May 16--Finished up the introduction of our last vocab words of the year. The last quiz is next week, so be ready. We also started talking about the Scope Magazine article based on "The Book Thief." We will continued reading and answering questions about that on Monday.
May 15--New vocab today and then we saw an updated version of the "Monsters are Due on Maples Street" that we compared with the old version.
May 14--Today's assignment was to answer the question What are the things in the video that most contribute to bringing out the full effect of the story, "The Monsters are due on Maple Street.?" We watched the old video of this story and then talked and wrote about it. We did not introduce any new vocab today because we doubled up yesterday. Don't forget to study the vocab words for our final quiz next week.
May 13--Today we doubled up on the usual number of vocabulary words introduced so that we could leave time tomorrow for viewing "The Monsters are due on Maple Street." We did the vocabulary, then we made a list of details about the story. The list is to be used for coming ups with a theme for the story. We have not yet been assigned the task of writing a theme.
May 12--Today we introduced the new vocabulary words for our final vocabulary unit, Unit 17. After that, we finished reading "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street." By the end of today we had finished the story and all the questions (1-9) contained within it. Those who were absent or did not finish will need to have those questions finished.
May 9--Today we took Vocabulary Quiz 16 and turned in Warm-up 16, Vocab Study Guide 16, and the Amigo Brothers paragraphs we wrote. We also continued reading and answering questions for the teleplay, "The Monsters are due on Maple Street."
May 8--Vocabulary Quiz #16 tomorrow! Today we continued reading the teleplay we were reading yesterday. We have been answering questions as we go. We are up to question #5.
May 7--Today we continued with the teleplay, "The Monsters are due on Maple Street." We read and discussed parts of it and stopped to answer the first two questions imbedded in the story. We will continue reading and answering questions tomorrow. Don't forget that Friday we have a vocab quiz.
May 6--Today we previewed the literature we will be working with the next couple of days. We are reading "The Monsters are due on Maple Street." It is a play so we have people who have been assigned parts and we will be reading it as a play. Along the way we will write about various aspects of the play by stopping and answering the questions dispersed throughout. Don't forget that we have a quiz on Friday!
May 5--Today students have some things they will need to finish at home if they did not finish in class or if they were absent. We have been working with the story, "Amigo Brothers," and today we looked into the use of dialect in that story. Dialect is explained on page 739 of the glossary in the back of the literature book. Students are to write a paragraph with a topic sentence, support sentences, elaboration, and a concluding sentence discussing at least two places in the story that show the use of dialect.
May 2--After we introduced the last of our Unit 16 Vocabulary words, we went back to reading the story, "Amigo Brothers." If you were absent, you need to finish reading it. On Monday we will return to the story to learn and write about the literary device called dialect. Don't forget to be studying the Unit 16 words using dynamo.dictionary.com.
May 1--Today we continued reading the story, "Amigo Brothers." We didn't get finished, but we should be finished tomorrow. You can tell your parents or show them an example of "dialect" because that is one of the things we talked about when we were reading the story.
Wednesday, April 30--Today there are many students who didn't finish the assignment in class. We won't be working on it Thursday, so they need to finish it at home. We were writing a paragraph that had a topic sentence, support sentences, and elaboration on those support sentences. It finishes with a concluding sentence. The paragraph was to be on the similarities and differences between Antonio and Felix in the story "Amigo Brothers." For people showing their parents that they are "done," you better be showing them a paragraph that is 10 sentences long!
Monday and Tuesday, April 28-29--Sorry about yesterday! Coming back from break sometimes I forget to update this list. We have finished off and turned in the close reading assignment, "The Man in the Arena," and we have started a new vocabulary unit, number 16. This is the second to last one of the year. We also did a bit of a preview to the story on page 308 of the literature book called, "Amigo Brothers." We didn't start reading it yet, but I introduced it. We DID start a paper titled "Amigo Brothers" and on the paper each student should have the beginnings of a paragraph on the differences and similarities of the two main characters, Felix and Antonio. Of course they can't know the differences yet, but they should have written the topic sentence so far.
Thursday, April 17--No homework. Today we continued with the close reading activity we have been working on all week. Students who want to show their parents what they have done can show them the graphic organizer we have been using and can explain the "The Man in the Arena" message to them.
Wednesday, April 16--See Tuesday. Same thing!
Tuesday, April 15--We continued with the close reading and will continue using the same organizer tomorrow.
Monday, April 14--Today we started a close reading of a speech excerpt. It is titled, "The Man in the Arena." Each student will have a copy of the organizer we are using to go through the speech. You can check that your student did what he/she is supposed to do by asking them to explain what we had done so far as they show you the organizer. In no period did we make it past the vocabulary part on the second page.
Friday, April 11-Today we took vocabulary quiz number 15; the scores are already put into the grade and you can see them in Aeries. We also turned in a couple of items: the Warm-up #15 and Vocabulary Study Guide #15. We won't be collecting the Rikki Tikki Tavi essay until Monday, giving you the whole weekend to catch up.
Thursday, April 10--Today we looked at samples of other people's conclusions to their Rikki Tikki Tavi essays. We discussed what they did well and what was weak. We were then supposed to fix our own conclusions to make sure they were meeting the standard. We were then able to start writing the complete essay. Everybody should have already had each part done and then re-done to make it perfect. Now we are just putting the five paragraphs together. We will turn in the finished product on Monday. Tomorrow we will take the vocabulary 15 quiz and work a bit on our essays.
Wednesday, April 9--Today everyone should have finished up their conclusions for the essay we have been working on together, step-by-step. Tomorrow we will examine some of those conclusions and talk about what's good about them and how they can be improved. After that, you will start putting together all of the pieces of this essay so we can turn it in Friday!
Tuesday, April 8--Today I demonstrated for the students how to write a conclusion to an explanatory essay. They began working on their own and some finished it. They will have a bit of time tomorrow to finish that conclusion, then we are going to look at some of their work and see how they did. We also introduced the last two vocabulary words of the unit in preparation for the quiz on Friday.
Monday, April 7--Today we introduced two vocabulary words. The quiz on these words is this coming Friday. Be studying! We also are at a critical point today in writing our explanatory essay: we should be finished with all three body paragraphs, the one on curiosity, the one on bravery, and the one on wisdom. Tomorrow we move on to the conclusion, then we put it all together Thursday and Friday.
Friday April 4--Today students were supposed to have finished writing their second body paragraph for the explanatory essay they are doing on Rikki Tiki Tavi. Monday we will write the third body paragraph, and Tuesday we will go learn how to do the conclusion. Some may need to finish today's second body paragraph that focuses on bravery at home because we will be working on the third body paragraph that focuses on wisdom on Monday.
Thursday, April 3--Besides our vocabulary words being introduced, we dug again into what a body paragraph should look like. Show your parents how yours has what the rubic says it should have because that is what you were supposed to do in class: tear yours apart and see if it had all the right parts, then put it together correctly.
Wednesday, April 2--Today we began Vocab Study Guide #15. After that we resumed working on learning to write an awesome explanatory essay. We looked at the body paragraphs YOU wrote and talked about what made them good and not so good.
Tuesday, April 1--We finished up the testing today, both our SBAC test (the one we were taking in my class, not all of them) and our unit 14 vocabulary quiz. Tomorrow we start a new unit of vocab and will get back to our explanatory essay.
Monday, March 31--We had a weird schedule today because of testing. Our classes were only about 35 minutes long. In my class we still took the vocabulary 14 quiz and turned in these items: Warm-up 14, Vocab Study Guide 14, "The Competitors" and "Duffy's Jacket."
Friday, March 28--Still finishing up the Smarter Balanced test, but Monday we will take our vocab 14 quiz, so be ready!
Thursday, March 27--Today we continued with the Smarter Balanced test. We will probably finish up on Friday. That means Friday won't see the vocabulary 14 quiz. That has to be moved to Monday.
Wednesday, March 26--Today we did the preparation for taking the Performance Task in the Smarter Balanced test. Don't forget to bring headphones if you have them for Thursday and Friday.
Tuesday, March 25--A sub today because teachers had to meet on how to prepare for Common Core. Students read and answered questions about the story that begins on page 6 of our lit book. Everyone has that book at home, so if you were absent, read the story and answer the questions within it and after it.
Monday, March 24--Today students worked on their own body paragraphs for their "Rikki Tiki Tavi" essay. I modeled how to do it on Friday, and today we reviewed that and turned them loose on the first body paragraph.
Friday, March 21--We did the final two words of the unit (quiz next week!) and then I modeled for you how to write a body paragraph for an explanatory essay.
Thursday, March 20--Two more words down on our yellow study guide; make sure you study them. Today we handed students their introductory paragraphs back to them that they wrote on Rikki Tiki Tavi. We have already modeled for them how to do a proper intro paragraph, and we have put multiple samples on the screen for them to see even more examples. Today they were supposed to take theirs and check that they were done right and then write them again.
Wednesday, March 19--Two more words introduced; make sure you are studying them! Today we took the introductions you wrote yesterday and put them up on the big screen for all to see and evaluate. We talked about whether they met all the requirements of an introduction so that you can do the same type of thinking with your own introductions.
Tuesday, March 18--Today we introduced the next couple of word in our unit. We then continued on with the demonstration of how to write an introduction for an explanatory essay. After review and wrapping up that example, students were given the opportunity to write their own intro. I collected those and we will review and judge those efforts on Wednesday.
Monday, March 17--Today we introduced the first two words of the Unit 14 Vocabulary, so everyone has a new yellow study guide they are working on. We then went on to an introduction to the next essay we are writing: explanatory. Each student should have copied the example paragraph I am writing in order to model the process of the introduction.
Thursday, March 13 and Friday, March 14 -- I am out of town wrapping up some family affairs, so there will be a sub on both of these days. We will be collecting warm-ups and vocabulary study guides number 13 on Friday, along with the things we wrote about the story "Bargain." In class on Thursday we will be reading "The Competitors" and answering questions relating to that story in our Interactive Readers. We will finish that up on Friday and take quiz number 13 then.
Wednesday, March 12--Today we drilled some more on Topic Sentence Answers then got turned loose to finish answering the question about "Bargain." The question was: Now that we know how "Bargain" ends, what events in the plot seem to have been clues (foreshadowing) all along? The answer needs to start with a topic sentence and then be followed by 1) a support sentence 2)Elaboration 3) more support 4) Elaboration, and 5) a concluding sentence. We went over all of these multiple times over the past three days.
Tuesday, March 11--Today we spent a lot of time talking about the proper way to format what I am calling Topic Sentence Answers. Try to show your parents that you learned it by turning this question into a topic sentence: What are the best ways to get enough exercise?
Monday, March 10--We went through the last of the 10 words for this week's vocab. We also continued answering the question about "Bargain" that we began Friday.
Friday, March 7--Today we introduced words seven and eight of the current vocab unit and then we read the rest of "Bargain." We talked about how to write a topic sentence answer, mostly the beginning sentence. We will be working on thoroughly answering the question, "Now that we know how "Bargain" ends, what events in the plot seem to have been clues (foreshadowing) all along?"
Thursday, March 6--I am at the district office for a meeting all day, but here is what you should have done when I am gone: Read the story, "User Friendly" on page 186 of the literature book. On page 196, answer the questions thoroughly and accurately. That is questions 1-7.
Wednesday, March 5--After introducing two more of Unit 13's vocab words, we read more of "The Bargain." If you were not here, simply read the part from page 240 in the left-hand column to the bottom of page 242. When you have read that, we are answering the question, "What clues suggest to us that Mr. Baumer is not going to give up in his battle with Slade?" We started answering that like this: "There are clues that Baumer likely won't give up in his dispute with Slade." The most obvious evidence I can see is...In the story it says,"..." That's my textual evidence to support my point that...
Tuesday, March 4--Two more words added to the Unit 13 vocab today. We also continued reading and writing about "Bargain" with an emphasis on using textual evidence and elaborating. Our frame today was as follows: (Ellipses indicate where the student has to finish the sentences) My thoughtful prediction of what will have between Baumer and Slade is...(and then) I have reasoned in that way because...(and finally) Elaborate with one more sentence on what you just said.
Monday, March 3--We began vocabulary unit 13 today and two words were introduced. Of course, all words are on dynamo.dictionary.com to be practiced nightly for homework. We also read the first part of the story, "The Bargain." We were working on filling out a set of sentence starters that talked about what kind of person we believed Mr. Baumer was. Every student should AT LEAST be able to say what type of person they think Baumer is.
Friday, February 28--Today, after a warm-up where we focused on understanding a clause and a phrase, we took vocab unit 12 quiz.
Thursday, February 27--Today we did the last two words of unit 12 and then worked on comparing and contrasting the poem we have been reading with the video version of it. Each student worked with his table team to craft nice sentences explaining three differences between the two mediums. They then wrote another sentence to talk about one of the choices the video makers made.
Wednesday , February 26--We added didn't do the last two vocab words for unit 12 today so that we would have time to watch the video of "The Highwayman." We watched that video before we wrote our declarations of what the theme was in the poem.
