I'm exhausted. And I don't feel very good. One of your children must have given me their cold. I can't remember needing a break from school more than right now. Not that I don't love each and every one of your little snowflakes because I do. But I think the students and teachers are definitely ready for a break from each other.
Today we reviewed some of the persuasion terms before taking our benchmark assessment. They read pro/con articles on nuclear energy and answered some multiple choice questions. I thought the test was easy (for those who closely read the articles, all of the questions, and all of the answers), but the data will show whether or not I'm right.
The students got their vocabulary quizzes back today. The data for that is both interesting and sad. About 20% of the students got an A on the vocabulary quiz. That isn't too bad. Unfortunately, about 32% failed the exam. The rest, of course, were in between. The students who took notes, paid attention, and studied are the ones who did well. My argument remains the same: if my students spend a little time each night with the word parts, they will succeed on the tests.
Have a wonderful holiday season! I don't imagine I'll be writing on the blog during our break, but I do get an email whenever a comment is left.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Friday Eve
I learn a little about my students every day. Today I learned that one of my students injured his collarbone after falling off a pony. It explains a lot.
We turned in our persuasive essays today. A lot of the students didn't have theirs to turn in, and that scares me.
They students also took their vocabulary tests. I'll have those graded and returned tomorrow, so make sure you ask your child what he/she got!
Finally, we had enough time to start a memoir by Truman Capote called "A Christmas Memory," a story that, to be completely honest, doesn't have much to do with anything. It's Christmasy, so it's got that going for it. We'll finish tomorrow and discuss what Capote does well as a writer. The students will have a little writing thing that goes along with it.
The story usually makes me cry, but I'm going to try to keep it together tomorrow.
We turned in our persuasive essays today. A lot of the students didn't have theirs to turn in, and that scares me.
They students also took their vocabulary tests. I'll have those graded and returned tomorrow, so make sure you ask your child what he/she got!
Finally, we had enough time to start a memoir by Truman Capote called "A Christmas Memory," a story that, to be completely honest, doesn't have much to do with anything. It's Christmasy, so it's got that going for it. We'll finish tomorrow and discuss what Capote does well as a writer. The students will have a little writing thing that goes along with it.
The story usually makes me cry, but I'm going to try to keep it together tomorrow.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Hump Day
I don't know if your son or daughter has told you this, but I'm quite the artist. Today, I shared with my students some word part pictures that I made to help me remember List Seven's parts. I wish I could figure out a way to get them on the blog to share them with the world outside of my classroom. Examples include a boxer made out of the word part pugn (P as a face and backwards baseball cap, the U making arms with boxing gloves on the ends, the G being a body, and a sideways lower-case N for his legs) and a snake shedding the word part derm. I made a little picture for each of the 25 words, apparently because I don't have anything better to do with my time.
We read a lovely essay by Lynda Barry (a cartoonist) called "The Sanctuary of Schools," a memoir that sneaks in some persuasive stuff. It's about a 7 year old who actually runs off really early in the morning to go to school because the issues in her home have gotten to be too much for her to handle. At school, she feels all the things that our children should feel--loved, important, etc. She uses this personal experience as an example for why public education should be supported. We read this one together, and the students had three constructed responses to answer.
We also covered conclusions today, focusing on strategies to give the conclusions some BANG and the "call to response" that is usually in a persuasive essay. Now the students are ready to finish up and get that essay turned in tomorrow. They're writing about whether or not I should continue teaching. Unfortunately for some of them, I'm not going anywhere and will be impossible to convince. There's still a lot of work that I have to do here at Lynhurst.
We read a lovely essay by Lynda Barry (a cartoonist) called "The Sanctuary of Schools," a memoir that sneaks in some persuasive stuff. It's about a 7 year old who actually runs off really early in the morning to go to school because the issues in her home have gotten to be too much for her to handle. At school, she feels all the things that our children should feel--loved, important, etc. She uses this personal experience as an example for why public education should be supported. We read this one together, and the students had three constructed responses to answer.
We also covered conclusions today, focusing on strategies to give the conclusions some BANG and the "call to response" that is usually in a persuasive essay. Now the students are ready to finish up and get that essay turned in tomorrow. They're writing about whether or not I should continue teaching. Unfortunately for some of them, I'm not going anywhere and will be impossible to convince. There's still a lot of work that I have to do here at Lynhurst.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Tuesday (The Final Tuesday School Day of 2010)
Ah, the students are counting down the days until break. They should be counting their missing assignments though because they only have until the end of this week to get them in! I have no problem grading things over the break to help their grades out, but there's very little I can do for students who have lots and lots of gaps in my gradebook.
Today we looked at a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the American poet with (in my opinion) the best middle name. The poem is called "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls," and it's a piece the characters in Walk Two Moons read in their language arts class. Since it has to do with some of the thematic issues in that novel, I thought we'd look at it in class. Turns out that it's really depressing. Here it is:
The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore.
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Yep. Depressing business. Longfellow wrote that one after his wife passed away, and it's really an extended metaphor (to use one of our old poetry terms) about how life is temporal (to use a word part--tempor) or how we are transient (to use another--trans) beings.
We finished looking at the dodgeball articles, one with a formal and serious tone and the other with a sarcastic more personable one. The students completed (some of them; the ones who worked well) a worksheet on the D.R.A.P.E.S. that the authors used and how they used logical, emotional, and ethical appeals.
Then, they had time to work on their writing which is still due Thursday.
One last thing--because of my generosity and love for my students, I gave them each a paper that has all the word parts with their meanings. I didn't do it so that they would have a cheat sheet for Thursday's test. I gave it to them so that none of them will have an excuse for why they couldn't study for Thursday's test. They all have the word parts, and they should spend lots of time the next two nights becoming experts so that they can do well on the test.
Today we looked at a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the American poet with (in my opinion) the best middle name. The poem is called "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls," and it's a piece the characters in Walk Two Moons read in their language arts class. Since it has to do with some of the thematic issues in that novel, I thought we'd look at it in class. Turns out that it's really depressing. Here it is:
The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore.
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Yep. Depressing business. Longfellow wrote that one after his wife passed away, and it's really an extended metaphor (to use one of our old poetry terms) about how life is temporal (to use a word part--tempor) or how we are transient (to use another--trans) beings.
We finished looking at the dodgeball articles, one with a formal and serious tone and the other with a sarcastic more personable one. The students completed (some of them; the ones who worked well) a worksheet on the D.R.A.P.E.S. that the authors used and how they used logical, emotional, and ethical appeals.
Then, they had time to work on their writing which is still due Thursday.
One last thing--because of my generosity and love for my students, I gave them each a paper that has all the word parts with their meanings. I didn't do it so that they would have a cheat sheet for Thursday's test. I gave it to them so that none of them will have an excuse for why they couldn't study for Thursday's test. They all have the word parts, and they should spend lots of time the next two nights becoming experts so that they can do well on the test.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Monday--Surviving the Blizzard of 2010!
Unfortunately, we had a two-hour delay today and therefore less class time. It's not exactly the best week for less class time, but who am I to argue with Mother Nature?
I don't know if it was because it was Monday (students are goofy on Mondays because they're so happy to see us) or because their schedule was slightly different (students are goofy when their schedules are slightly different, too), but students were pretty goofy today. That's probably not a great idea the final week of a semester.
We took a W2M quiz and discussed the reading over the long weekend. I get the feeling that a lot of students aren't doing the reading which bugs me for a few different reasons: 1) It'll make it difficult for them to pass. 2) They aren't able to participate in class as their peers discuss the novel and take quizzes. Some of them are doing nothing more than just sitting there taking up space (literally) while the rest of the class discusses the book.
We reviewed our vocabulary word parts, the list 7 words.
We started reading some articles on dodgeball, focusing on logos, pathos, and ethos. Or to put it in a less Greek way--logical appeals, emotional appeals, and ethical appeals. We also looked at the importance of an author's tone. We'll finish with the work on those articles tomorrow before spending time with our own writing.
