Updated weekly with the class agenda and assignments. This blog is for both my 9th and my 10th grade classes — click on the tab for your class below to make sure you are reading the correct posts for your class.
If you would like to get credit for the final, you have until 11:59 PM on Tuesday, May 19 to complete it and submit it to turnitin.com. If you are having trouble with turnitin.com, then you can email it to me at amanda.egbert@cobbk12.org. If you have any questions about the final, please email me or send me a message through Remind.
**PLEASE NOTE - If there are any assignments that you would like to submit, the last day I will accept any work is Wednesday, May 20 by 11:59 PM. This is the LAST day of the semester and I HAVE to have grades submitted by 11:00 AM on Thursday, May 21, so I will not be accepting ANYTHING after May 20th.**
If you don't see a grade for something that you turned in, please send me an email or a Remind message to let me know and I'll check it out as soon as I am able.
As of today, I graded all the Harry Potter assignments that I have received up to this point. If you don't see a grade for something that you turned in, please send me an email or a Remind message to let me know and I'll check it out as soon as I can.
If you would like to get credit for the final, you have until 11:59 PM on Tuesday, May 19 to complete it and submit it to turnitin.com. If you are having trouble with turnitin.com, then you can email it to me at amanda.egbert@cobbk12.org. If you have any questions about the final, please email me or send me a message through Remind.
**PLEASE NOTE - If there are any assignments that you would like to submit, the last day I will accept any work is Wednesday, May 20 by 11:59 PM. This is the LAST day of the semester and I HAVE to have grades submitted by 11:00 AM on Thursday, May 21, so I will not be accepting ANYTHING after May 20th.**
After completing all the tasks, Harry finds himself face-to-face with danger. But is it who he expected? Today you'll be reading the final chapter in this installment, and you'll see how the school year wraps up for our friends at Hogwarts.
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
You have until 11:59 PM on Tuesday, May 19 to complete your OPTIONAL final and submit it to turnitin.com. If you are having trouble with turnitin.com, then you can email it to me at amanda.egbert@cobbk12.org. REMEMBER THIS IS OPTIONAL AND IF YOU CHOOSE TO COMPLETE THE FINAL, IT WILL ONLY HELP YOUR GRADE. If you have any questions about the final, please email me or send me a message through Remind.
As always, I am available via email and through Remind. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need me. 😊
As of today, I have updated the gradebook with all missing assignments I received. If you don't see a grade for something that you turned in, please send me an email or a Remind message to let me know and I'll check it out as soon as I can.
On Wednesday, I will grade and enter in last week's Harry Potter assignments for Chapters 11-14.
The final for this class will be posted on the blog this Thursday, May 14. You will have until 11:59 PM on Tuesday, May 19 to complete and turn in your final.
**PLEASE NOTE - If there are any assignments that you would like to submit, the last day I will accept any work is Wednesday, May 20 by 11:59 PM. This is the LAST day of the semester and I HAVE to have grades submitted by 11:00 AM on Thursday, May 21, so I will not be accepting ANYTHING after May 20th.**
In today's chapter, the students of Hogwarts are taking their final exams. However, in addition to worrying about their grades, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are also worrying about the fate of the Sorcerer's Stone that's down the third flood corridor. Is Snape getting ready to enact his plan to steal it? Can they do anything to stop him?
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
Good morning! **PLEASE NOTE - If there are any assignments that you would like to submit, the last day I will accept any work is Wednesday, May 20 by 11:59 PM. This is the LAST day of the semester and I HAVE to have grades submitted by 11:00 AM on Thursday, May 21, so I will not be accepting ANYTHING after May 20th.**
We are fast approaching the end of the book and the end of our semester. In today's chapter, Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Malfoy face the consequences of sneaking around the castle at night during their detention in the Forbidden Forest that is normally off-bounds to students.
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
Good morning! I'm sorry the blog post didn't go up yesterday. The Chapter 13 assignment from yesterday is posted below along with the Chapter 14 assignment for today.
I added a 11 assignments to the gradebook last night. Today, I'm going to work on grading missing assignments that were submitted to me over the past couple of weeks. Here's an update on grading:
**PLEASE NOTE - If there are any assignments that you would like to submit, the last day I will accept any work is Wednesday, May 20 by 11:59 PM. This is the LAST day of the semester, so I will not be accepting ANYTHING after May 20th.**
Hermione and the rest of the school is back from the holidays, but the trio is still not any closer to knowing who Nicolas Flamel is. They'll start getting some answers and Harry is also going to play in his second Quidditch match in Chapter 13. As you read, you're going to take through both the Historical and Psychological Lenses to enhance your understanding of the chapter.
In Chapter 14, the trio want answers and they're not going to stop until they get them from Hargid. But it turns out that Hagrid has been hiding quite a few things from them... You will be looking at this chapter through the Psychological Lens.
