Only five more days!
And only four word parts today:
orb = "circle" like orbit and exorbitant
mot = "move" like motor, motivation, promotion, demotion, automotive, pedomotive, and emotion
sol = "sun" like solar, solstice, and parasols
ven = "come" like venture, avenue, convene, intervene, invent, event, revenue, convenient, and prevent
We've finished the first act of the Anne Frank play. That's a little over half of the play. Some of the students started a quiz today (mostly about characters, conflicts, and themes) and a small writing assignment where they write a diary entry as another character. I think most students like the play. Then again, I'm the same guy who thought 8th graders enjoyed writing, so what do I know?
As we approach the end of the year, let me know if you have any questions about student grades, high school, or anything else. My grades aren't completely updated on PEP, but I'd be happy to talk about your child's grade with you.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Thursday
Hey, party people...just six more days to go!
Today's word parts:
fore = "front" like forehead and foreshadow
-ish = "like" like elfish and snobbish
-oma = "tumor" like melanoma and glaucoma
mela = "black" like melancholy ("black bile" from the spleen, what the Greeks thought caused depression) and melanin
narco = "sleep" like narcotics and narcolepsy
-let = "little" like piglet and aglet (those little plastic things on the end of your shoestring)
vice = "in place of" but we aren't doing that one
solv = "loosen" like dissolve and absolve
More Anne Frank. We met a new character today--Mr. Dussel. We discussed our conflicts and looked at what bringing a new character into the mix would do.
Today's word parts:
fore = "front" like forehead and foreshadow
-ish = "like" like elfish and snobbish
-oma = "tumor" like melanoma and glaucoma
mela = "black" like melancholy ("black bile" from the spleen, what the Greeks thought caused depression) and melanin
narco = "sleep" like narcotics and narcolepsy
-let = "little" like piglet and aglet (those little plastic things on the end of your shoestring)
vice = "in place of" but we aren't doing that one
solv = "loosen" like dissolve and absolve
More Anne Frank. We met a new character today--Mr. Dussel. We discussed our conflicts and looked at what bringing a new character into the mix would do.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday and Wednesday
Word Parts:
cephalo = "head" like microcephalic (small-headed)
kin = "motion" like kinetic energy and telekinetic
dactyl = "finger" like pterodactyl and polydactyl
gon = "angle" like polygon
vore = "eating" like voracious, omnivore, and devour
opia = "sight" like myopia and hyperopia
-ium = "element" but we're not really doing this one
calli = "beautiful" like calligraphy and calisthenics
caust = "fire" like Holocaust and caustic
terr = "land" like Terre Haute, territory, and terrarium
here = "stick" like adhere and coherent/incoherent
cracy = "government" like democracy and plutocracy
mania = "madness" like rhinotillexomania (look it up!) and pyromania
quad = "four" like quadrupeds and quadrilateral
lingu = "tongue" like bilingual and elinguation (look that one up, too!)
flect = "bend" like reflect and deflect
peri = "around" like perimeter and periscope
gno = "know" like diagnosis, prognosis, and agnostic
sept = "7" like septuagenarian and September (the 7th month...hey, wait a second...)
nona = "9" like Nona, the Roman goddess of pregnancy
We can now count to 10 using word parts. uni, bi, tri, quad (or tetra), penta, hexa, sept, octo, nona, dec. Ta da!
We've continued reading the Anne Frank play as a class. We're looking at character development and conflicts and themes. The students are also answering some journal questions on their own. The goal with the journal questions is to empathize with the characters and their situations. Yesterday, they answered what kind of things they would bring with them (sentimental value and material value) if going into hiding, and today they made predictions about the characters and thought about why the situation would be bad for the teenage characters and the adult ones.
cephalo = "head" like microcephalic (small-headed)
kin = "motion" like kinetic energy and telekinetic
dactyl = "finger" like pterodactyl and polydactyl
gon = "angle" like polygon
vore = "eating" like voracious, omnivore, and devour
opia = "sight" like myopia and hyperopia
-ium = "element" but we're not really doing this one
calli = "beautiful" like calligraphy and calisthenics
caust = "fire" like Holocaust and caustic
terr = "land" like Terre Haute, territory, and terrarium
here = "stick" like adhere and coherent/incoherent
cracy = "government" like democracy and plutocracy
mania = "madness" like rhinotillexomania (look it up!) and pyromania
quad = "four" like quadrupeds and quadrilateral
lingu = "tongue" like bilingual and elinguation (look that one up, too!)
flect = "bend" like reflect and deflect
peri = "around" like perimeter and periscope
gno = "know" like diagnosis, prognosis, and agnostic
sept = "7" like septuagenarian and September (the 7th month...hey, wait a second...)
nona = "9" like Nona, the Roman goddess of pregnancy
We can now count to 10 using word parts. uni, bi, tri, quad (or tetra), penta, hexa, sept, octo, nona, dec. Ta da!
We've continued reading the Anne Frank play as a class. We're looking at character development and conflicts and themes. The students are also answering some journal questions on their own. The goal with the journal questions is to empathize with the characters and their situations. Yesterday, they answered what kind of things they would bring with them (sentimental value and material value) if going into hiding, and today they made predictions about the characters and thought about why the situation would be bad for the teenage characters and the adult ones.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Monday
We started reading the Anne Frank diary play after I gave the students some background on her and her diary. The students have a character thing to fill out along with some theme things to keep track of. That's all on one piece of paper.
