Ms. T Alford

Friday, 9/28/07

Today was test day...

Students in 3rd/5th periods were given the test over narrative poetry. These should be scored and able to be returned early next week.  After the test, students read "Harrison Bergeron," which we will discuss on Monday.  I will also discuss on Monday the results and follow-up to the "Fish Cheeks" performance assessment.  The results indicate that we may need further work and perhaps a second opportunity to demonstrate understanding of this important concept...stay tuned...they have not been put into I-Parent because of this. 

Students in 6th period met in the lab today.  They also took their performance assessment on a short story called "The Mason-Dixon Line."  These tests have been scored and the results are updated in I-Parent.  After the test, students finished final revisions on the narrative and turned in the final draft.  A couple students did not finish.  We will make arrangements for these students to come in and finish this next week. 

Wednesday, 9/26/07

3rd/5th Periods
Today students reviewed "Fable" and "Father William" from yesterday's classes.  Then, we looked at two more narrative poems..."The Charge of the Light Brigade" and "Oranges."  Remember...there will be a test Friday on all of the poems, authors, and vocabulary we have covered!

Essays should be graded and returned tomorrow - and the "Fish Cheeks" performance assessment will be graded before the weekend.  All grades will be updated in I-Parent at that time!

6th Period
We were back in the lab today finishing our essays.  By the end of class, every student should have finished the essay.  We began the revision process today with "Show, not Tell" so that details were given in an interesting fashion.  We also reviewed for sentence beginnings - working to start sentences with prepositional phrases to increase sentence variety.

Tuesday, 9/25/07

3rd/5th Period
Today students worked on two narrative poems, "Fable" and "Father William" in class today.  These will be part of Friday's narrative poetry test.

6th Period
Today students took a practice test in preparation for Friday's narrative elements test.  Following this, students worked on prepositional phrases.  Homework - make sure your essay is finished for class tomorrow!

Monday, 9/24/07

3rd/5th Periods
Today we discussed Friday's upcoming test on the narrative poetry we have been reading -
1.  "The Highwayman"
2.  "The Cremation of Sam McGee"
3.  "Fable"
4.  "Father William"
5.  "The Charge of the Light Brigade"

Students should know:  authors, vocabulary from each poem, the plot/story elements, and the poetic elements used in each poem.  All of this is contained on the literature logs that each student has for each poem.

Then, we read "The Cremation of Sam McGee" in class and completed the literature log.  We discussed it at the end of class to make any needed revisions. 
No homework!


6th Period
Today we went to the lab to type the short stories that were drafted in class on Thursday and Friday.  We will be finished with the stories by Thursday. 
Students will also be taking a performance assessment (test grade!) on Friday where they will have to analyze a short story for plot, character, conflict, setting, and theme.  In addition to the essays this week, we will also be practicing and preparing for this assessment. 
Homework today...finish typing the rough draft if it was not completed in class.  Two class periods have already been provided to write the rought draft.  The time in class the rest of the week will be focused on revision, not  on writing.   

Thursday and Friday, 9/20 - 9/21/07

If you have not already done so, please bring back your signed progress report.

3rd/5th Periods
We finished revising and editing the narratives today.  They were printed and turned in at the end of class.  I will have these graded as quickly as possible...within 2 weeks.  I apologize in advance for the delay, but I need time to give a thorough read and response to each student.  They will be posted on I-Parent within 2 weeks.  All other assignments that are not essays will not require as much turn-around time. 

HOMEWORK:  REVIEW YOUR NOTES ON SOAPSTone AND STORY ELEMENTS!  YOU HAVE YOUR PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT ON FRIDAY!

No homework over the weekend! 

6th Period
We worked today on good beginnings - and students wrote two different "practice" beginnings to their essay using the "Glossary of Good Beginnings" distributed in class.  We then began to write the rough drafts for the essay in class.  Toward the end of class, we turned our attention to one of our students who is on a new popular TV show, "Kid Nation."  We were all a bit curious after watching the premiere last night.  So...we did divert for some question/answer with our rising star.  We will get back on track tomorrow with writing our rough drafts. 

Friday - rough drafts will be completed in class.  No homework!

