Author Archives: Rob Durham

Google Classroom

It looks like a majority of the material will be uploaded to Google Classroom instead of being posted on here.  It’s helpful to check both, but I’m putting the PPTs and other materials there first.

If you need your class’s code, it’s still on the side board in my room.

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Welcome

Welcome to the official page of Mr. Durham’s 10th grade language arts class.  Here you can find tips, videos we watched in class, things you missed if you were absent, due dates, and other helpful information about the class.  Please visit regularly and feel free to leave comments or questions.  You may have to create a username, but it will be worth it for this year.

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Classroom

First hour who was taking AP test this morning–check classroom for the worksheet we did and other stuff.  (You only need to do part 2 and part 4.)

Also, AP meetings for Lang and Lit:

–Mon., May 16th, 3:15 PM in the Library OR

–Tues., May 17, 7:45 in the Writing Center

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Tuesday’s Lesson

Quiz tomorrow and a lot of you have to miss a little class time due to scheduling–so here goes:

alliteration—Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words.

assonance—repetition of vowel sounds within words near each other.

consonance—repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the middle or end of words.

onomatopoeia—Words that are sounds.  (Mooo, bang, etc.)

Allusion—Figure of speech that refers to a place, event, literary work, myth, famous person, or work of art, either directly or by implication.

Example, Labels want my name beside the X like Malcom.   –Drake

Biblical Allusion –refers to something from the Bible.

“He was a Good Samaritan yesterday when he helped the lady start her car.”   Or…

“As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I take a look at my life and realize there’s none left.”   –Coolio, Gangsta’s Paradise referring to Psalm 23.

 

Mythical Allusion—Anything referring to mythology.

“Chocolate was her Achilles’ heel.”

Or “She looked like a Cyclops!”

 

Literary Allusion—Refers to something from literature.

“You shoot arrows like Katniss!” (Katniss was the protagonist from The Hunger Games)

Shakespearean Allusion—Alludes to a work by Shakespeare. Ex. He was quite the Romeo when it came to romance.

Ultimate song of Allusions is called “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel.

Practice:

 

Choose between alliteration, assonance, or consonance for the underlined choices below.

________________________1. Quentin quietly quacked at the ducks.

________________________2. Go throw a bone to the dog below.

________________________3. “The lid had seeds on it,” said Dad.

________________________4. The whole pill feels like it swelled in my mouth.

  1. Write a sentence showing an example of assonance. Underline the words that use assonance.

 

Directions: Decide which sound device is underlined in the following sentences. Write alliteration, consonance, or assonance in the blank.

____________________1. She only eats three meals a day and never snacks.

____________________2. After a long wait, the little batter stepped up to the plate.

____________________3. Verne filled his inner void of not being heard by voting.

____________________4. You too can hold your breath until you are blue.

 

  1. Write a sentence with assonance. Underline the words that have assonance in your sentence.
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Attention editors!

First of all, thank you so much for your hard work on this upcoming assignment.  I’ve changed a few people last-minute (that group of 7 for Marky’s story has been reduced because I needed some elsewhere), so use the story that was sent to you.  Be sure you’re in “suggesting” mode.  Click that little pen in the top right and make that green for suggestions only.

Focus on punctuation.  That’s the main goal of this.  Other than verb tense and forgotten words/typos, there shouldn’t be a lot of rephrasing.  Dialogue is the main problem so if you need help GO HERE.

Remember, we’re NOT indenting paragraphs.  They still exist, but do not indent them and do not add any extra spaces between paragraphs.

If you have comments about the story (which I imagine you will), please save them all for the end.  Do not make any smart-*** remarks because at some point you may have face to face contact with this student.  Remember how it feels to put your work out there.  I’ll admit that not all of them have put in 100% effort, but you must assume they have.  This is a very important job that I’m trusting you with and as a result, your name will be appear on Amazon under their book’s listing.  Do your best!

If you finish early, please help with another group.  This is a team effort and I’m grading the class as a whole.

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Where have the posts been?

Sorry–Things have been moved mostly over to Google Classroom.  There you can find handouts, announcements, and even assignments.  I’ll keep posting here for major things or if we have snow days, but for the most part everyone’s been showing up every day (which is great!).  Those who are absent have been emailing me to catch up.

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Keep researching

By now you should have your researched several ideas and narrowed things down.  Remember, we need to know what is causing America to be so unhealthy.  So if you pick a disease, like diabetes for example, find some CDs as to what’s making the rate increase in America and what can be done about it.

If it’s a mental health issue like anxiety–why has it increased recently, and what can be done about it?

Want to blame fast food?  Give me raw data about what the industry is doing and what changes need to be made.

Teen suicide?  Has it increased?  What do the sources say is causing the increase?   What in our society is causing the increase?  What can be done to change that.

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