Only two word parts today although I gave them the meaning for all of them for the rest of the year. Today's:
gastro means "stomach" like gastroenteritis (stomach flu), gastric, and engastrimyth, another word for a ventriloquist. Ventriloquist and engastrimyth both have to do with "stomach talking"
macro is the opposite of micro and means "large" like macrocosm (the universe, a large place) and macrodont (having large teeth) and macrocephalic (large-headed). Oh, and macrons which are those lines over long vowels in dictionary pronunciations. I guess that makes a large vowel sound?
More tomorrow.
Only two word parts today although I gave them the meaning for all of them for the rest of the year. Today's:
gastro means "stomach" like gastroenteritis (stomach flu), gastric, and engastrimyth, another word for a ventriloquist. Ventriloquist and engastrimyth both have to do with "stomach talking"
macro is the opposite of micro and means "large" like macrocosm (the universe, a large place) and macrodont (having large teeth) and macrocephalic (large-headed). Oh, and macrons which are those lines over long vowels in dictionary pronunciations. I guess that makes a large vowel sound?
More tomorrow.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Wednesday
Some of the students have not completed the Night reading, but I gave them their final test anyway--a high-school-caliber essay! The students have five choices:
1) write a persuasive speech (as a congress person in an isolationist country) convincing other congress people that they need to do something to stop what is going on in the Holocaust
2) an essay about what the cover of night should look like and what three or four striking or gripping images should be included on the inside of the book
3) a persuasive essay about how students in middle school should either have to read Night or how they should not have to read it because it is too "terrifying" or "unbearably painful"
4) a theme essay in which they need to pick at least five quotes and write about "life lessons" or big ideas the book covers
5) an essay about what a Holocaust monument should look like--it's got to be all symbols (no specific people, no words)
Students continued working on finishing up the reading and the reading work. As they get finished, they'll start working on their essay test.
Tomorrow, we they'll have a little more work time, and we'll also be starting the dramatized version of Anne Frank's diary.
Friday, there's a team party. This will be my last blog entry for the week. Let me know if you have any questions here at the end of our school year.
1) write a persuasive speech (as a congress person in an isolationist country) convincing other congress people that they need to do something to stop what is going on in the Holocaust
2) an essay about what the cover of night should look like and what three or four striking or gripping images should be included on the inside of the book
3) a persuasive essay about how students in middle school should either have to read Night or how they should not have to read it because it is too "terrifying" or "unbearably painful"
4) a theme essay in which they need to pick at least five quotes and write about "life lessons" or big ideas the book covers
5) an essay about what a Holocaust monument should look like--it's got to be all symbols (no specific people, no words)
Students continued working on finishing up the reading and the reading work. As they get finished, they'll start working on their essay test.
Tomorrow, we they'll have a little more work time, and we'll also be starting the dramatized version of Anne Frank's diary.
Friday, there's a team party. This will be my last blog entry for the week. Let me know if you have any questions here at the end of our school year.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Monday/Tuesday
The time with my lovely students is slipping away, like sand through my fingers. Oh, how I'll miss these kids this summer!
There's at least some truth to the above sentences...
I gave the students a "found poem" assignment for Night. A "found poem" is almost exactly what it sounds like--it's using words and phrases that are "found" in another text (a book, a newspaper, a magazine, a story, etc.) and recontexualizing those words (using them in another way) to make an original poem. Their job is to go through Night and find words and phrases that are meaningful, powerful, poetic, imagistic, descriptive, etc. and then use those words to write their own poem.
There's a Tuesday quiz taking us through page 97. It was super-easy for those who did their reading. Unfortunately, that's not everybody. We should finish the book up the next couple days and be ready to start the dramatized version of Anne Frank's diary.
Word parts:
vol is "will" like volunteer or malevolent/benevolent
trich is "hair" like trichosis (see below) or trichina, worms that cause trichonosis
troph is "nourishment" like autotrophs and heterotrophs (they're learning about these in science) and atrophy
tox is "poison" like toxic and detoxification
sect is "cut" like dissect, intersection, and vivisection
zygo is "yoke" like zygote and zygodactyl (birds with feet that look like yokes)
zym is "ferment" like enzymes and zymurgy, the chemistry involved with making beer
That's it for this list. I think we'll do one last list so that we can end with 15 instead of 14. It's a better ending number. That's 375 word parts unless my math is way wrong.
There's at least some truth to the above sentences...
I gave the students a "found poem" assignment for Night. A "found poem" is almost exactly what it sounds like--it's using words and phrases that are "found" in another text (a book, a newspaper, a magazine, a story, etc.) and recontexualizing those words (using them in another way) to make an original poem. Their job is to go through Night and find words and phrases that are meaningful, powerful, poetic, imagistic, descriptive, etc. and then use those words to write their own poem.
There's a Tuesday quiz taking us through page 97. It was super-easy for those who did their reading. Unfortunately, that's not everybody. We should finish the book up the next couple days and be ready to start the dramatized version of Anne Frank's diary.
Word parts:
vol is "will" like volunteer or malevolent/benevolent
trich is "hair" like trichosis (see below) or trichina, worms that cause trichonosis
troph is "nourishment" like autotrophs and heterotrophs (they're learning about these in science) and atrophy
tox is "poison" like toxic and detoxification
sect is "cut" like dissect, intersection, and vivisection
zygo is "yoke" like zygote and zygodactyl (birds with feet that look like yokes)
zym is "ferment" like enzymes and zymurgy, the chemistry involved with making beer
That's it for this list. I think we'll do one last list so that we can end with 15 instead of 14. It's a better ending number. That's 375 word parts unless my math is way wrong.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Thursday
More Night reading. Friday, since a lot of my students will be at King's Island instead of here at school with their favorite language arts teacher, the students will spend the entire time reading and catching up on missing work. It seems like something else is going on Monday, so that might also be a catch-up day.