Wednesday, 9/19/07

Progress reports went home today!  Please have your report signed and return it to me tomorrow!

Today was an early release day - classes were about 35 minutes in length. 

3rd/5th Periods
Today we revised the narrative essays to "Show" not "Tell" details.  Students made some significant improvements to their stories.  Also, we worked on varied sentence structure.  Students worked to make their sentence beginnings use prepositional phrases, adjective or adverb clauses, inverted word order, etc...  Tomorrow, we will go back to the lab for final revisions, editing, and publishing!  No homework EXCEPT signed progress reports.

6th Period
Today we took the story idea that was created yesterday and turned it into a plot sequence of events by using a graphic organizer.  Students really worked hard on this, but given the limited class time, many students did not finish.  We will continue this tomorrow and then work on story beginnings before drafting the first rough draft for the essay.  All work is being done in class!  Have progress reports signed!

Tuesday, 9/18/07

3rd/5th Periods
I think that today everyone finally finished their drafts.  We worked on revisions today to make them better and we even had some other groups share their input.  We will continue to revise and the papers will be due at the end of class on Thursday.

FRIDAY THERE IS A PERFORMANCE EVALUATION (test grade) ON SOAPSTone/DIDLS and SHORT STORY ELEMENTS!

6th Period
Today, after working on improving the idea for our realistic fictional narrative, students began to outline the paper through a sequencing activity.  All students should have approval for their story topic and a story sequence completed by the end of class today.  If not, students need to finish the sequence of events for homework.

Monday, 9/17/07

3rd/5th Periods
Students were in the lab today working on the narrative essay.  By the end of class today the first draft of the short story should be fully written and printed.  We did some revision of the story today looking at consistency of tense, pronoun/antecedent agreement, and use of imagery.  We will continue the revision process tomorrow with lessons on  using specific vocabulary and varied sentence structure.
We will continue to revise on Wednesday, edit on Thursday, and the final draft will be turned in at the end of class on Thursday.

FRIDAY THERE IS A PERFORMANCE EVALUATION (test grade) ON SOAPSTone/DIDLS and SHORT STORY ELEMENTS!

6th Period
Today we prepared for the narrative essay.  Students were given the rubric by which the essay will be scored and this rubric was discussed in detail. 
On Friday following the test, students were given the opportunity to write a persuasive essay telling me three good reasons why they would like to work with a particular student to write the essay as a pair.  I read these, and students who followed directions as outlined and answered the questions fully were allowed to work in partners.  Those who did not, by merit of their own argument, will work independently.   This was discussed with students today before work on the essay began.
Finally, we brainstormed essay ideas and students outlined for their essay the characters, conflict, setting, and theme.  Because this is SO important in a strong essay, it was submitted to me for my approval. 

Friday, 9/14/07

School pictures are scheduled for Tuesday, September 18th.  Payment is made directly to the photographer in the picture selection envelope that was sent home on Thursday. 

3rd/5th Periods
Students reviewed the analysis on "The Highwayman" today.  REMEMBER:  The Performance Assessment in the same format will be given next Friday, 9/21.
For the second part of class, students drafted their narratives in groups.  No homework.

6th Period
Students took the test on Dialogue and HIPSM.  Following the test, students divided into groups for the short story.  They then wrote a persuasive paragraph to convince me why they should work with the person they selected.   No homework!

Thursday, 9/13/07

School pictures are scheduled for Tuesday, September 18th.  Payment is made directly to the photographer in the picture selection envelope.  The envelope went home with students today.

3rd/5th Periods
Students today were given the opportunity to work on "The Highwayman" in class.  The full analysis is due tomorrow.  Students were assigned this on Tuesday.  Students also had the opportunity to go to the library for checkout during class today or to work on the dialogue practice "re-do."

6th Period
Students today were able to do more practice on punctuating dialogue in preparation for tomorrow's test.  Then, we worked on analyzing (SOAPSTone and Essential Elements) for Gary Soto's "The Challenge."

Test tomorrow is on DIALOGUE and HIPSM (Hyperbole, Idiom, Personificaton, Simile, an Metaphor.)  Students should study by reviewing the activities we have done in class.  All test questions came from these activities.