Somerset Academy Canyons



Living Through HistoryWeekly Writing AssignmentRight now, we are all living through history. The events that have been unfolding around us will be going in history books, and you will one day tell your children and grandchild about your experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. For your offspring, for posterity, and for yourselves, it is important to record the events as they happen, including what is happening in your daily lives, and your thoughts and feelings about these experiences. This quarter each of you will complete a weekly writing assignment about what is going on in the world, and in your life, right now. Some of these are light-hearted, and meant to be fun, while others are more serious and take some thought and deep emotion. You are required to answer all of these questions as they are assigned to you. They will be due Friday night by midnight each week. Your responses will ONLY be seen by me, however, so please be honest and forthright. You are, after all, creating a primary source, documentation of what one student was going through during the 2020 global pandemic. YOU are now a part of history. Writing Prompts (There is an example at the bottom of this document)Shopping. If you went with your family to the grocery store to stock up, describe the experience. Did you see anyone panic-buying? Were you and your family panic-buying? Were people wearing gloves and masks? Were they being kind to each other or pushing to get what they wanted? What vital items were you able to find, and what was missing from the shelves? Were you then and/or are you now worried about running out of certain items? Have you or members of your family had to hunt for certain items? If you found them, how long did it take, and where were you finally successful? How did you feel about this experience? Think about this and answer in as much detail as possible.Cancelled vacation. Did you have a trip planned that had to be cancelled? Was it a family trip for spring break, an end-of-year class trip, or something else? Do you have a summer vacation planned that you’re now worried about having to cancel due to the coronavirus? Where did you plan to go? Who did you plan to go with? What were you going to do there? What were your expectations for spring break/the EOY trip/ summer vacation, and what is it like now or what do you think it will be like? How do you feel about the cancellation? Try to go beyond kindergarten words like “sad” and describe how you feel with more precision and detail. Cancelled school. How do you feel about not going back to school for a while, possibly for the rest of the school year? Are you psyched that you don’t have to wear a uniform everyday? Excited that you get to sleep later? Bummed that you won’t get to see you friends? Worried about the unknowns, like how testing and grades will be affected? Disappointed that you won’t be getting to eat school breakfast and lunch every day? Sad because you’ll miss your teachers? What are the pros and cons of not going to school? What do you miss about going to school, and what are you happy about not having to deal with?Virtual School. How do you feel about attending classes on Zoom vs. going to regular school? What have your online sessions been like? Is it difficult to get used to? Is the technology hard to learn? Is it hard to find a quiet place to have lessons, without disruptions from siblings, parents, pets, etc? Do you feel you can learn better using this system, or not as well as in a traditional classroom? Did you attend the Zoom review sessions the first week, and has it gotten easier since then? Would you rather be in school? Why or why not? Discuss your experiences and thoughts about going to class on Zoom. Time. How are you occupying your time, since we have been told to stay inside? What did you do during spring break, for example, when there was no school? Are you spending more time with your family, playing more video games, reading books, using social media, exchanging memes? Are you sleeping a lot more? Are you going outside for walks, and getting any kind of exercise? What are your favorite activities to do inside? What do you do, day to day?Change. There are a lot of changes because of this virus. What has changed for you and your family during this time? Do you have siblings who go to other schools, and how have their lives changed? How has that affected you? For example, if you have younger siblings, do you have to babysit them more? How do you feel about this? Are your parents having to homeschool them? How is that going? If you have older siblings in college, have they had to come home? How has that affected your family and living space? Is anyone in your family in the medical field, and therefore working more than ever before? Has anyone in your family had to start working from home, or has anyone lost their job entirely? What big changes are occuring in your family, and how do you feel about them?Staying positive and sticking together. What is your family, or even your neighborhood, doing to help each other through this? Are you and your family having game nights, or more family meals than before? What are members of your family doing and saying about this experience to help each other through it? If you are friendly with your neighbors, have you been checking on them to see if they’re okay, sharing supplies, or socializing? Some people have been putting up their Christmas lights to spread cheer during this time. Have you or any of your neighbors done this? Discuss what you and the people around you are doing to help lift each other’s spirits during this uncertain time. Binge Watching. Have you been binge watching any shows lately? What are the best