It's that time of the 8th grade school year when language arts teachers are supposed to be working on research papers. Coincidentally (or is it?), Mr. Day's students are working on their PBL which involves a lot of research. Since I'm a fairly lazy guy without my own ideas, I thought it'd be a good idea (Note: it was Mrs. Butler's idea actually; I don't have my own ideas.) to piggyback on that already existing project and cover the research stuff that I need to:
> narrowing topics; coming up with research questions
> keeping track of sources on bibliography sheets
> taking notes with notecards
> paraphrasing
> avoiding paraphrasing
> crediting sources
> good sources vs. bad sources
> bibliography pages
Today, I went over the bibliography sheets, and we spent a lot of time with paraphrasing. Ask your student what it means to paraphrase and why it's so important to learn how to do it well. We also went over what research is (analyzing and synthesizing). Tomorrow, we'll get more into notes and how to know if a source is a good one. On Thursday, we'll spend some time in the library researching from books. Not the Internet. Books.
We also finished up the word parts for this group. Ask your student what the following mean:
-ine like in porcine and feminine
-ar like in stellar and circular
platy like in plateau and platypus and plate
fin like in final and infinitesimal (or infinite if you want to be less fancy)
The mathy hedron like in polyhedron and octahedron
ambul like in somnambulism, funambulist, and perambulate
-ous like in glorious, vivacious, and scandalous
And topo like in a topographical map or the word topiary
Finally, we went over our sentence quiz from last week, the one about compound subjects and verbs and compound sentences. The students got those back, and they're out of 20. A 14 would be the lowest score they can get to pass, but a lot of the students were in the 18-19 range on this one. If they missed 3, 4, and 5, by the way, you need to have a talk with them because those answers were on the chalkboard. If they didn't know that, they weren't paying attention a few minutes before the quiz when we were reviewing.
We looked at complex sentences today, too. A complex sentence is made up of an independent clause and a subordinate clause. A subordinate clause is a sentence with a subordinate conjunction (words like because, if, when, after, before, since, while, that) added to the front of it. We did some practice sentences and will do some more tomorrow.
Man, that looks like a busy day! More busy-ness tomorrow unless we're all devoured by the approaching ice monsters the meteorologist keep talking about.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Wednesday and Thursday (Two Entries in One!)
If there's going to be a day of the week that I don't write anything here, it'll more than likely be Wednesday. For whatever reason, this blog slips my mind on those days. I'm sorry.
Yesterday and today, we spent a big chunk of time looking at the ISTEP writing rubric. We looked at six actual student ISTEP prompt writings (narrative) and graded them with grade sheets. Then, we talked about what grades we'd give them, and I told them how the ISTEP people scored them and read their thoughts. Most of the students seemed to be harsher than the ISTEP people actually.
I gave them back their "Favorite season" personal narratives and had them grade their own. Then, they compared their grades to the grades that I gave them. We'll practice some ISTEP writing again soon.
Yesterday, we had a grammar quiz (a real one this time) over our sentence combining. As we were reviewing the grammar stuff right before the quiz, I caught a lot of students not paying any attention. That probably won't be good for their quiz scores.
Word parts--hold on tight because here's a bunch of them from the last two days:
sci means "know" like science, conscience, and omniscient narrators
graph means "write" like biography, autograph, polygraph tests, and bibliography
lat means "side" like bilateral agreements and lateral fins on fish
lith means "rock" like paleolithic, neolithic, and megalith
tract means "pull" like a tractor (I had to explain to these city kids what a tractor was), contraction, and attract
in means "in" or "not" like include (close in) and inscribe or insane and insomnia
co means "together) like cooperate, coordinating conjunctions (our FANBOYS), and coauthor
phile means "love" like a philosopher (a lover of wisdom), a bibliophile, and philanthropy
hexa means "6" like a hexahedron (a dice is a hexahedron), a hexagram, and a hexapod
fract means "break" like fracture and infraction. And fractions if you like math.
And theo means "god" like atheism, monotheism, and theomania, a psychological disorder where one believe he is a god
Some students have not turned in their work for the school uniform writings. I will grade those over the weekend, so they need to be turned in by tomorrow.
Yesterday and today, we spent a big chunk of time looking at the ISTEP writing rubric. We looked at six actual student ISTEP prompt writings (narrative) and graded them with grade sheets. Then, we talked about what grades we'd give them, and I told them how the ISTEP people scored them and read their thoughts. Most of the students seemed to be harsher than the ISTEP people actually.
