During the 2012-2013 school year each student and parent will have access to a class specific website. Each website will contain the following:

- Detailed summaries of in class events
- All distributed materials
- Assignment Instructions
- Assignment Deadlines

Please use the links below to navigate to the desire class website.

Freshmen English Block 3: fe3.justinboyd.net

Freshmen English Block 7: fe7.justinboyd.net

Short Form Literature: shortform.justinboyd.net

Non Fiction Writing: nonfiction.justinboyd.net

ACT Test Prep: act.justinboyd.net

Unrelated (but still quality!)

CriticalReading.com: Understanding the difference between critical reading and critical thinking is and important relationship for students.  In many cases, students need to be taught how to think and read critically.  Strategies for critical thinking and reading need to be purposefully taught to students and then specifically applied in a classroom. This site does a excellent job of laying out the practicle difference between critical reading and critical thinking, and provides practical strategies for teaching these differences to students.

Poetry Slam: Poetry is an important and essential part of learning about English writings.  However, many students struggle to identify or understand poetry that is part of the standard cannon.  Poetry can be effectively introduced to students by taking a field trip to a poetry slam event.  After demonstrating what modern poetry looks like, students can work within the confines of a poetry workshop to learn the basic elements of poetry and to compose their own poems to perform at a class poetry slam. With the students fully on board, aspects of the poetry cannon can be read and analyzed by using poetry slam methodology to bring older and more complicated poetry to life in the classroom.

Tolerance: Diversity, whether by race, gender, sexual orientation, social class etc, is a part of every school district. Teaching tolerance can be a difficult and frustrating experience. Tolerance.org provides great resources and support for when you need to teach your students about tolerance.

Lesson Planning

Lesson planning can be both an exciting and laborious process. The following sites are excellent resources that can provide new ideas, fresh insight, and quality materials if you get stuck in the middle of planning a lesson/unit.

ReadWriteThink.org: Lacking the bright flashing ads of many teaching resource sites, Read. Write. Think. offers a staggering array of lesson plans. More important than the quantity however, is the quality of the lessons. In addition, the diverse search criteria that provides quick and easy access to the right information makes this site stand out.

EducationWorld.com: Although it can be difficult to navigate, this site contains great information and lesson plans. As a bonus, Education World emphasizes integrating technology into the classroom.

Bonus

Rubric Generator: Use this website to create and save highly customizable rubrics for all types of assignments. This site takes all of the formatting work away from you so that the content of the rubric becomes the only concern.

• Better English retention skills
• Improved comprehension
• Incorporation of the natural rhythms and tones of oral English
• Improved speaking capabilities

When ELL podcasts are combined with a written transcript of each Podcast,  students can then improve their understanding of written English as well. Moreover, a written transcript helps ELL students begin constructing an understanding of the complicated relationships between oral and written English. Best of all, these podcasts are available for free. After using podcasts to improve their oral and written English, ELL can then be asked to develop their own custom podcast and written transcript.

Want to know more about Podcasting? What resources will you need to create your own Podcast? I am so glad you asked.

Podcasting For People Who Like It Simple

Blogtalkradio.com: If you can talk on the phone and use a web browser, you can make a podcast. Best of all, blogtalkradio has a detailed series of screen casts to help even the most technologically challenged start podcasting.

Podcasting Techniques for Tech Savvy Audiophiles

About.com: There are many ways to podcast, but About.com provides an excellent step by step tutorial for those individuals who want to start podcasting without making a financial investment.

Thanks – mr. j

ShoGun – Author: James Clavell

Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood – Author: Benjamin Alire Saenz

1984 – Author: George Orwell

Flowers for Algernon – Author: Daniel Keyes

The Importance of Being Earnest – Author: Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray – Author: Oscar Wilde

A Tale of Two Cities – Author: Charles Dickens

Crime and Punishment -Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky

Beowulf - Translated By: Seamus Heaney

Democracy – Author: Joan Didion

The God of Small Things – Author: Arundhati Roy

In The Lake of the Woods – Author: Tim O’Brien

The Things They Carried – Author: Tim O’Brien

The Kite Runner – Author: Khaled Hosseini

Native Son – Author: Richard Wright

Catch-22 – Author: Joseph Heller

Snow Crash – Author: Neal Stephenson

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time – Author: Mark Haddon

Tai-Pan – Author: James Clavell

The Color Purple – Author: Alice Walker

Harry Potter Books 1-7 - Author: J.K. Rowling

The Tempest – Author: William Shakespeare

Elegies in Blue (a collection of poems) – Author: Benjamin Alire Saenz

The Fountainhead – Author: Ayn Rand

Anthem – Author: Ayn Rand

Brave New World – Author: Aldous Huxley

In an effort to take some of the guessing out of our relationship, here are my expectations for you as student in my class. In addition, here also is what you can expect from me as a student in my class. Although both you and I are fallible, I trust that knowing what to expect from each other will be of great assistance in creating the desired reality.

What You Can Expect from Me

• You can expect me not to degrade your writing either orally or in writing.
• You can expect me to help you with your writing, but not to write it for you or to develop your ideas.
• You can expect me to respect you as a writer no matter how good or how bad you think your writing is.
• You can expect me to take everything you write seriously and to enjoy reading your writing.
• You can expect constructive feedback on papers that I return to you.
• You can expect me to create a safe environment for you to write in and to share your writing.
• You can expect me to respect any thoughts, feelings and/or emotions that are shared in your writing because I know writing is very personal.
• You can expect me to keep your writing confidential unless I ask your permission to share it. (Except for times when I am legally bound to discuss what you have written with a parent, administrator or counselor.)
• You can expect me not to determine your grade based on whether you applied my opinions to the writing of your paper. Your writing grades will be determined based on your ability to complete papers as instructed and on how your writing improves throughout the course.
• You can expect that reading is as important in this class as writing.
• You can expect respect from me in all things and on all occasions.
• You can expect that I will treat all students the same regardless of gender, age, appearance, social class, sexual orientation and religious beliefs.
• You can expect that multiculturalism will be supported in my classroom and that intolerance will not be acceptable.

What I Expect From You

• I expect you to use the Writing Process.
• I expect you to spend time and effort both in writing your paper and improving your drafts.
• I expect you to enjoy your writing and to creatively write your papers in a way that you think best addresses the paper topic.
• I expect you to respect the writing of your fellow students.
• I expect you to thoughtfully help other students to revise and edit their papers.
• I expect your writing to improve throughout the course of the year.
• I expect you to carefully read everything that I assign to you.
• I expect you to actively participate in class discussions
• I expect you to take charge of your education.
• I expect you to turn all assignments in on time.
• I expect you to be willing to try new things and to test out new ideas.
• I expect you to respect your classmates and the ideas they express in class.
• I expect you to treat me with respect at all times.
• I expect you to be open-minded and fair to help create a classroom community based on mutual acceptance.