Ms. T Alford

Wednesday, 10/31/07

3rd/5th Period
Today students turned in their Response to Literature essays.  They were proud of the work they had done, and I'm looking forward to seeing their hard work as I review the essays.  Then, we reviewed basic sentence parts and reviewed/learned how to diagram these basic parts.  Students were at all levels on this...some were right with me and others had never done this before.  I think that by the end of class, students had a handle on how to place the basic parts of a sentence. 
NO HOMEWORK!!  BE SAFE AS YOU CELEBRATE TONIGHT!!

6th Period
Today students used "carousel brainstorming" to select their evidence for the response to literature essay.  Then, students took notes on how to create the essay.  We ended the class with a spelling bee to determine who will go to the Dickerson bee on November 30th. 
NO HOMEWORK!!  BE SAFE AS YOU CELEBRATE TONIGHT!!

Tuesday, 10/30/07

3rd/5th Periods
We finished revising and editing the essays today in class. 
No contractions,
no 1st/2nd person pronouns,
plenty of elaboration to explain your points,
eliminate stems (this shows that...) where necessary or replace with a smoother transition,
formatting,
bibilography,
etc...

Final draft due tomorrow! 
Students were also given the reflection for the essay and some time in class today to complete.  This should be turned in with the essay tomorrow.

6th Period
Today the test for The Young Man and the Sea was returned and reviewed.  Six sentence summaries of the novel were collected and will be graded.  Students had a few more minutes to complete the gathering of evidence for Skiff and this information was recorded on a piece of construction paper for tomorrow's activity. 
Finally, the project for The Young Man and the Sea was shared today.  Students can select any project from the 8 available to complete by NEXT FRIDAY, 11/9!!  Homework:  begin the project.

Monday, 10/29/07

3rd/5th Periods
Today students had the chance to have their essays revised by classmates.  They also had a chance to learn from some other students' essays.  Tonight's homework:  make the revisions and print a new draft.  See last week's blog for the formatting of your bibliography if you need to make corrections!!

Tomorrow we will finish revising, edit, and the FINAL DRAFT will be DUE WEDNESDAY!!

6th Period
After starting class with a revising activity, students completed the six sentence summary of The Young Man and the Sea.  This will become the intro paragraph to the response to literature essay that we will begin tomorrow!!  Students had the chance to work with a partner to make improvements to their paragraph after a brief discussion of the main points to include.  Finally, students completed the blue evidence sheet with information regarding Skiff Beaman's positive and negative character traits. 

HOMEWORK:  Type and PRINT the six sentence summary.  Bring to class tomorrow!

Week of 10/22 - 10/26

3rd/5th Period
Students are writing the response to literature essay using the Jane Schaeffer Writing Program method.  Work is being done in class.  Last week, students gathered evidence on the topic of their choice - which was selected from a list of prompts.  Students have some freedom in the literature they choose to analyze in this essay, but the format is pretty strict.

Mon - Gather evidence, write introduction
Tues - Wed - Finish intro, write body paragraphs
Thurs - write conclusion, revise  HW:  Type draft and print for class tomorrow
Fri - Revise for formatting  - add title, etc...  Add in the parenthetical documentation and complete your bibliography.  I have linked the model bibliography for you to see and use.
Download Bibliography.doc

6th Period
Students are finishing up the novel study on The Young Man and the Sea this week.
Mon - read ch's 19-21, complete questions, review vocabulary, discuss format for THURSDAY'S TEST
Tues - read ch's 22 - 25 (end), complete questions, review vocabulary   HW:  Plot diagram
Wed - plot diagram in groups, review for test with game
Thurs - TEST!  HW:  Write six sentence summary on your favorite fairy tale
Fri - prepare for response to literature essay - notes, etc...

Wednesday, 10/17

3rd/5th Periods
Today was early release - so we had shortened class periods.  Additionally, we had performing arts this morning, so we did not meet as a class for 3rd period.
In 5th period, we discussed the short story, "The Skylight Room" and began the process of selecting a topic for the response to literature essay.  Students have no homework tonight. 

6th Period
Today you had a quiz on chapters 1-13 of The Young Man and the Sea.  When finished with this, students read or worked on other homework.  The grades will be posted in I-Parent by the end of the week. 

Tuesday, 10/16/07

Remember...WEDNESDAY is EARLY RELEASE!
Make plans to attend the Fall Fling on October 25th!  Admission is $4 or FREE with PTSA membership! 

3rd/5th Periods
Students worked in class to complete the six sentence summary for "The Cop and the Anthem" while they had the text in front of them as a reference.  Then, students read our final O.Henry short story, "The Skylight Room."  Instead of a six sentence summary, students analyzed the text for protagonist, antagonist, conflict, resolution, setting, and theme.   We will discuss this story in depth tomorrow - as I'm sure students will have questions and comments about it!