I gave them back their "Favorite season" personal narratives and had them grade their own. Then, they compared their grades to the grades that I gave them. We'll practice some ISTEP writing again soon.
Yesterday, we had a grammar quiz (a real one this time) over our sentence combining. As we were reviewing the grammar stuff right before the quiz, I caught a lot of students not paying any attention. That probably won't be good for their quiz scores.
Word parts--hold on tight because here's a bunch of them from the last two days:
sci means "know" like science, conscience, and omniscient narrators
graph means "write" like biography, autograph, polygraph tests, and bibliography
lat means "side" like bilateral agreements and lateral fins on fish
lith means "rock" like paleolithic, neolithic, and megalith
tract means "pull" like a tractor (I had to explain to these city kids what a tractor was), contraction, and attract
in means "in" or "not" like include (close in) and inscribe or insane and insomnia
co means "together) like cooperate, coordinating conjunctions (our FANBOYS), and coauthor
phile means "love" like a philosopher (a lover of wisdom), a bibliophile, and philanthropy
hexa means "6" like a hexahedron (a dice is a hexahedron), a hexagram, and a hexapod
fract means "break" like fracture and infraction. And fractions if you like math.
And theo means "god" like atheism, monotheism, and theomania, a psychological disorder where one believe he is a god
Some students have not turned in their work for the school uniform writings. I will grade those over the weekend, so they need to be turned in by tomorrow.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Tuesday
It's a lovely wintry day outside. We found that out during third block today when we had a fire drill. I hate losing that time, but it was nice to get a breath of fresh air.
We took a sentence quiz today. Only it's not even a real quiz! That's right. I lied to the students. I find that the students will take a grammar activity more seriously if I lie to them and tell them it's a quiz. It was practice with sentence combining, and I'll have some feedback ready for them tomorrow. Later this week, we're going to be adding complex sentences to our sentence combining toolbox.
We went over six of our new word parts today after going over last Friday's test. Here they are:
path means "feeling" like in sympathy and empathy.
a is a prefix that means "not" like in amoral or agraphia, a psychological disorder where people can no longer write.
nomy means "law" like in astronomy (the laws of the stars), economy, and taxonomy.
fid means "faith" like fidelity and infidelity and confidence.
caco means "bad" like cacophony, the antonym for euphony.
hetero means "different" like heterogeneous and heterosexual.
Speaking of the word part test from last Friday...I told the students today that if they don't like their score, they need to do something about it. First, they need to work with the words a lot more. But for their grade, I've told them they need to come up with something they can do with the words they missed that can earn those points back. It might involve drawing a picture, writing the words, making flashcards...something. They need to run their idea by me, and I will tell them whether or not it will work for a little extra credit to make up for points they missed on the test.
We worked on the school uniform article work some more today. We also looked at some propaganda techniques that advertisers and persuasive authors use, a lot which the students can find in commercials they see on the television. Tomorrow, we're going to be reading a really offensive article that uses a lot of the propaganda techniques.
If the students did not finish their school uniform work, they will need to finish that tonight.
We took a sentence quiz today. Only it's not even a real quiz! That's right. I lied to the students. I find that the students will take a grammar activity more seriously if I lie to them and tell them it's a quiz. It was practice with sentence combining, and I'll have some feedback ready for them tomorrow. Later this week, we're going to be adding complex sentences to our sentence combining toolbox.
We went over six of our new word parts today after going over last Friday's test. Here they are:
path means "feeling" like in sympathy and empathy.
a is a prefix that means "not" like in amoral or agraphia, a psychological disorder where people can no longer write.
nomy means "law" like in astronomy (the laws of the stars), economy, and taxonomy.
fid means "faith" like fidelity and infidelity and confidence.
caco means "bad" like cacophony, the antonym for euphony.
hetero means "different" like heterogeneous and heterosexual.
Speaking of the word part test from last Friday...I told the students today that if they don't like their score, they need to do something about it. First, they need to work with the words a lot more. But for their grade, I've told them they need to come up with something they can do with the words they missed that can earn those points back. It might involve drawing a picture, writing the words, making flashcards...something. They need to run their idea by me, and I will tell them whether or not it will work for a little extra credit to make up for points they missed on the test.
We worked on the school uniform article work some more today. We also looked at some propaganda techniques that advertisers and persuasive authors use, a lot which the students can find in commercials they see on the television. Tomorrow, we're going to be reading a really offensive article that uses a lot of the propaganda techniques.
