Journals
"Keep a journal and someday your journal will keep you."
                                                                                        -Anonymous
    As part of the tenth grade curriculum, you will keep a journal.  This journal must be kept in a marble composition notebook (please, no spirals).  You will write in your journal on topics assigned during class.  You will be responsible for generating at least TWO pages each week.  Sometimes we will begin writing in class and you will have to finish for homework.  Other times, you will simply write your journals at home.    Each week, you will have two response journals.  You must respond to all topics.  Since the literary journal will often be a response to the literature we are reading, I recommend that you write in your journal weekly instead of the night before your journal is due.  Obviously, you are free to write on additional topics besides the ones we explore in class.  Actually, this is greatly encouraged.

        Your journal should be your record of your thoughts, reactions, and opinions.  As a student in my classroom, we will talk about various issues, ideas, concepts that I expect you to react to.  I expect you to express yourself in my classroom as much as I expect you to express yourself in your journal.  Find your voice in your writing.  Question.  Think critically.  Analyze your life.

        I will collect your journal one or two times during each nine weeks.  Your journal will count as a test grade.

JOURNAL TOPICS:
The First Nine Weeks
The Week of 9/7
1. What are your goals for your tenth grade year?
2.  Read the article by Elie Wiesel.  React.  Respond.

The Week of 9/13
1.  Describe a prejudice you've experienced.
2.  TV....What's worth watching?

The Week of 9/20
1.  Who has it easier....males or females?
2.  Freewrite--Choose your own topic!

The Week of 9/27
1.  What is your dream automobile?
2.  What worries you about the world today?

The Week of 10/4
1.  Is man inherently cruel and evil?
2.  What makes a good leader?

The Week of 10/11
1.  What makes you "you"?
2.  Freewrite

JOURNALS DUE ON FRIDAY 10/22

The Second Nine Weeks

The Week of 11/8
1.  If you could change one thing about Godwin, what would you change and why?
2.  What do you think of the outcome of the presidental election?


The Week of 11/15
1.  What morals do you try to always uphold?
2.  Do adults understand today's teenagers?

The Week of 12/6
1.  Stress....
2.  What is your worst habit?

The Week of 1/3
1.  Your winter break....
2.  Should a husband and wife keep secrets from each other?


THIRD NINE WEEKS
The Week of 2/7
1.  What political issue is most important to you?
2.  What is the most difficult phone call you've ever had to make?

The Week of 2/14
1.  Valentine's Day....Is it overrated?
2.  Freewrite

The Week of 2/21
1.  Shakespeare article handout
2.  What would you change about yourself if you could change one thing?

The Week of 3/7
1.  What is the best or worst part of being a teenager?
2.  Freewrite

The Week of 3/21
1.  Spring Break...
2.  Freewrite

FOURTH NINE WEEKS
The Week of 5/2
1.  Describe a time you wanted to seek revenge.
2.  Write about the first time you defied your parents that you can remember.

The Week of 5/16
1.  Deadlines
2.  Freewrite

The Week of 5/23
1.  What motivates you?
2.  What is the worst argument you've ever been involved in?

The Week of 5/30
1.  What is your most memorable family holiday?
2.  What is the largest crowd you have ever been a part of?

The Week of 6/6
1.  Final evaluation of 10th grade / English.
JOURNALS DUE THURSDAY 6/9!