More word parts:
erg = "work" like energy, synergy, and ergonomics
rhiz = "root" like rhizoid and rhizophagous
sapro = "rotten" like saprophyte and saprogenic
schizo = "divide" like schizophrenic and schism
hippo = "horse" like hippopotamus (a "river horse") and hippodrome
som = "body" like psychosomatic, chromosome, and somatoplasm
spor = "seed" like endospore, sporozoa, and sporophyte
sta = "stop" or "stand" like constant, instant, station, hemostat, stationary, and static
rhodo = "rose" like rhododendron and Rhode Island, a state that I'm not sure is known for its roses and I know is not an island...the name comes from the reddish color of its soil apparently
taxis = "arrangement" like syntax, taxidermy, and ataxia
That's all for now. And to be completely honest, I'd definitely rather be here at my desk than on a roller coaster today. It's because I'm an acrophobic bibliophile.
More word parts:
erg = "work" like energy, synergy, and ergonomics
rhiz = "root" like rhizoid and rhizophagous
sapro = "rotten" like saprophyte and saprogenic
schizo = "divide" like schizophrenic and schism
hippo = "horse" like hippopotamus (a "river horse") and hippodrome
som = "body" like psychosomatic, chromosome, and somatoplasm
spor = "seed" like endospore, sporozoa, and sporophyte
sta = "stop" or "stand" like constant, instant, station, hemostat, stationary, and static
rhodo = "rose" like rhododendron and Rhode Island, a state that I'm not sure is known for its roses and I know is not an island...the name comes from the reddish color of its soil apparently
taxis = "arrangement" like syntax, taxidermy, and ataxia
That's all for now. And to be completely honest, I'd definitely rather be here at my desk than on a roller coaster today. It's because I'm an acrophobic bibliophile.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Yadsendew
Only three weeks and two days left in this school year. I'm kind of ready for this one to end actually.
Today's word parts:
pleo is "many" like pleopod, pleophagous, and pleomorphic, three words that aren't important enough to me to define them for you
pod is "foot" like a podium, a podiatrist, and a cephalopod (like octopi, a "head-footed" creature)
soror is "sister" like a sorority
frat is "brother" like fraternity or fraternize, a word with an interesting military etymology that has to do with soldiers dating women from enemy countries
-a is a suffix that makes words plural like trivia, data, and cephalopoda
val is "worth" like valid, equivalent, evaluate, and ambivalent
para is "beside" or "near" like paraprofessional (paralegal, paramedic) or paradox
dom is "rule" like dominate, predominant, and dominion
And we read some more Night and had a little bit of time for the written work.
Today's word parts:
pleo is "many" like pleopod, pleophagous, and pleomorphic, three words that aren't important enough to me to define them for you
pod is "foot" like a podium, a podiatrist, and a cephalopod (like octopi, a "head-footed" creature)
soror is "sister" like a sorority
frat is "brother" like fraternity or fraternize, a word with an interesting military etymology that has to do with soldiers dating women from enemy countries
-a is a suffix that makes words plural like trivia, data, and cephalopoda
val is "worth" like valid, equivalent, evaluate, and ambivalent
para is "beside" or "near" like paraprofessional (paralegal, paramedic) or paradox
dom is "rule" like dominate, predominant, and dominion
And we read some more Night and had a little bit of time for the written work.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Well...
I haven't been able to log in to do this blog at school. It's got me blocked. I never think to do this at home either. Again, my apologies. I'll try to do better.
Not much has been going on anyway. We're still reading Night. The students took their vocabulary quiz last week. 70% of the students got either an A or a B on the test. Of course, 24% of them failed the test which is no good. Not many C's, and again, that tells me that either the students put a little effort into it and do well or not much effort at all and do poorly.
We'll start with our list 14 words on Wednesday. We'll also continue reading the Holocaust materials and finish up the year with a couple writing assignments.
I still don't have book reports and/or research papers from a lot of students. It'll be hard for me to pass them if they don't get those in.
As always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Not much has been going on anyway. We're still reading Night. The students took their vocabulary quiz last week. 70% of the students got either an A or a B on the test. Of course, 24% of them failed the test which is no good. Not many C's, and again, that tells me that either the students put a little effort into it and do well or not much effort at all and do poorly.
We'll start with our list 14 words on Wednesday. We'll also continue reading the Holocaust materials and finish up the year with a couple writing assignments.
I still don't have book reports and/or research papers from a lot of students. It'll be hard for me to pass them if they don't get those in.
As always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday
1. Misplaced/Dangling modifier review sheet--turned in
2. Little lesson and class practice on parallelism in grammar/writing
3. Vocab. review sheet--I gave them 100 word parts (THE word parts that will be on the next test) and they have to make brand-new words
4. Night reading; correct and/or complete quiz
Vocabulary quiz is Thursday! ISTEP for language arts is Friday and Monday. Great days for test taking, right?
2. Little lesson and class practice on parallelism in grammar/writing
3. Vocab. review sheet--I gave them 100 word parts (THE word parts that will be on the next test) and they have to make brand-new words
4. Night reading; correct and/or complete quiz
Vocabulary quiz is Thursday! ISTEP for language arts is Friday and Monday. Great days for test taking, right?
Friday, April 22, 2011
Friday (Well, Wednesday-Friday)
Not that you read this to hear me whine, but there was some trouble on Wednesday that zapped away a lot of my time. Some students from my homeroom weren't happy with me because I have the nerve to make them do actual work (reading) at the beginning of the day. They banded together, went to student services, and spread a lie that I had pushed another student. Administration wasn't happy, statements had to be written, and it was a mess. I felt terrible and sad and didn't really even want to come to work the next day. Luckily, some of my homeroom students do have integrity, and the truth saved the day. Things are fine now, but I'll admit that it does still hurt a little bit.