Tuesday, February 25--Today we continued with new vocab words to add to the study guide. See yesterday's entry for more information about what students are supposed to do as far as studying and getting your signature. We also started to get all of our facts together in order to discover the theme of "The Highwayman." Students wrote two small paragraphs: one listing subjects that were addressed in the poem, and the other talking about what they believe were critical details in the poem. They should be able to tell parents about both of these things.
Monday, February 24--Today we introduced words number five and six of this week's vocab unit. Students should have done a thorough job of filling our the vocab study guide so far and they should have been studying the words for at least 10 minutes a night. The get extra points if the parent signs that they have studied that night. We also worked at paraphrasing the 13th stanza of "The Highwayman." Students should be able to show you how they paraphrased that stanza and they should be able to tell you what the poem is about. It begins on page 161 of the literature book.
Friday, February 21--Unit 12 words were introduced again and then we dove back into "The Highwayman." We should be done by now, but students are not doing a good job with paraphrasing the poem. Today I put the poem up on the screen and began doing it with them. After I showed them how to paraphrase effectively, I had them start on the 13th stanza of the poem. We didn't finish that.
Thursday, February 20--Today we introduced Unit 12 vocabulary words. We also continued reading and discussing, and writing about "The Highwayman." Students worked on paraphrasing the 12th stanza. Few did it right and taking another look at it at home might be a good idea.
Wednesday, February 19--Today we took the Language Arts Benchmark test.
Tuesday, February 18--Still out of town with family matters, but our sub had them read an article and answer questions about it.
Friday, February 14--Today we took vocabulary quiz #11 and we turned in warm-us, vocab study guides, and the questions we did on John F. Kennedy.
Thursday, February 13--Today we reviewed in preparation for tomorrow's vocab #11 quiz. Of course, students should use dynamo.dictionary.com to do this tonight as well. We then continued our study of the poem, "The Highwayman." Students should be able to tell a detail or two of the poem that seemed important to today's reading.
Wednesday, February 12--Today we read the article in Scope Magazine the article about President John F. Kennedy. As we read, we answered some questions, the frames which were on the board. Each question should be completed with a number of sentences. These are not short answers.
Tuesday, February 11--Today we continued to review the vocab (last two words of unit) and then continued working on "The Highwayman." Students were supposed to have completed the following frame before leaving at the end of class: "My shoulder partner and I concluded that the most important detail we have learned about so far is..."
Friday, February 7--I was absent today. Students worked on a story in the interactive reader about Volcanos. They should be able to show parents a paper titled "Volcanos" that has answers to questions from the story.
Thursday, February 6--Students should have written their paraphrase of the sixth stanza of "The Highwayman." Tell your parents what happened so far so you can be sure you understand and that they know you understand. We also introduced the new vocab words, of course.
Wednesday, February 5--Today we did the exact same thing as yesterday. Students should easily be able to explain to someone what has happened so far in the poem, "The Highwayman."
Tuesday, February 4--Today we introduced the next two vocabulary words and continued right on with the close reading of "The Highwayman." Show your parents what you have written so far and if they can't read it, then you are doing it wrong.
Monday, February 3--Today we introduced Unit 11 vocabulary words, so it is time for students to be studying those words every night again. We also continued today reading the poem, "The Highwayman," and were at the point that we were summarizing each stanza. Parents, ask to see their summaries of the first two stanzas. If they don't have it, you need to ask "Why?"
Friday, January 31--Today we continued with the poem, "The Highwayman," and our deep study of it.
Thursday, January 30--Today we continued with the close reading lesson on the poem, "The Highwayman." There is no homework as this is all done in class, but students can certainly show parents what they have done so far in this close read.
Wednesday, January 29--Today we did an introduction to theme and took notes on what theme was and what theme was not. We also talked about what a highwayman was and about some of the text structures and features of the poem that we are reading. Students should be able to tell their parents something about all of these things.
Tuesday, January 28--Same as Monday, but tomorrow we will be on to something else, so be ready to show your parents your work as we start reading the poem, "The Highwayman" on Wednesday.
Monday, January 27--Today we are still working on those benchmark essays!
Friday, January 24--Today students were supposed to be about finished with their benchmark argumentative essays and ready to have someone peer edit them. They were given time to do that and have Monday to wrap up finishing the final copy.
Thursday, January 23--Today was the third day of reading and gathering information in preparation for the writing of the benchmark essay in class.
Wednesday, January 22--Today was the second day of reading information and writing down facts that are to be used in the argumentative benchmark essay. Tomorrow we will begin taking the information gathered over the past two days and working on a graphic organizer to help us organize the essay.
Tuesday, January 21-Today we began the multi-day process of doing the benchmark argumentative essay that the district requires. This is entirely done in class and no materials are taken home. A way to check up on your student would be to ask them to describe the day's activity. By Thursday we will start writing the essay and on Friday we will be writing as well. Since we are doing an unusual thing this week, we won't be having any new vocab unit beginning.
Friday, January 17--Today we took the vocabulary unit 10 quiz. Before that we were practicing the skills we need for next weeks benchmark essay. We also turned in the following items: Warm-up #10, Study Guide #10, "Getting to the Pointe," "The Musician," and "Robinhood."
Thursday, January 16--Today we reviewed more strategies to help students be prepared for the benchmark argumentative essay of next week. Specifically, we read an article on school sports and talked about what the main reasons against having school sports were. We then listed the details and examples that we could use from the article to support the reasons. Don't forget, tomorrow is the Unit 10 Quiz!
Wednesday, January 15--Today we looked at student samples of argumentative essays in order to re-focus on what parts need to be in all argumentative essays. Students are still encouraged to refer to my examples and notes at tiny.cc/argumentativemodel as we prepare to take the benchmark argumentative writing test next week. Also, do not forget that Unit 10 vocab quiz is Friday.
Tuesday, January 14--I was in some special training today and we had a sub in my classes. Make sure that you don't forget that we have vocabulary Unit 10 quiz on Friday. In class today we read a story about Robin Hood and students were asked to discover what a theme of the story was. You should be able to tell your parents what you decided the theme is.
Monday, January 13--Today we introduced the last two words in the Unit 10 vocab; be ready for the quiz on Friday that will also contain questions designed to show that you know what clauses and phrases are. We also finished up today what we began on Thursday. Many people did not finish and you will not be given more class time. We were writing the final paragraph in determining the central idea of the ballet article.
Friday, January 10--Today I am out and have a sub as I travel to the California League of Middle Schools Conference. Students are working on reading and responding to a story and should have a paper titled, "The Musician" to show for their efforts.
Thursday, January 9--Today we introduced the next pair of words for this vocabulary unit and they are omniscience and subsequent. Make sure to review this unit for ten minutes a night; it is easy if you use dynamo.dictionary.com. We also wrapped up our quest to find the central idea of the article, "Getting to the Pointe." Today we wrote out what the central idea of the entire article was and found evidence to support that. Each student should be able to show their parents or anyone who asks, "What did you did in school today?" that they have a paper titled "Getting to the Pointe" with central ideas written about each section and then the final declaration of the central idea of the whole thing on the back.
Wednesday, January 8--Today we introduced the third set of two words of Vocabulary Unit 10; they are sequence and dismal. Don't forget that these should be studied for ten minutes a night and they are available on dynamo.dictionary.com. We also worked on the central idea of the article, "Getting to the Pointe." Tomorrow we will determine what the main idea of the whole thing is now that we have practiced with just a few parts.
Tuesday, January 7--Today we introduced the second two words of Vocabulary Unit 10; they are utilize and intricate. Don't forget that all words can and should be studied nightly for at least ten minutes using our study guide and dynamo.dictionary.com. Today we also added to our paper, "Getting to the Pointe," by finding and writing about the central idea of the fourth section of this article. All students should have written about these first four sections and we will finish the whole article this week.
Monday, January 6--Today we introduced the first two words of Vocabulary Unit 10; they are simultaneous and rendition. Don't forget that all the words can be studied at dynamo.dictionary.com. Ten minutes a night is the expected study time. We also talked about phrases and clauses as we continue to make it a priority that students know these sentence structures so they can write clearly and without fragments.
Friday, December 13--Today we turned in Warm-up and Study Guide #10 before taking quiz number #10.
Thursday, December 12--Today we continued working on finding the central idea and supporting details in the article on ballet. We will continue that on Friday as well.
Wednesday, December 11--Today we continued on what we were doing on Monday. Take a look at what is written there.
Tuesday, December 10--Today I was out of the classroom working on plans with our district instructional coaches. We had a sub and we read a story in the Interactive Reader, answering the questions as we went along. If you were absent and need to make this up, see me before school, after school, or at lunch so that I can let you use the book and do the work.
Monday, December 9--Today we worked on recognizing the difference between clauses and phrases in sentences. It was emphasized that a clause, whether subordinate or independent, always has a subject and verb, while a phrase does not. We practiced and practiced telling the difference because it must be known for Friday's quiz on vocabulary unit 9. We also began reading the article, "Getting to the Pointe," which each student has a copy of. With that we began to go section by section to find the central idea. We will be doing that much this week.
Wednesday-Friday, December 4-6--I was surprised today to see that I was missing a few days here. I am not sure what happened because I did them. I guess that something happened and they didn't actually get saved after I wrote them. Sorry about that!
We have been doing the same things all week: introducing new vocab words two at a time, and then working on our essays. The essays are due by the end of today (Friday), meaning midnight. I will begin reading and grading tomorrow. I think my final piece of advice will be the same as it has been: look at the tiny.cc/argumentativemodel page I created; read all of the notes for each section of the model. I think a lot of people are NOT writing a paragraph that has the counter arguments. Look at the model and see how it is done. It is easy if you try.
Tuesday, December 3--Same as yesterday: new vocab introduced and then we worked on our essays. Tomorrow is the last day to work on the essays in class before Thursday when they need to be done so we can peer edit them. Final--after you make changes based on the peer edit--will be due Friday at midnight. They are shared with me via Google Drive just like we have done many times before.
Monday, December 2--We began vocabulary unit 9 today, but the rest of the day was used to continue working on our argumentative essays. Please see last Tuesday's information below for detailed information about the essay.
Wednesday, November 27--Took quiz number 8 today and turned in Warm-up #8, Vocab Study Guide # 8, Argument Worksheet for the Trophy Essay, and the essay on trophies we wrote as a class. Please, make sure that you don't turn in the worksheet for the essay you are working on now, but the one we did last week together.
Tuesday, November 26--Don't forget that tomorrow is our Unit 8 vocabulary quiz; studying would be a great idea.
I want to say an extended word about the essay we are currently working on. Essays are always a task that students often don't follow directions on or fail to make use of the many helps I have provided. I have provided MANY things that should make writing this argumentative essay a step-by-step process. Let me explain. The number one place to go for help and resources to write the essay is tiny.cc/argumentativemodel; I will refer to this often in this paragraph as I explain. First of all, unless your student has made other arrangements with me, everyone is supposed to choose from one of three issues to write about: "Is the Bulldog Doomed?," "Should Kids be on Reality TV?," and "Are Trampolines too Risky?" The links to Scope magazine articles with these titles are at the top of the tiny.cc/argumentativemodel. Students are to read the article that talks about their issue and use the article to complete the "Write an Argument Essay" worksheet that prepares them with all of the steps they need to write the essay. A link is also provided next to the link to their article for this worksheet, but I have given them printed copies already. This worksheet guides them through EVERYTHING; If they skip any step, they will not have the essay they are supposed to have.
If there is something that the student doesn't understand about the essay, the same link, tiny.cc/argumentativemodel, has a sample essay (soon to be TWO sample essays) with notes highlighting various parts of the essay. Everything is explained very clearly for anyone who takes the time to read it. There is really no reason that anyone should be able to say to their parent, "I didn't know what to do." There might be something I left out, but not much, and I am constantly adding things to this link as I think of other ways to help people. I recommend that all parents go through my sample essays and the notes together so each knows exactly what is expected.
Finally, we are going to be working on the essay in class on Monday and Tuesday at least, probably more. It will be due at midnight on Friday, but a first draft should be done for class on Wednesday when we will allow students to work with their peers to find and fix mistakes. For the final turning it of this assignment, students are using their google accounts and giving it the title of "Per. ? their name argumentative." They share the document with me. We have given students directions on how to share a document and they should all know how, but they have all done it multiple times in my class and they have a handout with step-by-step instructions. This should cover it for now! If there is anything I have left out, please email me.
Monday, November 25--Today we took some very important steps toward our current essay assignment. We got out the computers and went to tiny.cc/argumentativemodel where students are supposed to choose which article's issue they are going to write about. Each student needs to pick one side of an issue presented in one of those articles and then use the article's reasons plus their own to write an essay. Students can also use the organization sheet that matches each article to gather their facts and organize themselves before writing. Don't forget, there is a quiz on vocab 8 Wednesday.
Friday, November 22--We are almost finished in all classes with the sample essay we were writing--actually, we did finish in 4th period. Students should all have a nearly-complete essay that we have been writing together. It would be a great idea to go to tiny.cc/argumentativemodel and see which article from Scope Magazine you are going to use when you start writing all on your own Monday.
Thursday, November 21--Continue to spend ten minutes a night practicing the vocab words for Unit 8. Use dynamo.dictionary.com and it can be fun! Also, all students today should have a great example of an argumentative essay that we have been writing in class. We are not finished, but will continue tomorrow.
