Ms. T Alford

Week of January 22 - 25, 2008

The Scholastic Book Fair is at Dickerson this week.  Parents are welcome to stop by when you are in the building for conferences.  I will also be taking my classes to the book fair on Thursday.  Send/bring money on Thursday if you are interested in purchasing books. 

1st Period
This is conference week, which means that classes are shortened a bit to accomodate the early release schedule.  We will be continuing to work on identifying the four types of sentences, and add the idea of adjective and adverb clauses to the mix.  Students will have a TEST next Wednesday, 1/30, on the four types of sentences, and adjective and adverb clauses. 

Due Friday at the end of class:  Chapter 7 - 11 activities AND sentence types practice packet - it's a quiz grade.  I will choose 20-25 of the questions to check.  You may use your notes. 

2nd/4th Periods
This week, due to shortened classes, most class time will be devoted to Tom Sawyer.  Thursday there will be a quiz on chapters 11 - 18 during class.  Activities for chapters 11-18 are due Friday. Happy reading!

Week of 1/14 - 1/18/08

1st Period -
Monday - I introduced the Betsy Byars novel study today.  All students were assigned a copy of the text that they may take home.  This is an extension activity and at the end of the unit, all students will take a quiz on the novel.  Use this as a chance to really enhance your language arts grade!!  We continued practice with complex sentences today.  There will be a quiz over identifying simple, compound, and complex sentences on WEDNESDAY!  Review your notes and activities daily!

Tuesday - We did our third DGP today.  Students are required to keep these and all warm-ups organized in their language arts notebooks.  Then, I discussed a bit more how the Summer of the Swans material will be graded.  Students have to read the first 6 chapters (pp. 1-32) by Friday and answer 6 questions regarding their reading.  How this assignment will be graded was discussed in detail, and students were given a copy of the grading procedures to glue into their spirals.  SOME students still do not have a spiral notebook and need to get organized!!  After tomorrow's quiz on simple, compound, and complex sentences, time will be provided for reading.  In preparation for the quiz, we spent the second half of class reviewing the three sentence types.
HOMEWORK: STUDY for the quiz!! You may practice with the extra handouts I gave you in class today!  I'll check in with study hall at 8:30 tomorrow morning for those who may have last-minute questions.

Wednesday - Students first took their quiz on simple, compound, and complex sentences.  The remainder of the class period was spent on reading the Summer of the Swans and completing the extension activities for that program.  Chapters 1-6 and accompanying activities are due by Friday at the end of class!

Thursday - Today we started with a proofreading warmup.  Then, we reviewed the notes on simple, compound, and complex sentences before adding the fourth type, compound-complex sentences to the notes.  Students finished class with a CD-CX sentence activity.  HOMEWORK: The CD-CX worksheet IS homework if students did not finish in class.  Also...chapter 1-6 reading and activities for Summer of the Swans is due at the end of class tomorrow, and it will be graded over the weekend.  While there may be some time to work in class, there will not be a large portion of the class devoted to this, so make sure you take it home if you are not far enough along!

Friday - Today we turned in the activities from chapters 1-6 of Summer of the Swans.  Additionally, we did some more practice with all four sentence types.  Using notes, students determined the sentence types in one exercise that was a grade.  I-Parent has been updated with the activities from SOS (unless student hasn't yet turned in assignment - in which case it will be accepted Monday with some points penalized) and the in-class sentences activity.  No homework.  Enjoy your long weekend!

2nd/4th Period -
Monday - Students read the Mark Twain magazine to find out more about the "life and times" of this famous author.  Information gathered should be put into a visual organizer by Friday.  Students were then provided time to read Tom Sawyer.  There will be a quiz on chapters 1-10 on Thursday.  All activities on chapters 1-10 are due on Friday.

Tuesday - today we did our third DGP activity and then we discussed more about the visual organizer assignment.  Students were given the remaining class time to read and take notes on the Mark Twain magazine or to read Tom Sawyer.  I extended the deadline for the visual organizer to Monday.  But, all other written work is due Friday.  The quiz will be on Thursday over chapters 1-10.

Wednesday - Today we spent some time reading Tom Sawyer in addition to some work on grammar concepts.  Homework:  QUIZ tomorrow on chapters 1-10!

Thursday - Students took their quiz on chapters 1-10 of the novel today and spent the second part of class reading onward.  The next quiz will cover chapters 11 - 19 and will be taken next Thursday!  Happy reading!

Friday - Today we discussed and clarified plot points from chapters 1-10 of Tom Sawyer and discussed yesterday's quiz. I also collected the assignments for chapters 1-10.  Finally, students were given the next section of activities and these were also discussed.  Next week is conference week, and class time will be devoted to the novel.  HW:  On Tuesday, visual organizers are due!!  Enjoy the long weekend!

Friday, 1/11/08

1st Period
Today we did a proofreading warmup and then continued to work on distinguishing subordinate clauses.  We are practicing with complex sentences.  There will be a quiz either next Tuesday or Wednesday on simple, compound, and complex sentences.  Then, we will add compound-complex sentences to the mix.  HW:  Review over the weekend if you are needing extra help with sentence types.

2nd/4th Periods
Today we did a proofreading warmup before we got into Tom Sawyer a bit more.  We read a few more chapters (through ch. 3) and discussed the way the book study will be handled with some reading in class and some reading at home. 
No homework.

Thursday, 1/10/08

1st Period
Today we completed our second DGP for the year and then began working on dependent clauses and complex sentences.  Notes were reviewed and distributed to students.  We also practiced distinguishing between a simple sentence (independent clause) and a dependent clause.  Students learned the formula for complex sentences and were reminded to pay attention to the use of commas in these sentences  ( I D or D, I ). 

HOMEWORK:  One-subject spiral notebook due tomorrow.

2nd/4th Periods
Today after our second DGP for the year we began our novel study of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  Some of the reading will be done in class and some will be done at home.  Every student was issued a copy of the novel.  In addition to this, there will be journals, writing assignments, and continuing review and reinforcement of grammatical topics.  No homework.

Wednesday, 1/9/08

Today, after a grammar warmup and a look at where the nine-weeks is headed, students revised the action plan letters that were drafted yesterday and created the final copies today in class.

1st Period students should bring in a one-subject spiral notebook by Friday.  We will be using this beginning next Monday for our extension novel study.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Today students worked through their first daily grammar practice (DGP) activity.  We will continue to build and strengthen skills while we work through more of these.  Then, it was time for some self reflection and setting some goals for the new quarter.  Every student has a fresh start and was given time to reflect on his or her strengths and weaknesses in language arts, set a goal, and develop an action plan.

HOMEWORK:  Finish rough draft of letter for class tomorrow.  1st PERIOD:  By FRIDAY, bring in a spiral notebook for an extension activity.