Tuesday

 Today I will be taking volunteers, or randomly choosing from a bucket, people to present essays to class.

Hopefully you are ready.

We will be moving on to TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD later this week/next week.

Unit Learning goal:

Students will demonstrate an understand of one the main concept of the novel by producing 

a final project (PowerPoint, Film, Presentation) that incorporates a 1-page essay that explains 

how a main concept works in the novel and using specific examples to backs up the students ideas.

Main Concepts:

Does the American law guarantee justice for all?

How does personal experience contribute to prejudice?

How do our preconceptions influence our sense of justice?

Can a hero have both good and bad qualities?

Scale/Rubric relating to learning goal:

4 – The student can produce a project that explores and demonstrates in-depth understanding 

of a main concept in the novel and/or connects two of more of these concepts together.

3 – The student can produce a project that demonstrates an understanding of a main concept 

and how it works in the novel.

2 – With some direction/help from the teacher the student can produce a project that 

demonstrates an understanding of a main concept and how it works in the novel.

1 – Even with help from the teacher the student is unable to produce a project that

 demonstrates an understanding of a main concept and how it works in the novel.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD Objectives (smaller chunks of overall goal) and suggested time periods Students will be able to Explain how the following themes work in the novel: The meaning of duty; How prejudice works in society; The meaning of courage Discuss the meaning of the following symbol: mockingbirds, the knot-hole, the mad dog Keep a reading journal – which includes character development, allusions, symbols, questions about the meaning of justice or how prejudice works Discuss how the author’s life and times influences the novel. Outline the plot and discuss why the author may how chosen to structure the novel how she did. Discuss how Scout grows during the novel and why the novel can be considered a Bildungsroman. Keep a detailed list of characters recording important details about them as the student reads (starting with chapter 1)  Explain – why you never really understand a person until you… (Point of View Exercise)  In a group write testimonies and recreate the courtroom scene from the novel 10) Keep a list of the various types of prejudices that occur in the novel 11) Discuss how setting is important to this novel. 12) Discuss how the Civil War references/allusions work in the overall meaning of the novel. RESOURCES: COURSE HERO: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz_ZtyOWL9BQgJalCAcWhmLgLtO-1GqQp

 

Thursday

I will be taking volunteers to perform their essays today.

 

Wednesday

  Today you should be finishing your essays. Once you finish them, and I check them off, you need to put them on note cards and begin to practice reading them.

 

ORAL RUBRIC

 

Criteria	Exceeds Standard (4)	Meets Standard (3)	Needs Improvement (2)
Volume: How well you can be heard	Voice is loud and clear without the student yelling.  All words are heard.  Student projects words from their diaphragm.	Voice is loud throughout most of presentation.  One or more words might be lost because of projection of volume, but the idea is still clear.	Voice fades in places so that the listener loses or misses parts of the presentation, or parts of the idea
Pronunciation: How well you say all your words	Words are pronounced perfectly and sentences flow off of tongue	The speaker trips in one or two places either in the pronunciation of a word or in reading a sentence.  The presentation is effected only slightly by the mistakes.	The speaker trips in quite a few places.  The presentation is effected more than slightly by the mistakes.   Mistakes either make the presentation hard to listen to or cloud the ideas of the writing
Tone: Do you vary how you say your sentences	Speaker as Actor:  The speaker’s delivery makes the writing come alive by giving it emotion, character, emphasis, by breathing life into it	Speaker varies most of sentences to express emotion or to emphasis importance of parts, but there are still places when the speaker spoke in a lifeless monotone	Speaker speaks in a monotone that reveals no emotion or does not emphasis any importance on any idea
UHMS or AHS	NONE	1 or 2 but the uhms or ahs do not distract the presentation	3 or more uhms or ahs
Eye Contact: do you look at your audience	The speaker made a point to look at everyone in the room and rarely looked as if they were reading from a paper	Some eye contact is made, but mostly the presenter read off of his or her paper	Little or no eye contact.

 

Expository Essay Rubric

	Thesis	Organization	Evidence (Concrete Details)	Analysis (Commentary)	Style/Audience	Conventions
4	The thesis statement is clear, well-developed and relevant to the topic.  It is engaging.	Transitions within and between paragraphs flow smoothly	There are three well chosen, concrete details/evidence from the text in each paragraph. ** The concrete details support the thesis	All commentary synthesizes and supports the thesis statement. **	The style is engaging and effective	The essay contains few if any errors in the conventions* of the English language
3	The thesis statement is clear and relevant to the topic	There structure within paragraphs is easy to follow	There are two to three details from the text.  The details support the thesis.	Some or most of the commentary explains concrete details and supports the thesis	The style is appropriate for an academic paper	The essay contains some errors in the conventions of the English language.  Errors do not interfere with the reader’s understanding of the essay.
2	The thesis is not relevant to topic or is not clear	The essay is missing an introduction, body or concluding paragraph	There are some concrete details.	Commentary is either unclear or irrelevant and does not support the thesis	They style is sometimes appropriate for an academic paper.	The essay contains several errors in the conventions of the English language.
1	No Thesis	Little organization.	No concrete details	No commentary	Style is not appropriate for an academic paper.

 

Tuesday

 Today you should be finishing your essays. Once you finish them, and I check them off, you need to put them on note cards and begin to practice reading them.

MONDAY

 Today we will continue working on essays.

I would like to go over works cited page one last time and conclusions.

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html

Friday

 Today we will be going over in-text citations one more time and then giving you time to work on your essays. If you are done with your essays and I have said that you are done please go get some note cards from the office and begin printing out your essay and putting it on note cards.

In-text citation.