Finally, toward writing the response to literature essay, students generated a list of four possible essay topics.  Any short story or narrative poem that we have read this year is "free game" for this essay.  Students will be writing a literary analysis to investigate theme, common themes, characterization, common characters, the role of setting in the stories, etc... 

No homework tonight. 

6th Period
Tomorrow students will be having a quiz on The Young Man and the Sea chapters 1-14.  The quiz will have three parts...
1. Comprehension of the story
2. Vocabulary
3. HIPSOMA found in the story. 

Today, in preparation for the quiz, we completed reading chapters 13 and 14 aloud.  We then reviewed HIPSOMA and discussed some of the HIPSOMA found in the story.  Finally, we reviewed the vocabulary for these chapters through a game of vocabulary bingo. 

Homework tonight:  nothing written.  Review the vocabulary (flashcards would be a good way) and make sure you understand the different types of HIPSOMA...this should be a review. 

Monday, 10/15

3rd/5th Periods
Today we discussed in depth what will be expected from each student as part of the response to literature essay.  We will begin gathering evidence for this process later this week.  Today, students read "The Cop and the Anthem" by O.Henry.  Homework was started in class...write a DRAFT of your six sentence summary.  Time will be provided in class tomorrow to revise and turn in your final copy. 

If you need the text, O. Henry's work is not copyrighted, so if you type into your search engine, "O.Henry and 'The Cop and the Anthem,'" you should be able to find the text online. 

6th Period
Today we finished the read-aloud for chapters 8-11.  Students then worked on answering the questions for these chapters.  The new 9-week grading period has begun.  Everyone has a fresh start, and I'm hoping to see lots of good grades! 
No homework tonight.

6th period class note:  In order to help students stay more organized, there is now a Language Arts Model Notebook available in the classroom for students to refer to as they organize themselves.  As a class we organized notebooks on Friday (10/12) and will continue to reinforce this in class.  Please make sure to refer to this notebook throughout the year.  There will be periodic announced and unannounced notebook checks throughout the year!

Week of 10/8 - 10/12

3rd/5th Periods
This week we are working on a small unit about O. Henry from which we will soon begin writing our next essay, the Response to Literature. 
Monday - author bio info...be prepared for a quiz on Wednesday.  Read "After Twenty Years" in your literature text and complete a mini log (Characters, Conflict, Inciting Incident, Climax, Resolution, Theme.)
Tuesday - Read and complete a log on "The Gift of the Magi."
Wednesday - Essays/Timed Writing returned and reviewed.  Quiz on O. Henry.  Take notes on Six Sentence Summary.  Create summary for "The Gift of the Magi."  Visit the media center for book checkout.
Thursday - Read and complete a log (analysis via 6-sentence summary) for "The Last Leaf."  O. Henry quizzes returned/reviewed.  Read and discuss the article, "Life at the Turn of the Century."
Friday - Share Six Sentence Summaries on "The Last Leaf" and read "The Cop and the Anthem."  No homework!

6th Period
This week we are beginning our novel study using Rodman Philbrick's The Young Man and the Sea.  As there is only a class set of novels, all work should be done in class. 
Monday - students me the author via www.RodmanPhilbrick.com.  Each student was assigned 2 vocabulary words and they worked on a vocabulary project with these words to be finished by Tuesday. 
Tuesday - completed vocabulary projects.  Read Ch's 1-3 aloud and completed some discussion questions based on these chapters.
Wednesday - reviewed the discussion questions and expectations for future questions.  Assigned read-aloud pages for tomorrow and discussed the rubric for evaluation of each students' reading.  Read Ch's 4-7.  Completed discussion questions.
Thursday - Essays returned/discussed, dicussed the reading from Wednesday and the questions, read aloud/assessment and then complete discussion questions.
Friday - Return all assignments, read independently through chapter 8 and complete the discussion questions. 

Wednesday, 10/3/07

3rd/5th Periods
Today students took the re-test of the performance assessment. 

6th Period
In preparation for the timed writing on Thursday and Friday, students worked to analyze and grade a short story, "When Seconds Matter."  We then reviewed last night's transition homework.   

Tuesday, 10/2/07

3rd/5th Periods
Today we discussed more about the performance assessment for tomorrow and answered all questions.  Then, we turned our attention to the timed writings that will be written in class on Thursday and Friday.  We looked at four examples of personal narratives and evaluated them based on the four domains of writing to see what makes an outstanding paper.  No homework EXCEPT to prepare for the re-test tomorrow!

6th Period
Today I announced the timed narrative writing for this Thursday and Friday.  In preparation, we discussed the use of transitions in writing as "signals" for the reader.  Students were also given a handout of the most common transitions to keep in their notebooks.  We looked at two personal narratives and evaluated them based on the four domains of writing so that students can see how the essays will be graded.  We will continue to prepare for this tomorrow - before the writing begins on Thursday.

Homework:  Transitions workbook pages - due tomorrow!