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
Good morning! Here's what our calendar for the rest of the semester looks like. Again, I'm working on grading Harry Potter assignments from April 13-May 1 this week. They will be in the gradebook by tomorrow (May 8). I will also have any make-up work sent to me by May 4 (Monday) in the gradebook tomorrow.
**PLEASE NOTE - If there are any assignments that you would like to submit, the last day I will accept any work is Wednesday, May 20 by 11:59 PM. This is the LAST day of the semester, so I will not be accepting ANYTHING after May 20th.**
Hermione and the rest of the school is back from the holidays, but the trio is still not any closer to knowing who Nicolas Flamel is. They'll start getting some answers and Harry is also going to play in his second Quidditch match in today's chapter. As you read, you're going to take through both the Historical and Psychological Lenses to enhance your understanding of the chapter.
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
Good morning! Here's what our calendar for the rest of the semester looks like. Again, I'm working on grading Harry Potter assignments from April 13-May 1 this week. They will be in the gradebook by Friday (May 8). I will also have any make-up work sent to me by May 4 (yesterday) in the gradebook by this Friday.
**PLEASE NOTE - If there are any assignments that you would like to submit, the last day I will accept any work is Wednesday, May 20 by 11:59 PM. This is the LAST day of the semester, so I will not be accepting ANYTHING after May 20th.**
It's Christmastime at Hogwarts and Harry's getting ready to spend the holiday in the castle with Ron, looking for any information they can find about the mysterious Nicolas Flamel. Instead, he finds something completely unexpected in one of the empty classrooms during his explorations.
Today, we're going to take a look at both the Psychological and the Reader Response Lenses while reading and dissecting this chapter.
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
We are officially in our first full week of May, which means that our crazy, weird school year is almost over. This week and next week, we're going to work on finishing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and then, if you choose to take it, there will be a final exam assignment (I'm still working out the details of this, but it will most likely be reading a passage and writing a short essay based on the passage). Here's what our calendar for the rest of the semester looks like:
Class Calendar: I am almost caught up on grading. My internet provider was not on my good list last week. 😪 This week, I am hoping to power through grading all the Harry Potter Assignments up to the end of last week (May 1), so that that gradebook will truly reflect what you have in class. As I began putting in grades for assignments last week, I also got many emails with make-up work - I will try to get to these as soon as I can, but please be patient with me as I work to get everything into the gradebook. **PLEASE NOTE - If there are any assignments that you would like to submit, the last day I will accept any work is Wednesday, May 20 by 11:59 PM. This is the LAST day of the semester, so I will not be accepting ANYTHING after May 20th.**
O-kay. With all that out of the way, let's continue with our reading.
Now that Harry, Ron, and Hermione have gotten past their rocky start and forged the beginnings of a strong friendship, there's obviously going to be some trials that they all have to face together. In today's chapter, Harry plays in his first Quidditch match in front of the entire school, but it also seems like someone might be using the Force (or you know, magic?) to knock Harry off his broom! Oh no! 😱😱
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
Harry has faced his first few obstacles along his hero's journey, but what's in store for him as his year continues at Hogwarts? What's up with the giant three-headed dog in the third floor corridor? And why can't he stop thinking about that package from vault seven hundred and thirteen? In our next chapter, Harry faces yet another obstacle on Halloween night. Again, for today, you're going to be returning to the Reader Response lens from the beginning of our novel study and think about how you would feel in the same situation.
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
You will need to log into your Office365 account in order to complete the form because you will be uploading a picture file. Email me or send me a Remind if you have problems logging in. Hopefully, everyone will be able to login today, but please let me know if you are having trouble with your account.
As always, I am available via email and through Remind. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need me. 😊
In our chapter from Tuesday, Harry started his school year (kind of crazy to think about since we're nearing the end to ours right now!). Today, we're going to get an introduction to a few more of his magical subjects and witness the growing rivalry between Harry and the Slytherin first-years, lead by Draco Malfoy. We're also going to get our first glimpse of the third floor corridor that Dumbledore warned the students about during the opening feast. Again, we're going to be looking through the Historical Lens to learn more about some of the allusions that J.K. Rowling includes in her novel.
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
Now that we're all sorted into our Hogwarts houses (I'm a proud Ravenclaw btw 🤓, but I feel like Hufflepuff would also be a good fit), we're going to see what this Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is all about and what's in store for Harry as he begins his lessons. To help us learn even more about the topic of magic, though, we're also going to take a look the history of witches through the Historical Lens.
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
Read the chapter slowly and deliberately and think about the questions above while reading.