Anyway, that's my excuse for not blogging the last couple days.
The rest of the word parts:
chrom = "color" like chromosome and monochromatic
form = "shape" like formation and oviform (egg-shaped)
sequ = "follow" like consecutive, sequence, sequel, consequence, and obsequious
glyc = "sweet" like glycerin and hypoglycemia
-ose = "sugar" like fructose and glucose
ultima = "last" like ultimate and ultimatum
infra = "beneath" like infrared and infrasonic (beneath what the ear can hear)
leuko = "white" like leukocytes and leukemia
lys = "breakdown" like hemolysis and analysis
meso = "middle" like Mesopotamia and mesomorph and Mesoamerica
gress = "step" like progress and regress
labor = "work" like laborious, collaborate, laboratory, and elaborate
tude = "state of" like attitude, solitude, aptitude, and rectitude
patho = "disease" like pathogenic, psychopath, and idiopathic
phor = "carry" like euphoria and chromatophore
We did some more work with participle and infinitive phrases. Today, we looked at misplaced and dangling modifiers, misplaced prepositional phrases, and misplaced adjective clauses.
And we're continuing with our reading of Night. I collected some of their class work, and a great deal of it doesn't look like the high school work I'm looking for. Some students are reading but not doing the work. Today, we took a quiz over what we've read so far. We're about halfway through the book.
Anyway, that's my excuse for not blogging the last couple days.
The rest of the word parts:
chrom = "color" like chromosome and monochromatic
form = "shape" like formation and oviform (egg-shaped)
sequ = "follow" like consecutive, sequence, sequel, consequence, and obsequious
glyc = "sweet" like glycerin and hypoglycemia
-ose = "sugar" like fructose and glucose
ultima = "last" like ultimate and ultimatum
infra = "beneath" like infrared and infrasonic (beneath what the ear can hear)
leuko = "white" like leukocytes and leukemia
lys = "breakdown" like hemolysis and analysis
meso = "middle" like Mesopotamia and mesomorph and Mesoamerica
gress = "step" like progress and regress
labor = "work" like laborious, collaborate, laboratory, and elaborate
tude = "state of" like attitude, solitude, aptitude, and rectitude
patho = "disease" like pathogenic, psychopath, and idiopathic
phor = "carry" like euphoria and chromatophore
We did some more work with participle and infinitive phrases. Today, we looked at misplaced and dangling modifiers, misplaced prepositional phrases, and misplaced adjective clauses.
And we're continuing with our reading of Night. I collected some of their class work, and a great deal of it doesn't look like the high school work I'm looking for. Some students are reading but not doing the work. Today, we took a quiz over what we've read so far. We're about halfway through the book.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Tuesday 3/19
First off, I did not end up sending anything home with the students That will be tomorrow. Tomorrow is also a library day. Friday: Book report (or other project) is due.
Today's word parts:
phyte = "plant" (neophyte, sporophyte, gametophyte, or my [childish] favorite coprophyte, a plant that grows in poop)
myo = "muscle" (myocardium, myotomy, myoglobin, or amyotonia [flabbiness])
phyll = "leaf" (chlorophyll, phyllopods [crustaceans that have leaf-like appendages], phyllophagous)
milli = "1000th" (millipede, millimeter)
oligo = "small" or "few" (oligarchy, oligodactylia [fewer fingers or toes than normal], oligocarpous [few fruits])
Students spent most of the time reading Night. I gave some examples of good response question answers because what I read and graded over the weekend and last night were not good examples of high school student work, and that's what I expect from my students right now. As scary as it sounds, parents, they are almost there.
Ask you child about what they're reading in Night. I know a lot of the students are getting a lot out of it, and I'm sure they'd love to share it with somebody else.
Today's word parts:
phyte = "plant" (neophyte, sporophyte, gametophyte, or my [childish] favorite coprophyte, a plant that grows in poop)
myo = "muscle" (myocardium, myotomy, myoglobin, or amyotonia [flabbiness])
phyll = "leaf" (chlorophyll, phyllopods [crustaceans that have leaf-like appendages], phyllophagous)
milli = "1000th" (millipede, millimeter)
oligo = "small" or "few" (oligarchy, oligodactylia [fewer fingers or toes than normal], oligocarpous [few fruits])
Students spent most of the time reading Night. I gave some examples of good response question answers because what I read and graded over the weekend and last night were not good examples of high school student work, and that's what I expect from my students right now. As scary as it sounds, parents, they are almost there.
Ask you child about what they're reading in Night. I know a lot of the students are getting a lot out of it, and I'm sure they'd love to share it with somebody else.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Monday
OK, so I didn't post at all last week except on Monday which was actually a post for Friday. Sorry about that. It was really the perfect storm of it being an extremely busy week and me being an extremely lazy man.
We stared Night last week, a Holocaust novel by survivor Elie Wiesel. It's not easy reading, but as we discussed after reading an introduction, it's important reading. The students have three things to work on while they read in class:
1) A Night journal where they answer questions I've given them
2) A double-entry journal where they write about quotes that resonate with them or that they think are important
3) A character chart for Elie
Some of the students are not using their class time very wisely. Last Wednesday, a day in which I had a substitute, there were a ton of students who did not use their time wisely. I've got a lot of students who are behind.
I'm sending home some paperwork tomorrow (I hope! Maybe Wednesday) about how students have done on a few recent things. As I've said before, the progress report just doesn't help all that much.
