, students and families!

You can find the weekly plan for our learning HERE as well as under the "assignments" tab on my website.

Students, this has also been emailed to your Skyward email addresses. If you are not receiving these weekly emails, let me know so that we can update your Skyward email address.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Grading Update (5/1)

Good afternoon, Honors 10 students and families!

First, I wanted to extend a big thank you to every student who has been logging in to online learning and making the most of this strange time. I know you all have full course loads of classes and are working hard to navigate a range of new online platforms. Parents and families, thank you for your support and patience throughout this process.

Next, I wanted to update and clarify details regarding semester two grades for this course. Based on OSPI’s grading guidance for the rest of the year, grades will not go lower than recorded at the time of MT3, provided that you continue to engage in the remaining year’s classwork and essential standards.

MT3 & Q3 Grades:

While teachers have been given guidance from the district to use MT3 grades as your baseline moving forward, anyone who had a higher Q3 grade (in most cases, a result of your Act 4 Macbeth quiz) can expect that higher grade to serve as the baseline instead. To be as fair as possible, I will be checking against both of these grades at the end of the term.

Essential Standards:

If you do not complete essential standards for this class, you may receive an incomplete for your second semester grade. Essential standards for Honors LAC10 are reading the novel Night and writing a synthesis essay. So, regardless of your MT3 or Q3 grade, if you don’t turn in the synthesis essay, you will incur an incomplete for Honors LAC10.

These assignments are required to receive course credit:

• Honors LAC10 Synthesis Essay (due 6/3)
• Night Readers’ Response Reflection (due 5/1)

These assignments will increase your grade and prepare you for the synthesis essay:

• Course discussions on Flipgrid, Padlet or Turnitin.com
• Any ActivelyLearn assignments that have questions
• Peer reviews of the synthesis essay outline and synthesis essay draft

Because I will continue entering grades over the coming weeks, your grade may drop from your MT3/Q3 grade. However, as long as you are engaging in the course work and completing the major assessments, you will receive the higher grade for the semester.

If you have any questions about online learning or the grading process, don’t hesitate to reach out to me via email.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Welcome to week two of digital learning! (4/27)

Good morning, students and families!

Thank you to everyone who has engaged with online learning in the last week. This week, we are continuing our online learning about the process of synthesis.

You can find the weekly plan for our learning HERE as well as under the "assignments" tab on my website.

Note, today's presentation has a note about grading - in light of OSPI's guidance last week. Take a look and feel free to reach out to me via email with any questions you may have.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Welcome to new learning in Honors 10 (4/20)

Good morning, students and families!

Today, we are starting a new synthesis unit which will prepare you to write a synthesis essay.

To help keep you organized as you delve into new learning for all of your classes, please see this week's plan HERE.

Parents, you are included in this email this week as we kick off digital learning. After this week your student will be getting these emails to their own email addresses only. You are always welcome to check out what we are doing on my website.

At this time, all of our content will be located under the "assignments" and "resources" tabs. The "extended closure tabs" contain only the optional work that wrapped up on April 10th.

While digital learning will have its challenges and drawbacks, I'm so glad we get the chance to keep learning together. If at any time you have challenges accessing course work, figuring out a new platform, or balancing expectations, feel free to reach out to me via email. I'm here to help!

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Extended Closure Update (4/10)

Good morning, students and families!

This is an update for Honors 10 LAC regarding material posted for access on 4/10.

Today, students will reflect on Night by considering any current societal topic and advocating for others to take personal responsibility in addressing their chosen issue. If students are able to do so, they should upload images or screenshots of their work to share them with classmates.

Since next week coincides with the originally planned spring break, students will not be seeing any assignments or content uploaded to my website. Students should use that time to prepare for the new learning coming April 20th.

Students and families, please also access my technology access survey (here) prior to April 20th. I will be reaching out on behalf of students who have insufficient technology access to join us in class, and on behalf of any students from whom I do not receive a response.

As always, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Extended Closure Update (4/9)

Good morning, students and families!

This is an update for Honors 10 LAC regarding materials posted for access on 4/9.

Today, students will be finishing Night and reflecting on the title of the work.

Students, when you finish, you may access the Macbeth Quiz Drop Form under the "assignments" tab on my website. I will be updating grades to reflect the dropped quiz next week. Remember that you do not need to drop a quiz if you are satisfied with your scores.

Feel free to reach out to me with any concerns or questions.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Extended Closure Update (4/8)

Good morning, students and families!

By now you have no doubt heard the news that Governor Inslee has announced that schools will be closed for the remainder of the year, to be replaced by distance learning.

While this news is a lot for us all to process, we do have a path forward. The our next phase of online learning for the ISD will begin the week of April 20th. After that date, you can expect to see new content and graded lessons uploaded to my website. I'll be providing more specific details about that in future emails, but students should expect guided writing instruction and graded work.

I know this is not the year any of us envisioned, and that we will face new and unexpected challenges. Please know that we are in this together, and that you can reach out to me any time with any questions or concerns that you may have. I will do my best to provide information as it is made available to me. Check out the ISD emergency resources page for their latest details about resources during the closure.

Today, students should read chapters 5 & 6 of Night, continuing to take notes as they read.

Families, thank you for all you are doing to support your students!

Students, thank you for inspiring the IHS staff with your resilience. We miss getting to see you all each day, and we look forward to the time when we can all be back together again.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Extended Closure Update (4/6)

Good morning, students and families!

This is an update for Honors 10 LAC, regarding materials posted for access on 4/6-4/7.

