Whew

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 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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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:

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.

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.

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.

Late Wednesday Posts

Students need to read to page 36 in Walk Two Moons. There'll be class discussion and some group reading tomorrow.