Today, we looked at verbal phrases. The students worked with verbals (gerunds, infinitives, participles) last week, so this is just an extension of that. The phrases start with the verbal and include any modifiers or nouns that help further explain the verbal or help it do its job.
We also read a poem by Holocaust survivor Yala Korwin called "The Little Boy with his Hands Up," a poem written about a famous Holocaust photograph. The poem (and the picture) can be found here.
Finally, we started our new word part list. I told the students that the next test (April 29th) would be a biggie. I'm willing to drop all their previous scores if their next test score is a really good one. It's a golden opportunity that a lot of my students will unfortunately not take advantage of. If they want to boost their vocabulary grade, however, they can start studying right now in preparation.
Today's word parts:
mem = "remember" (memento, memorial, immemorial, memorandum)
-osis = "condition" (thrombosis, symbiosis, ichthyosis, hypnosis, neurosis, psychosis)
vac = "empty" (vacuum, vacant/vacate, evacuate)
hemo = "blood" (hemorrhage, hemostat, hemophiliac, hemoglobin)
phag = "eat" (phagocytes, sarcophagus, phyllophagous)
My favorite word for the day: allotriophagia, a morbid desire to eat things that are unnatural like dirt, gravel, hair, lice, paint, laundry starch, boogers, etc. I'm not sure when I'll be able to use that in conversation. Actually, I hope I don't ever have to use that word in conversation.
We stared Night last week, a Holocaust novel by survivor Elie Wiesel. It's not easy reading, but as we discussed after reading an introduction, it's important reading. The students have three things to work on while they read in class:
1) A Night journal where they answer questions I've given them
2) A double-entry journal where they write about quotes that resonate with them or that they think are important
3) A character chart for Elie
Some of the students are not using their class time very wisely. Last Wednesday, a day in which I had a substitute, there were a ton of students who did not use their time wisely. I've got a lot of students who are behind.
I'm sending home some paperwork tomorrow (I hope! Maybe Wednesday) about how students have done on a few recent things. As I've said before, the progress report just doesn't help all that much.
Today, we looked at verbal phrases. The students worked with verbals (gerunds, infinitives, participles) last week, so this is just an extension of that. The phrases start with the verbal and include any modifiers or nouns that help further explain the verbal or help it do its job.
We also read a poem by Holocaust survivor Yala Korwin called "The Little Boy with his Hands Up," a poem written about a famous Holocaust photograph. The poem (and the picture) can be found here.
Finally, we started our new word part list. I told the students that the next test (April 29th) would be a biggie. I'm willing to drop all their previous scores if their next test score is a really good one. It's a golden opportunity that a lot of my students will unfortunately not take advantage of. If they want to boost their vocabulary grade, however, they can start studying right now in preparation.
Today's word parts:
mem = "remember" (memento, memorial, immemorial, memorandum)
-osis = "condition" (thrombosis, symbiosis, ichthyosis, hypnosis, neurosis, psychosis)
vac = "empty" (vacuum, vacant/vacate, evacuate)
hemo = "blood" (hemorrhage, hemostat, hemophiliac, hemoglobin)
phag = "eat" (phagocytes, sarcophagus, phyllophagous)
My favorite word for the day: allotriophagia, a morbid desire to eat things that are unnatural like dirt, gravel, hair, lice, paint, laundry starch, boogers, etc. I'm not sure when I'll be able to use that in conversation. Actually, I hope I don't ever have to use that word in conversation.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Slightly Late Friday Post
Reminders:
Research rough draft is due Tuesday the 12th.
Book report (or other project) is due April 19th now. That's next Tuesday.
Next (real) vocabulary quiz: Friday the 15th.
Our last five word parts for List Twelve:
cyt means "cell" like erythrocytes and leukocytes, red and white blood cells respectively
diplo means "double" like diplomacy and diplopia (double vision)
eco means "house" but I'll also take "environment" on the test like economy, ecology, and ecosystem
idio means "peculiar" like idiosyncrasy and idiom
fil means "thread" like filament and filiferous (thread carrying)
We also took our List 6 test on Friday. Students are still writing the ones they miss five times each (word part and definition) and drawing a word part picture for each.
We learned about verbals today using the verbal gerbils--Gerry the Gerund, P-Dawg the Participles, and Buzz the Infinitive. It's dorky stuff, but hopefully the jingles will help the students remember these things that the state of Indiana seems to think they should remember.
Verbals are words that are verb forms (-ing words, -ed words, other verb forms) but act like something else in a sentence. So they look like verbs but are doing the jobs of nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.
Gerunds always end in -ing and are nouns. Playing basketball is my favorite form of exercise. Playing looks like a verb but it's the subject noun in that sentence.
Participles are the -ing or -ed form of a verb, but they are adjectives in the sentences. The barking dog scared me. Barking looks like a verb but is tells "what kind" for the dog and is therefore and adjective. Barking ferociously, the dog chased me down the alley. Barking there is still an adjective. The chopped lumber was stacked neatly by the barn. Chopped in that sentence is also telling "what kind" for the lumber, making it an adjective.
Finally, infinitives. They're the easiest because they have the word "to" in front of them. It's "to" and a verb. They're used as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs in sentences. I would like to ski down that mountain. To ski is an activity (a thing--a noun) in that sentence. He's creating a quiz to see if his students learned about verbals. To see isn't the verb there. It's modifying the verb creating which makes it an adverb.
We'll continue working on verbals most of this week.
Research rough draft is due Tuesday the 12th.
Book report (or other project) is due April 19th now. That's next Tuesday.
Next (real) vocabulary quiz: Friday the 15th.