Their own writing is due on Thursday, by the way. That's the same day their last first-semester vocabulary quiz is.
Leave me a comment! I get lonely!
I don't know if it was because it was Monday (students are goofy on Mondays because they're so happy to see us) or because their schedule was slightly different (students are goofy when their schedules are slightly different, too), but students were pretty goofy today. That's probably not a great idea the final week of a semester.
We took a W2M quiz and discussed the reading over the long weekend. I get the feeling that a lot of students aren't doing the reading which bugs me for a few different reasons: 1) It'll make it difficult for them to pass. 2) They aren't able to participate in class as their peers discuss the novel and take quizzes. Some of them are doing nothing more than just sitting there taking up space (literally) while the rest of the class discusses the book.
We reviewed our vocabulary word parts, the list 7 words.
We started reading some articles on dodgeball, focusing on logos, pathos, and ethos. Or to put it in a less Greek way--logical appeals, emotional appeals, and ethical appeals. We also looked at the importance of an author's tone. We'll finish with the work on those articles tomorrow before spending time with our own writing.
Their own writing is due on Thursday, by the way. That's the same day their last first-semester vocabulary quiz is.
Leave me a comment! I get lonely!
Friday, December 10, 2010
Friday--Party Day
I don't hide the fact that I don't like party days. I'm all for positive reinforcement, but there's so much language arts to stuff in their heads before next year. But I never get my way, so this was a party day.
Just a few reminders then:
--Students need to get to page 176 in W2M by Monday.
--That last vocabulary word part test is next Thursday.
--Their persuasive essay will also be due Thursday. A whole lot of that is being written in class.
Have a great weekend.
Just a few reminders then:
--Students need to get to page 176 in W2M by Monday.
--That last vocabulary word part test is next Thursday.
--Their persuasive essay will also be due Thursday. A whole lot of that is being written in class.
Have a great weekend.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Thursday's Class
Things were a little different today depending on whether I have your child in my first class or my second or third classes.
Today was Ms. Perpendicular's (or whatever her name is) last day with us. She's been working on Tuesdays and Thursdays in my first block class all year, and I think most of the students liked having her around. For whatever reason, they think she's a nicer person than I am, and some of them would much rather have her teach the class than me. Anyway, today was her last day, and she had certificates to give to all the students. There was a certificate-passing-out ceremony, and then we all enjoyed some cheesecake from the restaurant she works. A wonderful time was had by all! Well, except for me. I'm on a gluten-and-dairy-free diet, so I just spent the time standing around watching other people enjoy cheesecake. That's not much fun.
Block one was able to complete a Walk Two Moons quiz. We also looked at a poem called "the little horse is newlY" by e.e. cummings, a guy who didn't capitalize his name. Sal, the protagonist of our novel, reads that poem in her English class, so I thought we'd look at it. Here's the poem for your enjoyment:
the little horse is newlY
Born) he knows nothing, and feels
everything; all around whom is
perfectly a strange
ness (Of sun
light and of fragrance and of
Singing) is ev
erywhere (a welcom
ing dream: is amazing!)
a worlD...and in
this world lies: smothbeautiful
ly folded; a (brea
thing a gro
Wing) silence, who;
is: somE
oNe.
Yep. That poet's messed up. But it's not a bad poem about rebirth and new experiences, ideas that fit in nicely with our novel.
My first class also started a letter to Ms. Pencilberry (or whatever her name is). I'm going to mail those to her on Wednesday.
The other classes took the quiz, looked at the poem, and had some writing time. Today, we looked at Brilliant Beginnings, ways to hook the reader and force them to want to read the rest of the essay. We looked at examples of using questions, quotations, anecdotes, descriptions, allusions, dialogues, and shocking details. The metaphor we used is that it's like a worm for a fish. You have to entice the fish to jump on the hook just like you have to entice your readers to jump into your essay.
I hope my students don't misunderstand and start stapling worms to the tops of their essays.
Students need to read ONLY to page 176 in W2M for Monday. They will also have their last vocabulary quiz next Thursday. They need to be studying nightly for that because that's the biggest one of the year!
Today was Ms. Perpendicular's (or whatever her name is) last day with us. She's been working on Tuesdays and Thursdays in my first block class all year, and I think most of the students liked having her around. For whatever reason, they think she's a nicer person than I am, and some of them would much rather have her teach the class than me. Anyway, today was her last day, and she had certificates to give to all the students. There was a certificate-passing-out ceremony, and then we all enjoyed some cheesecake from the restaurant she works. A wonderful time was had by all! Well, except for me. I'm on a gluten-and-dairy-free diet, so I just spent the time standing around watching other people enjoy cheesecake. That's not much fun.
Block one was able to complete a Walk Two Moons quiz. We also looked at a poem called "the little horse is newlY" by e.e. cummings, a guy who didn't capitalize his name. Sal, the protagonist of our novel, reads that poem in her English class, so I thought we'd look at it. Here's the poem for your enjoyment:
the little horse is newlY
Born) he knows nothing, and feels
everything; all around whom is
perfectly a strange
ness (Of sun
light and of fragrance and of
Singing) is ev
erywhere (a welcom
ing dream: is amazing!)
a worlD...and in
this world lies: smothbeautiful
ly folded; a (brea
thing a gro
Wing) silence, who;
is: somE
oNe.
Yep. That poet's messed up. But it's not a bad poem about rebirth and new experiences, ideas that fit in nicely with our novel.
My first class also started a letter to Ms. Pencilberry (or whatever her name is). I'm going to mail those to her on Wednesday.
The other classes took the quiz, looked at the poem, and had some writing time. Today, we looked at Brilliant Beginnings, ways to hook the reader and force them to want to read the rest of the essay. We looked at examples of using questions, quotations, anecdotes, descriptions, allusions, dialogues, and shocking details. The metaphor we used is that it's like a worm for a fish. You have to entice the fish to jump on the hook just like you have to entice your readers to jump into your essay.
I hope my students don't misunderstand and start stapling worms to the tops of their essays.
Students need to read ONLY to page 176 in W2M for Monday. They will also have their last vocabulary quiz next Thursday. They need to be studying nightly for that because that's the biggest one of the year!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Tuesday and Wednesday--Not Acuity Days!
Yesterday, we did a longish W2M quiz and had some discussion over the big chunk of weekend reading. Some of my students aren't reading the book which must make that part of class extremely boring for them. It depresses me. For Thursday, the students will need to get to page 156. For now, we're holding off on that character poster thing. As they read, they should be jotting down some things that will help them do well on that though.
We looked deeper at persuasive writing the last couple of days. We finished our zoo reading and talked about the different ways persuasive authors can back up their claims. We looked at the acronym (there's a word part in there) D.R.A.P.E.S. which is a way to remember the importance of covering (you know, like drapes) their topic completely to fully convince their audience. It also stands for the different types of elaboration an author can use. We used an essay on why the school cafeteria should start serving nutria rat as an example.
D -- Dialogue (quotes from experts) -- like using a nutrition expert or food critic talking about nutria rats
R -- Rhetorical questions -- like, "Don't you want your kids snacking on something tasty and nutritional instead of something like a Ding Dong."
A -- Analogy/Comparison -- like comparing the taste of nutria rat to fillet mignon or something
P -- Personal experience -- like when the author uses any of the times he or others he knows have enjoyed the rich flavor of the nutria rat
E -- Examples -- like when another school who serves nutria rat is used
S -- Statistics -- like when numbers are used to back up the claims
We'll continue looking at how authors back up their claims as we read about school uniforms, dodgeball, and video games this week and next.
We looked specifically at thesis sentences and good body paragraphs, and some of the students worked hard on their writing today. This is the essay where they are trying to persuade me to retire from teaching and do something else or stick with teaching. I expect to see good supporting details and D.R.A.P.E.S. in their essays!