If the students did not finish their school uniform work, they will need to finish that tonight.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Monday
First off, I'd like to apologize for my handwriting on the progress reports that I sent home today. I write like a small child. Not even a regular small child. No, I write like a small child who has broken both of his arms falling out of a hot air balloon. It's not pretty. As always, if you have any questions, please let me know by calling or emailing. Those progress reports need to be signed and returned by Wednesday, by the way. There's some grade information all the way at the bottom of this entry.
We took a quiz on the weekend novel reading. It wasn't a very good quiz, and I'm not proud of it. We discussed some of the stuff that happened in the book very quickly. They will need to finish the novel by Friday. We'll be turning it back in soon because there's another teacher who wants her students to read it.
We spent some time reviewing sentences with compound subjects and verbs and the three ways to make compound sentences. There are a few of my students (a lot of the same ones who have low grades on the progress report I sent home today) who don't believe me when I say that this stuff is important. They aren't paying attention or giving it their best effort. Things will not end well with them.
Finally, we reviewed a lot of the terms from our persuasion unit last semester and started work with two conflicting articles on school uniforms. Students are looking for the authors' use of logos, pathos, and ethos as well as the elaboration techniques (the D.R.A.P.E.S.). They will also be completing three constructed responses over the readings.
The progress reports:
We'll have more writing grades soon. The story was an in-class ISTEP writing graded with their 6-point rubric. The effort on that wasn't great for a lot of the students.
The reading--that's mostly in-class work. Some of the students lose things that they're working on or don't get things finished and turned in. There are really no good excuses for not having an OK "reading" grade.
Indy read covers the at-home reading stuff. It seems that a lot of the students think they can do well in my reading/writing class without doing any reading. I hope this progress report convinces them otherwise.
And the vocabulary...the first grade is just if they took good notes. That should be a 25/25. The quiz from Friday is on there. I have a lot of students getting A's and B's and a lot of students getting very low F's. The more they put into it, the better those grades will be. My recommendation hasn't changed--they need to spend a little time with the word parts every night.
Here's a picture of a cat with something on its head:
We took a quiz on the weekend novel reading. It wasn't a very good quiz, and I'm not proud of it. We discussed some of the stuff that happened in the book very quickly. They will need to finish the novel by Friday. We'll be turning it back in soon because there's another teacher who wants her students to read it.
We spent some time reviewing sentences with compound subjects and verbs and the three ways to make compound sentences. There are a few of my students (a lot of the same ones who have low grades on the progress report I sent home today) who don't believe me when I say that this stuff is important. They aren't paying attention or giving it their best effort. Things will not end well with them.
Finally, we reviewed a lot of the terms from our persuasion unit last semester and started work with two conflicting articles on school uniforms. Students are looking for the authors' use of logos, pathos, and ethos as well as the elaboration techniques (the D.R.A.P.E.S.). They will also be completing three constructed responses over the readings.
The progress reports:
We'll have more writing grades soon. The story was an in-class ISTEP writing graded with their 6-point rubric. The effort on that wasn't great for a lot of the students.
The reading--that's mostly in-class work. Some of the students lose things that they're working on or don't get things finished and turned in. There are really no good excuses for not having an OK "reading" grade.
Indy read covers the at-home reading stuff. It seems that a lot of the students think they can do well in my reading/writing class without doing any reading. I hope this progress report convinces them otherwise.
And the vocabulary...the first grade is just if they took good notes. That should be a 25/25. The quiz from Friday is on there. I have a lot of students getting A's and B's and a lot of students getting very low F's. The more they put into it, the better those grades will be. My recommendation hasn't changed--they need to spend a little time with the word parts every night.
Here's a picture of a cat with something on its head:
Friday, January 21, 2011
Two Hours Less Than a Normal Friday
Shorter classes today. We kept things simple. They had their vocabulary test. I'll have that graded and back to the students on Monday along with some progress reports for them to take home.
We went over the new 25 word parts--List 9. I think it's an easy list this time.
And if they finished their test early, they got some time to read. They need to get to page 209 by Monday. We should finish the book on Wednesday.
Have a great weekend. Try to stay warm!
We went over the new 25 word parts--List 9. I think it's an easy list this time.
And if they finished their test early, they got some time to read. They need to get to page 209 by Monday. We should finish the book on Wednesday.
