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HOME LEARNING WEEK 7 TASKS
This week we’re going to move on to our final unit of the year: DRAMA. We’re going to learn a little about how plays differ from prose and epic narratives; we’ll discover a little of how the Ancient Greek theatres staged their plays; we’ll read the entirety and watch excerpts of Sophocles’s famous tragedy Oedipus the King. But all of that begins tomorrow. For now I’d like to give you your third and final class period to work on your body paragraphs for the Odyssey essay.
Before that, please take a look at the marked-up body paragraphs below. Study my notes to apply them to your own work. Each student below is asked to revise his paragraph and re-send to me, so I can post the ‘after’ of the ‘before and after’.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
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HOME LEARNING WEEK 6 TASKS
The first day of this week is a day to catch up on all of your assignments. I am going to meet with the first half of each class to go through your thesis statements. Please come to our next class all ready with your quotations, your commentary, your thesis, and your topic sentences. I am going to get you started on the writing process.
Please note that next Tuesday, May 5 there will be an extra credit vocabulary quiz on these words. Enjoy!
STOP FOR NOW. WE’ll PICK UP FROM HERE NEXT TIME.
The Odyssey essay will be due Friday, May 15 for all of my freshman sections. You will have three regularly scheduled class periods to work on your essay; the remainder of the essay will be completed outside of class. I suggest you use the class time to write your body paragraphs; write the introduction and conclusion when you can before the due date. That’s plenty of time, especially considering you should already have a thesis, topic sentences, and quotations with explanation.
This essay will be graded generously, rest assured. While under normal circumstances I’m looking to be wowed, now I’m just looking for an attempt at good thinking and clear writing. Show me you learned what goes into a thesis and a topic sentence; show me you learned how to blend quotations; show me you know how to coordinate and subordinate clauses; show me you engaged the poem’s ideas as they relate to the characteristics of the Grad at Grad; most of all, though, show me one last time, if you’re able and willing, something you’re proud of, something you worked hard on. That’s all I’ve ever asked for.
Begin writing the first body paragraph. We’ll look at a few during our next session.
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HOME LEARNING WEEKs 4-5 TASKS
This week we’re going to use our Zoom meetings as office hours for you to ask individual questions about your work or for me to check in with certain students. It’s a work week with check-ins. By the beginning of our class on either Green or White order, Friday or Monday, I’d like you to have prepared the following:
1. You’re going to first finish the Odyssey. There’re two books to go, 23 and 24. Finish reading the poem, and we’ll discuss the end during our session on Green or White order.
2. Navigate to this page on Jesuit’s website. Then expand “The Grad at Grad”. This section lists the values of the Grad at Grad, which you’ll continue to study throughout your remaining years here. We’re going to use these principles of the Grad at Grad to guide us through your final writing assignment of the year, which I’ll officially set on Friday/Monday. In the meantime, I’d like you to choose the two Grad at Grad principles that you think are most applicable to Homer’s Odyssey. Begin to think about some ways Odysseus struggles with, learns about, or practices your chosen Grad at Grad value. Do this by reading through the description of each value completely and recalling moments in the Odyssey that apply. This will set the foundation of the remainder of the assignment.
STOP FOR NOW. WE’ll PICK UP FROM HERE NEXT TIME.
Here you can find your essay assignment on Homer’s Odyssey. By our next class, as a means of beginning the assignment, I’d like you to complete this document, save as a PDF, and post to turnitin.com. Before you can develop a complete idea, you want to find as many quotes from the entire poem as you can that you think have something to do with your chosen characteristic. Then I’d like you to write a sentence or two that explains how the quote pertains to the principle of the Grad at Grad. For each principle, please find no fewer than 4 quotes and no more than 8.
STOP FOR NOW. WE’ll PICK UP FROM HERE NEXT TIME.
By our class on Thursday I’d like you to do the following:
1. Return to the Odyssey assignment document and read it all the way through one more time. Do you have any lingering questions? If so, jot it down and bring to our next Zoom call. I want everyone to be on the same page.