As always, I am available via email and through Remind. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need me. 😊
As a bonus for today: here's a picture of my husband and me in our Hogwarts uniforms that a group of my friends and I designed and sewed from scratch! (Yes, we're both gigantic nerds 🤓🤓)
Happy Monday, everyone! I think Office365 might have been having some problems on Friday, so we're going to use today as a catch-up day instead of starting a new lens and reading the next chapter.
Look back over last week's blog posts and fill out any forms you missed (the forms for each chapter are also linked below). Since you aren't uploading files like you did for the first two Reader Response forms for Chapter 1 and Chapters 2+3, I have adjusted the settings so that you will not need to log into your Office365 account in order to submit the form - hopefully this helps, but please let me know if you are still having trouble.
I have finished putting grades for Unit 13 Vocab work and quizzes into the gradebook. If you did not do the Unit 13 Vocab work and would like to do it, please let me know (through email or Remind), and I will reassign the work through the Vocab website.
Today and tomorrow, I will be working on grading the final bit of work that was turned in prior to Spring Break, and my goal is to be current with all grades (including work completed after Spring Break) by this Friday. Thank you everyone for your patience as I work to get these grades in. :)
TO DO FOR MONDAY, APRIL 27:
Catch up on reading - read to the end of Chapter 7
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
Harry and the rest of the first years have just arrived at Hogwarts. As Hagrid leads the way to the magical castle, the new students are brimming with excitement and nerves over the house they will be sorted into for the next seven years of their lives while they are in school at Hogwarts.
Today, as you read Chapter 7, we're going to see some of the emotions Harry is feeling and the thoughts that are going through his mind during the Sorting Ceremony. As you read, you're going to return back to the Reader Response lens from last week and think about how you would feel in the same situation.
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
Read the chapter slowly and deliberately and think about the questions above while reading.
You will need to log into your Office365 account in order to complete the form. Email me or send me a Remind if you have problems logging in. (This seemed to work for people yesterday.)
As always, I am available via email and through Remind. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need me. 😊
In Tuesday's chapter, Harry got his supplies for school, and in today's chapter, he's on his way to his brand new school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! As he gets ready to board the Hogwarts Express, Harry is crossing over the threshold from what he knows to a world completely new and unknown to him just like Odysseus in The Odyssey (for my 9th graders) and Gilgamesh and Beowulf (for my 10th graders), so it's about time that he starts meeting some friends (or sidekicks) who are going to help him through his journey.
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
Read the chapter slowly and deliberately and think about the questions above while reading.
You will need to log into your Office365 account in order to complete the form. Email me or send me a Remind if you have problems logging in. (This seemed to work for people yesterday.)
As always, I am available via email and through Remind. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need me. 😊
As a reminder, my internet provider is working on updating their network today, and I might have trouble connecting to the internet today. I will respond to emails and Reminds as soon as I can, but please remember that I do not respond to emails after 4 PM.
In our chapter from yesterday, Harry finally got his letter and one of the biggest surprises. Today, he's going to get an even bigger surprise by stepping into the Wizarding World for the first time. We're going to continue working on the Psychological lens, but for Chapter 5, we're going to zoom in on Harry to try to get a better understanding of what he's feeling about and how he's reacting to all of the new things around him. (More information about the Psychological Lens is on yesterday's blog post if you missed it.)
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
Read the chapter slowly and deliberately and think about the questions above while reading.
You will need to log into your Office365 account in order to complete the form. Email me or send me a Remind if you have problems logging in. (This seemed to work for people yesterday.)
As always, I am available via email and through Remind. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need me. 😊
Last week, as you began reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, you learned a little about the characters and began making connections to them, but we're left with some questions: Who keeps sending all these letters to Harry? Why do they want to contact him so badly? What do these letters say? Why are the Dursleys reacting to the letters in this way? And, maybe most importantly, who the heck is knocking at the door?!
Well... today, we're going to start getting the answers to some of those questions. We're also going to learn about our next literary lens that we'll be using while reading the next few chapters: the Psychological lens.
With the Reader Response lens we used last week, we made connections with characters and/or events in the chapters and saw how our lives related to what was going on in the novel. With the Psychological lens, we're going to take a step back from making connections and relating to characters/events and take a close look at the emotions that characters are feeling throughout the chapter.
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
Read the chapter slowly and deliberately and think about the questions above while reading.
You will need to log into your Office365 account in order to complete the form. Email me or send me a Remind if you have problems logging in. (This seemed to work for people yesterday.)