Have a great weekend. Try to stay warm!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
There's Snow Messin' Around on Thursdays in My Class!
Just in case there's another almond mishap later (or somebody tries to kill me because of that terrible pun up there, one that I stole from the CNN Kids News guy we watch in some Lynhurst homerooms every morning), I thought I'd get the blog entry finished early.
We had a short quiz over chapters 18-20 in Fever 1793. The grandfather dies after a fight with some robbers in these chapters. Matilda is left alone after burying her grandfather. There's a little girl with a broken doll. So much excitement, action, and emotion in these chapters! If they didn't do well on today's quiz, there's one explanation--they aren't reading. And that makes me as sad as a girl with a broken doll.
We reviewed more word parts today. Today I actually used the words (without telling them) that are on tomorrow's test. Hopefully, that will help. They should spend some time studying tonight! By the way, my third block class was not cooperating as we reviewed the word parts. I was tired of talking over them and decided to just start them on their other work. They, I guess, can study the word parts on their own.
We finished (maybe) the work with Martin Luther King's speech. Today, they wrote King a letter about what the speech means to them and about whether they think any parts of his "dream" have become a reality today. Hopefully, they were able to make some connections.
We had a short quiz over chapters 18-20 in Fever 1793. The grandfather dies after a fight with some robbers in these chapters. Matilda is left alone after burying her grandfather. There's a little girl with a broken doll. So much excitement, action, and emotion in these chapters! If they didn't do well on today's quiz, there's one explanation--they aren't reading. And that makes me as sad as a girl with a broken doll.
We reviewed more word parts today. Today I actually used the words (without telling them) that are on tomorrow's test. Hopefully, that will help. They should spend some time studying tonight! By the way, my third block class was not cooperating as we reviewed the word parts. I was tired of talking over them and decided to just start them on their other work. They, I guess, can study the word parts on their own.
We finished (maybe) the work with Martin Luther King's speech. Today, they wrote King a letter about what the speech means to them and about whether they think any parts of his "dream" have become a reality today. Hopefully, they were able to make some connections.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Tuesday
Sorry for the late entry. I nearly died after choking on an almond, and with all the excitement, it slipped my mind.
We took a very short quiz over the weekend's reading. There was one question--what happened in the book during the part you read over the weekend. If they missed that one, they didn't do their reading.
We reviewed some of our older word parts. The quiz is still Friday.
Finally, we looked at Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. We looked at the context of his speech--what was going on in America--before breaking the speech apart paragraph by paragraph. We did some highlighting and summarizing. Thursday, we'll write letters to Martin Luther King about what the speech means to us and whether or not we think his dream has come true.
There is no class tomorrow because of a field trip to Ben Davis University. BDU is awesome, so make sure you ask your child about our trip tomorrow night. I don't think I'll have a blog entry tomorrow.
We took a very short quiz over the weekend's reading. There was one question--what happened in the book during the part you read over the weekend. If they missed that one, they didn't do their reading.
We reviewed some of our older word parts. The quiz is still Friday.
Finally, we looked at Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. We looked at the context of his speech--what was going on in America--before breaking the speech apart paragraph by paragraph. We did some highlighting and summarizing. Thursday, we'll write letters to Martin Luther King about what the speech means to us and whether or not we think his dream has come true.
There is no class tomorrow because of a field trip to Ben Davis University. BDU is awesome, so make sure you ask your child about our trip tomorrow night. I don't think I'll have a blog entry tomorrow.
Friday, January 14, 2011
The End of Another Week
With every week that passes, I'm reminded at how much closer high school is approaching. And that worries me when I think of some of my students. With the effort some of my students are giving me, I don't think they'll be ready. Others are working hard and doing very very well though.
Vocabulary review--short and sweet. Reminder: Their invention words are due Tuesday. Some of them will forget and have to turn them in Wednesday.
Sentence review--we reviewed the stuff we talked about earlier in the week and went over the practice they did for homework. They also worked on another half sheet of sentence combining practice.
We took a very short and very easy Fever quiz and discussed what we'd read in the last few chapters. There's some gross stuff in that book. They need to read to page 130 by Tuesday.
Grade explanation:
The Frost poem, the Fever half sheet for chapters 1-4, and the sentence combining worksheet were all homework things. The WwW notes and the Plague chapter one work were in-class assignments. The quizzes were from the reading. There's been nothing difficult so far this semester, and no student should have a low grade at this point. If your student does, it's simply because he or she has not done the work.