They turned in a worksheet about the zoo readings. I got less than half of them in one class. I can't figure out why because all the work was done in class, and a lot of the work was done together. But if you see a low grade or no grade for "zoos" on PEP, you should definitely ask them about it.
The next vocabulary quiz is next Thursday. They have a little extra time to study. It's the last vocabulary quiz, so it'll make a big difference on what their overall vocabulary grade will be.
Nutria rat recipes can be found at this helpful website: Yum!
Here's a picture of the little critters:
We looked deeper at persuasive writing the last couple of days. We finished our zoo reading and talked about the different ways persuasive authors can back up their claims. We looked at the acronym (there's a word part in there) D.R.A.P.E.S. which is a way to remember the importance of covering (you know, like drapes) their topic completely to fully convince their audience. It also stands for the different types of elaboration an author can use. We used an essay on why the school cafeteria should start serving nutria rat as an example.
D -- Dialogue (quotes from experts) -- like using a nutrition expert or food critic talking about nutria rats
R -- Rhetorical questions -- like, "Don't you want your kids snacking on something tasty and nutritional instead of something like a Ding Dong."
A -- Analogy/Comparison -- like comparing the taste of nutria rat to fillet mignon or something
P -- Personal experience -- like when the author uses any of the times he or others he knows have enjoyed the rich flavor of the nutria rat
E -- Examples -- like when another school who serves nutria rat is used
S -- Statistics -- like when numbers are used to back up the claims
We'll continue looking at how authors back up their claims as we read about school uniforms, dodgeball, and video games this week and next.
We looked specifically at thesis sentences and good body paragraphs, and some of the students worked hard on their writing today. This is the essay where they are trying to persuade me to retire from teaching and do something else or stick with teaching. I expect to see good supporting details and D.R.A.P.E.S. in their essays!
They turned in a worksheet about the zoo readings. I got less than half of them in one class. I can't figure out why because all the work was done in class, and a lot of the work was done together. But if you see a low grade or no grade for "zoos" on PEP, you should definitely ask them about it.
The next vocabulary quiz is next Thursday. They have a little extra time to study. It's the last vocabulary quiz, so it'll make a big difference on what their overall vocabulary grade will be.
Nutria rat recipes can be found at this helpful website: Yum!
Here's a picture of the little critters:
Monday, December 6, 2010
Monday--Acuity Day
This is one of the few days when you can ask your son or daughter what they did in language arts class and get an honest answer of nuttin'...
Acuity is an online test that predicts how the students will do on ISTEP. I'll be sending some information home soon about how the students did on the test. Some finished early and got a chance to do some reading, but the test takes pretty much the whole class period.
Reminder: Students need to read to page 120 in Walk Two Moons by tomorrow.
Acuity is an online test that predicts how the students will do on ISTEP. I'll be sending some information home soon about how the students did on the test. Some finished early and got a chance to do some reading, but the test takes pretty much the whole class period.
Reminder: Students need to read to page 120 in Walk Two Moons by tomorrow.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Friday
Let me be honest. I don't like teaching on Fridays. They're bad teaching days. So are Mondays actually. I don't think going to a three-day week is the answer necessarily (we have far too much work to do) but students definitely don't want to work on Fridays. I was very disappointed with the effort of a lot of my students today. I still have a lot of students who aren't even pretending to try.
We started with a W2M (my abbreviation [brev! word part!] for Walk Two Moons) quiz over the reading. The questions weren't difficult; in fact, a lot of them just asked for opinions, guesses, and predictions. We used the quiz as a launching pad for some class discussion. By Tuesday (see announcement below), the students need to have read to page 120. It's not a ton of reading for that many days, but I want to take it slowly so that we can dissect the story together.
They also have been assigned a character from the book--Sal, Phoebe, Sal's mom or dad, Gram, Gramps, Mr. or Mrs. Winterbottom, Mary Lou, Ben, Mrs. Partridge, Margaret Cadaver, or the lunatic--and will be making a poster for Wednesday. I'll provide the paper, and they'll work on including the following:
--a picture of the character (colorful)
--character traits
--some symbols important to the character
--1-3 quotes about the character (something said by them or said about them)
--a thinking bubble showing what that character's thoughts, concerns, hopes, dreams, or whatever might be
--a paragraph at the bottom that makes a prediction about the character
We finished one of the zoo articles and had some time to do the worksheet breaking down the author's claims, support, and counterarguments. We also looked a little at how persuasive arguments sometimes use opinion in their writing.
Next week, we'll be looking more at persuasion. By the end of the week, we'll get into the dark side of persuasion--bias, propaganda, lies--and look at advertisements and examples of slanted writing. The students will also continue to work on their persuasive essays about me.
Announcement: Students will be Acuity testing (computer test with laptops in my room) on Monday. There's nothing they need to do at home to prepare for this except get enough sleep. I know my students will do their very best on the test.
We started with a W2M (my abbreviation [brev! word part!] for Walk Two Moons) quiz over the reading. The questions weren't difficult; in fact, a lot of them just asked for opinions, guesses, and predictions. We used the quiz as a launching pad for some class discussion. By Tuesday (see announcement below), the students need to have read to page 120. It's not a ton of reading for that many days, but I want to take it slowly so that we can dissect the story together.
They also have been assigned a character from the book--Sal, Phoebe, Sal's mom or dad, Gram, Gramps, Mr. or Mrs. Winterbottom, Mary Lou, Ben, Mrs. Partridge, Margaret Cadaver, or the lunatic--and will be making a poster for Wednesday. I'll provide the paper, and they'll work on including the following:
--a picture of the character (colorful)
--character traits
--some symbols important to the character
--1-3 quotes about the character (something said by them or said about them)
--a thinking bubble showing what that character's thoughts, concerns, hopes, dreams, or whatever might be
--a paragraph at the bottom that makes a prediction about the character
We finished one of the zoo articles and had some time to do the worksheet breaking down the author's claims, support, and counterarguments. We also looked a little at how persuasive arguments sometimes use opinion in their writing.
Next week, we'll be looking more at persuasion. By the end of the week, we'll get into the dark side of persuasion--bias, propaganda, lies--and look at advertisements and examples of slanted writing. The students will also continue to work on their persuasive essays about me.
Announcement: Students will be Acuity testing (computer test with laptops in my room) on Monday. There's nothing they need to do at home to prepare for this except get enough sleep. I know my students will do their very best on the test.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Thursday
My University of Indianapolis student-teacher person, the wonderful Ms. Poppington (or something like that) took over most of my first class today. She did some Walk Two Moons discussion with the students in groups, playing a game called Save the Last Word for Me (or something like that). We still had time to go over the rest of the vocabulary word parts and do a quick written response over last night's reading.
Blocks 2 and 3 did some novel discussion. We also looked at some more persuasive terms: counterargument, perspective, bias or slant, stereotyping, and propaganda. We had some discussion on the pros and cons of zoos and started to read an anti-zoo article. Tomorrow, we'll finish that and read a pro-zoo article. There's a worksheet to go along with all this, something to help the students break down the arguments (claims + support), the counterarguments, and the use of both fact and opinion in the articles.