Our last five word parts for List Twelve:
cyt means "cell" like erythrocytes and leukocytes, red and white blood cells respectively
diplo means "double" like diplomacy and diplopia (double vision)
eco means "house" but I'll also take "environment" on the test like economy, ecology, and ecosystem
idio means "peculiar" like idiosyncrasy and idiom
fil means "thread" like filament and filiferous (thread carrying)
We also took our List 6 test on Friday. Students are still writing the ones they miss five times each (word part and definition) and drawing a word part picture for each.
We learned about verbals today using the verbal gerbils--Gerry the Gerund, P-Dawg the Participles, and Buzz the Infinitive. It's dorky stuff, but hopefully the jingles will help the students remember these things that the state of Indiana seems to think they should remember.
Verbals are words that are verb forms (-ing words, -ed words, other verb forms) but act like something else in a sentence. So they look like verbs but are doing the jobs of nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.
Gerunds always end in -ing and are nouns. Playing basketball is my favorite form of exercise. Playing looks like a verb but it's the subject noun in that sentence.
Participles are the -ing or -ed form of a verb, but they are adjectives in the sentences. The barking dog scared me. Barking looks like a verb but is tells "what kind" for the dog and is therefore and adjective. Barking ferociously, the dog chased me down the alley. Barking there is still an adjective. The chopped lumber was stacked neatly by the barn. Chopped in that sentence is also telling "what kind" for the lumber, making it an adjective.
Finally, infinitives. They're the easiest because they have the word "to" in front of them. It's "to" and a verb. They're used as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs in sentences. I would like to ski down that mountain. To ski is an activity (a thing--a noun) in that sentence. He's creating a quiz to see if his students learned about verbals. To see isn't the verb there. It's modifying the verb creating which makes it an adverb.
We'll continue working on verbals most of this week.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Wednesday and Thursday
Well, softball and chess club certainly have me busy these days. I apologize for the lack of daily posts.
We're working on our research rough drafts now. Some of the students, as I mentioned the other day, are ill-equipped. They got their notes, topics and topic categories, and source sheets back yesterday. I lumped it all into a grade called "Research" which is out of 100 points. It's a big chunk of grade because we put a lot of time into it. Or, to be more accurate, some of the students put a lot of time into it. As the scores might indicate (some scores as low as 30 or 40 out of 100), some students have wasted their time, not paid attention to the way the research and note-taking was supposed to be done, or were unorganized and lost things. So I really don't see how some students will be able to put a research paper together, especially one without plagiarizing. We reviewed on Wednesday about how to use parenthetical citation to distinguish between our own ideas and the ideas from our sources. If the students failed to document the sources as they took notes, something I reminded them every single day to do, they will most likely not be able to parenthetically cite. And if they can't parenthetically cite, they are plagiarizing. Luckily for them, it's still a learning process at this level. High school and college? They'll fail automatically and maybe even be expelled for plagiarism.
The research rough draft, by the way, is due next Tuesday. That's April 12th, the same day the students were supposed to turn a book project in. I went ahead and pushed the independent reading thing (probably a book report) to the following Tuesday.
We're continuing to take tests on our old vocabulary word part lists. We did List Five Thursday, and the students are still writing the ones they miss five times each and making a word part picture. Some of them are getting that work in; others are choosing not to do it.
Here are the word parts we've covered over the last two days:
emia is "blood" like anemia and leukemia
-ase is "enzyme" like a bunch of words that end in -ase that they'll never use
dys is "bad" like dyslexia, dysfunction, and dysentery
chlor is "green" like chlorine (the 17th element on the periodic table; it's named for its color) and chlorophyll
epi is "on" or "over" like epidermis, epicenter, and epidemic
-be is "life" like microbe and anaerobe (something that can live without air)
bon is "good" like bonbons (yum!), bona fide, the old-fashioned word bonny, bonus, and bonanza
exo is "out" (same as ex actually) like exoskeleton, exorbitant (like gas prices!), and exotic
erythro is "red" like erythrocytes (red blood cells)
im is "not" (like in and il) like in impatient, impolite, immobile and a bunch of other words
Five more to go for List Twelve. We'll test next Friday. That'll be a real test, and the students will have ALL the old tests with ALL the word parts and ALL their meanings and NO excuse not to study a little bit.
We're working on our research rough drafts now. Some of the students, as I mentioned the other day, are ill-equipped. They got their notes, topics and topic categories, and source sheets back yesterday. I lumped it all into a grade called "Research" which is out of 100 points. It's a big chunk of grade because we put a lot of time into it. Or, to be more accurate, some of the students put a lot of time into it. As the scores might indicate (some scores as low as 30 or 40 out of 100), some students have wasted their time, not paid attention to the way the research and note-taking was supposed to be done, or were unorganized and lost things. So I really don't see how some students will be able to put a research paper together, especially one without plagiarizing. We reviewed on Wednesday about how to use parenthetical citation to distinguish between our own ideas and the ideas from our sources. If the students failed to document the sources as they took notes, something I reminded them every single day to do, they will most likely not be able to parenthetically cite. And if they can't parenthetically cite, they are plagiarizing. Luckily for them, it's still a learning process at this level. High school and college? They'll fail automatically and maybe even be expelled for plagiarism.
The research rough draft, by the way, is due next Tuesday. That's April 12th, the same day the students were supposed to turn a book project in. I went ahead and pushed the independent reading thing (probably a book report) to the following Tuesday.
We're continuing to take tests on our old vocabulary word part lists. We did List Five Thursday, and the students are still writing the ones they miss five times each and making a word part picture. Some of them are getting that work in; others are choosing not to do it.