1) All you need is the authors last night (Fielding)

2) If you do not have an author put the first three words of the title or the website followed by ... ("The Little Boy..."). Titles of articles or webpages are in quotations titles of books or websites are in italics.

3) No matter if you are summarizing information or quoting information you need to cite the source if it is not your original thought.

Remember you can use Purdue Owl at https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html

Thursday

 Today we are going to discuss MLA works cited page and then give you some time to write.

MLA

1) Last Name/First Name of Author
2) Title of article or title of webpage
3) Title of book or website
4) Place of publication
5) Publisher
6) Date of publication
7) Page number
8) Source of publication (example: Web, Print, DVD, etc)
9) (Internet) Date of access.

"Everybody Behaves Badly: The True Story Behind Ernest Hemingway's Masterpiece The Sun Also Rises," YouTube, October 20, 2016, www.youtube.com/watch? v=cBPPAbn2d34

How to be a Successful Salesperson

There are two types of people in this world: followers and leaders. As a salesperson it is your job to be a leader. If you are a master at sales you should be able to read your customer and weave a story about your product to fit their amusement so enticing that they believe it was their personal idea and they cannot live without that product. As Lau Tzu, an ancient Chinese philosopher of Taoism, stated “The best leaders are those their people hardly know exist.”.

            To bring the sale to a close and have a enjoyable experience for both you and your customer you must do five simple steps.

Dress Appropriately. This is common sense for most people, but others will struggle with this idea. Here is some motivation: according to Business Insider first impressions are formed within seven to seventeen seconds of meeting someone and fifty five percent of a person’s opinion is determined by physical appearance. The way you dress could well be the deal breaker between the two thousand dollar sale and a walk out the door.

Have good body posture. If you are slouching over a display case or slinking around the floor you will not exude confidence. Customers will catch onto this and will be less likely to follow you or trust you. During face to face meetings, 93% of people's judgments of others are based on non-verbal input like body language. How you stand, sit, and shake hands communicates a lot more than what you say. Eye contact is included in this. To build a trusting relationship with another person your eyes should connect about 70 to 80% of the time. This shows your customer two things. First: that you are listening to their story and what they wish. Second: that you like them. While you should make eye contact, do not stare, or excessively blink. Too much blinking is suspicious. Adults normally blink around 15 to 20 times per minute. When under pressure, or stressed, blinking increases (Bill Clinton’s blink rate during his deposition was at 92 blinks per minute)

Greet and read the customer. In order to welcome the client a general “Hello” or “Welcome to (enter store name here)” will suffice. This instantly tells the purchaser that you are there to help them. You are essentially their waiter/host while they are in the gallery. Next, figure out for whom they are shopping for by asking leading questions such as “what brings you to Kirmse’s?” or more directly “Who are you shopping for and how can I help?” By asking questions such as these you learn what type of customer they are. There are essentially four different types of purchasers.

The first, buys for others. If they are shopping for their ten year old daughter who is likely to lose her bracelet in a couple of weeks then gain their trust by steering them to a less expensive item so that they are more willing to buy it. If a customer is shopping for their significant other you can deliver your own expert advice about pricier pieces: this added knowledge will often sway their opinions about the product. There has been many a time that I have been forced to choose a necklace to surprise someone’s fiancé.

The second, buys for themselves. These people are some of the easiest to sell to because they know their taste and they know their budget. All you have to do is wait it out, present all of the pieces, listen, and be pleasant. Remember though that customers usually lie about their budget and will typically spend a bit more than they state if they are taken by the piece.

The third, waits for others who are shopping. If you get stuck with the elderly gentleman that simply wants to know your life story as his wife shops find him a stool and like an ex-couple politely, but firmly, move on. You do not need to babysit him. In fact he will probably be happier now that he can simply sit and wait rather than have to maintain conversation. UNLESS you have no other customers to attend to…..  then keep him happy so his wife is comfortable shopping for a long time, knowing that he is engaged and content) It’s a truly skilled saleswoman who manages to take coin from the waiting husband.   

The fourth, “just looking”. There is no “just looking” person. They entered your store for a reason. Subconsciously they are there to buy something. It is your job to continue to ask leading questions until you find that one person they forgot to get a gift for, or the birthday that they forgot.

Present the product. In order to give off all of the superb qualities of your product you must truly believe in it. Make sure that you believe 100% in your product. People either follow leaders or are leaders. Make sure that they are following you. If there is any hesitancy or dishonesty in your sales pitch customers will sniff it out like a dog to meat and will instantly jump off your bandwagon. Furthermore, The customer is NOT always right. Often times customers will tell you that they know everything there is to know about your product and that you are selling something fake or too expensive. Although they may be an expert on that type of thing; you are an expert on your merchandise. One time I was taking care of a lady who was trying on a pair of Amber earrings. She clearly adored them, and also clearly wished for a discount. After several hours of requesting for a cut in the price I finally gave her the last NO. She went on to say that, as an avid Amber collector, she recognized these earrings as pseudo-Amber and again demanded a discount. I remained calm and professional, and held my ground that they were true Amber, and eventually she bought them at full price. 

Take it to the cash register. Once your client has found a couple of items that they like begin to lead them to a “close”. You might say “would you like me to set these over by the counter as you continue to look around?” or “Will you be paying cash or using a credit card?” this brings up the idea that they will actually be making the purchase rather than just ogling and drooling over the items.  

            If done correctly, you and the customer should have an enjoyable experience. No one should have to feel bullied or bullied into a sale. In the end customers  will be appreciative of your expert guidance and the knowledge they’ve gained. They will then leave your store with their purchase, and good words on their lips to spread your excellent reputation 

-- Al Weber