2. Now it’s time to move into Step Two of the assignment, Choosing a Big Question. Look at your characteristics of the Grad at Grad and begin to think about what kind of a question your conclusions might begin to answer. If you’re doing committed to doing justice, for instance, you might select one of the Big Questions about justice. If you’re doing open to growth, maybe you should look at one of the questions about making moral choices in an immoral world. If you’re doing religious or loving, it’s possible the questions about a fulfilling life might best apply. Play around with combinations.
This requires you to think more than anything, guys. Once you do that—it might take time—draft a thesis for your essay to be shared on a Google doc during our session next time.
STOP FOR NOW. WE’ll PICK UP FROM HERE ON THURSDAY.
We’re going to devote today’s session to reviewing the drafts of your thesis statements. Open this doc and paste your thesis by your name.
Recall that last semester we defined a topic sentence as a debatable claim that’s a smaller component of your thesis. It’s ONE aspect of your idea and ONE only. So, I’d like you for our next class to prepare the topic sentences that you think need arguing in your essay based on the thesis you’ve developed. Ask yourself: What do I logically need to show in my essay in order to prove my overall point? Bring to our next class your revised thesis and each of the topic sentences, or at least a description of each topic, in the order you believe they’ll appear in the essay. Yet again, remember that topic sentences, like thesis statements, should be debatable claims.
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Home learning week 3 tasks
1. Your third assignment for credit is to respond to the following post on the discussion board.
2. After you finish posting to the discussion board, you should read Book 21 in your edition of the Odyssey.
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Let’s skip the quiz today and move right into discussion. I’ll move you into breakout rooms to confer about a few topics before bringing you back into the main room to discuss as a large group.
(1) Share with your small group what it was you wrote with respect to the discussion board post on the role of women in Homer’s Odyssey.
(2) With respect to Book 21, what moment or moments would you point to that show Odysseus’s growth as it relates to things that are out of his hands? Which of the suitors has similar wisdom from that standpoint?
(3) What do you make of the appropriateness of the task to “win” Penelope’s hand in marriage?
Before our next class I’d like for you to read Book Twenty-Two, which is Tarrantinoesque—shocking in its brutality, visually stunning, image-heavy, rich in glorified violence. Select one of the descriptions of the death of a suitor. Name the suitor, the way his death is characterized, and why you think Homer chooses to describe it in this way.
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Home learning week 2 tasks
Complete the following two tasks before our next class:
1. Begin by reading our edition’s selections of Books 17 and 18 in Homer’s Odyssey.
2. Once you’ve finished reading, register in my flipgrid class by clicking this link. Please use your full first and last names, as well as your mail.strakejesuit e-mail. Once registered, click here to make your first video. The prompt is posted in flipgrid.
STOP FOR NOW. WE’ll PICK UP FROM HERE NEXT TIME.
We’re going to change gears and work on our sentence-level writing to build in a little change of pace. Today will be independent review of concepts you should have mastered coming into Strake Jesuit and concepts you should have learned last semester. Here are the steps for today:
1. Begin by watching this video explaining the difference between simple and compound sentences. This is a concept you came into Strake Jesuit knowing already. It’s good review. Don’t skip this step even if you think you absolutely know this already. It’s 4:30 long.
2. Now move to this presentation on the distinction between independent and dependent clauses. Recall last semester when we talked a great deal about the differences between these two and, more importantly, about how to combine multiple clauses together in the same sentence. This is absolutely something you want to review to be able to complete the following exercies. Don’t skip this step even if you think you absolutely know this already. It’s 7:32 long.
3. Combine each set of the following sentences INTO ONE SENTENCE. Notice how different subordinating conjunctions (such as "because" and "if") and coordinating conjunctions (such as "and" and "but") can alter the meaning of sentences. Your revisions should not only be grammatically correct, but should also exemplify some of the elements of good writing we have covered in class this semester (e.g., participles, appositives, etc.).