Thanks for reading. Have a great three-day weekend!
Vocabulary review--short and sweet. Reminder: Their invention words are due Tuesday. Some of them will forget and have to turn them in Wednesday.
Sentence review--we reviewed the stuff we talked about earlier in the week and went over the practice they did for homework. They also worked on another half sheet of sentence combining practice.
We took a very short and very easy Fever quiz and discussed what we'd read in the last few chapters. There's some gross stuff in that book. They need to read to page 130 by Tuesday.
Grade explanation:
The Frost poem, the Fever half sheet for chapters 1-4, and the sentence combining worksheet were all homework things. The WwW notes and the Plague chapter one work were in-class assignments. The quizzes were from the reading. There's been nothing difficult so far this semester, and no student should have a low grade at this point. If your student does, it's simply because he or she has not done the work.
Thanks for reading. Have a great three-day weekend!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Thursday's Class
We spent some time reviewing our vocabulary word parts from List 8. I also gave the students an assignment--they have to make 25 new inventions for the word parts. They need to name their invention (with the word part in the name) and write a brief description of what the invention does. Hopefully, what the invention does will have something to do with the word part's meaning. You want an example?
A Sensomatic 5000 (because inventions sound cooler when they have numbers after them) is a thing you wear on your head. It will start vibrating to let you know when somebody is about to TOUCH you.
Ok, that's dorky. But doing this will help the word parts stick in their heads. I hope.
Oh, important announcement: I'm moving the next vocab test to next Friday instead of next Wednesday.
We had some discussion over the novel and the nonfiction text we read earlier in the week. Things are getting good in Yellow 1793! New conflicts are popping up, and we're really getting a chance to see what our characters are made of! The students answer three constructed response questions, and they graded a peer's C.R. using the ISTEP rubric.
I collected the grammar homework. We'll review the sentence stuff from yesterday on Friday.
A Sensomatic 5000 (because inventions sound cooler when they have numbers after them) is a thing you wear on your head. It will start vibrating to let you know when somebody is about to TOUCH you.
Ok, that's dorky. But doing this will help the word parts stick in their heads. I hope.
Oh, important announcement: I'm moving the next vocab test to next Friday instead of next Wednesday.
We had some discussion over the novel and the nonfiction text we read earlier in the week. Things are getting good in Yellow 1793! New conflicts are popping up, and we're really getting a chance to see what our characters are made of! The students answer three constructed response questions, and they graded a peer's C.R. using the ISTEP rubric.
I collected the grammar homework. We'll review the sentence stuff from yesterday on Friday.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
1/12/11
I'm so glad that SNOWPOCALYPSE 2011 didn't take away any of my class time. And I bet the students feel the same way!
We spent most of our time today with grammar, something I'm sure the students were also glad about. We started to look at sentence types and sentence combining. It's important for three reasons:
1) The state of Indiana tells me I have to teach it
2) There are ISTEP questions every single year on it
3) It can help them with their writing style, giving them an idea how to write with more variety and fluency
I care most about #3. Today, we looked at fragments, run-ons/comma-splices, sentences with compound subjects and verbs, and compound sentences. There are only three ways to make a compound sentence: a semicolon, a comma and coordinating conjunction, or a connective adverb with a semicolon.
There is a worksheet that is due tomorrow. They had some time to work on it in class, but most of the students had some to work on at home. Look over it with them and have them explain what they're doing, even if you already know. Having them reteach what they learned is a great way to get it stuck in their heads.
We also had some time to look at constructed response. I showed them lots of examples of 2-point constructed responses that they had written (over the Robert Frost poem from last week) and we talked about what they need to do to get that 2 out of 2. Almost all of them just need to use the text. I've said that many times before, and they'll hear it many times from now until ISTEP.
Fever 1793 reading: They only have to read one chapter (chapter 9) tonight. I told them to focus on forming opinions and making inferences as they read this chapter. Looking at quiz scores, it seems that a lot of students are not caught up with the reading despite our really slow pace.
My spell checker tells me that SNOWPOCALYPSE isn't a word. Neither is ISTEP apparently.
We spent most of our time today with grammar, something I'm sure the students were also glad about. We started to look at sentence types and sentence combining. It's important for three reasons:
1) The state of Indiana tells me I have to teach it
2) There are ISTEP questions every single year on it
3) It can help them with their writing style, giving them an idea how to write with more variety and fluency
I care most about #3. Today, we looked at fragments, run-ons/comma-splices, sentences with compound subjects and verbs, and compound sentences. There are only three ways to make a compound sentence: a semicolon, a comma and coordinating conjunction, or a connective adverb with a semicolon.