The rest of this week's word parts:
fus means "pour" like with the word fusion (pouring two things into one?). I like the word confuse though. Sometimes, things are pouring together (con) which makes it difficult for us to figure out what's going on.
ego means "I" like in the following: big ego, egomaniac, egocentric. Some of my students claimed that I'm an egomaniac, but when you're as awesome as me, it's kind of hard not to be.
spir means "breathe" like in the word respiration. Also, the word inspire. When the Greeks (the dudes who invented the word) were inspired, they thought their gods (the nine muses) were breathing into them and giving them the abilities to write, make music, paint, make pottery, dance, etc.
acr means "sharp" and I hope they don't confuse it with this week's acro. See acerbity and acrimonious for examples.
culp means "blame" like when you're a culprit. Exculpate and inculpate are antonyms that use this word part. One is putting the blame in somebody and the other is taking it out.
per means "through" like in the words permeate (to pass through every part of, like a strong perfume in a classroom) and percolate (to pass through pores) and persuade (to convince all the way through?)
pac means "peace"...if you're a pacifist, you are anti-war. And you parents know what a pacifier is used for, right? Also, the Pacific Ocean was named that because its discoverer, Rocky Balboa (or something like that), thought it was a lot more peaceful than the Atlantic.
brev means "short" like brevity and abbreviate. Ask your child if they can tell you what a brevirostrate bird has.
urb means "city" just like polis. An urbanite is a city dweller.
pugn means "fight" like with the word pugilist (synonym for boxer) and pugnacious, a word that means "full of fight"
il means "not" like in the word illegal
and finally, cle means "small"...my favorite bit of etymology from this week is the origin of the word muscle. When you break that one down, it means "little mouse" because your muscles look like little mice under your skin. This is not only the cutest bit of information I'll give my students this week, but it also gave me an opportunity to show off my biceps. Some of my students nearly passed out.
Students need to get to page 53 in Walk Two Moons by tomorrow.
Blocks 2 and 3 did some novel discussion. We also looked at some more persuasive terms: counterargument, perspective, bias or slant, stereotyping, and propaganda. We had some discussion on the pros and cons of zoos and started to read an anti-zoo article. Tomorrow, we'll finish that and read a pro-zoo article. There's a worksheet to go along with all this, something to help the students break down the arguments (claims + support), the counterarguments, and the use of both fact and opinion in the articles.
The rest of this week's word parts:
fus means "pour" like with the word fusion (pouring two things into one?). I like the word confuse though. Sometimes, things are pouring together (con) which makes it difficult for us to figure out what's going on.
ego means "I" like in the following: big ego, egomaniac, egocentric. Some of my students claimed that I'm an egomaniac, but when you're as awesome as me, it's kind of hard not to be.
spir means "breathe" like in the word respiration. Also, the word inspire. When the Greeks (the dudes who invented the word) were inspired, they thought their gods (the nine muses) were breathing into them and giving them the abilities to write, make music, paint, make pottery, dance, etc.
acr means "sharp" and I hope they don't confuse it with this week's acro. See acerbity and acrimonious for examples.
culp means "blame" like when you're a culprit. Exculpate and inculpate are antonyms that use this word part. One is putting the blame in somebody and the other is taking it out.
per means "through" like in the words permeate (to pass through every part of, like a strong perfume in a classroom) and percolate (to pass through pores) and persuade (to convince all the way through?)
pac means "peace"...if you're a pacifist, you are anti-war. And you parents know what a pacifier is used for, right? Also, the Pacific Ocean was named that because its discoverer, Rocky Balboa (or something like that), thought it was a lot more peaceful than the Atlantic.
brev means "short" like brevity and abbreviate. Ask your child if they can tell you what a brevirostrate bird has.
urb means "city" just like polis. An urbanite is a city dweller.
pugn means "fight" like with the word pugilist (synonym for boxer) and pugnacious, a word that means "full of fight"
il means "not" like in the word illegal
and finally, cle means "small"...my favorite bit of etymology from this week is the origin of the word muscle. When you break that one down, it means "little mouse" because your muscles look like little mice under your skin. This is not only the cutest bit of information I'll give my students this week, but it also gave me an opportunity to show off my biceps. Some of my students nearly passed out.
Students need to get to page 53 in Walk Two Moons by tomorrow.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Late Wednesday Posts
Students need to read to page 36 in Walk Two Moons. There'll be class discussion and some group reading tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tuesday
We made a trip to the library today, turned in Uglies (some of the students shed tears), and grabbed our new novel--Walk Two Moons. Students will need to read to page 16 by tomorrow. There will be a short and easy and painless quiz.
We did some pre-reading stuff for the novel and had a little time to read in class. There was also some time to go over more of our word parts for this list. The word parts we looked at today:
numer means number (easy one!) like in the words numeral and numerous
fort means strong like you'd want your snow fort to be if you built one
agog means leader. I'm a pedagogue, the leader of a classroom.
plasto means molded like in the word plastic or rhinoplasty, one of the meanest words in the English language
ecto means outer. I had a friend in college who used to dumpster dive behind grocery stores, and his favorite find ever was a bunch of Hi-C Ectocooler, some drink inspired by the Ghostbusters movie. That's not nearly as scary as the frozen burritos he found and actually consumed in a grocery store dumpster though. But back to the word part--ectoparasites are parasites that stay on the outside of a body.
And necro means death like in the word necropolis, a city of the dead. You know, like a cemetery.
We'll get back to persuasive reading and writing tomorrow!
We did some pre-reading stuff for the novel and had a little time to read in class. There was also some time to go over more of our word parts for this list. The word parts we looked at today:
numer means number (easy one!) like in the words numeral and numerous
fort means strong like you'd want your snow fort to be if you built one
agog means leader. I'm a pedagogue, the leader of a classroom.
plasto means molded like in the word plastic or rhinoplasty, one of the meanest words in the English language
ecto means outer. I had a friend in college who used to dumpster dive behind grocery stores, and his favorite find ever was a bunch of Hi-C Ectocooler, some drink inspired by the Ghostbusters movie. That's not nearly as scary as the frozen burritos he found and actually consumed in a grocery store dumpster though. But back to the word part--ectoparasites are parasites that stay on the outside of a body.
And necro means death like in the word necropolis, a city of the dead. You know, like a cemetery.
We'll get back to persuasive reading and writing tomorrow!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, Monday
It was so good to be back with my students today. Man, I miss those little doofuses during extended weekends!
We did some more dialogue review today, looking at a poorly written dialogue with bad mechanics (no paragraphing, missing punctuation), a structurally correct but boring and predictable dialogue, and finally a well-written dialogue (if I do say so myself) with good action words, gestures, descriptive details, and variety. Then, the students wrote their third-person dialogues between them and me.
We graded the vocabulary test from last week. That's right. I was lazy and didn't feel like doing it myself over the weekend. That's the real explanation. I was going to type that grading the tests in class forces them to look at the words again, but that would have been stretching things a bit.
We looked at seven word parts for our new list:
osteo means "bone" like in osteoporosis (sorry, no easy-peasy word for this one)
ornith means "bird" like an ornithocopter (or this one)
polis means "city" like Indianapolis or metropolis. The word police also comes from this word part.
dia means "across" like diameter, something they should know from math class.
acro means "high" like in the word acrobat. I suffer from acrophobia, by the way.
derm means "skin" like hypodermic from an earlier list. I like pachyderm though.
And zo means "animal" like zoo. There. That makes up for the lack of easy-peasiness earlier.
We had a chance to introduce persuasive writing with some reading from the textbook. We very briefly looked at Aristotle's ideas about ethos, pathos, and logos (persuading with ethical appeals, emotional appeals, and logical appeals) and went over what argument, claims, and support mean for our purposes. Tomorrow, the students will practice doing some persuasive writing with an assignment that ties in with Uglies and will probably serve as a final test type thing with that book.
Tomorrow is also our library day. Students will need to return Uglies, and we'll be starting a new novel called Walk Two Moons. I think the students will like it if they give it a chance.
Oh, I almost forgot! They do have homework. They need to watch some commercials and write a paragraph about one of them. In the paragraph, they need to include the thing/idea that is being "sold," who the intended audience for the commercial might be, what claims the advertisers make, what support is used, and what other ways the advertisers use in their attempts to persuade.
We did some more dialogue review today, looking at a poorly written dialogue with bad mechanics (no paragraphing, missing punctuation), a structurally correct but boring and predictable dialogue, and finally a well-written dialogue (if I do say so myself) with good action words, gestures, descriptive details, and variety. Then, the students wrote their third-person dialogues between them and me.