Sentence One:
My doctor warned me about trying to lose weight too fast.
My coach reminded me of the danger involved.
My mother told me the same thing.
Sentence Two:
The first documented case of AIDS within the United States occurred in 1977.
The AIDS crisis continues to grow.
The number of newspaper and magazine articles on AIDS has declined in the last few years.
Sentence Three:
Breakfast cereals contain fiber.
Oat bran may reduce cholesterol.
Advertisers stress the health benefits of their products.
Sentence Four:
The cost of running shoes is escalating.
Most people are very selective about the kind of running shoe they buy.
Sentence Five:
Scientists use guinea pigs in their laboratory experiments.
They inject them with a disease.
They observe their behavior.
They dissect them.
They examine the effect of the disease on their organs.
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During class today I’m going to have you open this Google doc that we’ll all be able to edit. I’ll call on certain individuals to share with us your sentences, and we’ll check them over as a group.
Then we’ll practice these together.
For the remainder of the period or by our next class I’d like for you to complete these last five sentence sets. The instructions from above still apply.
Sentence Six:
Michelangelo studied anatomy.
He dissected cadavers.
Such gruesome work helped him understand human bones and muscles.
His sculpture celebrates the human body.
Sentence Seven:
X-rays can penetrate the human body.
They produce images on photographic film.
Shadows on the picture reveal changes in body tissue.
Sentence Eight:
The early history of medicine is filled with guesswork.
Doctors did not know what caused disease.
They developed cures through trial and error.
Most of the cures did not work.
Cures that worked were considered magical.
Sentence Nine:
People went to spas to restore their health.
Most spas were located in beautiful settings.
They featured special mineral waters.
The waters were supposed to purge the body of disease.
These watering spots developed into vacation resorts.
Sentence Ten:
Coronary heart disease is the major cause of death in this country.
Cancer also causes many deaths.
AIDS causes deaths as well.
My grandfather has coronary heart disease.
STOP FOR NOW. WE’ll PICK UP FROM HERE NEXT TIME.
Here is the Google doc for sentences 6-10.
For our next class on Tuesday I’d like you to read Book 19 of the Odyssey. While you’re reading, think about the following:
Why doesn't Odysseus simply tell Penelope who he is? What’s the lesson here?
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welcome to home learning
Dear students,
More than anything I hope you and your families are healthy, safe, comfortable, and able to access essentials during this extraordinary time.
I’m grateful to say that my immediate family and I are doing well and in our new routine, ready to continue for as long as we need. Like you and yours, my family and I have been looking after each other, virtually checking in on extended family, friends, and neighbors in between meals, my own kids’ home schooling, and many board games.
I’d like to hear from you. Send me a message—an e-mail, yes—if you’d like just to tell me how you’re doing. I may not be able to get back to all of you, but I will get back to as many of you as I can. We’ll try to remain in each other’s lives as best and as much as we can. Of course, my restrictions on electronic communication no longer apply, and you should feel most welcome to be in touch whenever you need me, keeping in mind that it will take time for me to get back.
As we now turn to home learning, I’d like to give you some guidelines about how we will proceed. Like I told you in class during our last meeting, we are prepared to extend our classroom to our own spaces in innovative ways. We’re going at this with fresh eyes and open minds. I ask that you be open to trying new things and that you be flexible as always.
Everything you need to know will be on the website, www.kubusenglish.com. I’ve posted my contact information on your course page. There’s also a (helpful) flowchart for how best to get in touch with me. Beginning on Tuesday you may call me whenever you need, Monday through Friday, 9-5. My Google Voice number is 832-479-9238. It goes directly to my cell. I’d prefer this method of contact over e-mail.
To access our virtual classroom at the time when we’d normally meet, simply navigate to zoom.us/join. Enter my classroom number, 640-291-5956. The room may open in a browser or you may be prompted to download the app. You do NOT need to create an account. These instructions are also posted on our course page on my website. Do not begin your first assignments that I’ve begun to post until we meet next week as I still need to add and adapt.
