The Plan for May (15-20 min)

Take out your journals so I can come around and give you credit for them.

In your journal due today, you had to reflect about how you are going to finish all your work (and other responsibilities) in time for the end of your spring 2025 semester. Re-read what you wrote in your journal. Find, too, the entry you wrote on February 26. Re-read that.

What adjustments worked well around that time (Feb 26)? What did not work well?

What are you going to differently this time around?

What are you going to do the same that worked well?

Things to think about: using a calendar, time management plans, having a routine for writing or studying, people to work together with (or people to avoid), places to go to focus, productivity strategies or apps, etc.

What works and what doesn’t? What do you want to do differently?

Tell me three strategies you are going to try on this Google Doc.

Then, we will get into pairs and groups to talk more.

Podcast Work (30-45 min)

This is the last day in class you’ll have before the podcast is due. I would like it to be completed by class time on Monday, May 5.

We need to finalize any last things with the script, we need to get the narrator ready to narrate, and we need the audio editor to get EVERYTHING they need from everyone else before they get very busy over the next few days finishing everything up.

Our cover artists (Sarah and Ammar) should also touch base with everyone to talk through some ideas for the cover art for the podcast.

Santa Claus(e) (20-30 min)

Unlike Santa Claus, Santa ClausE is an atheist, so you don’t have to worry about this activity trying to push a religion on you. However, he does want to know if you have been a good student this year.

If your answer is “yes,” Santa Clause is coming to town to give you a dependent clause that uses a comma. If the answer is “no,” then you have to use a “coal-on” or “semi-coal-on” in a sentence of your writing.

Okay, so let’s start with a simple sentence. A simple sentence is what?

Here is our sentence: It is complicated to define what counts as a “mascot.” [think holidays, brands]

What are dependent clauses? What are independent clauses?

Get into groups. You will be selected to draft dependent clauses or independent clauses to complete our passage.

Let’s look back at our sentences. How could we connect independent clauses in different ways? How could we split up sentences?

What do we want to change? Why?

Okay, go back to your writing and randomly select a paragraph. How could you add dependent clauses with a comma? Independent clauses with a colon?

Next Time (5 min)

-Podcast is due by class time on Monday, May 5.

-EVERYONE should be available to help make sure their episode is complete

-Sarah, Luke, Aidan, Ammar, and Benny all need to be at work on cover art, episode descriptions, podcast descriptions, and episode transcriptions. Let’s meet after class briefly for updates.

-On April 28 we talked about grade boosts. Review that lesson plan to see what you were thinking about doing.

-Podcast Contribution Narrative is due May 14 (will talk about this next week)

-Final Reflection is due May 21 (we talked about this last class; will do more work on this next week)

-Need to talk with: Sarah, Aidan, Jocelyn, Jocelyn, Milo, Fati, Gilayne, Amira, David