recommendations you have for shows to watch? What are they about? Why do you like them? Did someone recommend them to you or did you just happen upon them? Describe the characters and plot lines of some of your favorite shows to binge watch. Concerns. What are the biggest concerns you have about what is going on right now? Are you worried about getting sick, or your loved ones getting sick? Are you concerned about how bad things will get? Are you scared that you and your family might run out of medicine, food, or supplies? Are you fearful about your family’s finances? Are you thinking about the global economy, and how this will affect the country and the world for years to come? Are you pessimistic about the outcome or the coronavirus or are you optimistic that a cure or vaccine will be found soon, and everything will be back to normal? Sometimes it is therapeutic to write about our fears. Discuss your biggest concerns right now, and how you feel about them.Priorities. What mattered a lot to you a few weeks ago that now does not seem so important? What are the most important issues on your mind right now? It is common, in times of crisis, for our priorities to change quickly and completely. A few weeks ago, for example, you may have been focused primarily on a crush you had at school, but now that person may be pretty far from your mind if you are dealing with more serious issues. Discuss how your priorities have changed from before the pandemic reached us to now. Online Entertainment. In response to the pandemic, there have been a multitude of online resources rolling out for people who are quarantined or staying home. There are online museum and zoo tours, Disney performances, free broadway shows streaming, new movies available at home, hundreds of thousands of books made available to read free online, live streaming concerts, and an amazing number of online interactive lessons for students. Have you been taking advantage of any of these resources? Which ones? What have you watched, read, or toured? Describe some of the resources you have used and what they were like. Social Distancing. It’s funny how language evolves. A few weeks ago none of us had ever heard the term “social distancing” but now it’s on everyone’s mind and tongue. What does this mean to you? Are you doing social distancing? Do you think it’s important? Why or why not? Have you seen footage on the news of spring breakers still partying on the beach and packed into night clubs, throwing caution to the wind? How do you feel about this? Do you think they’re idiots, just young and irresponsible, or do they have the right idea, that we should live for the moment? The News. Have you been watching or reading the news, and following what is going on in the world regarding this virus? Which channels have you been watching, or what websites have you been reading? What are some specific stories you remember? Have you seen footage of people in Italy singing and playing music on their balconies? Have you seen stories about pollution decreasing in cities that have been on lockdown? Have you seen articles about famous people catching, and even dying, from the virus? How do you feel about what you see? Do you feel like the news is reliable? Are they blowing things out of proportion or are they not taking it seriously enough? How do you feel when you watch the news? Lockdown. Italy is on lockdown, as are some cities in the U.S. What do you think that would be like? Do you think it’s going to happen here? Have you read any accounts from people who are on lockdown? Does it scare you that there is a chance it could happen here? How do you think you and your family would deal with this?Dystopian world. We just finished our unit on dystopian literature, which frequently features a world that is post-apocalyptic The end of the world as we knew it has occurred, and humans have rebuilt society. How is what is going on right now similar to a dystopian world? Imagine if the end of the world really occurred, and 95% of the Earth’s population was killed by this virus, but you lived, and are now in charge. How do you think we should rebuild? What kind of government should be in place? What kind of schooling? What kind of health precautions would we have to take? Would we have to put a dome around certain cities where only healthy people could live? (There was a Simpsons episode about this, I think.) What would this new world be like? Recreate a society after a global pandemic wipes out most of the human race, and decide upon rules you would make for this world. Be creative! Would your society be utopian or dystopian? Humor and Memes. People, as a species, often use humor to get through difficult times. This is certainly true right now, as coronavirus memes and song parodies abound on social media.. What have been the best memes and/or song parodies, videos, or other forms of humor that you have seen recently? How do you think humor helps people in times of trouble? Share what you have seen and heard, and discuss what it means to you, and the effect of humor on people during times of crisis. You can copy and paste the memes into your assignment, and share any links to videos. Racism. Much like a rise in hate crimes against Muslims after 9/11, there have been many incidents of racism and crimes committed against Asian people, in particular, Chinese people, during this time due to some people referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese Flu” or the “Chinese Disease.” There have been people who have denied service to Asians, or yelled at them to “Go back to China.” A Chinese boy in California was beaten up by his classmates because the teens thought he had the coronavirus. Have you heard about any of these stories on the news, or seen anything like this in person? Share what you have seen or heard. What do you think about this form of racism that tends to spike during a crisis? Why do you think some people tend to blame an entire race when something like this occurs?Aftermath. What do you think will happen after all of this is over? How do you think this event will change us as a society, and as a country? Do you think there will be positive or negative changes, or both? What kind of changes will happen? DO you think students will appreciate going to school a little more, and parents will appreciate going into work? Do you think we will tip our servers more, be kinder to each other, appreciate the little things in life more, such as giving a friend a hug or going to the store without fear of being infected? Do you think the economy will recover quickly, or are we heading toward another Great Depression? Do you think there will be long-term, increased racism against Asians? Do you think our healthcare system will change? Make predictions about what will happen after all this is over. Give reasons for your predictions. Art and Creativity. With sports and other extracurricular activities cancelled for the time being, and school hours being reduced, now would be a great time to get creative. If you are artistic, what kind of art are you creating lately? Have you been drawing, painting, or writing more often? Have you been influenced by the events, and created anything inspired by them? Have you written any stories, poems, Assignment RequirementsEach assignment must be typed, double spaced, and AT LEAST 200 words, which is about three quarters of a page. Use 12 point, Ariel or Times New Roman font and 1 inch margins. It should be a MINIMUM of ten sentences, but it should take more. At the top of the page, on the left hand side, include your name, period, and date. This part should be single spaced. In the center, include the title of the prompt you chose, which is in bold at the start of each prompt. The document title, when you save it, MUST be your LAST name, first name, LTH (Living Through History), and period number. Separate each part with a period. For example, Sally Jones in first period would title her document Jones.Sally.LTH.1. You should continue to add to this same document each week, rather than creating a new one every time. You must ATTACH this to an email and send it to me by Friday at midnight each week if you are using a Word doc, or share it with me if you are using Google Docs. (Note: If you use Google Docs, spelling and grammatical errors are NOT always pointed out automatically. You must go to “tools” and click on “Spelling and grammar” to check everything.)Each assignment will be worth 25 points. That is two points a sentence and five points for the correct format and heading. (But DO NOT use an actual “heading” since you will need to change the date and week number each week.) Points will be taken off for words and phrases of death, capitalization and punctuation errors, and incomplete sentences. I will be ESPECIALLY harsh since you are doing this using Word or Google Docs, and you can SPELL CHECK and check for grammar! If there is a wavy colored line under something, IT IS WRONG! Click on it to fix it! Use correct SPACING as well. Put a space after each punctuation mark. DO NOT include a space between quotations and the word you’re putting in quotes. These assignments should be written in complete sentences, and in proper paragraph form. You are NOT simply answering “yes” or “no” to each question. The questions provided in the prompts are there to give you a start, some ideas to think about. You do not have to answer each specific question. The idea is for you to think about the topic and write about it in your own way, with your own words, thoughts, and feelings. Ms. WyceLTH- Week 1Period 43/19/20Concerns (Written by Ms. Wyce HS English)During this time, my biggest concern is my students. I know that such an upheaval in their lives can cause considerable stress and anxiety, and I worry how they are coping with this day to day. I am worried about those students who rely on the food that is provided at school, and I wonder if they will be able to get to the breakfast and lunch drop-off points each day. I worry about those students who have big families, and not enough electronic devices for everyone. How will all those children attend school? I wonder how some students are coping, since I know some will have to take care of their younger brothers and sisters now that they are home all day. I wonder how they will be able to even get their school work done when they have so much else going on. I worry about those students who suffer from anxiety, and hope they are able to breathe and get through this trying time. I am scared for those students whose parents may be out of work, and who may be wondering where they will live if they can’t pay the rent. I know that as a teacher, I am lucky because I can work from home, but I know there are so many other people who do not have this ability, and may have been living paycheck to paycheck before, but are now in serious danger financially. I am terrified that one of my students may catch this virus, and not recover. That is my biggest fear, the one that keeps me up at night, and that makes me shed tears even as I write this, just thinking of the possibility. I hope that they are all well fed and healthy in these next few weeks, or months, and I hope I can bring some sense of comfort and normalcy to their lives each day through our virtual school system. I hope I can help them all through this, and be there for them if tragedy occurs. 341 words13 sentences ................
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