Students will be reading chapter 4 of Night, and accessing Elie Wiesel's 1999 speech on "The Perils of Indifference." Students should be adding notes to their readers' response journal, as the quotes and reflections on these texts may be used in the synthesis essay we will be writing when we return to graded work.

As the ISD reaches out to share updates about the new phases in our continuous learning plan, I'll be posting updates about what you can expect for this class. As always, you are welcome to reach out to me via email with any questions.

Students, thank you for all you are doing while we are away from school at this time! I'm looking forward to being back in class with you all again when it is safe to do so!

Families, thank you for all you've done - and continue to do - to support your student.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Extended Closure Update (4/2)

Good morning, students and families!

This is an update for Honors 10 LAC, regarding materials posted for access on 4/2-4/3.

To round out this week of instruction, students should read the next two chapters of Night, reflect on the poem "No Man is and Island" and view the Oak Creek video that is linked on the "Extended Closure" tab for students. Before Monday, students should respond to one of our unit's essential questions, pulling evidence from the sources they have read/viewed so far.

Students, thank you for engaging with these sources - even while we are away from school. Feel free to reach out to me via email if you have any questions.

Parents, Thank you for all you do!

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Extended Closure Update (3/31)

Good morning, students and families!

This is an update for Honors 10 LAC, regarding materials posted for access on 3/31-4/1.

Today, students should read the prefaces and foreward for Night. Students will add insights to their own readers' response journal, and will also respond to guided questions about the readings. Students should then read chapter one of Night prior to Thursday (4/2).

Students who posted presentations of historical background about WWII and the Holocaust did an excellent job of combining historical information, Holocaust survivor stories, and reflective insights of that period of the world's history. If you have not checked out the slides posted by your peers, I highly suggest you do so - both in order to engage with their work, and to gain new insights.

Thank you again to families supporting students in this strange time of learning. Students, great work utilizing the digital resources to sharpen your skills and make the most of this time.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Extended Closure Update (3/30)

Good morning, students and families!

This is an update for Honors 10 LAC, regarding materials posted for access on 3/30.

Today, students should ensure that they have completed the assignment for researching the historical context of Night. The resources and directions for this were posted for access on 3/26 and 3/27. Students should check that they have linked their slides on the document shared with them. I will be providing feedback digitally this afternoon.

Next, students should take notes on the article and lecture posted on my website for access today, 3/30. Students will be challenged to consider essential questions to a thorough reading of Night. They will also access pre-reading questions, and save these responses for review when we have finished the book.

We will start reading later this week, so any students having trouble accessing the audiobook or the PDF should let me know right away.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Extended Closure Update (3/25)

Good afternoon, students and families!

This is an update for Honors 10 LAC, regarding materials I have posted to my website for access beginning on 3/26 & 3/27.

In the coming weeks, I will be regularly uploading activities related to the novel Night, written by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. This is an important and reflective unit for honors sophomore students, and our teaching team is committed to adapting it digitally to the best of our ability to ensure that students are able to engage with this seminal text of Holocaust literature.

It is highly recommended that students read and complete each activity outlined in this digital enrichment unit. There will be opportunities for you to share your work with me and your peers, but your assignments will not be scored or appear in your Skyward grade calculation.

When we return to school, I will reference or reuse some of the material, and you’ll have the option of including it in the next official unit - in which you will be working to synthesize the variety of texts we have accessed throughout this course. For the few who may not be able to complete this, I will not rely on this as foundational knowledge when we return to school without giving you an opportunity to catch up.

Parents and families, thank you again for the work you are doing to encourage and foster your student's learning while they are not able to be in class.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Class Unit: Critical Literary Theory (12/1)

Good afternoon,

Last week, we began a unit on Critical Literary Theories. In this unit, students learn new and challenging ways of thinking about literature, but in a way this is different from the typical literary analysis.

The study of Critical Literary Theories can be challenging, but they offer a new way of viewing texts; students are able to analyze much deeper than the surface level of understanding. Because this concept can be challenging, I choose to introduce the theories using films. This year, our anchor “text” will be the Disney film, Maleficent (2014). We will be watching the film over the next two days, and we will use it to guide our practice through each of the different theories. In this manner, the students are able to build a foundation of knowledge for each literary theory that they can then apply to different texts throughout the year.

With this in mind, it will be vital that students are present in the class over the next two days so that they are able to engage in the analysis. If a student must miss class, it would be best that they watch the film on their own in order to stay caught up.

As we move through the school year, the students will continue to develop their critical thinking skills by applying these literary theories to texts we read in class to help make deeper analysis.

I hope this gives you a little insight into what we have coming up in class. If you have any questions about the unit, please do not hesitate to ask!

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Class text: The Astonishing Color of After

Parents and guardians,

Your students are beginning a study on narrative literature and the narrative process. To aid in this unit, we are going to be reading the district-adopted novel The Astonishing Color of After. In this novel, geared for YA readers, the main character struggles to come to terms with her own mother’s depression and suicide – while simultaneously coming to a deeper understanding of her mother’s identity beyond and above her battle with mental health.

While our primary goal throughout this unit is to better understand the narrative process (including the use of figurative language, narrative pacing and point of view), we understand that the content of the novel may impact students in different ways. In class today, students heard a presentation from the school counseling team and were given resources to utilize if they know anyone struggling with depression or suicide. You can help support us throughout this unit by taking time to check in on your student, as well as by expanding these conversations within your own home.

Thank you for all you do to support your student here at IHS!

Best,

Catherine Marshall