We graded the vocabulary test from last week. That's right. I was lazy and didn't feel like doing it myself over the weekend. That's the real explanation. I was going to type that grading the tests in class forces them to look at the words again, but that would have been stretching things a bit.
We looked at seven word parts for our new list:
osteo means "bone" like in osteoporosis (sorry, no easy-peasy word for this one)
ornith means "bird" like an ornithocopter (or this one)
polis means "city" like Indianapolis or metropolis. The word police also comes from this word part.
dia means "across" like diameter, something they should know from math class.
acro means "high" like in the word acrobat. I suffer from acrophobia, by the way.
derm means "skin" like hypodermic from an earlier list. I like pachyderm though.
And zo means "animal" like zoo. There. That makes up for the lack of easy-peasiness earlier.
We had a chance to introduce persuasive writing with some reading from the textbook. We very briefly looked at Aristotle's ideas about ethos, pathos, and logos (persuading with ethical appeals, emotional appeals, and logical appeals) and went over what argument, claims, and support mean for our purposes. Tomorrow, the students will practice doing some persuasive writing with an assignment that ties in with Uglies and will probably serve as a final test type thing with that book.
Tomorrow is also our library day. Students will need to return Uglies, and we'll be starting a new novel called Walk Two Moons. I think the students will like it if they give it a chance.
Oh, I almost forgot! They do have homework. They need to watch some commercials and write a paragraph about one of them. In the paragraph, they need to include the thing/idea that is being "sold," who the intended audience for the commercial might be, what claims the advertisers make, what support is used, and what other ways the advertisers use in their attempts to persuade.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Thanksgiving Eve
The students finished their vocabulary quizzes today. I asked the students what they thought they got on the quiz as they turned it in and wrote that grade at the bottom. It'll be interesting to compare that to their actual grades, but a lot of them did tell me they thought they were in the A/B range. If that's true, it's because of their effort, paying attention and spending some time with the word parts at home. As I told my last class today--the grades they get on these vocabulary quizzes are the grades they want to get on them.
We looked at dialogue quite a bit today. We reviewed those quotation rules (ask your child what " " / CAPS / Punct / Left / End mark means) and went over the big dialogue rule--new paragraph for each speaker change. We looked at the same dialogue three times, once without any details for the settings and characters and two other times with different settings and character details. Hopefully, the students see the importance of writing dialogue with some style by doing the following:
1) Mixing up the patterns (not all beginning or end quotes)
2) Avoiding "said" to show the speakers' tone
3) Using expressions, gestures, and actions to give the characters some realistic movements
4) Using the setting
They're practicing (they'll have to finish Monday) with writing a dialogue between themselves and me about their language arts grade/effort. The dialogue will be in third person.
We also went over the poetry benchmark (see: data in yesterday's blog post). As I told the students today, very few of them knew what they poetry types were before we started. Some of them knew more about figurative language than others, but they were all in the same boat with their knowledge of epics, ballads, odes, sonnets, and elegies. 32% made A's on the test while 29% failed. They were in the same class, they had access to the same Powerpoint presentations, read the same poems, and had the same fantastic and good-looking teacher. The only difference? The students and their effort.
Next week, we'll be starting more informational reading and gradually move to persuasive stuff.
We looked at dialogue quite a bit today. We reviewed those quotation rules (ask your child what " " / CAPS / Punct / Left / End mark means) and went over the big dialogue rule--new paragraph for each speaker change. We looked at the same dialogue three times, once without any details for the settings and characters and two other times with different settings and character details. Hopefully, the students see the importance of writing dialogue with some style by doing the following:
1) Mixing up the patterns (not all beginning or end quotes)
2) Avoiding "said" to show the speakers' tone
3) Using expressions, gestures, and actions to give the characters some realistic movements
4) Using the setting
They're practicing (they'll have to finish Monday) with writing a dialogue between themselves and me about their language arts grade/effort. The dialogue will be in third person.
We also went over the poetry benchmark (see: data in yesterday's blog post). As I told the students today, very few of them knew what they poetry types were before we started. Some of them knew more about figurative language than others, but they were all in the same boat with their knowledge of epics, ballads, odes, sonnets, and elegies. 32% made A's on the test while 29% failed. They were in the same class, they had access to the same Powerpoint presentations, read the same poems, and had the same fantastic and good-looking teacher. The only difference? The students and their effort.
Next week, we'll be starting more informational reading and gradually move to persuasive stuff.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Tuesday!
Today, I did send a letter home. The students were given some time to reflect on how they're doing with things in here, and I had some words about grades, the effort of a lot of my students, and some other things. I would like to know that you read the letter. If you could send it back with a signature, zip me an email or a phone call, or leave a comment here, that'll be fine.
We reviewed the vocabulary words for List 6 and went over our figurative language quizzes from the other day before diving into our assessments. The students first took a benchmark assessment over poetry. They had to know about ballads, sonnets, epics, odes, and elegies as well as the types of figurative language and couplets. I don't think it was that difficult of a test; in fact, I took it and got them all right. I had mixed results with my students. In one class, I had almost half get an A. In another class, I had over half get an F. Overall, I had 32% of my students get an A on this test while 29% got an F. To me, that has more to do with the work of the students than the work of me. The students who got A's are the same ones who pay attention, participate, take notes, and do their best on the work. Yesterday, we went over the types of poetry as a class, and I could tell that there were some students who just weren't paying attention. Those are likely the same students who did poorly today. I'm giving the students the test back tomorrow, so you should ask to see how your child did.
We also took half of the vocabulary quiz. They were all old word parts today. The students can look over the words tonight to get ready for part two tomorrow. They can also correct their part one answers since I won't be grading those until Thanksgiving so that I can have something to do while the family is eating. I find that when I'm able to look busy during the Thanksgiving meal, my Uncle Chester won't keep asking me what size pants I wear or if I want to hear the story about when he threw a plum at L.B.J.
The students might have had a little bit of time to work on the Lincoln assassination reading. We'll be able to finish that up tomorrow.
We reviewed the vocabulary words for List 6 and went over our figurative language quizzes from the other day before diving into our assessments. The students first took a benchmark assessment over poetry. They had to know about ballads, sonnets, epics, odes, and elegies as well as the types of figurative language and couplets. I don't think it was that difficult of a test; in fact, I took it and got them all right. I had mixed results with my students. In one class, I had almost half get an A. In another class, I had over half get an F. Overall, I had 32% of my students get an A on this test while 29% got an F. To me, that has more to do with the work of the students than the work of me. The students who got A's are the same ones who pay attention, participate, take notes, and do their best on the work. Yesterday, we went over the types of poetry as a class, and I could tell that there were some students who just weren't paying attention. Those are likely the same students who did poorly today. I'm giving the students the test back tomorrow, so you should ask to see how your child did.
We also took half of the vocabulary quiz. They were all old word parts today. The students can look over the words tonight to get ready for part two tomorrow. They can also correct their part one answers since I won't be grading those until Thanksgiving so that I can have something to do while the family is eating. I find that when I'm able to look busy during the Thanksgiving meal, my Uncle Chester won't keep asking me what size pants I wear or if I want to hear the story about when he threw a plum at L.B.J.
The students might have had a little bit of time to work on the Lincoln assassination reading. We'll be able to finish that up tomorrow.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Monday
So what do you think it means if they block your blog at school? I wasn't able to update this afternoon.
I did NOT send a letter home with the students today. Hopefully, I will send something home tomorrow. The students did get progress reports in their homerooms today, but there's just not a lot of information about what the grades means.
Today, we reviewed our word parts. Tomorrow is part one of our test, and it will be fifty old word parts. Wednesday will be 25 more old word parts and the 25 new ones.
We also spent a lot of time reviewing the poetry types and terms. Our benchmark assessment on that stuff is tomorrow. We tried to turn the definitions into visuals, and we looked at a lot of examples of epic poems, ballads, odes, sonnets, and elegies.