There is a worksheet that is due tomorrow. They had some time to work on it in class, but most of the students had some to work on at home. Look over it with them and have them explain what they're doing, even if you already know. Having them reteach what they learned is a great way to get it stuck in their heads.
We also had some time to look at constructed response. I showed them lots of examples of 2-point constructed responses that they had written (over the Robert Frost poem from last week) and we talked about what they need to do to get that 2 out of 2. Almost all of them just need to use the text. I've said that many times before, and they'll hear it many times from now until ISTEP.
Fever 1793 reading: They only have to read one chapter (chapter 9) tonight. I told them to focus on forming opinions and making inferences as they read this chapter. Looking at quiz scores, it seems that a lot of students are not caught up with the reading despite our really slow pace.
My spell checker tells me that SNOWPOCALYPSE isn't a word. Neither is ISTEP apparently.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Tuesday's Class
Due today: Chapters 5 and 6 of Fever 1793. And yes, there was a very easy 10-question quiz.
We started the day with MAZE testing. I don't remember what MAZE stands for, but I think it's an acronym. It's a very short standardized test that involves some reading and choosing of right words. Stress free. They took the test during the first semester, and I believe the school will make me do it one more time before the end of the year.
We went over the rest of our vocabulary word parts for List 8. Our next test, by the way, isn't going to be until next Wednesday. That'll give them some extra nights to study and me some extra time to review in class. Here were today's word parts:
tact like in the words contact and tactile. What do you think it means, parents?
voc like in vocals, invocation (a prayer), convocation, and vociferously (adverb meaning "in a loud, boisterous way")...Can you guess what that word part means?
rid like in ridicule, ridiculous, and riddle. And speaking of riddles, what is brown and sticky? Ask you students for the answer. Also, ask them what the word part rid means.
nym like in acronym (used up there), pseudonym, and homonym. Can you guess this one?
meta like in metamorphisis (remember that "morph" means "shape") and metabolism (what changes our food into energy). How about that one, parents?
Finally, oid like in the word humanoid or xyloid. Xyloid is an adjective that means "resembling wood" and bigfoot would be a humanoid, not quite a human but looking like one.
Ask your son or daughter what the word parts mean if you're having problems. They learned them today while making fun of my artwork.
After the novel quiz (very easy), the students finished reading chapter one of An American Plague and did some work searching for sensory details the nonfiction author used, things that remind them of what's going on in the novel, possible causes for the rapid spread of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia, and signs that something was wrong in the summer of 1793 in our nation's temporary capital.
I'm putting grades on the computer tonight. I'll explain exactly what those mean in tomorrow's blog entry. Until then, try to survive the snowpocalypse that is going on outside right now!
We started the day with MAZE testing. I don't remember what MAZE stands for, but I think it's an acronym. It's a very short standardized test that involves some reading and choosing of right words. Stress free. They took the test during the first semester, and I believe the school will make me do it one more time before the end of the year.
We went over the rest of our vocabulary word parts for List 8. Our next test, by the way, isn't going to be until next Wednesday. That'll give them some extra nights to study and me some extra time to review in class. Here were today's word parts:
tact like in the words contact and tactile. What do you think it means, parents?
voc like in vocals, invocation (a prayer), convocation, and vociferously (adverb meaning "in a loud, boisterous way")...Can you guess what that word part means?
rid like in ridicule, ridiculous, and riddle. And speaking of riddles, what is brown and sticky? Ask you students for the answer. Also, ask them what the word part rid means.
nym like in acronym (used up there), pseudonym, and homonym. Can you guess this one?
meta like in metamorphisis (remember that "morph" means "shape") and metabolism (what changes our food into energy). How about that one, parents?
Finally, oid like in the word humanoid or xyloid. Xyloid is an adjective that means "resembling wood" and bigfoot would be a humanoid, not quite a human but looking like one.
Ask your son or daughter what the word parts mean if you're having problems. They learned them today while making fun of my artwork.
After the novel quiz (very easy), the students finished reading chapter one of An American Plague and did some work searching for sensory details the nonfiction author used, things that remind them of what's going on in the novel, possible causes for the rapid spread of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia, and signs that something was wrong in the summer of 1793 in our nation's temporary capital.
