Week of 1/24 - 1/28
Happy Friday! I hope this email finds you well and safe! I am so excited to work with these students again. I am so lucky!
We spent this last week getting to know each other. Our first project is to create a "How to Give a Great Speech" guide. The goal is to remind ourselves of the important aspects of delivering a speech. We will then begin a PSA assignment. Here are the standards for that assignment:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.2 Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.4 Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.5 Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
Please let me know if you have any questions!
Week of 1/31 - 2/4
Next Thursday (February 3) is Meet the Teacher Night and I am excited to get a chance to meet all of you and personally introduce myself to you. The school should be sending out information about that, but I also wanted to include my link to the google meet for this class. Please join me during your scheduled time at this google meet link.
We had a great week presenting our How to Give a Great Speech Guide and working on our Public Service Announcement Projects. I am excited to see them this Tuesday!
After the PSA presentations, we will begin working on Oral Interpretation of Literature. We will present Dramatic or Humorous Interpretations. The standards for this unit are:
S/L .9/10.6 Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate
R.9/10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
As always, please reach out if you have any questions!
Week of 2/7 - 2/11
It was wonderful to see some of you at Meet the Teacher last night! If you were not able to attend and have any questions for me, please feel free to reach out.
This week we completed our PSA presentations and began working on the Oral Interpretation of Literature. Those presentations begin on Tuesday, February 8th. We will then begin working on the legislative debate. The standards addressed for this assignment are:
R.9/10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
R.9/10.8 Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.
S/L.9/10.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9-10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
S/L.9/10.3 Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or distorted evidence.
S/L.9/10.4 Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
W.9/10.1 Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
W.9/10.7 Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
W.9/10.8 Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
Have a great weekend!
Week of 2/14 - 2/18
Happy Friday everyone! I hope this finds you well. Here is the weekly update for Honors Speech II.
We finished up our Oral Interpretation of Literature speeches. Those grades are in PowerSchool. I was so pleased with the choice of pieces and competition worthy speeches I saw!
For this next speech, I made a change. Now, we are going to continue to work on our delivery aspect with another individual speech. We will be doing a Tribute Speech. The objectives are
Demonstrate appropriate topic selection, audience analysis, organization, and content development in a speaker-audience setting.
Practice effective verbal [language] techniques that are well suited to the occasion and audience.
The outline for this speech is due on Wednesday, 2/16 and speeches begin on Tuesday, 2/22.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions!
Week of 2/21 - 2/25
I hope this weekly update finds you all well. Last week found us halfway through Quarter 3. Time seems to be flying! This week we will be presenting our tribute speeches. I am excited to hear these speeches. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Week of 2/28 - 3/4
I hope this email finds each of you well! We started our tribute speeches this past week. The students gave such heartfelt speeches. We are really improving on our posture (which was a goal of this speech).
This upcoming week, we will finish our tribute speeches and then begin our student congress unit (also called legislative debate). This will be the first time I get to fully implement this unit so I am very excited! Here are the standards for this unit:
R.9/10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
R.9/10.8 Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.
S/L.9/10.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9-10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
S/L.9/10.3 Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or distorted evidence.
S/L.9/10.4 Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
W.9/10.1 Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
W.9/10.7 Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
W.9/10.8 Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
As you can see, this is a heavy standard based unit with many objectives for us. This will take us a couple weeks to complete. If you have any questions, let me know!
Week of 3/7 - 3/11
What a great week! We completed our Tribute Speeches and began work on our Student Congress unit. It is exciting to see all the bill ideas! This upcoming week we will have our bills submitted and chose the bill we want to oppose.
If you have any questions, let me know!
Week of 3/14 - 3/18
I hope this email finds you all well. We started our impromptu speeches Friday. These were great! I love seeing the growth that has been made from Speech I to now. You should all be proud of yourselves.
We will finish up the impromptu speeches and have the rest of the week to finish preparing for the student congress which will start Monday, 3/21.
I do want to remind everyone that all missing and late work must be submitted to Canvas by 2:30pm (EST) on Friday, March 18, 2022.
Week of 3/21 - 3/25
Happy beginning of Spring! We completed impromptu speeches last week. This upcoming week we will begin our student congress.
Please let me know if you have any questions!
Week of 3/28 - 4/1
Happy beginning of Quarter 4! I can't believe that our time is halfway over (students you can stop cheering now...).
This upcoming Thursday is Parent/Teacher Conference Night (March 31st). I am attaching the document that school is sending out. If you interested in having a conference with me, please email me at jjschneider@wcpss.net with your top three choices for times. Please also let me know if this conference will be in-person or via google meet. I will send you an email confirming the time.
We will continue with Student Congress. I love hearing the discussion of the bills long after the debate has ended. I am looking forward to this week's bills!
Week of 4/4 -4/8
We spent last week continuing with our student congress. We will finish that up early this upcoming week. And then we move on to mock interviews.
I have added in mock interviews into the curriculum because I feel this is an essential communication skill the students need. My learning objectives for this unit are:
Understand the importance of researching for an interview through researching the position, company, and skills needed
Preparing answers for common interview questions
Preparing questions to ask the hiring committee (also how to take notes from interview to ask add to questions to ask at the end)
Identify appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication skills/techniques for an interview (e.g. eye contact, use of filler words, hand gestures, and verbal pace).
Craft a thank you email after the interview
Develop confidence in relationship to their interviewing skills
One week to go before Spring Break!
Week of 4/18 - 4/22
I hope you all had some time to relax! We will begin our interview this Tuesday, April 19th. I am looking forward to seeing who gets the job!
As always, let me know if you have any questions!
Week of 4/25 - 4/29
I cannot believe that this is the last week of April. This will also be our last week of interviewing. We will then begin our intercultural communication unit. We will learn about intercultural communication and then have a group speech.
As always, please let me know if you have questions!