Here are the word parts we've covered over the last two days:
emia is "blood" like anemia and leukemia
-ase is "enzyme" like a bunch of words that end in -ase that they'll never use
dys is "bad" like dyslexia, dysfunction, and dysentery
chlor is "green" like chlorine (the 17th element on the periodic table; it's named for its color) and chlorophyll
epi is "on" or "over" like epidermis, epicenter, and epidemic
-be is "life" like microbe and anaerobe (something that can live without air)
bon is "good" like bonbons (yum!), bona fide, the old-fashioned word bonny, bonus, and bonanza
exo is "out" (same as ex actually) like exoskeleton, exorbitant (like gas prices!), and exotic
erythro is "red" like erythrocytes (red blood cells)
im is "not" (like in and il) like in impatient, impolite, immobile and a bunch of other words
Five more to go for List Twelve. We'll test next Friday. That'll be a real test, and the students will have ALL the old tests with ALL the word parts and ALL their meanings and NO excuse not to study a little bit.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Monday and Tuesday
Word Parts--I'm giving a test (or two) a day over our old word part lists. As I graded the last word part test, I noticed that the students just aren't putting any time into the word parts at all. So we started with list one yesterday, and the students took a quiz over the 25 word parts from that list. They had five minutes. If they missed a word part, they had to write it ten times each with the definition. Today we did lists two and three. If they missed any, they had to write them five times each and draw a word part picture. A lot of the students have to finish that up for homework tonight.
Also, I'm collecting their spring break reading logs tomorrow. Their book report (or other project) is due next Tuesday (technically...I may change that).
New word parts! List 12! It's a lot of science word parts this time. Here's what we've gone over so far:
an means "without" like anarchy (without a government) and anonymous (without a name)
ab means "away" like abstain (keep away from), abolish (do away with), ablution (a religious washing away), and abbreviate (letters go away)
mel (according to the book) means "song" like melody and melodrama (originally a play with songs in it). According to my resources, mel comes from the Greek melos which had to do with arms and legs. I found about 70 words that had to do with arms and legs and about 7 that had to do with songs. Maybe I should write a book of my own!
alb means "white" like albino, albumen (white part of an egg), and albedo (having to do with reflected light like off the moon)
enter means "intestine" like dysentery (intestinal inflammation causing diarrhea) and enterozoan (intestinal worms)...pleasant stuff.
aden means "gland" like your adenoids and adenectomy (the cutting out of a gland)
aer means "air" like with aerobatics, aerobic, and aerodynamics. And malaria which is actually a mosquito-borne disease that people originally thought was from "bad air"
hum is "earth" like human (in the Biblical Adam and Eve story, Adam was made from earth), humble (down to earth), exhume (dig out of the earth), and posthumous (after a person's time on earth)
struct is "build" like construct, destruct (build down?), instruct, obstruct, structure, and infrastructure
cyan is "blue" like the color cyan (I'm a guy, so I don't even know this color), cyanide, and cyanosis where babies fingers, toes, and lips turn blue because of a lack of oxygen
We'll be returning to our regularly-scheduled research stuff tomorrow. I'm disappointed at the lack of effort a lot of students showed with the research before break. We had five days of research, and a lot of students turned in three or four note cards. It's unacceptable, and those students who didn't use their time wisely are way behind with the project and, according to my gradebook, failing the project so far.
Oh, we also made a trip to the library today. Mrs. East seemed excited to see us and talked like a person who had had coffee injected directly into her veins.
Also, I'm collecting their spring break reading logs tomorrow. Their book report (or other project) is due next Tuesday (technically...I may change that).
New word parts! List 12! It's a lot of science word parts this time. Here's what we've gone over so far:
an means "without" like anarchy (without a government) and anonymous (without a name)
ab means "away" like abstain (keep away from), abolish (do away with), ablution (a religious washing away), and abbreviate (letters go away)
mel (according to the book) means "song" like melody and melodrama (originally a play with songs in it). According to my resources, mel comes from the Greek melos which had to do with arms and legs. I found about 70 words that had to do with arms and legs and about 7 that had to do with songs. Maybe I should write a book of my own!
alb means "white" like albino, albumen (white part of an egg), and albedo (having to do with reflected light like off the moon)
enter means "intestine" like dysentery (intestinal inflammation causing diarrhea) and enterozoan (intestinal worms)...pleasant stuff.
aden means "gland" like your adenoids and adenectomy (the cutting out of a gland)
aer means "air" like with aerobatics, aerobic, and aerodynamics. And malaria which is actually a mosquito-borne disease that people originally thought was from "bad air"
hum is "earth" like human (in the Biblical Adam and Eve story, Adam was made from earth), humble (down to earth), exhume (dig out of the earth), and posthumous (after a person's time on earth)
struct is "build" like construct, destruct (build down?), instruct, obstruct, structure, and infrastructure
cyan is "blue" like the color cyan (I'm a guy, so I don't even know this color), cyanide, and cyanosis where babies fingers, toes, and lips turn blue because of a lack of oxygen
We'll be returning to our regularly-scheduled research stuff tomorrow. I'm disappointed at the lack of effort a lot of students showed with the research before break. We had five days of research, and a lot of students turned in three or four note cards. It's unacceptable, and those students who didn't use their time wisely are way behind with the project and, according to my gradebook, failing the project so far.
Oh, we also made a trip to the library today. Mrs. East seemed excited to see us and talked like a person who had had coffee injected directly into her veins.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Wednesday and Thursday
It hasn't been a good couple of days. I've seen a lot of disrespect from the students and an overall lack of effort that really bugs me. The students took a vocabulary test today after reviewing a little bit all week, and the scores look mostly terrible. I don't think the students are studying at home. The ones who are putting some effort into it are getting A's though. The students also turned in their research work (the note cards, source sheets, topic categories) and a lot of them had almost nothing to turn in. I'm not sure what they've been doing the last few days, but it apparently wasn't researching. Or maybe it just wasn't keeping their research stuff organized.