I'm putting grades on the computer tonight. I'll explain exactly what those mean in tomorrow's blog entry. Until then, try to survive the snowpocalypse that is going on outside right now!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Late Monday Entry
Not the best of days today. I don't like it when I work much harder than my students.
I gave the students a pretest thingy over sentence combining and using compound sentences, complex sentences, and sentences with compound parts. We'll start hitting that bit of grammar really hard in the next couple weeks. It's been on ISTEP traditionally, and it's also something that can help them with their writing fluency. Whenever I can kill two birds with one stone, I do it!
Word parts for today:
ocul means "eye" and is used in the word binoculars.
cur means "care for" and is used in words like cure and curator.
ultra means "beyond" and is used in words like ultraconservative and ultraviolet.
gest means "carry" like in gestation, digestion, and ingestion.
And apt means "fit" like, well, apt. And aptitude.
We discussed the first four chapters of Fever 1793 and turned in the half sheet that my substitute gave them on Friday. Some of them aren't reading and are going to find it difficult to pass this nine weeks. They need to read chapters 5 and 6 tonight, and there will be a short quiz tomorrow.
Students started reading chapter one from a book called The American Plague. This nonfiction text will give them some more historical context from the novel. They looked at the nonfiction author's use of imagery and good diction to create mood and experience just like a fiction writer would. They're also working hard at making connections between the nonfiction text and the historical fiction novel.
And in case I've not made it clear earlier, I would never ever do anything to hurt a bird.
I gave the students a pretest thingy over sentence combining and using compound sentences, complex sentences, and sentences with compound parts. We'll start hitting that bit of grammar really hard in the next couple weeks. It's been on ISTEP traditionally, and it's also something that can help them with their writing fluency. Whenever I can kill two birds with one stone, I do it!
Word parts for today:
ocul means "eye" and is used in the word binoculars.
cur means "care for" and is used in words like cure and curator.
ultra means "beyond" and is used in words like ultraconservative and ultraviolet.
gest means "carry" like in gestation, digestion, and ingestion.
And apt means "fit" like, well, apt. And aptitude.
We discussed the first four chapters of Fever 1793 and turned in the half sheet that my substitute gave them on Friday. Some of them aren't reading and are going to find it difficult to pass this nine weeks. They need to read chapters 5 and 6 tonight, and there will be a short quiz tomorrow.
Students started reading chapter one from a book called The American Plague. This nonfiction text will give them some more historical context from the novel. They looked at the nonfiction author's use of imagery and good diction to create mood and experience just like a fiction writer would. They're also working hard at making connections between the nonfiction text and the historical fiction novel.
And in case I've not made it clear earlier, I would never ever do anything to hurt a bird.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Belated Thursday, Early Friday
I'm not at school at all today. For whatever reason, I couldn't get to my blog to update it last night. Sorry about that.
We finished "A Christmas Memory" yesterday and completed a worksheet about what Truman Capote does well as a writer of memoirs, how he creates an experience. They also had a constructed response about one of the characters.
We also went over the 6-point ISTEP rubric, looking specifically at what makes a "6" paper. Next week, we'll look at some examples of ISTEP writing as well as our own writing.
Word parts from yesterday:
A revolver (the gun) uses the word part volv. It has to do with how the bullets are fed into the dinker to make it shoot. I don't know anything about guns obviously, but I know what volv means. What do you think it means, parents?
Hercules was a demigod. His dad was Zeus, a god, and his mother was a human. What do you think demi means? Hint: Semi and hemi mean the same thing.
Think about the words retrogress, retroactive, and retrorockets. What do you think retro means?
Think about sensitive people. What do you think the sens part of that word means?
And finally, -fy. It's a suffix and makes verbs like simplify, amplify, rectify, and pacify. Can you guess what that one means?
If not, ask your son or daughter. They should be able to tell you!
Sadly (for the students at least), I'm not at school today. The students are hopefully working quietly on an ISTEP writing (55 minute personal narrative that takes place during their favorite season) and on some reading for Fever 1793. I've given them a half sheet to complete for the first 24 pages of the novel, and we'll discuss those first four chapters on Monday.
Have a great weekend!
We finished "A Christmas Memory" yesterday and completed a worksheet about what Truman Capote does well as a writer of memoirs, how he creates an experience. They also had a constructed response about one of the characters.