Wednesday, November 20--Continue to spend ten minutes a night practicing the vocab words for Unit 8. Use dynamo.dictionary.com and it can be fun! Also, all students today should have a great example of an argumentative essay that we have been writing in class. We are not finished, but will continue tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 19--Continue to spend ten minutes a night practicing the vocab words for Unit 8. Use dynamo.dictionary.com and it can be fun! Also, all students today should have a great example of an argumentative essay that we have been writing in class. We are not finished, but will continue tomorrow.
Monday, November 18--Today we introduced two new vocab words to kick off Vocabulary Unit 8. Students should be using dynamo.dictionary.com to practice these words. We also finished the worksheet that we are using to write a sample argumentative essay. Section 6 of that worksheet was about writing the background information summary. All students should know how to do a basic summary for that part of the essay.
Friday, November 15--Today we worked some more on the worksheet to practice writing an argumentative essay. After that we took vocab quiz number 7. We also turned in a number of assignments, so if you were absent, please get them in. They are written on the board.
Thursday, November 14--Students should make sure they are ready for tomorrow's Unit 7 vocab quiz. The best way to do that is to have been spending ten minutes every night working with the words. Dynamo.dictionary.com is a great place to drill yourself on the words. Also, students should be able to show their parents what we have done so far on the practice argumentative essay. We have completed steps 1-4 as a class; you should show your completed sections 1-4 to your parents.
Wednesday, November 13--Today we had a sub as I attended a conference with other teachers from our school. I still need to remind you that students need to be prepared to study for Friday's Unit 7 quiz. Today we read a story in the interactive reader and wrote a paragraph about the character's in that story.
Tuesday, November 12--Today we took the first steps in what is going to be a process to learn how to write an argumentative essay. Today we read an article in a magazine on whether it is a good idea to give trophies to all participants in youth sports. We read the article and then wrote down the textual evidence that we would use to argue our positions on the issues. We will continue with this on Thursday. Also, of course it needs to be said that students need to prepared for Friday's vocabulary quiz on Unit 7.
Friday, Nov. 8--Today we introduced the last two words of the Unit 7 vocabulary. Students need to continue studying the words for 10 minutes a night. Use dynamo.dictionary.com and that makes a game of it. We also finished reading the article on steroids and finding the central ideas and supporting details.
Thursday, Nov. 7--Introduced new words again today to add to the vocab study guide. Don't forget to study dynamo.dictionary.com for 10 minutes a night and have your parents sign the margin of your study guide so you get the extra points. Very very few people get that signed. We continued working on finding the central idea and supporting details of the sections of the article we are reading in Scholastic Scope. This is a skill we will be practicing again and again this year.
Wednesday, Nov. 6--Introduced new words again today to add to the vocab study guide. Don't forget to study dynamo.dictionary.com for 10 minutes a night and have your parents sign the margin of your study guide so you get the extra points. Very very few people get that signed. We continued working on finding the central idea and supporting details of the sections of the article we are reading in Scholastic Scope. This is a skill we will be practicing again and again this year.
Tuesday, Nov. 5--Introduced new words again today to add to the vocab study guide. Don't forget to study dynamo.dictionary.com for 10 minutes a night and have your parents sign the margin of your study guide so you get the extra points. Very very few people get that signed. We continued working on finding the central idea and supporting details of the sections of the article we are reading in Scholastic Scope. This is a skill we will be practicing again and again this year.
Monday, Nov. 4--Today we gave students new purple sheets (Warm-up #7) and new yellow sheet (Vocab Study Guide #7). We talked about how to combine two sentences using a conjunctive adverb, except we called them THAMOs. We introduced the first two words and those two and the rest of Unit 7's words are on Dynamo.dictionary.com.
Friday, Nov. 1--Today we took the first quiz of the trimester and turned in a bunch of work. If you were absent be sure to see me about making up the quiz and handing in your stuff. We turned in Warm-up #6, Study Guide #6, "No Cavities," and "Three Skeleton Key."
Thursday, Oct. 31--We have the trimester's first vocabulary quiz tomorrow! Be ready. Study at dynamo.dictionary.com. In class we had a sub as I participated with the other language arts teachers in grading the benchmark essays you wrote a few weeks ago. I will be here Friday! Make sure you have ready to turn in your Vocab Study Guide and Warm-up #6, your "No Cavities" paper and your "Three Skeleton Key" paper.
Wednesday, Oct. 30--Today we reconnected with our discussion on foreshadowing. Did you tell your parents what it is yet? We practiced for the Big One on Friday's quiz and we continued making inferences and predictions about things in the story, "Three Skeleton Key."
Tuesday, Oct. 29--Tell your parents what foreshadowing is. We talked about it enough today. And if you don't know what it is, look it up on the internet. Also, don't forget to study the vocab words today: we have the quiz on Friday. In class today we read the intro to the story, "Three Skeleton Key" and talked about foreshadowing. We then finished this sentence, "The story of the three convicts might hint that..." after reading the first section of the story. We will pick up tomorrow where we left off.
Monday, Oct. 28--We worked on writing robust thesis statements in our warm-ups. We defined robust as one that starts with a subordinate clause like, Although it doesn't have the fans it used to, baseball is a great sport with a rich history, dramatic moments, and a lot of strategy. We also finished up what we were working on Friday (see Friday).
Friday, Oct 25--Last day of the trimester. Two more words introduced. Keep practicing the words 10 minutes a night on dynamo.dictionary.com. Today we did another informational article. This was on page 19 of the Scope magazine. See me for a copy if you were absent.
Thursday, Oct. 24--Today we introduced two more vocabulary words and then we concentrated on practicing finding the the central idea of an informational text. If you were absent, we read the short article on page 39 of the literature book and then wrote about the central idea and at least three details that supported that idea.
Wednesday, Oct. 23--We added words three through six today so that we could get caught up for the week. We are on Unit 6. Make sure you are using dynamo.dictionary.com to practice the words each night.
Tuesday, Oct. 22--We practiced in our warm-up how to make a more robust thesis statement. We then went through the introduction of the new vocabulary (Unit 6). Finally, we worked on identifying the central idea and supporting details of the article on dragons we have been working with.
Monday, Oct. 21--Today we continued with our close reading exercise on the dragon article. We don't have the new vocab words yet on our study guides, but you can still study them tonight if you go to Unit 6 on dynamo.dictionary.com.
Friday, Oct. 18--If you were absent, you missed taking vocabulary quiz #5 and you missed turning in the following items: Warm-up #5, Vocab Study Guide #5, and the writing we did on "Smallest Dragonboy." Get those items made up soon because the trimester is over next Friday. After the quiz everybody was supposed to be writing on summaries of each paragraph in the margin of the dragon article we have been looking at. Everyone should be able to show his parents that article and what they have done as far as approximately 10-word paraphrases of each of the seven paragraphs.
Thursday, Oct. 17--Don't forget that we have Vocabulary Quiz #5 on Friday! It is the last one of the trimester which ends next Friday. Today we worked on Close Reading in Mr. Bjerke's class and we will continue doing it tomorrow. If you were absent, there is nothing you can do to make it up because it was simply training on the process.
Wednesday, Oct. 16--Don't forget that we have Vocabulary Quiz #5 on Friday! It is the last one of the trimester which ends next Friday. Today we worked on Close Reading in Mr. Bjerke's class and we will continue doing it tomorrow. If you were absent, there is nothing you can do to make it up because it was simply training on the process.
Tuesday, Oct. 15--Don't forget to study the vocab for this Friday's quiz. Take a look at anything we have done with the story, "The Smallest Dragonboy" and make sure you have completed all the sentence frames we have filled out. Today we read a drama in class with students reading different parts. This is really not something that can be made up if you were not here.
Monday, Oct. 14--We introduced two more word--the last two--in Unit 5 Vocabulary. Of course, we have the quiz on the unit Friday, so you need to be studying dynamo.dictionary.com. We also practiced going using textual evidence again, making sure we had some good stuff to complete Friday's statements.
Friday, Oct. 11--We introduced two more word in this vocabulary unit. Students need to be studying the words every night. It is best to use dynamo.dictionary.com to do that. We also worked on making written inferences about parts of the story, "The Smallest Dragonboy." We went to the text for evidence to complete the statements that follow: "I can infer that a quality Keevan had that made him a good dragonrider candidate is..." and then with textual evidence we continued, "An action of Keevan's that serves as textual evidence of that is..."
Thursday Oct. 10--We introduced two more word in this vocabulary unit. Students need to be studying the words every night. It is best to use dynamo.dictionary.com to do that. We also worked on making written inferences about parts of the story, "The Smallest Dragonboy." We were all to finish the following statement: Keevan had strong feelings about potentially becoming a dragonrider. I can tell that he... After we finished that statement in a way that explained how we thought Keevan felt about being a dragonrider, we then went into the text again to find the proof that what we said was right: The excerpt that led me to that conclusion is... This is where we use parts of the story to prove our opinion.
Wednesday, Oct. 9--I was out today working in another part of the school on some curriculum for later. While I was gone, students had a sub and they read the story, "The Smallest Dragonboy," answering questions and proving their accuracy with textual evidence as they read. We did not do any new vocab, but students are still expected to spend 10 minutes studying the vocab.
Tuesday, Oct. 8--Homework is still to study the vocab 10 minutes a night. Don't forget it is easy to use dynamo.dictionary.com and we are on Unit 5 now. Today we read a small part of "The Smallest Dragonboy" with the idea that we were going to find evidence in the text to support what we thought of the character Beterli.
Monday, Oct. 7--Today we began warm-up sheet and vocab study guides number 5. Time to study a new group of words in dynamo.dictionary.com. If you need a printout for flash cards and can't print at home, see me after school. We also began the intro to the story, "The Smallest Dragonboy." Today we will read it and answer questions, focusing on digging back into the story to find answers and make inferences about things not explicitly stated.
Friday, Oct. 4--Today we took vocabulary quiz #4. If you were absent, please remember that you need to make it up because I don't go around and remember for you. Also make sure you turn in the items I collected on Friday. They are written on the board as usual: Warm-up #4, Vocab Study Guide #4, and "Song of the Trees" assignment.
Thursday, Oct. 3--Today was Day Four of the District Benchmark Narrative Writing Test. Students will have completed their essays. The homework is still studying the Unit 4 Vocabulary. The quiz is tomorrow. Also, if you did not finish, we are collecting the "Song of the Trees" work we did last Friday. Scroll down to last Friday to see what that paragraph is going to look like.
Wednesday, Oct. 2--Today was Day Three of the District Benchmark Narrative Writing Test. Students will have completed their first drafts and have had them edited by a peer by the end of today's class. Tomorrow will be dedicated to writing the final draft. Don't forget that the quiz on Friday for the Unit 4 vocabulary. You still are expected to study the vocab for 10 minutes a night.
Tuesday, Oct. 1--Today was Day Two of the District Benchmark Narrative Writing Test. Students should have completed their essays by the end of the day. Did you? Tomorrow we will take those essays and you will read each other's, filling out a peer edit sheet. After the peer edit sheet is completed, students will then begin fixing their drafts based on what the peers said needed to be fixed. Don't forget, you still need to be studying the vocabulary unit. We are having a quiz on Friday.
Monday, Sept. 30--Today was Day One of the District Benchmark Narrative Writing Test. Students should have used all of today to organize the essay that they will finish writing tomorrow in class. After that, we peer edit on Wednesday before writing the final draft on Thursday. We still have the regular homework where you need to study the vocabulary words. We are still having the quiz on Friday.
Friday, Sept. 27--Today everyone needs to have finished writing a paragraph about "Song of the Trees." If they are not finished, it is homework. As always, studying the vocab is homework. Don't forget how easy dynamo.dictionary.com is to study with. Here is the frame that every student is writing with:
There were several instances in "Song of the Trees" where the characters, time, or setting can be compared to what was actually going on historically. First of all, it reminded me of the way things were in The Great Depression when...(finish that sentence) NEXT SENTENCE SHOULD ELABORATE ON WHAT THEY JUST FINISHED SAYING BY TELLING MORE SPECIFICALLY WHERE IN THE STORY AND WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED. Another time we can see that, similar to that time in history, ...(finish that sentence with another example). ELABORATE AGAIN BY TELLING THE DETAILS OF THE EXAMPLE. Additionally, history was reflected in fiction when...(Third example finishes this sentence). ELABORATE AGAIN. These are all examples that serve to illustrate...(finish this concluding statement.).
Thursday, Sept. 26--Today we continued in our quest to determine and write about how the story "Song of the Trees" lines up with the historical time in which it is written. Tuesday we made a list of facts about the depression, Wednesday we read the story, today we made a list of ways the story and history are the same. Tomorrow we will take that and write a paragraph proving how the history and the story match up. So what you should have now is a paper titled, "Song of the Trees" that also has a list of Great Depression facts, a list of ways the story is like the Great Depression, and a list of the characters.
Wednesday, Sept. 25--Today we were introduced to "Song of the Trees" and began reading it. We used the paper we we created yesterday to make a list of all the characters so we could keep up with what is going on. We finished the story, so if you were absent, you should read it in order to be caught up with the rest of us. It starts on page 333. Don't forget to study the vocab for 10 minute a night as well.
Tuesday, Sept. 24--Today we introduced two new vocabulary words for unit 4; make sure you study for 10 minutes every night and have parents sign on your yellow sheet that you did it. Don't forget on dynamo.dictionary.com, they have games to help learn the cards. We also started a piece of paper that we titled "Song of the Trees" On that paper we listed facts about the Great Depression of the 1930s, a time when this story was set. Mr. Bjerke talked about the Great Depression and students made a list of things they learned about that period in our history. Later we will compare the history with the story to see how authors use or alter history in fiction.
Monday, Sept. 23--Today we introduced the first two words of the new vocabulary unit. Don't forget to study and get a signature on your yellow vocabulary study guide. The best way to study is with dynamo.dictionary.com.
Friday, Sept. 20--If you were absent today, you have a few more days to study for Vocabulary Quiz #3! We took it today and you missed it! Also, we turned in Warm-ups #3 and Vocabulary Study Guide #3. Also, if you didn't complete your essay, make sure you get that done! It will take me a while to read them all, so you can still get them in.
Thursday, Sept. 19--Priority for today is making sure you are ready for the quiz tomorrow. We are on Unit 3 Vocab and you can always practice using dynamo.dictionary.com. Make sure also that you are ready to turn in Warm-up #3 and Vocabulary Study Guide #3. In class we worked on writing about the story, "An Unforgettable Journey."
Wednesday, Sept. 18--I am going to be out today at another location on campus working on curriculum. Don't forget to finish up your essays and make sure they are shared with me. BE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU LOOK AT THE HELP LINK TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ALL THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE BEFORE TURNING IT IN. In class today we read the introduction to the story and the story, "An Unforgettable Journey."
Tuesday, Sept. 17--Today was much like yesterday. We worked on the essays today and it is definitely the last day we will have any class time to work on it. It is still due Thursday. We also have the vocabulary quiz on Friday, so continue studying those words for ten minutes a night. Don't forget that you should have a parent or someone more knowledgeable than you look over your essay. A good idea is to look at tiny.cc/narrativeessay for some great tips on turning in a winner.
Monday, Sept. 16--Today we held off on introducing the last two words in vocabulary unit 3, and we will introduce them and put them on the study guide tomorrow. We are still having the quiz on Friday for this unit. Today we worked most of the period on our stories. Make sure that you ask adults and older siblings to help you see that you have all the parts you need in your narrative.
Friday, Sept. 13--Study vocabulary words and work on your essays. Today in class we introduced more words, and then we worked on our narrative essays. Anybody who could show me that they had done the pre-planning for their essay already was given permission to use the computer to start putting the essay into final form. Remember, there is all kinds of help for you about how to do this essay; just go to the links I gave yesterday under "Thursday."
Thursday, Sept. 12--Study vocab and fill out worksheets on your narrative essays so you can use the computers to start putting those essays together tomorrow. No on gets on a computer who hasn't showed me their pre-writing work. Today I we talked about and briefly practiced how to write dialogue in a story. Students are supposed to have some dialogue in their essays and it needs to be formatted correctly. I also told students of a special "helps" I set up for them for this essay. Each student should have an email in their Google account that tells them instructions for their essay. A very important part of that email is the three links that give examples and tips for writing the essay. Here are those three links: tiny.cc/narrativemodel, tiny.cc/narrativemodel2, tiny.cc/narrativeessay.
Wednesday, Sept. 11--Today I had a sub because I was meeting with other teachers to work on curriculum. Because I was not here, we did not do our regularly-scheduled vocabulary lesson. That doesn't mean that you should forget about studying your Unit Three vocab; you should ALWAYS study it every night for 10 minutes. What you should have accomplished is writing an outline and other prewriting for your narrative essay. You had plenty of time to do this today with the sub and two worksheets to guide you. Hopefully you took advantage of the time and made some progress.
Tuesday, Sept. 10--Sorry this is posted so late today. Today after having two more words introduced, we moved on to talking about how the handout I gave students last week is to be used to write a better essay. Students should show their parents this handout and discuss their ideas for the essay.
Monday, Sept. 9--Today we introduced the two new vocabulary word for Unit 3, meaning you should have a new yellow vocabulary study guide sheet that has the first two words and all that we do with them filled out. You need to spend 10 minutes a day for homework and have your parent sign that you did that. Remember the easiest way is to use dynamo.dictionary.com. We also gave each student a worksheet today to help them organize the narrative essay that we will write very soon. You should show that worksheet to a parent so they can see that one side is for helping you come up with ideas and the other side is to put details with your ideas before you start writing.
Friday, Sept. 6--Today we turned in the items I already listed in Thusday's entry. We also took the quiz on unit two. Anyone who is absent needs to get with me to make up the quiz and turn in the items we turned in. We also began talking about the things that go into the narrative essay we are beginning to write. Very soon I will be telling you about a link to a guide on how to write the essay. Look for it!
Thursday, Sept. 5--Here are the things we are turning in on Friday: Warm-up #1, Vocabulary Study Guide #2 Rikki Tikki Tavi Questions, Rikki Tikki Tavi Comparison of the Book and the Video. I told students this today and it is on the board. Also, they need to be prepared for the quiz on vocabulary #2 which we are taking on Friday. Finally, today we worked with the computers again, making sure everyone could sign into his account. We practiced how it is we share a document. It went well. Perhaps you should show your parents how to log into your Google account?
Wednesday, Sept. 4--Today we finished up our task of logging in to our Google accounts. Everyone should have gone and sent an email to me with the subject line Period ? and their full name. This is homework for anyone who doesn't finish it. They were to send me a multi-sentence email that told me about their experiences with computers. You were to use two current vocab words. Don't forget to be studying the vocabulary for our second quiz on Friday! If you didn't finish and you have no internet at home, remember that you can use the computers in the library before school and after school.
Tuesday, Sept. 3--(Monday was Labor Day)--Today we finished up the questions on Rikki Tikki Tavi we were working on in groups on Friday. We were supposed to be done Friday, but many were not so I gave some more time in groups today. Students who still not done will have to do it on their own time. The questions I am talking about are where I asked you to tell me about the similarities between the video and the book, and the differences between the video and the book. Of course, you should also be studying Dynamo.dictionary.com and your study guides because we have the Unit 2 vocab quiz coming on Friday. You are supposed to study the words for ten minutes a night.
Friday, August 30--We introduced the last pair of vocab words today and students should now have a complete yellow sheet with definitions and examples sentences for all ten words. The still need to be studying them either by going over this list, or by using dynamo.dictionary.com. In class today we worked on comparing and contrasting the written version of Rikki Tikki Tavi with the video version. Students are working in teams to write about what is the same and what is different, giving examples from the story. We didn't finish, but all students should be able to show and explain what they have done and what remains to be done.
Thursday, August 29--Today we watched the video version of Rikki Tikki Tavi so we could answer questions and make statements to compare and contrast the written version with the video version. We went over and recapped the written version before we watched the video and most classes had a chance after the video to get in their group and discuss what was different and what was the same. Of course, everyone should be studying vocab for 10 minutes as usual.
Wednesday, August 28--Today your student needs to make sure that if they weren't here, they finish reading "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" in our literature book. Also, when they return, they need to fill out the vocab worksheet for the words that were introduced today. Studying the vocab unit we are on is always homework and it helps to go to dynamo.dictionary.com to print out flash cards or play games.
Tuesday, August 27--Here is what should be completed by tomorrow: Of course, all students should be into their nightly study of the Unit 2 vocabulary words. You can find them on dynamo.dictionary.com by searching for "Ustach." We got to the fourth question in Rikki Tikki Tavi today, and everyone should be finished answering it with multiple sentences. Everyone was told that it would be homework if they didn't finish in class.
Monday, August 26--New vocab words today, so we are in Unit 2 now and that is where you will find them on Dynamo.dictionary.com. I also passed out a sheet of the most common prepositions to be put in your note section. We didn't read any more of Rikki Tikki Tavi, but we worked some on question #3 on page 26 of the book.
Friday, August 23--We turned in the following items today: warm-up sheet, vocabulary study guide, and our detailed written response from Monday and Tuesday. We did not turn in any notes we took because those should remain in the notes section of your binder. We did not turn in the Rikki Tikki Tavi work because we are not done with it. If you were absent, I always list on the board what it was we collected, so when you come back, you can see what you need to give me. We also took the first quiz today.
Thursday, August 22--If students did not finish writing their answers to the prompts we were working on in Rikki Tikki Tavi today, they need to do so at home. In all classes we got to the question on page 25, which is the second one that should be recorded on their paper. If you read it and it doesn't seem complete, have them read the story and do a better job of it. Fo course, they also need to study for the quiz which is tomorrow. It is the first quiz of the year. Incredibly, we still have many many students whose grades are poor simply because they have not yet shown me that they have the required supplies or they have not had their parents take my first day survey. Remember, the survey can be accessed at tiny.cc/FirstDaySurvey.
Wednesday, August 21--The homework is the same: study the vocab for 10 minutes a night and finish whatever you were not finished with. For instance, if you never finished the Detailed Written Response that we worked on Monday and Tuesday in groups and with partners, you better have that done. What we started today with the story Rikki Tikki Tavi can't be done yet. We only barely started, but you should have a piece of paper titled "Rikki Tikki Tavi" and at least the first question started.
Tuesday, August 20--For homework make sure you are studying the vocabulary words for this unit; the quiz is Friday! Additionally, we talked about the five other questions besides vocab words that will be on the quiz. If you want additional information about fragments vs. sentences, see page four of the Holt Handbook that you have at home. In other news, today we began taking notes on the structure that a story takes before we start to read tomorrow. Students should have notes that talk about basic situation, events and complications, climax, and resolution. We didn't finish these notes in all classes, but will tomorrow.
Monday, August 19--Homework is studying the vocab for ten minutes. A good way to do that is dynamo.dictionary.com. In class today we worked on our detailed written response to a question I had on the board. We are trying to make sure that every student knows how to answer a question thoroughly, starting with a topic sentence and then giving details. We will finish this up tomorrow. If you want to see what your student had, the question was, "What are some of the most popular ways to spend free time?" Your student should have their own answer, the answer they agreed to with their shoulder partner, and the final answer on the back that they worked out with their group. We didn't finish, so expect only to see the first sentence and the next sentence with an example.
Friday, August 16--Today we finished up the yellow vocab study guide with the introduction of the last two words in the unit. Your student should have their guide completely filled out. I would check that it is legible and that all the blanks have been filled. They do not turn it in until next Friday before the quiz. Right now they are supposed to be studying the words from the list and using dynamo.dictionary.com every night. We also continued to talk about how to best do a written response to a question. We will continue with this on Monday.
Thursday, August 15--You should ask your student what a great first sentence would be to the question: "Two new vocabulary words today, and there will be two more tomorrow. That will round out our first group of ten words that we will have a quiz on next Friday. The only homework for tonight will be spending ten minutes studying those words. Each student's yellow Vocab Study Guide has a right margin where the parent can date and initial that the studying has occurred. The study guide is turned in Friday before the quiz and I will be checking for its completeness. Just a reminder, there are still a number of students who I do not have completed parent surveys from. I will begin assigning points for that Friday because that was the deadline. After the deadline, only partial credit is available.
Wednesday, August 14--Today we introduced the next two vocab words of the unit. Don't forget to study the words for 10 minutes a night for your homework. Don't forget to have your parent or guardian fill out the parent survey at tiny.cc/FirstDaySurvey if you haven't done it already. Also, don't forget to sign up for Remind 101 by texting @mrbje to 691-5549.
Tuesday, August 13--We continued with the new vocab words today and entered them on our yellow study guide. As usual, students need to study vocab for ten minutes a night. A great way to do that is with dynamo.dictionary.com. Even though we have not gone over all ten words yet, you can still use the website to make flash cards, play memorization games, etc.
Monday, August 12-- I handed out our first warm-up sheets and vocab study guides and explained how to use them. I also explained how to use Dynamo.dictionary.com, the website where students can go to do their ten minutes a night of studying vocabulary. Tonight is the first night of that ten minutes. Students need to have parents initial and date on the right margin that they did their nightly vocabulary study.
Friday, August 9--Today we continued talking about my rules and procedures before ending class with a small writing example where we gave our perspective on a rule or procedure we talked about. Don't forget that this weekend is a great time to make sure you have all you need as far as school supplies for my class. I will start checking on Monday that students have the requirements. Also, look at the links from y
Thursday, August 8--Today we continued talking about the way things are going to be in my class. I sent home the first assignment, which is actually something for the parents to do. Make sure you go to the website, tiny.cc/FirstDaySurvey and complete the survey. Also make sure you sign up for alerts by sending the message @mrbje to 691-5549.
Wednesday, August 7--Today we began going over important things about my class. I assume if you are here at my website, you have gotten the letter I sent home with your student. I will remind you now to go online and complete the parent survey at tiny.cc/FirstDaySurvey. Also, don't forget to sign up for alerts to your cell phones by dialing 691-5549 and texting @mrbje. This will get you a reminder text when I send them out. Your student can have them sent to their phone too, in fact, I would require it; then you don't have to remind them because they will get their own reminder. This week we will be spending lots of time going over my rules and procedures, and today is just the first day.
May 15--New vocab today and then we saw an updated version of the "Monsters are Due on Maples Street" that we compared with the old version.
May 14--Today's assignment was to answer the question What are the things in the video that most contribute to bringing out the full effect of the story, "The Monsters are due on Maple Street.?" We watched the old video of this story and then talked and wrote about it. We did not introduce any new vocab today because we doubled up yesterday. Don't forget to study the vocab words for our final quiz next week.
May 13--Today we doubled up on the usual number of vocabulary words introduced so that we could leave time tomorrow for viewing "The Monsters are due on Maple Street." We did the vocabulary, then we made a list of details about the story. The list is to be used for coming ups with a theme for the story. We have not yet been assigned the task of writing a theme.
May 12--Today we introduced the new vocabulary words for our final vocabulary unit, Unit 17. After that, we finished reading "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street." By the end of today we had finished the story and all the questions (1-9) contained within it. Those who were absent or did not finish will need to have those questions finished.
May 9--Today we took Vocabulary Quiz 16 and turned in Warm-up 16, Vocab Study Guide 16, and the Amigo Brothers paragraphs we wrote. We also continued reading and answering questions for the teleplay, "The Monsters are due on Maple Street."
May 8--Vocabulary Quiz #16 tomorrow! Today we continued reading the teleplay we were reading yesterday. We have been answering questions as we go. We are up to question #5.
May 7--Today we continued with the teleplay, "The Monsters are due on Maple Street." We read and discussed parts of it and stopped to answer the first two questions imbedded in the story. We will continue reading and answering questions tomorrow. Don't forget that Friday we have a vocab quiz.
May 6--Today we previewed the literature we will be working with the next couple of days. We are reading "The Monsters are due on Maple Street." It is a play so we have people who have been assigned parts and we will be reading it as a play. Along the way we will write about various aspects of the play by stopping and answering the questions dispersed throughout. Don't forget that we have a quiz on Friday!
May 5--Today students have some things they will need to finish at home if they did not finish in class or if they were absent. We have been working with the story, "Amigo Brothers," and today we looked into the use of dialect in that story. Dialect is explained on page 739 of the glossary in the back of the literature book. Students are to write a paragraph with a topic sentence, support sentences, elaboration, and a concluding sentence discussing at least two places in the story that show the use of dialect.
May 2--After we introduced the last of our Unit 16 Vocabulary words, we went back to reading the story, "Amigo Brothers." If you were absent, you need to finish reading it. On Monday we will return to the story to learn and write about the literary device called dialect. Don't forget to be studying the Unit 16 words using dynamo.dictionary.com.
May 1--Today we continued reading the story, "Amigo Brothers." We didn't get finished, but we should be finished tomorrow. You can tell your parents or show them an example of "dialect" because that is one of the things we talked about when we were reading the story.
Wednesday, April 30--Today there are many students who didn't finish the assignment in class. We won't be working on it Thursday, so they need to finish it at home. We were writing a paragraph that had a topic sentence, support sentences, and elaboration on those support sentences. It finishes with a concluding sentence. The paragraph was to be on the similarities and differences between Antonio and Felix in the story "Amigo Brothers." For people showing their parents that they are "done," you better be showing them a paragraph that is 10 sentences long!
Monday and Tuesday, April 28-29--Sorry about yesterday! Coming back from break sometimes I forget to update this list. We have finished off and turned in the close reading assignment, "The Man in the Arena," and we have started a new vocabulary unit, number 16. This is the second to last one of the year. We also did a bit of a preview to the story on page 308 of the literature book called, "Amigo Brothers." We didn't start reading it yet, but I introduced it. We DID start a paper titled "Amigo Brothers" and on the paper each student should have the beginnings of a paragraph on the differences and similarities of the two main characters, Felix and Antonio. Of course they can't know the differences yet, but they should have written the topic sentence so far.
Thursday, April 17--No homework. Today we continued with the close reading activity we have been working on all week. Students who want to show their parents what they have done can show them the graphic organizer we have been using and can explain the "The Man in the Arena" message to them.
Wednesday, April 16--See Tuesday. Same thing!
Tuesday, April 15--We continued with the close reading and will continue using the same organizer tomorrow.
Monday, April 14--Today we started a close reading of a speech excerpt. It is titled, "The Man in the Arena." Each student will have a copy of the organizer we are using to go through the speech. You can check that your student did what he/she is supposed to do by asking them to explain what we had done so far as they show you the organizer. In no period did we make it past the vocabulary part on the second page.
Friday, April 11-Today we took vocabulary quiz number 15; the scores are already put into the grade and you can see them in Aeries. We also turned in a couple of items: the Warm-up #15 and Vocabulary Study Guide #15. We won't be collecting the Rikki Tikki Tavi essay until Monday, giving you the whole weekend to catch up.
Thursday, April 10--Today we looked at samples of other people's conclusions to their Rikki Tikki Tavi essays. We discussed what they did well and what was weak. We were then supposed to fix our own conclusions to make sure they were meeting the standard. We were then able to start writing the complete essay. Everybody should have already had each part done and then re-done to make it perfect. Now we are just putting the five paragraphs together. We will turn in the finished product on Monday. Tomorrow we will take the vocabulary 15 quiz and work a bit on our essays.
Wednesday, April 9--Today everyone should have finished up their conclusions for the essay we have been working on together, step-by-step. Tomorrow we will examine some of those conclusions and talk about what's good about them and how they can be improved. After that, you will start putting together all of the pieces of this essay so we can turn it in Friday!
Tuesday, April 8--Today I demonstrated for the students how to write a conclusion to an explanatory essay. They began working on their own and some finished it. They will have a bit of time tomorrow to finish that conclusion, then we are going to look at some of their work and see how they did. We also introduced the last two vocabulary words of the unit in preparation for the quiz on Friday.
Monday, April 7--Today we introduced two vocabulary words. The quiz on these words is this coming Friday. Be studying! We also are at a critical point today in writing our explanatory essay: we should be finished with all three body paragraphs, the one on curiosity, the one on bravery, and the one on wisdom. Tomorrow we move on to the conclusion, then we put it all together Thursday and Friday.
Friday April 4--Today students were supposed to have finished writing their second body paragraph for the explanatory essay they are doing on Rikki Tiki Tavi. Monday we will write the third body paragraph, and Tuesday we will go learn how to do the conclusion. Some may need to finish today's second body paragraph that focuses on bravery at home because we will be working on the third body paragraph that focuses on wisdom on Monday.
Thursday, April 3--Besides our vocabulary words being introduced, we dug again into what a body paragraph should look like. Show your parents how yours has what the rubic says it should have because that is what you were supposed to do in class: tear yours apart and see if it had all the right parts, then put it together correctly.
Wednesday, April 2--Today we began Vocab Study Guide #15. After that we resumed working on learning to write an awesome explanatory essay. We looked at the body paragraphs YOU wrote and talked about what made them good and not so good.
Tuesday, April 1--We finished up the testing today, both our SBAC test (the one we were taking in my class, not all of them) and our unit 14 vocabulary quiz. Tomorrow we start a new unit of vocab and will get back to our explanatory essay.
Monday, March 31--We had a weird schedule today because of testing. Our classes were only about 35 minutes long. In my class we still took the vocabulary 14 quiz and turned in these items: Warm-up 14, Vocab Study Guide 14, "The Competitors" and "Duffy's Jacket."
Friday, March 28--Still finishing up the Smarter Balanced test, but Monday we will take our vocab 14 quiz, so be ready!
Thursday, March 27--Today we continued with the Smarter Balanced test. We will probably finish up on Friday. That means Friday won't see the vocabulary 14 quiz. That has to be moved to Monday.
Wednesday, March 26--Today we did the preparation for taking the Performance Task in the Smarter Balanced test. Don't forget to bring headphones if you have them for Thursday and Friday.
Tuesday, March 25--A sub today because teachers had to meet on how to prepare for Common Core. Students read and answered questions about the story that begins on page 6 of our lit book. Everyone has that book at home, so if you were absent, read the story and answer the questions within it and after it.
Monday, March 24--Today students worked on their own body paragraphs for their "Rikki Tiki Tavi" essay. I modeled how to do it on Friday, and today we reviewed that and turned them loose on the first body paragraph.
Friday, March 21--We did the final two words of the unit (quiz next week!) and then I modeled for you how to write a body paragraph for an explanatory essay.
Thursday, March 20--Two more words down on our yellow study guide; make sure you study them. Today we handed students their introductory paragraphs back to them that they wrote on Rikki Tiki Tavi. We have already modeled for them how to do a proper intro paragraph, and we have put multiple samples on the screen for them to see even more examples. Today they were supposed to take theirs and check that they were done right and then write them again.
Wednesday, March 19--Two more words introduced; make sure you are studying them! Today we took the introductions you wrote yesterday and put them up on the big screen for all to see and evaluate. We talked about whether they met all the requirements of an introduction so that you can do the same type of thinking with your own introductions.
Tuesday, March 18--Today we introduced the next couple of word in our unit. We then continued on with the demonstration of how to write an introduction for an explanatory essay. After review and wrapping up that example, students were given the opportunity to write their own intro. I collected those and we will review and judge those efforts on Wednesday.
Monday, March 17--Today we introduced the first two words of the Unit 14 Vocabulary, so everyone has a new yellow study guide they are working on. We then went on to an introduction to the next essay we are writing: explanatory. Each student should have copied the example paragraph I am writing in order to model the process of the introduction.
Thursday, March 13 and Friday, March 14 -- I am out of town wrapping up some family affairs, so there will be a sub on both of these days. We will be collecting warm-ups and vocabulary study guides number 13 on Friday, along with the things we wrote about the story "Bargain." In class on Thursday we will be reading "The Competitors" and answering questions relating to that story in our Interactive Readers. We will finish that up on Friday and take quiz number 13 then.
Wednesday, March 12--Today we drilled some more on Topic Sentence Answers then got turned loose to finish answering the question about "Bargain." The question was: Now that we know how "Bargain" ends, what events in the plot seem to have been clues (foreshadowing) all along? The answer needs to start with a topic sentence and then be followed by 1) a support sentence 2)Elaboration 3) more support 4) Elaboration, and 5) a concluding sentence. We went over all of these multiple times over the past three days.
Tuesday, March 11--Today we spent a lot of time talking about the proper way to format what I am calling Topic Sentence Answers. Try to show your parents that you learned it by turning this question into a topic sentence: What are the best ways to get enough exercise?
Monday, March 10--We went through the last of the 10 words for this week's vocab. We also continued answering the question about "Bargain" that we began Friday.
Friday, March 7--Today we introduced words seven and eight of the current vocab unit and then we read the rest of "Bargain." We talked about how to write a topic sentence answer, mostly the beginning sentence. We will be working on thoroughly answering the question, "Now that we know how "Bargain" ends, what events in the plot seem to have been clues (foreshadowing) all along?"
Thursday, March 6--I am at the district office for a meeting all day, but here is what you should have done when I am gone: Read the story, "User Friendly" on page 186 of the literature book. On page 196, answer the questions thoroughly and accurately. That is questions 1-7.
Wednesday, March 5--After introducing two more of Unit 13's vocab words, we read more of "The Bargain." If you were not here, simply read the part from page 240 in the left-hand column to the bottom of page 242. When you have read that, we are answering the question, "What clues suggest to us that Mr. Baumer is not going to give up in his battle with Slade?" We started answering that like this: "There are clues that Baumer likely won't give up in his dispute with Slade." The most obvious evidence I can see is...In the story it says,"..." That's my textual evidence to support my point that...
Tuesday, March 4--Two more words added to the Unit 13 vocab today. We also continued reading and writing about "Bargain" with an emphasis on using textual evidence and elaborating. Our frame today was as follows: (Ellipses indicate where the student has to finish the sentences) My thoughtful prediction of what will have between Baumer and Slade is...(and then) I have reasoned in that way because...(and finally) Elaborate with one more sentence on what you just said.
Monday, March 3--We began vocabulary unit 13 today and two words were introduced. Of course, all words are on dynamo.dictionary.com to be practiced nightly for homework. We also read the first part of the story, "The Bargain." We were working on filling out a set of sentence starters that talked about what kind of person we believed Mr. Baumer was. Every student should AT LEAST be able to say what type of person they think Baumer is.
Friday, February 28--Today, after a warm-up where we focused on understanding a clause and a phrase, we took vocab unit 12 quiz.
Thursday, February 27--Today we did the last two words of unit 12 and then worked on comparing and contrasting the poem we have been reading with the video version of it. Each student worked with his table team to craft nice sentences explaining three differences between the two mediums. They then wrote another sentence to talk about one of the choices the video makers made.
Wednesday , February 26--We added didn't do the last two vocab words for unit 12 today so that we would have time to watch the video of "The Highwayman." We watched that video before we wrote our declarations of what the theme was in the poem.
Tuesday, February 25--Today we continued with new vocab words to add to the study guide. See yesterday's entry for more information about what students are supposed to do as far as studying and getting your signature. We also started to get all of our facts together in order to discover the theme of "The Highwayman." Students wrote two small paragraphs: one listing subjects that were addressed in the poem, and the other talking about what they believe were critical details in the poem. They should be able to tell parents about both of these things.
Monday, February 24--Today we introduced words number five and six of this week's vocab unit. Students should have done a thorough job of filling our the vocab study guide so far and they should have been studying the words for at least 10 minutes a night. The get extra points if the parent signs that they have studied that night. We also worked at paraphrasing the 13th stanza of "The Highwayman." Students should be able to show you how they paraphrased that stanza and they should be able to tell you what the poem is about. It begins on page 161 of the literature book.
Friday, February 21--Unit 12 words were introduced again and then we dove back into "The Highwayman." We should be done by now, but students are not doing a good job with paraphrasing the poem. Today I put the poem up on the screen and began doing it with them. After I showed them how to paraphrase effectively, I had them start on the 13th stanza of the poem. We didn't finish that.
Thursday, February 20--Today we introduced Unit 12 vocabulary words. We also continued reading and discussing, and writing about "The Highwayman." Students worked on paraphrasing the 12th stanza. Few did it right and taking another look at it at home might be a good idea.
Wednesday, February 19--Today we took the Language Arts Benchmark test.
Tuesday, February 18--Still out of town with family matters, but our sub had them read an article and answer questions about it.
Friday, February 14--Today we took vocabulary quiz #11 and we turned in warm-us, vocab study guides, and the questions we did on John F. Kennedy.
Thursday, February 13--Today we reviewed in preparation for tomorrow's vocab #11 quiz. Of course, students should use dynamo.dictionary.com to do this tonight as well. We then continued our study of the poem, "The Highwayman." Students should be able to tell a detail or two of the poem that seemed important to today's reading.
Wednesday, February 12--Today we read the article in Scope Magazine the article about President John F. Kennedy. As we read, we answered some questions, the frames which were on the board. Each question should be completed with a number of sentences. These are not short answers.
Tuesday, February 11--Today we continued to review the vocab (last two words of unit) and then continued working on "The Highwayman." Students were supposed to have completed the following frame before leaving at the end of class: "My shoulder partner and I concluded that the most important detail we have learned about so far is..."
Friday, February 7--I was absent today. Students worked on a story in the interactive reader about Volcanos. They should be able to show parents a paper titled "Volcanos" that has answers to questions from the story.
Thursday, February 6--Students should have written their paraphrase of the sixth stanza of "The Highwayman." Tell your parents what happened so far so you can be sure you understand and that they know you understand. We also introduced the new vocab words, of course.
Wednesday, February 5--Today we did the exact same thing as yesterday. Students should easily be able to explain to someone what has happened so far in the poem, "The Highwayman."
Tuesday, February 4--Today we introduced the next two vocabulary words and continued right on with the close reading of "The Highwayman." Show your parents what you have written so far and if they can't read it, then you are doing it wrong.
Monday, February 3--Today we introduced Unit 11 vocabulary words, so it is time for students to be studying those words every night again. We also continued today reading the poem, "The Highwayman," and were at the point that we were summarizing each stanza. Parents, ask to see their summaries of the first two stanzas. If they don't have it, you need to ask "Why?"
Friday, January 31--Today we continued with the poem, "The Highwayman," and our deep study of it.
Thursday, January 30--Today we continued with the close reading lesson on the poem, "The Highwayman." There is no homework as this is all done in class, but students can certainly show parents what they have done so far in this close read.
Wednesday, January 29--Today we did an introduction to theme and took notes on what theme was and what theme was not. We also talked about what a highwayman was and about some of the text structures and features of the poem that we are reading. Students should be able to tell their parents something about all of these things.
Tuesday, January 28--Same as Monday, but tomorrow we will be on to something else, so be ready to show your parents your work as we start reading the poem, "The Highwayman" on Wednesday.
Monday, January 27--Today we are still working on those benchmark essays!
Friday, January 24--Today students were supposed to be about finished with their benchmark argumentative essays and ready to have someone peer edit them. They were given time to do that and have Monday to wrap up finishing the final copy.
Thursday, January 23--Today was the third day of reading and gathering information in preparation for the writing of the benchmark essay in class.
Wednesday, January 22--Today was the second day of reading information and writing down facts that are to be used in the argumentative benchmark essay. Tomorrow we will begin taking the information gathered over the past two days and working on a graphic organizer to help us organize the essay.
Tuesday, January 21-Today we began the multi-day process of doing the benchmark argumentative essay that the district requires. This is entirely done in class and no materials are taken home. A way to check up on your student would be to ask them to describe the day's activity. By Thursday we will start writing the essay and on Friday we will be writing as well. Since we are doing an unusual thing this week, we won't be having any new vocab unit beginning.
Friday, January 17--Today we took the vocabulary unit 10 quiz. Before that we were practicing the skills we need for next weeks benchmark essay. We also turned in the following items: Warm-up #10, Study Guide #10, "Getting to the Pointe," "The Musician," and "Robinhood."
Thursday, January 16--Today we reviewed more strategies to help students be prepared for the benchmark argumentative essay of next week. Specifically, we read an article on school sports and talked about what the main reasons against having school sports were. We then listed the details and examples that we could use from the article to support the reasons. Don't forget, tomorrow is the Unit 10 Quiz!
Wednesday, January 15--Today we looked at student samples of argumentative essays in order to re-focus on what parts need to be in all argumentative essays. Students are still encouraged to refer to my examples and notes at tiny.cc/argumentativemodel as we prepare to take the benchmark argumentative writing test next week. Also, do not forget that Unit 10 vocab quiz is Friday.
Tuesday, January 14--I was in some special training today and we had a sub in my classes. Make sure that you don't forget that we have vocabulary Unit 10 quiz on Friday. In class today we read a story about Robin Hood and students were asked to discover what a theme of the story was. You should be able to tell your parents what you decided the theme is.
Monday, January 13--Today we introduced the last two words in the Unit 10 vocab; be ready for the quiz on Friday that will also contain questions designed to show that you know what clauses and phrases are. We also finished up today what we began on Thursday. Many people did not finish and you will not be given more class time. We were writing the final paragraph in determining the central idea of the ballet article.
Friday, January 10--Today I am out and have a sub as I travel to the California League of Middle Schools Conference. Students are working on reading and responding to a story and should have a paper titled, "The Musician" to show for their efforts.
Thursday, January 9--Today we introduced the next pair of words for this vocabulary unit and they are omniscience and subsequent. Make sure to review this unit for ten minutes a night; it is easy if you use dynamo.dictionary.com. We also wrapped up our quest to find the central idea of the article, "Getting to the Pointe." Today we wrote out what the central idea of the entire article was and found evidence to support that. Each student should be able to show their parents or anyone who asks, "What did you did in school today?" that they have a paper titled "Getting to the Pointe" with central ideas written about each section and then the final declaration of the central idea of the whole thing on the back.
Wednesday, January 8--Today we introduced the third set of two words of Vocabulary Unit 10; they are sequence and dismal. Don't forget that these should be studied for ten minutes a night and they are available on dynamo.dictionary.com. We also worked on the central idea of the article, "Getting to the Pointe." Tomorrow we will determine what the main idea of the whole thing is now that we have practiced with just a few parts.
Tuesday, January 7--Today we introduced the second two words of Vocabulary Unit 10; they are utilize and intricate. Don't forget that all words can and should be studied nightly for at least ten minutes using our study guide and dynamo.dictionary.com. Today we also added to our paper, "Getting to the Pointe," by finding and writing about the central idea of the fourth section of this article. All students should have written about these first four sections and we will finish the whole article this week.
Monday, January 6--Today we introduced the first two words of Vocabulary Unit 10; they are simultaneous and rendition. Don't forget that all the words can be studied at dynamo.dictionary.com. Ten minutes a night is the expected study time. We also talked about phrases and clauses as we continue to make it a priority that students know these sentence structures so they can write clearly and without fragments.
Friday, December 13--Today we turned in Warm-up and Study Guide #10 before taking quiz number #10.
Thursday, December 12--Today we continued working on finding the central idea and supporting details in the article on ballet. We will continue that on Friday as well.
Wednesday, December 11--Today we continued on what we were doing on Monday. Take a look at what is written there.
Tuesday, December 10--Today I was out of the classroom working on plans with our district instructional coaches. We had a sub and we read a story in the Interactive Reader, answering the questions as we went along. If you were absent and need to make this up, see me before school, after school, or at lunch so that I can let you use the book and do the work.
Monday, December 9--Today we worked on recognizing the difference between clauses and phrases in sentences. It was emphasized that a clause, whether subordinate or independent, always has a subject and verb, while a phrase does not. We practiced and practiced telling the difference because it must be known for Friday's quiz on vocabulary unit 9. We also began reading the article, "Getting to the Pointe," which each student has a copy of. With that we began to go section by section to find the central idea. We will be doing that much this week.
Wednesday-Friday, December 4-6--I was surprised today to see that I was missing a few days here. I am not sure what happened because I did them. I guess that something happened and they didn't actually get saved after I wrote them. Sorry about that!
We have been doing the same things all week: introducing new vocab words two at a time, and then working on our essays. The essays are due by the end of today (Friday), meaning midnight. I will begin reading and grading tomorrow. I think my final piece of advice will be the same as it has been: look at the tiny.cc/argumentativemodel page I created; read all of the notes for each section of the model. I think a lot of people are NOT writing a paragraph that has the counter arguments. Look at the model and see how it is done. It is easy if you try.
Tuesday, December 3--Same as yesterday: new vocab introduced and then we worked on our essays. Tomorrow is the last day to work on the essays in class before Thursday when they need to be done so we can peer edit them. Final--after you make changes based on the peer edit--will be due Friday at midnight. They are shared with me via Google Drive just like we have done many times before.
Monday, December 2--We began vocabulary unit 9 today, but the rest of the day was used to continue working on our argumentative essays. Please see last Tuesday's information below for detailed information about the essay.
Wednesday, November 27--Took quiz number 8 today and turned in Warm-up #8, Vocab Study Guide # 8, Argument Worksheet for the Trophy Essay, and the essay on trophies we wrote as a class. Please, make sure that you don't turn in the worksheet for the essay you are working on now, but the one we did last week together.
Tuesday, November 26--Don't forget that tomorrow is our Unit 8 vocabulary quiz; studying would be a great idea.
I want to say an extended word about the essay we are currently working on. Essays are always a task that students often don't follow directions on or fail to make use of the many helps I have provided. I have provided MANY things that should make writing this argumentative essay a step-by-step process. Let me explain. The number one place to go for help and resources to write the essay is tiny.cc/argumentativemodel; I will refer to this often in this paragraph as I explain. First of all, unless your student has made other arrangements with me, everyone is supposed to choose from one of three issues to write about: "Is the Bulldog Doomed?," "Should Kids be on Reality TV?," and "Are Trampolines too Risky?" The links to Scope magazine articles with these titles are at the top of the tiny.cc/argumentativemodel. Students are to read the article that talks about their issue and use the article to complete the "Write an Argument Essay" worksheet that prepares them with all of the steps they need to write the essay. A link is also provided next to the link to their article for this worksheet, but I have given them printed copies already. This worksheet guides them through EVERYTHING; If they skip any step, they will not have the essay they are supposed to have.
If there is something that the student doesn't understand about the essay, the same link, tiny.cc/argumentativemodel, has a sample essay (soon to be TWO sample essays) with notes highlighting various parts of the essay. Everything is explained very clearly for anyone who takes the time to read it. There is really no reason that anyone should be able to say to their parent, "I didn't know what to do." There might be something I left out, but not much, and I am constantly adding things to this link as I think of other ways to help people. I recommend that all parents go through my sample essays and the notes together so each knows exactly what is expected.
Finally, we are going to be working on the essay in class on Monday and Tuesday at least, probably more. It will be due at midnight on Friday, but a first draft should be done for class on Wednesday when we will allow students to work with their peers to find and fix mistakes. For the final turning it of this assignment, students are using their google accounts and giving it the title of "Per. ? their name argumentative." They share the document with me. We have given students directions on how to share a document and they should all know how, but they have all done it multiple times in my class and they have a handout with step-by-step instructions. This should cover it for now! If there is anything I have left out, please email me.
Monday, November 25--Today we took some very important steps toward our current essay assignment. We got out the computers and went to tiny.cc/argumentativemodel where students are supposed to choose which article's issue they are going to write about. Each student needs to pick one side of an issue presented in one of those articles and then use the article's reasons plus their own to write an essay. Students can also use the organization sheet that matches each article to gather their facts and organize themselves before writing. Don't forget, there is a quiz on vocab 8 Wednesday.
Friday, November 22--We are almost finished in all classes with the sample essay we were writing--actually, we did finish in 4th period. Students should all have a nearly-complete essay that we have been writing together. It would be a great idea to go to tiny.cc/argumentativemodel and see which article from Scope Magazine you are going to use when you start writing all on your own Monday.
Thursday, November 21--Continue to spend ten minutes a night practicing the vocab words for Unit 8. Use dynamo.dictionary.com and it can be fun! Also, all students today should have a great example of an argumentative essay that we have been writing in class. We are not finished, but will continue tomorrow.
Wednesday, November 20--Continue to spend ten minutes a night practicing the vocab words for Unit 8. Use dynamo.dictionary.com and it can be fun! Also, all students today should have a great example of an argumentative essay that we have been writing in class. We are not finished, but will continue tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 19--Continue to spend ten minutes a night practicing the vocab words for Unit 8. Use dynamo.dictionary.com and it can be fun! Also, all students today should have a great example of an argumentative essay that we have been writing in class. We are not finished, but will continue tomorrow.
Monday, November 18--Today we introduced two new vocab words to kick off Vocabulary Unit 8. Students should be using dynamo.dictionary.com to practice these words. We also finished the worksheet that we are using to write a sample argumentative essay. Section 6 of that worksheet was about writing the background information summary. All students should know how to do a basic summary for that part of the essay.
Friday, November 15--Today we worked some more on the worksheet to practice writing an argumentative essay. After that we took vocab quiz number 7. We also turned in a number of assignments, so if you were absent, please get them in. They are written on the board.
Thursday, November 14--Students should make sure they are ready for tomorrow's Unit 7 vocab quiz. The best way to do that is to have been spending ten minutes every night working with the words. Dynamo.dictionary.com is a great place to drill yourself on the words. Also, students should be able to show their parents what we have done so far on the practice argumentative essay. We have completed steps 1-4 as a class; you should show your completed sections 1-4 to your parents.
Wednesday, November 13--Today we had a sub as I attended a conference with other teachers from our school. I still need to remind you that students need to be prepared to study for Friday's Unit 7 quiz. Today we read a story in the interactive reader and wrote a paragraph about the character's in that story.
Tuesday, November 12--Today we took the first steps in what is going to be a process to learn how to write an argumentative essay. Today we read an article in a magazine on whether it is a good idea to give trophies to all participants in youth sports. We read the article and then wrote down the textual evidence that we would use to argue our positions on the issues. We will continue with this on Thursday. Also, of course it needs to be said that students need to prepared for Friday's vocabulary quiz on Unit 7.
Friday, Nov. 8--Today we introduced the last two words of the Unit 7 vocabulary. Students need to continue studying the words for 10 minutes a night. Use dynamo.dictionary.com and that makes a game of it. We also finished reading the article on steroids and finding the central ideas and supporting details.
Thursday, Nov. 7--Introduced new words again today to add to the vocab study guide. Don't forget to study dynamo.dictionary.com for 10 minutes a night and have your parents sign the margin of your study guide so you get the extra points. Very very few people get that signed. We continued working on finding the central idea and supporting details of the sections of the article we are reading in Scholastic Scope. This is a skill we will be practicing again and again this year.
Wednesday, Nov. 6--Introduced new words again today to add to the vocab study guide. Don't forget to study dynamo.dictionary.com for 10 minutes a night and have your parents sign the margin of your study guide so you get the extra points. Very very few people get that signed. We continued working on finding the central idea and supporting details of the sections of the article we are reading in Scholastic Scope. This is a skill we will be practicing again and again this year.
Tuesday, Nov. 5--Introduced new words again today to add to the vocab study guide. Don't forget to study dynamo.dictionary.com for 10 minutes a night and have your parents sign the margin of your study guide so you get the extra points. Very very few people get that signed. We continued working on finding the central idea and supporting details of the sections of the article we are reading in Scholastic Scope. This is a skill we will be practicing again and again this year.
Monday, Nov. 4--Today we gave students new purple sheets (Warm-up #7) and new yellow sheet (Vocab Study Guide #7). We talked about how to combine two sentences using a conjunctive adverb, except we called them THAMOs. We introduced the first two words and those two and the rest of Unit 7's words are on Dynamo.dictionary.com.
Friday, Nov. 1--Today we took the first quiz of the trimester and turned in a bunch of work. If you were absent be sure to see me about making up the quiz and handing in your stuff. We turned in Warm-up #6, Study Guide #6, "No Cavities," and "Three Skeleton Key."
Thursday, Oct. 31--We have the trimester's first vocabulary quiz tomorrow! Be ready. Study at dynamo.dictionary.com. In class we had a sub as I participated with the other language arts teachers in grading the benchmark essays you wrote a few weeks ago. I will be here Friday! Make sure you have ready to turn in your Vocab Study Guide and Warm-up #6, your "No Cavities" paper and your "Three Skeleton Key" paper.
Wednesday, Oct. 30--Today we reconnected with our discussion on foreshadowing. Did you tell your parents what it is yet? We practiced for the Big One on Friday's quiz and we continued making inferences and predictions about things in the story, "Three Skeleton Key."
Tuesday, Oct. 29--Tell your parents what foreshadowing is. We talked about it enough today. And if you don't know what it is, look it up on the internet. Also, don't forget to study the vocab words today: we have the quiz on Friday. In class today we read the intro to the story, "Three Skeleton Key" and talked about foreshadowing. We then finished this sentence, "The story of the three convicts might hint that..." after reading the first section of the story. We will pick up tomorrow where we left off.
Monday, Oct. 28--We worked on writing robust thesis statements in our warm-ups. We defined robust as one that starts with a subordinate clause like, Although it doesn't have the fans it used to, baseball is a great sport with a rich history, dramatic moments, and a lot of strategy. We also finished up what we were working on Friday (see Friday).
Friday, Oct 25--Last day of the trimester. Two more words introduced. Keep practicing the words 10 minutes a night on dynamo.dictionary.com. Today we did another informational article. This was on page 19 of the Scope magazine. See me for a copy if you were absent.
Thursday, Oct. 24--Today we introduced two more vocabulary words and then we concentrated on practicing finding the the central idea of an informational text. If you were absent, we read the short article on page 39 of the literature book and then wrote about the central idea and at least three details that supported that idea.
Wednesday, Oct. 23--We added words three through six today so that we could get caught up for the week. We are on Unit 6. Make sure you are using dynamo.dictionary.com to practice the words each night.
Tuesday, Oct. 22--We practiced in our warm-up how to make a more robust thesis statement. We then went through the introduction of the new vocabulary (Unit 6). Finally, we worked on identifying the central idea and supporting details of the article on dragons we have been working with.
Monday, Oct. 21--Today we continued with our close reading exercise on the dragon article. We don't have the new vocab words yet on our study guides, but you can still study them tonight if you go to Unit 6 on dynamo.dictionary.com.
Friday, Oct. 18--If you were absent, you missed taking vocabulary quiz #5 and you missed turning in the following items: Warm-up #5, Vocab Study Guide #5, and the writing we did on "Smallest Dragonboy." Get those items made up soon because the trimester is over next Friday. After the quiz everybody was supposed to be writing on summaries of each paragraph in the margin of the dragon article we have been looking at. Everyone should be able to show his parents that article and what they have done as far as approximately 10-word paraphrases of each of the seven paragraphs.
Thursday, Oct. 17--Don't forget that we have Vocabulary Quiz #5 on Friday! It is the last one of the trimester which ends next Friday. Today we worked on Close Reading in Mr. Bjerke's class and we will continue doing it tomorrow. If you were absent, there is nothing you can do to make it up because it was simply training on the process.
Wednesday, Oct. 16--Don't forget that we have Vocabulary Quiz #5 on Friday! It is the last one of the trimester which ends next Friday. Today we worked on Close Reading in Mr. Bjerke's class and we will continue doing it tomorrow. If you were absent, there is nothing you can do to make it up because it was simply training on the process.
Tuesday, Oct. 15--Don't forget to study the vocab for this Friday's quiz. Take a look at anything we have done with the story, "The Smallest Dragonboy" and make sure you have completed all the sentence frames we have filled out. Today we read a drama in class with students reading different parts. This is really not something that can be made up if you were not here.
Monday, Oct. 14--We introduced two more word--the last two--in Unit 5 Vocabulary. Of course, we have the quiz on the unit Friday, so you need to be studying dynamo.dictionary.com. We also practiced going using textual evidence again, making sure we had some good stuff to complete Friday's statements.
Friday, Oct. 11--We introduced two more word in this vocabulary unit. Students need to be studying the words every night. It is best to use dynamo.dictionary.com to do that. We also worked on making written inferences about parts of the story, "The Smallest Dragonboy." We went to the text for evidence to complete the statements that follow: "I can infer that a quality Keevan had that made him a good dragonrider candidate is..." and then with textual evidence we continued, "An action of Keevan's that serves as textual evidence of that is..."
Thursday Oct. 10--We introduced two more word in this vocabulary unit. Students need to be studying the words every night. It is best to use dynamo.dictionary.com to do that. We also worked on making written inferences about parts of the story, "The Smallest Dragonboy." We were all to finish the following statement: Keevan had strong feelings about potentially becoming a dragonrider. I can tell that he... After we finished that statement in a way that explained how we thought Keevan felt about being a dragonrider, we then went into the text again to find the proof that what we said was right: The excerpt that led me to that conclusion is... This is where we use parts of the story to prove our opinion.
Wednesday, Oct. 9--I was out today working in another part of the school on some curriculum for later. While I was gone, students had a sub and they read the story, "The Smallest Dragonboy," answering questions and proving their accuracy with textual evidence as they read. We did not do any new vocab, but students are still expected to spend 10 minutes studying the vocab.
Tuesday, Oct. 8--Homework is still to study the vocab 10 minutes a night. Don't forget it is easy to use dynamo.dictionary.com and we are on Unit 5 now. Today we read a small part of "The Smallest Dragonboy" with the idea that we were going to find evidence in the text to support what we thought of the character Beterli.
Monday, Oct. 7--Today we began warm-up sheet and vocab study guides number 5. Time to study a new group of words in dynamo.dictionary.com. If you need a printout for flash cards and can't print at home, see me after school. We also began the intro to the story, "The Smallest Dragonboy." Today we will read it and answer questions, focusing on digging back into the story to find answers and make inferences about things not explicitly stated.
Friday, Oct. 4--Today we took vocabulary quiz #4. If you were absent, please remember that you need to make it up because I don't go around and remember for you. Also make sure you turn in the items I collected on Friday. They are written on the board as usual: Warm-up #4, Vocab Study Guide #4, and "Song of the Trees" assignment.
Thursday, Oct. 3--Today was Day Four of the District Benchmark Narrative Writing Test. Students will have completed their essays. The homework is still studying the Unit 4 Vocabulary. The quiz is tomorrow. Also, if you did not finish, we are collecting the "Song of the Trees" work we did last Friday. Scroll down to last Friday to see what that paragraph is going to look like.
Wednesday, Oct. 2--Today was Day Three of the District Benchmark Narrative Writing Test. Students will have completed their first drafts and have had them edited by a peer by the end of today's class. Tomorrow will be dedicated to writing the final draft. Don't forget that the quiz on Friday for the Unit 4 vocabulary. You still are expected to study the vocab for 10 minutes a night.
Tuesday, Oct. 1--Today was Day Two of the District Benchmark Narrative Writing Test. Students should have completed their essays by the end of the day. Did you? Tomorrow we will take those essays and you will read each other's, filling out a peer edit sheet. After the peer edit sheet is completed, students will then begin fixing their drafts based on what the peers said needed to be fixed. Don't forget, you still need to be studying the vocabulary unit. We are having a quiz on Friday.
Monday, Sept. 30--Today was Day One of the District Benchmark Narrative Writing Test. Students should have used all of today to organize the essay that they will finish writing tomorrow in class. After that, we peer edit on Wednesday before writing the final draft on Thursday. We still have the regular homework where you need to study the vocabulary words. We are still having the quiz on Friday.
Friday, Sept. 27--Today everyone needs to have finished writing a paragraph about "Song of the Trees." If they are not finished, it is homework. As always, studying the vocab is homework. Don't forget how easy dynamo.dictionary.com is to study with. Here is the frame that every student is writing with:
There were several instances in "Song of the Trees" where the characters, time, or setting can be compared to what was actually going on historically. First of all, it reminded me of the way things were in The Great Depression when...(finish that sentence) NEXT SENTENCE SHOULD ELABORATE ON WHAT THEY JUST FINISHED SAYING BY TELLING MORE SPECIFICALLY WHERE IN THE STORY AND WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED. Another time we can see that, similar to that time in history, ...(finish that sentence with another example). ELABORATE AGAIN BY TELLING THE DETAILS OF THE EXAMPLE. Additionally, history was reflected in fiction when...(Third example finishes this sentence). ELABORATE AGAIN. These are all examples that serve to illustrate...(finish this concluding statement.).
Thursday, Sept. 26--Today we continued in our quest to determine and write about how the story "Song of the Trees" lines up with the historical time in which it is written. Tuesday we made a list of facts about the depression, Wednesday we read the story, today we made a list of ways the story and history are the same. Tomorrow we will take that and write a paragraph proving how the history and the story match up. So what you should have now is a paper titled, "Song of the Trees" that also has a list of Great Depression facts, a list of ways the story is like the Great Depression, and a list of the characters.
Wednesday, Sept. 25--Today we were introduced to "Song of the Trees" and began reading it. We used the paper we we created yesterday to make a list of all the characters so we could keep up with what is going on. We finished the story, so if you were absent, you should read it in order to be caught up with the rest of us. It starts on page 333. Don't forget to study the vocab for 10 minute a night as well.
Tuesday, Sept. 24--Today we introduced two new vocabulary words for unit 4; make sure you study for 10 minutes every night and have parents sign on your yellow sheet that you did it. Don't forget on dynamo.dictionary.com, they have games to help learn the cards. We also started a piece of paper that we titled "Song of the Trees" On that paper we listed facts about the Great Depression of the 1930s, a time when this story was set. Mr. Bjerke talked about the Great Depression and students made a list of things they learned about that period in our history. Later we will compare the history with the story to see how authors use or alter history in fiction.
Monday, Sept. 23--Today we introduced the first two words of the new vocabulary unit. Don't forget to study and get a signature on your yellow vocabulary study guide. The best way to study is with dynamo.dictionary.com.
Friday, Sept. 20--If you were absent today, you have a few more days to study for Vocabulary Quiz #3! We took it today and you missed it! Also, we turned in Warm-ups #3 and Vocabulary Study Guide #3. Also, if you didn't complete your essay, make sure you get that done! It will take me a while to read them all, so you can still get them in.
Thursday, Sept. 19--Priority for today is making sure you are ready for the quiz tomorrow. We are on Unit 3 Vocab and you can always practice using dynamo.dictionary.com. Make sure also that you are ready to turn in Warm-up #3 and Vocabulary Study Guide #3. In class we worked on writing about the story, "An Unforgettable Journey."
Wednesday, Sept. 18--I am going to be out today at another location on campus working on curriculum. Don't forget to finish up your essays and make sure they are shared with me. BE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU LOOK AT THE HELP LINK TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ALL THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE BEFORE TURNING IT IN. In class today we read the introduction to the story and the story, "An Unforgettable Journey."
Tuesday, Sept. 17--Today was much like yesterday. We worked on the essays today and it is definitely the last day we will have any class time to work on it. It is still due Thursday. We also have the vocabulary quiz on Friday, so continue studying those words for ten minutes a night. Don't forget that you should have a parent or someone more knowledgeable than you look over your essay. A good idea is to look at tiny.cc/narrativeessay for some great tips on turning in a winner.
Monday, Sept. 16--Today we held off on introducing the last two words in vocabulary unit 3, and we will introduce them and put them on the study guide tomorrow. We are still having the quiz on Friday for this unit. Today we worked most of the period on our stories. Make sure that you ask adults and older siblings to help you see that you have all the parts you need in your narrative.
Friday, Sept. 13--Study vocabulary words and work on your essays. Today in class we introduced more words, and then we worked on our narrative essays. Anybody who could show me that they had done the pre-planning for their essay already was given permission to use the computer to start putting the essay into final form. Remember, there is all kinds of help for you about how to do this essay; just go to the links I gave yesterday under "Thursday."
Thursday, Sept. 12--Study vocab and fill out worksheets on your narrative essays so you can use the computers to start putting those essays together tomorrow. No on gets on a computer who hasn't showed me their pre-writing work. Today I we talked about and briefly practiced how to write dialogue in a story. Students are supposed to have some dialogue in their essays and it needs to be formatted correctly. I also told students of a special "helps" I set up for them for this essay. Each student should have an email in their Google account that tells them instructions for their essay. A very important part of that email is the three links that give examples and tips for writing the essay. Here are those three links: tiny.cc/narrativemodel, tiny.cc/narrativemodel2, tiny.cc/narrativeessay.
Wednesday, Sept. 11--Today I had a sub because I was meeting with other teachers to work on curriculum. Because I was not here, we did not do our regularly-scheduled vocabulary lesson. That doesn't mean that you should forget about studying your Unit Three vocab; you should ALWAYS study it every night for 10 minutes. What you should have accomplished is writing an outline and other prewriting for your narrative essay. You had plenty of time to do this today with the sub and two worksheets to guide you. Hopefully you took advantage of the time and made some progress.
Tuesday, Sept. 10--Sorry this is posted so late today. Today after having two more words introduced, we moved on to talking about how the handout I gave students last week is to be used to write a better essay. Students should show their parents this handout and discuss their ideas for the essay.
Monday, Sept. 9--Today we introduced the two new vocabulary word for Unit 3, meaning you should have a new yellow vocabulary study guide sheet that has the first two words and all that we do with them filled out. You need to spend 10 minutes a day for homework and have your parent sign that you did that. Remember the easiest way is to use dynamo.dictionary.com. We also gave each student a worksheet today to help them organize the narrative essay that we will write very soon. You should show that worksheet to a parent so they can see that one side is for helping you come up with ideas and the other side is to put details with your ideas before you start writing.
Friday, Sept. 6--Today we turned in the items I already listed in Thusday's entry. We also took the quiz on unit two. Anyone who is absent needs to get with me to make up the quiz and turn in the items we turned in. We also began talking about the things that go into the narrative essay we are beginning to write. Very soon I will be telling you about a link to a guide on how to write the essay. Look for it!
Thursday, Sept. 5--Here are the things we are turning in on Friday: Warm-up #1, Vocabulary Study Guide #2 Rikki Tikki Tavi Questions, Rikki Tikki Tavi Comparison of the Book and the Video. I told students this today and it is on the board. Also, they need to be prepared for the quiz on vocabulary #2 which we are taking on Friday. Finally, today we worked with the computers again, making sure everyone could sign into his account. We practiced how it is we share a document. It went well. Perhaps you should show your parents how to log into your Google account?
Wednesday, Sept. 4--Today we finished up our task of logging in to our Google accounts. Everyone should have gone and sent an email to me with the subject line Period ? and their full name. This is homework for anyone who doesn't finish it. They were to send me a multi-sentence email that told me about their experiences with computers. You were to use two current vocab words. Don't forget to be studying the vocabulary for our second quiz on Friday! If you didn't finish and you have no internet at home, remember that you can use the computers in the library before school and after school.
Tuesday, Sept. 3--(Monday was Labor Day)--Today we finished up the questions on Rikki Tikki Tavi we were working on in groups on Friday. We were supposed to be done Friday, but many were not so I gave some more time in groups today. Students who still not done will have to do it on their own time. The questions I am talking about are where I asked you to tell me about the similarities between the video and the book, and the differences between the video and the book. Of course, you should also be studying Dynamo.dictionary.com and your study guides because we have the Unit 2 vocab quiz coming on Friday. You are supposed to study the words for ten minutes a night.
Friday, August 30--We introduced the last pair of vocab words today and students should now have a complete yellow sheet with definitions and examples sentences for all ten words. The still need to be studying them either by going over this list, or by using dynamo.dictionary.com. In class today we worked on comparing and contrasting the written version of Rikki Tikki Tavi with the video version. Students are working in teams to write about what is the same and what is different, giving examples from the story. We didn't finish, but all students should be able to show and explain what they have done and what remains to be done.
Thursday, August 29--Today we watched the video version of Rikki Tikki Tavi so we could answer questions and make statements to compare and contrast the written version with the video version. We went over and recapped the written version before we watched the video and most classes had a chance after the video to get in their group and discuss what was different and what was the same. Of course, everyone should be studying vocab for 10 minutes as usual.
Wednesday, August 28--Today your student needs to make sure that if they weren't here, they finish reading "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" in our literature book. Also, when they return, they need to fill out the vocab worksheet for the words that were introduced today. Studying the vocab unit we are on is always homework and it helps to go to dynamo.dictionary.com to print out flash cards or play games.
Tuesday, August 27--Here is what should be completed by tomorrow: Of course, all students should be into their nightly study of the Unit 2 vocabulary words. You can find them on dynamo.dictionary.com by searching for "Ustach." We got to the fourth question in Rikki Tikki Tavi today, and everyone should be finished answering it with multiple sentences. Everyone was told that it would be homework if they didn't finish in class.
Monday, August 26--New vocab words today, so we are in Unit 2 now and that is where you will find them on Dynamo.dictionary.com. I also passed out a sheet of the most common prepositions to be put in your note section. We didn't read any more of Rikki Tikki Tavi, but we worked some on question #3 on page 26 of the book.
Friday, August 23--We turned in the following items today: warm-up sheet, vocabulary study guide, and our detailed written response from Monday and Tuesday. We did not turn in any notes we took because those should remain in the notes section of your binder. We did not turn in the Rikki Tikki Tavi work because we are not done with it. If you were absent, I always list on the board what it was we collected, so when you come back, you can see what you need to give me. We also took the first quiz today.
Thursday, August 22--If students did not finish writing their answers to the prompts we were working on in Rikki Tikki Tavi today, they need to do so at home. In all classes we got to the question on page 25, which is the second one that should be recorded on their paper. If you read it and it doesn't seem complete, have them read the story and do a better job of it. Fo course, they also need to study for the quiz which is tomorrow. It is the first quiz of the year. Incredibly, we still have many many students whose grades are poor simply because they have not yet shown me that they have the required supplies or they have not had their parents take my first day survey. Remember, the survey can be accessed at tiny.cc/FirstDaySurvey.
Wednesday, August 21--The homework is the same: study the vocab for 10 minutes a night and finish whatever you were not finished with. For instance, if you never finished the Detailed Written Response that we worked on Monday and Tuesday in groups and with partners, you better have that done. What we started today with the story Rikki Tikki Tavi can't be done yet. We only barely started, but you should have a piece of paper titled "Rikki Tikki Tavi" and at least the first question started.
Tuesday, August 20--For homework make sure you are studying the vocabulary words for this unit; the quiz is Friday! Additionally, we talked about the five other questions besides vocab words that will be on the quiz. If you want additional information about fragments vs. sentences, see page four of the Holt Handbook that you have at home. In other news, today we began taking notes on the structure that a story takes before we start to read tomorrow. Students should have notes that talk about basic situation, events and complications, climax, and resolution. We didn't finish these notes in all classes, but will tomorrow.
Monday, August 19--Homework is studying the vocab for ten minutes. A good way to do that is dynamo.dictionary.com. In class today we worked on our detailed written response to a question I had on the board. We are trying to make sure that every student knows how to answer a question thoroughly, starting with a topic sentence and then giving details. We will finish this up tomorrow. If you want to see what your student had, the question was, "What are some of the most popular ways to spend free time?" Your student should have their own answer, the answer they agreed to with their shoulder partner, and the final answer on the back that they worked out with their group. We didn't finish, so expect only to see the first sentence and the next sentence with an example.
Friday, August 16--Today we finished up the yellow vocab study guide with the introduction of the last two words in the unit. Your student should have their guide completely filled out. I would check that it is legible and that all the blanks have been filled. They do not turn it in until next Friday before the quiz. Right now they are supposed to be studying the words from the list and using dynamo.dictionary.com every night. We also continued to talk about how to best do a written response to a question. We will continue with this on Monday.
Thursday, August 15--You should ask your student what a great first sentence would be to the question: "Two new vocabulary words today, and there will be two more tomorrow. That will round out our first group of ten words that we will have a quiz on next Friday. The only homework for tonight will be spending ten minutes studying those words. Each student's yellow Vocab Study Guide has a right margin where the parent can date and initial that the studying has occurred. The study guide is turned in Friday before the quiz and I will be checking for its completeness. Just a reminder, there are still a number of students who I do not have completed parent surveys from. I will begin assigning points for that Friday because that was the deadline. After the deadline, only partial credit is available.
Wednesday, August 14--Today we introduced the next two vocab words of the unit. Don't forget to study the words for 10 minutes a night for your homework. Don't forget to have your parent or guardian fill out the parent survey at tiny.cc/FirstDaySurvey if you haven't done it already. Also, don't forget to sign up for Remind 101 by texting @mrbje to 691-5549.
Tuesday, August 13--We continued with the new vocab words today and entered them on our yellow study guide. As usual, students need to study vocab for ten minutes a night. A great way to do that is with dynamo.dictionary.com. Even though we have not gone over all ten words yet, you can still use the website to make flash cards, play memorization games, etc.
Monday, August 12-- I handed out our first warm-up sheets and vocab study guides and explained how to use them. I also explained how to use Dynamo.dictionary.com, the website where students can go to do their ten minutes a night of studying vocabulary. Tonight is the first night of that ten minutes. Students need to have parents initial and date on the right margin that they did their nightly vocabulary study.
Friday, August 9--Today we continued talking about my rules and procedures before ending class with a small writing example where we gave our perspective on a rule or procedure we talked about. Don't forget that this weekend is a great time to make sure you have all you need as far as school supplies for my class. I will start checking on Monday that students have the requirements. Also, look at the links from y
Thursday, August 8--Today we continued talking about the way things are going to be in my class. I sent home the first assignment, which is actually something for the parents to do. Make sure you go to the website, tiny.cc/FirstDaySurvey and complete the survey. Also make sure you sign up for alerts by sending the message @mrbje to 691-5549.
Wednesday, August 7--Today we began going over important things about my class. I assume if you are here at my website, you have gotten the letter I sent home with your student. I will remind you now to go online and complete the parent survey at tiny.cc/FirstDaySurvey. Also, don't forget to sign up for alerts to your cell phones by dialing 691-5549 and texting @mrbje. This will get you a reminder text when I send them out. Your student can have them sent to their phone too, in fact, I would require it; then you don't have to remind them because they will get their own reminder. This week we will be spending lots of time going over my rules and procedures, and today is just the first day.