I've got not much to say. I did pick up their reading logs finally and gave them another one for over spring break. Yes, I'd like them to read a little over break. It doesn't have to be 30 minutes per night, but I do think they can probably find some time to read and keep those young minds fresh.
Tomorrow is our team party day, so I won't write again until after break. Have a good one!
I've got not much to say. I did pick up their reading logs finally and gave them another one for over spring break. Yes, I'd like them to read a little over break. It doesn't have to be 30 minutes per night, but I do think they can probably find some time to read and keep those young minds fresh.
Tomorrow is our team party day, so I won't write again until after break. Have a good one!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Tuesday 3/22
If you look up the etymology for the word "Tuesday," you'll find that it means something like the Day of Mars. Mars was the god of war in Roman mythology. So in a way, it's like a day of war. I think a couple of my students took that too literally today.
We spent most of our time with the laptops today. First, the students did some ISTEP preparation stuff with Acuity. I threw in some Acuity assignments for each student based on what they missed on previous Acuity tests. The students went through a little mini-lesson, answered some guided questions, and then did some questions on their own.
After that, they were free to research. A lot of the students are finding the Holocaust to be an interesting and very sad topic. Some of the students are doing an excellent job; others need to get on the ball.
On Thursday, I'll collect everything they've done with the research so far, the analysis part of the research project--the source sheets, the note cards, etc. I'll give them grades on what they've done so far, and then right after spring break, we'll be able to put that information together (the synthesis part of the research project) and share with our peers.
We spent most of our time with the laptops today. First, the students did some ISTEP preparation stuff with Acuity. I threw in some Acuity assignments for each student based on what they missed on previous Acuity tests. The students went through a little mini-lesson, answered some guided questions, and then did some questions on their own.
After that, they were free to research. A lot of the students are finding the Holocaust to be an interesting and very sad topic. Some of the students are doing an excellent job; others need to get on the ball.
On Thursday, I'll collect everything they've done with the research so far, the analysis part of the research project--the source sheets, the note cards, etc. I'll give them grades on what they've done so far, and then right after spring break, we'll be able to put that information together (the synthesis part of the research project) and share with our peers.
Monday, March 21, 2011
MONDAY!
The rest of the day, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. If I can get through those days and Friday's party day without having a nervous breakdown and/or going completely insane, I can have a well-deserved break. The students can have a well-deserved break, too, but I'm not as worried about them.
Today was another day of research. This time, most of them used computers to find their information. We talked about Google and other search engines a little bit--using specific keywords for our searches, using symbols (+, -, " ") to help narrow the searches, and using the advanced search features. We also reviewed CARS (Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness, and Support) to determine whether the sources we're finding are any good.
We also got a vocabulary review activity. It's a two-sided half sheet with a long and (I'll admit) completely pointless story. The 25 word parts from List 11 are in there 78 times if I counted correctly. There are other word parts, too. All the students need to do by tomorrow is underline as many as they can find and write what they mean above them. We'll review tomorrow and Wednesday for Thursday's vocabulary test.
Also, I'm collecting the students' reading log tomorrow. That'll finish off the first week of reading, and I'll have to give them another one for the rest of the week and spring break.
Ahh, spring break. Right around the corner.
Today was another day of research. This time, most of them used computers to find their information. We talked about Google and other search engines a little bit--using specific keywords for our searches, using symbols (+, -, " ") to help narrow the searches, and using the advanced search features. We also reviewed CARS (Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness, and Support) to determine whether the sources we're finding are any good.
We also got a vocabulary review activity. It's a two-sided half sheet with a long and (I'll admit) completely pointless story. The 25 word parts from List 11 are in there 78 times if I counted correctly. There are other word parts, too. All the students need to do by tomorrow is underline as many as they can find and write what they mean above them. We'll review tomorrow and Wednesday for Thursday's vocabulary test.
Also, I'm collecting the students' reading log tomorrow. That'll finish off the first week of reading, and I'll have to give them another one for the rest of the week and spring break.
Ahh, spring break. Right around the corner.
Friday, March 18, 2011
3/19 Friday
Today's mostly a research day. I have two sets of encyclopedias. The students, for whatever reason, just look at those with disgust, almost like they think they're diseased. I had one student pick up one of the encyclopedia volumes and ask, "How the heck do you even turn this thing on?" I also have over 50 books from our library and the Indianapolis Marion County Public Library and some folders with printed off website sources. They want to use computers and something they keep calling "The Internet" but they'll have to wait until next week for that.
They're busily taking notes, keeping track of their sources on a source sheet (I hope--or their plagiarizing!), and answering those research questions.
We finished off our word parts for List 11, and I collected their notes to give them their easy grade. Today's word parts:
ag and act both mean "to do" like in agile, agency, aggressive, action, activate, and react.
nounce means "tell" like pronounce, denounce, announce, and renounce. Those are all telling verbs.
And to finish it off, we had pro which means "forward" like with proceed, prognosticate, project, and promotion.
They're busily taking notes, keeping track of their sources on a source sheet (I hope--or their plagiarizing!), and answering those research questions.
We finished off our word parts for List 11, and I collected their notes to give them their easy grade. Today's word parts:
ag and act both mean "to do" like in agile, agency, aggressive, action, activate, and react.
nounce means "tell" like pronounce, denounce, announce, and renounce. Those are all telling verbs.
And to finish it off, we had pro which means "forward" like with proceed, prognosticate, project, and promotion.
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