ward's world

welcome
Welcome to room 217! This is our public online space to share ideas, collaborate on projects, and reflect on the themes of our course. We use this online space to share out and connect with our parents and community members around all that we are learning in our classroom. Students will also access our daily agendas, coursework, and readings on our Google Classroom space via their GHS login credentials.

Overall, this site should help us reflect on the themes course, celebrate our accomplishments, and streamline how we learn and share information.

your teacher
An interest in helping young people discover and define their writing voice and reading interests drives Ms. Jennifer Ward to cultivate a student-centered learning environment, one that supports individual learning goals and incorporates purposeful use of technology. In March 2017, Ms. Ward was named teacher of the month by Michigan's 86th district state representative, Thomas Albert. In March 2016, she was named a TED-Ed Innovative Educator and is also a Google Certified Innovator, National Writing Project Consultant, and a 2014 PASCD Emerging Leader. Ms. Ward taught for 13 years in a Philadelphia suburban district and returned to her home state in 2015.

The 2022-23 school year is Ms. Ward's sixth year as a Grandville Bulldog. Ms. Ward teaches 10th grade honors American literature as well as 10th grade Composition Through American Literature courses. She is also the faculty advisor for the Knit Wits (our GHS knitting club), the GHS Writing Club, and the Political Action club. She also serves as the coordinator for the GHS Seminar MIproject program.

ms. ward

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social contract:

to be successful:

Ms. Ward's students and their parents can sign up to receive a daily text message of our homework by clicking on the appropriate class below:

Respect-

When you interact with others either in class or online, it is important to be respectful; be respectful of other people and respect yourself. This means that personal attacks, inappropriate language and content, insults and harassment of any kind are strictly forbidden. Our digital classroom spaces are an extension of our physical classroom. Ask yourself if your comments would be acceptable in our physical classroom setting.

Rigor-

Before posting a comment, question, or blog entry, ask yourself, "will this forward the discussion we are having?" Your thoughts and ideas should be supported, and you should be using specific details to illustrate your ideas. Your posts should build on the discussion by responding to comments other students have made on a particular subject.

Grit-

Grit is one of those words that you hear quite a bit at Grandville High. Grit is the willingness to persevere in the face of initial difficulties. This will be important in our course as well. Indeed, many of the readings and exercises have been selected precisely because of the particular difficulties they present to the student reader. Successful students will develop the ability to work through the following steps more or less independently:
- acknowledge that the difficulty exists;
- formulate the question which will allow the difficulty to be approached;
- think through as many possible answers to the questions as they can;
- bring the question and the most likely answers to class to share them;
- listen and evaluate the comments of other students about the issue at hand; and
- reconsider and reformulate their own ideas based on what they have heard.

what we're working on:

10th GRADE HONORS AMERICAN LITERATURE (2nd, 3rd, and 4th hours)

UNIT 1: Introduction to American Literature
Americans have spent a great deal of time arguing about what it means to be an American, who should be called American, and what exactly Americans should value. As we listen to all the noise around us, perhaps now is a good time to go back in history to our earliest days as a nation and reconsider how we define an American. Before we had a strong national identity, before we even had a nation, we were inventing an identity that would define the people who lived here and the people destined to arrive later. Through a variety of writings we will explore how the American identity has been shaped by religious, social, political, and economic forces, and how it continues to be refined and redefined. This short unit should answer some of your questions, but hopefully it will prompt even more. We don’t have all the answers, nor did our earliest founders, nor do any politicians, parents, or pastors. But together we’ll come up with a working definition that should carry us into the rest of our studies of American Literature.

Unit Learning Targets:

I can analyze an author’s words and determine multiple pieces of textual evidence that strongly and thoroughly support responses to both explicit and inferential questions.
I can analyze how specific details developed over the course of a text shape and refine a central idea.
I can employ close reading skills to identify a writer’s subject, occasion, audience, and purpose for writing a particular text.
I can respond to a prompt with a claim that clearly states your position on another author’s characterization of what it means to be American.
I can use apt and specific evidence to support my point(s).
I can demonstrate an understanding of the social, economic, and/or political forces shaping the American identity.
I can properly incorporate and punctuate the words/ideas of other authors.
I can demonstrate faithfulness to the writing process by articulating how writing conferences impacted revision.

10th GRADE COMPOSITION THROUGH AMERICAN LITERATURE (CTAL 10)
(5th and 6th hours)

UNIT 1: Narratives of America
Voice matters. It is how we share ourselves with the world. What stories do we share? How do our stories define us? Our stories help us build relationships. If you want to convince someone, change someone’s opinion, connect with someone, you need to be able to share your story. So, how do you tell a compelling story about your life? How does each person’s story contribute to the larger narrative of United States history?

Students will begin by defining what it means to be American. Then they will begin to consider the idea that the identity and history of the United States is the product of a multitude of individual perspectives, voices, and choices. By understanding their own identities and the stories about how they and their families arrived at this moment in this place, they can begin to understand how they both contribute to and are affected by the larger history of the country. By the close of this unit, students will have read and analyzed texts foundational to our country’s history as well as contemporary narratives that will help us better understand the variety of American voices. The texts in this unit along with our independent reading will serve as mentors and models for our summative writing pieces, a narrative essay exploring moments that have shaped our identities.

Unit Learning Targets:

I can analyze how specific details developed over the course of a text shape and refine a central idea.
I can create my own, clearly organized, personal narrative using accurate details.
I can use techniques such as dialogue, event pacing, vivid description, and plot lines to develop the experience, event and/or character within my narrative.
I can create a vivid picture of my experience, event, setting and/or character in the reader’s mind by using vivid verbs, sensory language and descriptive details.
I can include a life-changing realization or life lesson as a result of the experience in my narrative.
I can demonstrate an understanding of the social, economic, and/or political forces shaping the American identity.
I can demonstrate faithfulness to the writing process by articulating how writing conferences impacted revision.

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