Some of the students took a short quiz on figurative language. The students who didn't have to take the quiz are the ones who turned in the Uglies take-home quiz last week. For whatever reason, a ton of students didn't turn that in.
Finally, we started work with a chapter from a book about the Lincoln assassination. The students are looking at how the author creates suspense in a story even though we all know how it ends and the way an author mixes fact and fiction in a historical narrative. Later this week, the students will be creating a dialogue between police and an eye witness to the assassination.
I did NOT send a letter home with the students today. Hopefully, I will send something home tomorrow. The students did get progress reports in their homerooms today, but there's just not a lot of information about what the grades means.
Today, we reviewed our word parts. Tomorrow is part one of our test, and it will be fifty old word parts. Wednesday will be 25 more old word parts and the 25 new ones.
We also spent a lot of time reviewing the poetry types and terms. Our benchmark assessment on that stuff is tomorrow. We tried to turn the definitions into visuals, and we looked at a lot of examples of epic poems, ballads, odes, sonnets, and elegies.
Some of the students took a short quiz on figurative language. The students who didn't have to take the quiz are the ones who turned in the Uglies take-home quiz last week. For whatever reason, a ton of students didn't turn that in.
Finally, we started work with a chapter from a book about the Lincoln assassination. The students are looking at how the author creates suspense in a story even though we all know how it ends and the way an author mixes fact and fiction in a historical narrative. Later this week, the students will be creating a dialogue between police and an eye witness to the assassination.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Friday
It's Friday, and I already miss my students.
We went over the rest of our vocabulary word parts. I told the students that next week's 100 question test will be broken into two parts--50 old word parts on Tuesday and 25 old/25 new on Wednesday.
We took a quick and easy quiz on the Uglies reading.
Most of today's class was taken up by a single poem--Walt Whitman's elegy "O Captain! My Captain!" We looked at it on a literal level, a speaker lamenting the death of a ship's captain as they arrive back home after winning some kind of prize. Then, we looked at Whitman's real meaning, the symbolism, and the extended metaphor. Whitman's really writing about the death of Abraham Lincoln. It's a cool poem.
I forgot to write a blog entry yesterday. We did some dialogue review, looked at some vocabulary words, and went over the elegies the students read on their own Wednesday.
Expect a letter from me on Monday!
We went over the rest of our vocabulary word parts. I told the students that next week's 100 question test will be broken into two parts--50 old word parts on Tuesday and 25 old/25 new on Wednesday.
We took a quick and easy quiz on the Uglies reading.
Most of today's class was taken up by a single poem--Walt Whitman's elegy "O Captain! My Captain!" We looked at it on a literal level, a speaker lamenting the death of a ship's captain as they arrive back home after winning some kind of prize. Then, we looked at Whitman's real meaning, the symbolism, and the extended metaphor. Whitman's really writing about the death of Abraham Lincoln. It's a cool poem.
I forgot to write a blog entry yesterday. We did some dialogue review, looked at some vocabulary words, and went over the elegies the students read on their own Wednesday.
Expect a letter from me on Monday!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Late Wednesday Post
With chess club and the progress report deadline, writing a blog entry slipped my mind! Whoops! I'm not sure if too many parents are reading this anyway, but I've promised myself I'll stay consistent.
We started dialogue today. This should be review from previous years, but throughout my career, I've noticed that 8th graders have problems with dialogue. It's important, too. If you look at ISTEP writing samples, the ones those ISTEP people (ISTEP people, by the way, do have horns) give 5's and 6's usually have something about using "effective dialogue" in the description of why they deserve 5's and 6's. Also, dialogue is one of the ways writers can SHOW about characters. We learn about real people by what they say and how they say it, so our stories will be more realistic if we can characterize through dialogue.
We looked at the big five dialogue rules--quotation marks around direct quotes, capital letters for first words of quotes, punctuation between explanatory words (the "said" part) and the quote, the placement of that punctuation mark before the quotation mark, and appropriate end marks--and then looked at patterns and examples for beginning, end, and split quotes. We'll continue practising the patterns before writing dialogue on our own.
We also did a little character descriptive writing. The students had to turn a boring telling sentence ("____ is tired." ) into a showing description.
Finally, we read three elegies. The students scoured them for figurative language, good diction, and imagery, and they figured out the rhyme schemes. Tomorrow, we'll discuss what an elegy is and take a closer look at the poems. The poems (which you can find on the Internet):
"Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe
"The Death of the Bell Turret Gunner" by Randall Jarrell
"The First Snowfall" by James Lowell
Check tomorrow's entry for a definition of elegy.
Upcoming stuff: Students need to read to page 268 in Uglies by Friday. That'll be my next quiz. Students have a take-home quiz with a little writing assignment to turn in tomorrow. The students also have an ode to write by Friday, but I might give them extra time for that or make that part of a larger poetry collection assignment.
We started dialogue today. This should be review from previous years, but throughout my career, I've noticed that 8th graders have problems with dialogue. It's important, too. If you look at ISTEP writing samples, the ones those ISTEP people (ISTEP people, by the way, do have horns) give 5's and 6's usually have something about using "effective dialogue" in the description of why they deserve 5's and 6's. Also, dialogue is one of the ways writers can SHOW about characters. We learn about real people by what they say and how they say it, so our stories will be more realistic if we can characterize through dialogue.
We looked at the big five dialogue rules--quotation marks around direct quotes, capital letters for first words of quotes, punctuation between explanatory words (the "said" part) and the quote, the placement of that punctuation mark before the quotation mark, and appropriate end marks--and then looked at patterns and examples for beginning, end, and split quotes. We'll continue practising the patterns before writing dialogue on our own.
We also did a little character descriptive writing. The students had to turn a boring telling sentence ("____ is tired." ) into a showing description.
Finally, we read three elegies. The students scoured them for figurative language, good diction, and imagery, and they figured out the rhyme schemes. Tomorrow, we'll discuss what an elegy is and take a closer look at the poems. The poems (which you can find on the Internet):
"Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe
"The Death of the Bell Turret Gunner" by Randall Jarrell
"The First Snowfall" by James Lowell
Check tomorrow's entry for a definition of elegy.
Upcoming stuff: Students need to read to page 268 in Uglies by Friday. That'll be my next quiz. Students have a take-home quiz with a little writing assignment to turn in tomorrow. The students also have an ode to write by Friday, but I might give them extra time for that or make that part of a larger poetry collection assignment.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Tuesday, November 16
Today, we read a story about my Aunt Poisson (Poy-sahn...not like "poison") which had a ton of word parts in it. A lot of the students were able to identify the word parts and tell me what they meant. Students should be spending time with their word parts every single night! I would recommend using flash cards.
New word parts we went over today:
plu "plus" like plural
tang "touch" like tangle
string "bind" like. . .well, string. Stringent is a nice new word though.
liber "free" like liberty
junct "join" like conjunction, a part of speech they should all know
clud "close" like exclude"
We spend a lot of time with sonnets today. We finished looking at the sonnet from yesterday, but the students might have a little work to finish up on with that before they turn it in tomorrow. We also looked at the following Shakespeare sonnet:
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red, than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,
As any she belied with false compare.
That's right. He's dissin' his mistress. We discussed rhyme scheme, iambic pentameter, octameters, sestets, and couplets and looked at the characteristics of sonnets. Tomorrow, we'll move on to elegies.
Uglies quiz is due tomorrow. Students should read to page 229 by tomorrow.
New word parts we went over today:
plu "plus" like plural
tang "touch" like tangle
string "bind" like. . .well, string. Stringent is a nice new word though.
liber "free" like liberty
junct "join" like conjunction, a part of speech they should all know
clud "close" like exclude"
We spend a lot of time with sonnets today. We finished looking at the sonnet from yesterday, but the students might have a little work to finish up on with that before they turn it in tomorrow. We also looked at the following Shakespeare sonnet:
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red, than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,
As any she belied with false compare.
