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.