We also went over the 6-point ISTEP rubric, looking specifically at what makes a "6" paper. Next week, we'll look at some examples of ISTEP writing as well as our own writing.
Word parts from yesterday:
A revolver (the gun) uses the word part volv. It has to do with how the bullets are fed into the dinker to make it shoot. I don't know anything about guns obviously, but I know what volv means. What do you think it means, parents?
Hercules was a demigod. His dad was Zeus, a god, and his mother was a human. What do you think demi means? Hint: Semi and hemi mean the same thing.
Think about the words retrogress, retroactive, and retrorockets. What do you think retro means?
Think about sensitive people. What do you think the sens part of that word means?
And finally, -fy. It's a suffix and makes verbs like simplify, amplify, rectify, and pacify. Can you guess what that one means?
If not, ask your son or daughter. They should be able to tell you!
Sadly (for the students at least), I'm not at school today. The students are hopefully working quietly on an ISTEP writing (55 minute personal narrative that takes place during their favorite season) and on some reading for Fever 1793. I've given them a half sheet to complete for the first 24 pages of the novel, and we'll discuss those first four chapters on Monday.
Have a great weekend!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Wednesday That Seems Like Tuesday
Sorry this is late--chess club night.
Today, we took a trip to the library to pick up our new novel--Fever 1793.
Today, we took a trip to the library to pick up our new novel--Fever 1793.
It's historical fiction, all about the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793. Our esteemed media specialist Mrs. East talked a little about yellow fever while we were in the library, and she threatened to show the students some gross pictures. I'm not sure why she has a collection of gross yellow fever pictures. Maybe she's weird. There's no reading due tomorrow. We'll take it slow initially, and the students only need to get through chapter 4 (less than 30 pages) by Monday.
We looked closely at five more word parts. See if you can guess what these word parts mean! You can leave your guesses in the comments.
sanct is found in words like sanctuary and sanctum.
man is found in words like manufacture, manicure, and manual (opposite of automatic).
petr is a word part found in the words petrify and petroleum. If you're the religious type, the apostle Peter's name also means the same thing as this word part. Jesus wanted to build his church on him.
mir is found in words like miracle and mirror.
And rect is found in words like correct, direction, and rectangle.
With reading/writing, we reviewed the differences between showing and telling in narrative writing. We used Truman Capote's story "A Christmas Memory" (the story we started before winter break) to look at what good authors do to create experiences with memoirs. On Friday, the students will be doing an ISTEP prompt that is a memoir, and hopefully, they'll be able to use some of these strategies to make their writing more powerful.
Homework: Nothing tomorrow, but I did collect "The Road Not Taken" poetry work today. There were quite a few students who didn't have it. Also, I need the Walk Two Moon novels back. A lot of students didn't have those either.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
And We're Back. . .
I love feeling completely rushed on the first day back from a long break. If I could plan better, maybe I could figure out how to not stuff too much into one class period, but that always seems to be what I do. Better too much than not enough, I guess.
We started off 2011 with a little spelling quiz. It wasn't for a grade in my class, but all the language arts classes had to have a spelling bee to determine who's invited to Thursday's school-wide spelling bee. I gave the kids a few words to spell and will be calling the winners later today.
I gave out the note paper for the next 25 vocabulary word parts, and we went over all the word parts/definitions. We looked specifically at the following:
sed means "sit" like in the words sedentary or supersede (to sit over). There's also an older word, sedan, an old-school device used to carry kings or emperors or somebody else important enough to be carried around by subordinates. Here's a Turkish one:
leg means "read" like in legible and illegible. However, it also seems to mean "law" a lot like in legal and legislative.
anim means "mind" or "soul" like with unanimous, of one mind.
anim means "mind" or "soul" like with unanimous, of one mind.
tort means "twist" like distort or contort or torture.
We also looked at the following poem by Robert Frost called, "The Road Not Taken":
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
We looked at the poem on a literal level, a surface-of-the-orange reading, before digging in and looking at the extended metaphor or symbolic meaning. This is poem about decisions in life, and about how the best decisions aren't necessarily the ones that make things easier or that everybody else has made. My students are at a time in their lives where some important decisions will need to be made.
They do have homework tonight: They have a constructed response and some other writing to do about the poem. That'll be the first grade for the second semester.
Finally, I did send home a letter with this blog address and a place for some information to send back to me. I'm just trying to update my phone numbers and emails so that I can reach you parents when I need to.
Note: No Turkish people were harmed in the typing of this blog entry.
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