Whether home learning is a bridge to a return to campus in April or the new normal for the rest of the year, we’ll make the best of it and more.
Until Tuesday you have two things to do for homework: (1) Eat pancakes for dinner. (2) Take something off your parents’ to-do list without them knowing.
Best wishes,
Matt Kubus
Home learning week 1 tasks
By our next class (Thursday), please register on the following platforms and read through the information below. For now we’ll start with the following major platforms to facilitate home learning: Peergrade, Kialo, Zoom, and the discussion board on my website.
1. Register on Peergrade. The course code is 7M94ZZ. Please use your full first name, last name, and mail.strakejesuit email.
2. We’re going to try to use Kialo to continue having discussions about our readings. Click this link to create an account on Kialo. You’ll need this for our next class. Please use your full first and last name as your username so that you’re easily recognizable when I monitor the discussion. Please use your mail.strakejesuit email. It’s your responsibility to remember your password. Once you’ve created an account, you’re good to go for now.
3. You’ll see that on my website’s navigation you can access the discussion board where I’ll monitor discussion about various issues in the our readings. Whenever I refer to the discussion board in my instructions, that’s what I’m referring to.
4. As per the new school policy, we’ll begin each scheduled period with a check-in right when the bell would normally signal the beginning of class. We’ll check in using Zoom, which you’ll all very quickly become quite familiar with.
You do not need to create an account, but you will have to download the Zoom app to your device. Then click this link and it will open the room in your default browser. Upon entering the room your microphone will be muted. You can manually unmute when I address you. Otherwise, you should keep your microphone off as the microphone will pick up ambient noise.
Remember we were last working on Tennyson’s poem, “Ulysses”. Below you’ll find images of the poem with my partial annotations. You can click the images to make them larger.
1. Download this PDF version of the poem with my markups. You may need to rotate it. Open the PDF with Notability.
2. Finish annotating where I’ve indicated and bring to our synchronous session on Thursday. As I’ve noted, look for patterns in language and make associations in an effort to determine whether Tennyson’s Ulysses is admirable or despicable. Next time we’ll use our first Kialo discussion.
Lastly, if you’d like to respond to the first English 1 post on the discussion board, you’re more than welcome. I’d like to hear from you with respect to your thoughts in relation to COVID-19. This is OPTIONAL.
STOP FOR NOW. WE’ll PICK UP FROM HERE ON THURSDAY.
Kialo Discussion 1
Now that you’ve finished the Kialo debate, navigate to the discussion board post here to finish your assignment for the day.
STOP FOR NOW. WE’ll PICK UP FROM HERE NEXT TIME.
Complete the following two tasks before our next class:
1. Begin by reading our edition’s selections of Books 17 and 18 in Homer’s Odyssey.
2. Once you’ve finished reading, register in my flipgrid class by clicking this link. Please use your full first and last names, as well as your mail.strakejesuit e-mail. Once registered, click here to make your first video. The prompt is posted in flipgrid.
what's due?
Tuesday, May 5 - Extra Credit Vocabulary Quiz
Friday, May 15 - Final Odyssey Assignment
our virtual classroom code
Each time we’d have a regularly scheduled class, you’ll follow this link and enter code:
640-291-5956
getting in touch with kubus
Click the image to the left to see how to get in contact with Mr. Kubus while we’re learning at home.
Kubus English Hotline:
832-479-9238
Call anytime between 9a and 5p, M-F.
current text to use daily
“In the realm of narrative psychology, a person’s life story is not a Wikipedia biography of the facts and events of a life, but rather the way a person integrates those facts and events internally—picks them apart and weaves them back together to make meaning. This narrative becomes a form of identity, in which the things someone chooses to include in the story, and the way she tells it, can both reflect and shape who she is. A life story doesn’t just say what happened, it says why it was important, what it means for who the person is, for who they’ll become, and for what happens next.”