As always, I am available via email and through Remind. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need me. 😊
Finally, I would like to apologize for not replying back to emails on Friday. The internet was out at my house for most of the day and did not come back until late in the evening. I will be replying back to emails in the order that I received them while also trying to get a few more assignments from before Spring Break added into the gradebook. As a heads-up, I was notified that my internet provider is going to be working on network updates during the day again on Tuesday. A blog post is still scheduled to go live tomorrow morning, but I might not have access to the internet throughout the day again on Tuesday. I just wanted to let y'all know just in case I am unable to respond back right away. :)
Since today is Friday, I'm not going to introduce a new literary lens for the chapters I am asking you to read today. In the next two chapters of the novel, the exposition is continuing to build as we learn more about the baby that was left on the Dursleys' doorstep. We are going to continue looking at Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 through the Reader Response lens because the personal connections that we make with the text right now are going to help us think more critically about later chapters and, hopefully, they will also add to our enjoyment of this story as we continue reading! (More information about the Readers Response Lens is on yesterday's blog post if you missed it.)
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
Read the chapter slowly and deliberately and think about the questions above & your reaction and connection to the work.
You will need to log into your Office365 account in order to complete the form. Email me or send me a Remind if you have problems logging in. (This seemed to work for people yesterday.)
As always, I am available via email and through Remind. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need me. 😊
Today we are going to be entering into the world of Harry Potter through a quiet little road called Privet Drive. As we read, we're going to be looking at the novel from different perspectives through things called "literary lenses" to guide us through our critical reading of the text.
In the video from Monday, John Green discussed Critical Reading, and the next few images build on that idea and set up how we're going to approach our novel study for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
If this sounds complicated, I promise it's not! Basically: we're just going to take a look some different ways to read. The first lens that we're going to be pulling out of our toolbox is the reader response lens. This lens, like many of the other lenses, has a pretty simple definition.
Note: The audiobook is for the British version of the book, so the title is different and some words might be different if you are following along on the PDF. However, Stephen Fry (the narrator) is an amazing reader, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.
Read the chapter slowly and deliberately and think about the questions above & your reaction and connection to the work.
You will need to log into your Office365 account in order to complete the form. Email me or send me a Remind if you have problems logging in. (I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that this will work the way I want it to. 🤞🤞)
Finally, I wanted to share an update on grades. I added some assignments to the gradebook over the past few days. Here are the assignments I've graded and the ones that are still on my to do list. I'm hoping to have all of the assignments from before Spring Break in the gradebook by next week Wednesday, but thank you again for your patience!
As always, I am available via email and through Remind. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need me. 😊
It was so good to hear from everyone who filled out the form yesterday, and I was excited to see the breakdown of everyone's experience with Harry Potter. As you can see from the graph below, we're split about half way between people who have read some of the Harry Potter books and people who have not read them. Whether you're rereading the book again for the billionth time or picking it up for the first, I am so excited to share this adventure with you all!
We will begin reading the novel on Thursday (remember: I will not be posting anything on the blog tomorrow), but today we're going to do an intro activity to set the stage, which reminds me... some owls delivered this to my house over Spring Break 😉:
TO DO FOR TUESDAY, APRIL 14:
Complete the Pre-Reading Stations on this form. There are 4 stations and each station should take you 5-10 minutes to complete. Make sure you read the prompts and write your answers in complete sentences!
As always, I am available via email and through Remind. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need me. 😊
I hope you all enjoyed the week off from work - I know that I definitely benefited from the break! As I mentioned before Spring Break, I will still post content and assignments on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. I will not be posting anything on Wednesdays, but I will use Wednesdays to work on grading assignments from the previous week.
This week, I will begin updating grades for any work that you completed after March 13th. Even if you have told me that you are content with your March 13th grade, I will grade all of the work that you turned in during the past three weeks of distance learning. As a reminder: any work you submitted after March 13th can only improve your grade - it cannot lower it. I will attempt to get grades for work done prior to Spring Break in the gradebook as soon as I can, but please be patient with me in getting those assignments graded and entered.
Another big change that I am making is that from this point forward we will be working on the same content across both my 9th and my 10th grade classes. In this difficult, stressful, challenging time, many of us are looking for an escape. We can find that in movies, in TV shows, in music, in video games, in spending time with our family and friends (safely and virtually!), and (as your friendly neighborhood English teacher feels the need to point out) in books. For the next few weeks, we are going to be taking a step back from reality and diving into a world of fantasy as we explore one of my favorite books, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Even if you are satisfied with your grade in my class or even if you have watched the movie and thought that Harry Potter wasn't your thing, I would like to invite you to step inside the walls of Hogwarts with me, and I hope you will find comfort in its halls as I have done time and time again.
One last note before I get into today's assignment: you do NOT need to purchase a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I will provide you with a PDF of the novel, and the audiobook is currently available for free on Audible (you don't even have to sign up for an account!).
As always, I am available via email and through Remind. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need me.
For your assignment today, we're getting back to the basics with a look at why we, as humans, read. John Green has an excellent video where he explains this and we will return to some of the ideas he expresses throughout our unit as we think critically about what we have read. TO DO FOR MONDAY, APRIL 13:
