Monday, October 19, 2015

Projects and Parent Teacher Conferences

Today was the first day of the second quarter.  We spent the day working on our Heroic Journey presentations in tenth grade and doing some review activities for The Great Little Madison in ninth grade.  The ninth graders will make a Jeopardy style review game with facts from the book.  They will take their test next Monday.

The tenth graders will present their projects showing the monomyth pattern as demonstrated in their book.  Their presentations will be on Tuesday, October 27, and we'd love to have lots of parents come see their work.  I'll email with the specific times for each class.  I really enjoy hearing their discussions about the book elements.  In tenth grade, we are also working on some reading ACT passages and practicing comma rules with restrictive and non-restrictive clauses.

In addition to finishing their book, Ninth graders will be starting some vocabulary learning with the most common prefixes, roots, and suffixes.  They will be tested on these throughout the quarter until they show mastery.  These will help your student in their word attack skills.  I am surprised how often I see these word parts in everyday reading exposure.

I am looking forward to conferences.  I have really enjoyed the first quarter of the year and I will have report cards and test scores to share.  We will be on a tight time schedule, so please be prompt and I will also manage the conference time to stay on schedule.

Have a great week!

Monday, October 12, 2015

End of First Quarter

This week is the last week of the first quarter.  However, we are involved in some large reading projects in all classes, so most of the grades for these projects will be in the second quarter.

In 9th grade, we will finish The Great Little Madison this week.  I am aware that this type of text isn't a favorite with most ninth graders, but there is real value in both non-fiction text and in learning about the early history of our country and the events and people that shaped our nation.  I hope the students will find value in what they have learned with this book.  We will have a test on this book with multiple choice, vocabulary, and essay questions.  That test is scheduled for Oct. 23 right now, which should give us time to finish the book and do some review activities.

In 10th grade, the students are finishing their books for their Heroic Journey book club.  They are identifying the 12 stages of this journey and they will create a presentation to share those with the class. In addition to identifying the stages of the hero in this project, we are working on moving past summary into analysis.  Please plan to attend!  We are scheduled to present on Oct. 27, but depending on the length of the finished products, they may not all fit into one day.  Email me for a more specific time if you plan to come see your student's presentation.

Have a great week!

Monday, October 5, 2015

Book Clubs and Presentations

In 9th grade, we continue to read the biography of James Madison, The Great Little Madison.  We have had vocabulary words each week and weekly quizzes on the words.  We will hit the halfway mark in the book this week, meaning that we will no longer have the structured vocabulary words and quizzes.  At the end of the book there will be a comprehensive test with essay questions.  Students are reading and summarizing the text each day as they read.

The 10th grade classes are working in small book clubs to read a familiar book and find the 12 stages of the Heroic journey, a common pattern in literature.  Each group has 3 weeks to finish the book, which most groups are able to complete at school or with their reading log time.  There should not be extensive out of school time devoted to this project.  Students will present a multimedia presentation at the end of October on what they find.  We will invite parents to come see these presentations.  The date is October 27, from 11:00 - 12:15.  As it gets closer, we will schedule a more specific time for each group so you can pinpoint the time your child will present.  They will also have an essay test on this literature pattern.

Students in all classes should be reading at home each night and on the weekends.  Parents, thank you for signing reading logs each weekend!  Have a great week!