That's right. He's dissin' his mistress. We discussed rhyme scheme, iambic pentameter, octameters, sestets, and couplets and looked at the characteristics of sonnets. Tomorrow, we'll move on to elegies.
Uglies quiz is due tomorrow. Students should read to page 229 by tomorrow.
Monday, November 15, 2010
I Miss the Weekend--Monday, 11/15
The students have in their possession a quiz over the weekend's reading of Uglies. There's a little quiz about Tally's trip to Smoke since that's what the bulk of the reading was about, an 11-question figurative language quiz (with examples from the book), and space on the back to write a letter from one character of their choosing to another. Why did I let them take the quiz home? Well, over the weekend I graded a lot of quizzes taken by students who haven't read anything or who are way behind. It depressed me. I know that reading isn't always on their minds during the weekend and that they may have forgotten, so I'm giving them a night to try to catch up and do well on the quiz.
They should be finished with page 211 by tomorrow. A lot of my students have finished the book and are asking about the others in the series--Pretties, Specials, and Extras. We're not going to read those as a class, but the students can definitely find copies in any bookstore (they're all bestsellers) or library and read them on their own. I'm pleased a lot of the students seem to like the book!
We looked at some of our vocabulary word parts today. I encourage the students to think of an easy-peasy word to attach to the word part to help them remember the meaning. Today we looked at the following:
germ (vital or related) like germane
greg (group) like congregation
mar (sea) like submarine
prim (first) like prime
pyro (fire) like pyromaniac
clam (cry out) like exclamatory or exclaim
We finished discussed Keats' "Ode to Autumn" (it's a toughy!) and then moved on to sonnets. Sonnets are 14-line rhymed lyric poems. There are different kinds of sonnets (Shakespearean, Petrarchian) but we're not going to focus on that. For the next couple days, we're going to look at Shakespeare's sonnets. Today, we read the lovely Sonnet 18 where Shakespeare compares his female companion with summer (a metaphor!) and briefly looked at another one that starts "When I do count the clock that tells the time." The other starts with "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" If you Google them by first line, you should be able to find them online, and it might be a good idea to read them over with your child and discuss what each (sometimes confusing) line means. We'll work more with sonnets tomorrow.
As always, let me know if you have questions about my class or the work we do.
They should be finished with page 211 by tomorrow. A lot of my students have finished the book and are asking about the others in the series--Pretties, Specials, and Extras. We're not going to read those as a class, but the students can definitely find copies in any bookstore (they're all bestsellers) or library and read them on their own. I'm pleased a lot of the students seem to like the book!
We looked at some of our vocabulary word parts today. I encourage the students to think of an easy-peasy word to attach to the word part to help them remember the meaning. Today we looked at the following:
germ (vital or related) like germane
greg (group) like congregation
mar (sea) like submarine
prim (first) like prime
pyro (fire) like pyromaniac
clam (cry out) like exclamatory or exclaim
We finished discussed Keats' "Ode to Autumn" (it's a toughy!) and then moved on to sonnets. Sonnets are 14-line rhymed lyric poems. There are different kinds of sonnets (Shakespearean, Petrarchian) but we're not going to focus on that. For the next couple days, we're going to look at Shakespeare's sonnets. Today, we read the lovely Sonnet 18 where Shakespeare compares his female companion with summer (a metaphor!) and briefly looked at another one that starts "When I do count the clock that tells the time." The other starts with "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" If you Google them by first line, you should be able to find them online, and it might be a good idea to read them over with your child and discuss what each (sometimes confusing) line means. We'll work more with sonnets tomorrow.
As always, let me know if you have questions about my class or the work we do.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Friday!
Those of us who had our writing assignment today (I got a lot of those "I left mine on the dresser" and "Mine is at home" comments) shared with a peer. They looked for uses of figurative language, good action verbs and descriptive words, and imagery and filled out a 1/3 sheet of paper. Then, I handed back their first descriptive writing, and they compared the two. Now it's my turn to read and grade them!
We looked at a Pablo Neruda poem called "Ode to a Pair of Socks" and looked at why it's an ode. We also looked at all the figurative language that Neruda used. He stuffed his poem full of figurative language. He sure was a poet who loved his socks.
We also read a really difficult John Keats poem called "Ode to Autumn," a poem that praises the season. Lots of tough vocabulary in that one, but the students broke it down stanza by stanza and looked at the poetic tools that Keats used. Keats, by the way, died at the young age of 26, but is still regarded as one of England's best poets ever. Here he is:
You can find some of Keats' poems at this website. If you want to read Pablo Neruda's odes (and you should! They're pretty cool!), you can check some out here. That's the page where the odes start.
Have a great weekend!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Thursday, 11/11
Happy Veterans Day!
We spent most of today on writing. We looked at excerpts from the novel where the author was using telling or showing sentences. Hopefully, the students see that using action verbs, figurative language, and good diction can really help create an experience for their readers and make the objects of their description real. The objects of their description in this case are their "terrifying settings," and we'll do some peer reading with those tomorrow.
There was also a quiz on the novel. The questions:
1) What does Tally find out on her 16th birthday?
2) Who are Sol and Ellie?
3) What choice does Tally have?
They're easy question.
By tomorrow, they should be ready to start Part Two of The Uglies by getting to page 135. We really need to pick up the pace with this thing!
We spent most of today on writing. We looked at excerpts from the novel where the author was using telling or showing sentences. Hopefully, the students see that using action verbs, figurative language, and good diction can really help create an experience for their readers and make the objects of their description real. The objects of their description in this case are their "terrifying settings," and we'll do some peer reading with those tomorrow.
There was also a quiz on the novel. The questions:
1) What does Tally find out on her 16th birthday?
2) Who are Sol and Ellie?
3) What choice does Tally have?
They're easy question.
By tomorrow, they should be ready to start Part Two of The Uglies by getting to page 135. We really need to pick up the pace with this thing!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Wednesday, 11/10
We looked at one of my favorite poets today--Pablo Neruda. He wrote a collection of poems called Odes to Common Things, and the poem we looked at today was called "Ode to the Apple." He must really like apples. We broke the poem down stanza by stanza and then looked for figurative language. They also answered a constructed response question.
There was a very short quiz on The Uglies. The first question was "Tell me something that proves you have read to at least page 96," so if they don't do well on this quiz, they just aren't doing the reading. Watch for that quiz score (Uglies Quiz 4) to see if your child is staying on track.
We reviewed descriptive writing and looked at an excerpt from our novel where the author describes some river rapids to see what good descriptive writing looks like. We're focusing on showing instead of telling with our descriptions, and the students are currently writing about a "terrifying place" that I randomly gave them. Some of them are writing about a dentist's office, haunted houses, cemeteries, abandoned barns. It's an exercise in showing the setting to their readers and creating an experience and a mood. We'll finish up with those tomorrow and compare the work to an earlier description that they wrote.
They also had the vocabulary word part quiz. I haven't graded them yet, but it's pretty obvious that a lot of students just aren't doing the work needed to learn these word parts. Out of 100 questions (that's what all the word part quizzes will have from this point on), some students only answered about 20. I even had a "definition bank" on the board for them to use, but if they don't put any work into it, they're not going to learn them.
Students should read to page 120 in The Uglies tomorrow.
Oh, I'm still not sure how many people are reading this. If you could drop me a comment (just to say hi!), I'd appreciate it!
There was a very short quiz on The Uglies. The first question was "Tell me something that proves you have read to at least page 96," so if they don't do well on this quiz, they just aren't doing the reading. Watch for that quiz score (Uglies Quiz 4) to see if your child is staying on track.
We reviewed descriptive writing and looked at an excerpt from our novel where the author describes some river rapids to see what good descriptive writing looks like. We're focusing on showing instead of telling with our descriptions, and the students are currently writing about a "terrifying place" that I randomly gave them. Some of them are writing about a dentist's office, haunted houses, cemeteries, abandoned barns. It's an exercise in showing the setting to their readers and creating an experience and a mood. We'll finish up with those tomorrow and compare the work to an earlier description that they wrote.
They also had the vocabulary word part quiz. I haven't graded them yet, but it's pretty obvious that a lot of students just aren't doing the work needed to learn these word parts. Out of 100 questions (that's what all the word part quizzes will have from this point on), some students only answered about 20. I even had a "definition bank" on the board for them to use, but if they don't put any work into it, they're not going to learn them.
Students should read to page 120 in The Uglies tomorrow.
Oh, I'm still not sure how many people are reading this. If you could drop me a comment (just to say hi!), I'd appreciate it!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Tuesday, 11/9
Today, we reviewed our parts of speech with some sentence classification. A lot of the students are still struggling with this, mostly because they haven't really given it their all. Here's the sentence we did together in class today:
After his morning jog during the rain storm, the tired man in soaked workout clothes was feeling wet and miserable.
See if your child can go through that sentence and give you all the parts of speech. (Answers at the bottom of this entry.)
We looked at a new poem type today--the ode. An ode is a poem that praises a person, place, thing, or idea. We looked at a silly poem I wrote about my tie, an ode called "Morning" by Billy Collins, and "Ode to the Drum" by Yusef Komunyakaa. We'll look at more odes the next couple days.
We did a little vocabulary review for tomorrow's test. Tomorrow's test has 100 word parts on it. I've encouraged the students to study the ones they don't know extra hard, writing them down and saying them. As I told the students today, the more senses they involve in their learning (seeing the words, feeling the words on their tongue or as they write, hearing themselves say the words), the more likely those definitions will stick in their brains.
We didn't do anything with our novel today. I decided to make the last two nights catch-up dates, so the students should be through page 96 by tomorrow.
After-P (preposition)
his-PPA (possessive pronoun adjective)
morning-adjective
jog-OP (object of the preposition)
during-P
the-A (article adjective)
rain-adjective
storm-OP
the-A
tired-adjective
man-SN (subject noun)
in-P
soaked-adjective
workout-adjective
clothes-OP
was-HV (helping verb)
feeling-LV (linking verb)
wet-PrA (predicate adjective)
and-conjunction
miserable-PrA
After his morning jog during the rain storm, the tired man in soaked workout clothes was feeling wet and miserable.
See if your child can go through that sentence and give you all the parts of speech. (Answers at the bottom of this entry.)
We looked at a new poem type today--the ode. An ode is a poem that praises a person, place, thing, or idea. We looked at a silly poem I wrote about my tie, an ode called "Morning" by Billy Collins, and "Ode to the Drum" by Yusef Komunyakaa. We'll look at more odes the next couple days.
We did a little vocabulary review for tomorrow's test. Tomorrow's test has 100 word parts on it. I've encouraged the students to study the ones they don't know extra hard, writing them down and saying them. As I told the students today, the more senses they involve in their learning (seeing the words, feeling the words on their tongue or as they write, hearing themselves say the words), the more likely those definitions will stick in their brains.
We didn't do anything with our novel today. I decided to make the last two nights catch-up dates, so the students should be through page 96 by tomorrow.
After-P (preposition)
his-PPA (possessive pronoun adjective)
morning-adjective
jog-OP (object of the preposition)
during-P
the-A (article adjective)
rain-adjective
storm-OP
the-A
tired-adjective
man-SN (subject noun)
in-P
soaked-adjective
workout-adjective
clothes-OP
was-HV (helping verb)
feeling-LV (linking verb)
wet-PrA (predicate adjective)
and-conjunction
miserable-PrA
Monday, November 8, 2010
Monday, 11/8
The students sure were antsy today.
Today, we took a quiz on the weekend's reading of The Uglies. They should have read to page 76 by today, not a lot for three nights of reading. The questions were very easy, so easy that they could almost have passed just by reading the titles of the chapters. Here were the questions, so you can see how easy these quizzes are.
1) Where do Shay and Tally go? (Easy because almost all of the weekend reading has the characters in this place, and the descriptive detail makes it memorable.)
2) What does Shay show Tally, something that they end up using their hoverboards on. (Easy because it's an old abandoned roller coaster and one of the most action-packed scenes we've had so far.)
3) Why do they light signal flares? (The title of the next chapter makes that easy. They're "Waiting for David"...)
4) What is one prediction you have for the book? (Lots of right answers here. Their prediction doesn't even have to be right.)
5) What is the first word on page 158? (They're supposed to bring their books every day. They could use them on this question.)
There were also two response questions, one about physical features they would change if they could or be required to change if they lived in this society, and another about whether Shay is a good or bad influence on Tally's life.
After that, we read an article about children getting cosmetic surgery. It ties in with the novel reading.
We reviewed our vocabulary by looking at some of the words the students invented using our 125 word parts and some sentences with the word parts of list five.
Finally, we finished up with ballads. We looked at one more folk ballad called "Pretty Boy Floyd" and heard Woody Guthrie sing it, and then we read a literary ballad by Edna St. Vincent Millay called "Ballad of the Harp Weaver." The students found figurative language, imagery, and good diction in the poem.
Ask your son or daughter what a ballad is and what the differences between folk and literary ballads. See if they know!
For tomorrow, they need to read to page 96 in The Uglies. There's a good chance that we'll do nothing at all with the book tomorrow and quiz over those pages on Wednesday. Wednesday is also their next vocabulary quiz over list five. Here are their word parts and their meanings.
Leave a comment if you have any questions. Actually, leave a comment just to say hello. I'm curious to see how many parents a) got the letter, and b) came to check out the new blog.
Today, we took a quiz on the weekend's reading of The Uglies. They should have read to page 76 by today, not a lot for three nights of reading. The questions were very easy, so easy that they could almost have passed just by reading the titles of the chapters. Here were the questions, so you can see how easy these quizzes are.
1) Where do Shay and Tally go? (Easy because almost all of the weekend reading has the characters in this place, and the descriptive detail makes it memorable.)
2) What does Shay show Tally, something that they end up using their hoverboards on. (Easy because it's an old abandoned roller coaster and one of the most action-packed scenes we've had so far.)
3) Why do they light signal flares? (The title of the next chapter makes that easy. They're "Waiting for David"...)
4) What is one prediction you have for the book? (Lots of right answers here. Their prediction doesn't even have to be right.)
5) What is the first word on page 158? (They're supposed to bring their books every day. They could use them on this question.)
There were also two response questions, one about physical features they would change if they could or be required to change if they lived in this society, and another about whether Shay is a good or bad influence on Tally's life.
After that, we read an article about children getting cosmetic surgery. It ties in with the novel reading.
We reviewed our vocabulary by looking at some of the words the students invented using our 125 word parts and some sentences with the word parts of list five.
Finally, we finished up with ballads. We looked at one more folk ballad called "Pretty Boy Floyd" and heard Woody Guthrie sing it, and then we read a literary ballad by Edna St. Vincent Millay called "Ballad of the Harp Weaver." The students found figurative language, imagery, and good diction in the poem.
Ask your son or daughter what a ballad is and what the differences between folk and literary ballads. See if they know!
For tomorrow, they need to read to page 96 in The Uglies. There's a good chance that we'll do nothing at all with the book tomorrow and quiz over those pages on Wednesday. Wednesday is also their next vocabulary quiz over list five. Here are their word parts and their meanings.
Leave a comment if you have any questions. Actually, leave a comment just to say hello. I'm curious to see how many parents a) got the letter, and b) came to check out the new blog.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
This Is the First Post on This Blog
There's nothing here yet, but starting tomorrow, you'll get a daily update detailing what happened in class, announcements, and homework. Feel free to leave comments or email me.
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