Tenth graders finished their College Prep unit by making a Testive.com account so they can practice for the ACT or SAT at home. This site will give them targeted practice with clear explanations for concepts they don't understand. We watched a TED talk by Malcolm Gladwell about preferences in food variety and applied that to our writing and to people in general. Tenth graders will be starting on a brief unit on the short stories of Russian writer Anton Chekhov. We will focus on his endings and how he changed the traditional ending. These are pretty quick reads and found online, I recommend reading The Bet if you are interested in Chekhov's writing.
Ninth graders will continue reading The Red Badge of Courage this week. They took a vocabulary quiz today and began a character analysis of the protagonist in the form of a Bio Poem. These are due Thursday. Because of the writing style, this book at times requires students to back up and reread the text to really discover what is happening. Students should take advantage of the group reading process to discuss and clarify what is happening as they read.
All students will take their first book report of the second semester on Wednesday. Most students have finished their books so they should be planning for the next one, which will be in March 9. We are half way through the quarter. Students are having graded assignments regularly. Please encourage your student to keep up on all assignments.
Monday, January 30, 2017
Monday, January 23, 2017
Graded Work
Since coming back from break, we have been learning a lot of new material and practicing that in class, resulting in not as much homework. However, this week students will have additional homework and more graded assignments. Please check the homework tab if you wnat to follow up on student assignments. All students will have a book report in class on Wednesday, Feb. 1, so books should be complete by that date.
Ninth graders are starting to read The Red Badge of Courage thihs week. They made a vocab organizer with 12 new words from chapters 1-5. All students should finish organizers Monday and study thi sweek to be prepared for the quiz on Monday Jan. 20. They should also be prepared for possible comprehension quizzes each day after reading. Ninth graers will have IXL standards on figurative language assigned this week and due in a week.
Tenth graders are completing a college prep unit. They are working on writing to respond to typical college essay prompts with word limits. A word limit enhances different limitations on a writer, so this experience is beneficial for them to try out before they are filling out college applicaitons. They will also gain experience with challenging reading passages as they will find on college entrance exams. They are practicing annotating those and reading for comprehension and accuracy. Tenth graders have IXL standards due this week and will have more assigned.
Have a great week!
Ninth graders are starting to read The Red Badge of Courage thihs week. They made a vocab organizer with 12 new words from chapters 1-5. All students should finish organizers Monday and study thi sweek to be prepared for the quiz on Monday Jan. 20. They should also be prepared for possible comprehension quizzes each day after reading. Ninth graers will have IXL standards on figurative language assigned this week and due in a week.
Tenth graders are completing a college prep unit. They are working on writing to respond to typical college essay prompts with word limits. A word limit enhances different limitations on a writer, so this experience is beneficial for them to try out before they are filling out college applicaitons. They will also gain experience with challenging reading passages as they will find on college entrance exams. They are practicing annotating those and reading for comprehension and accuracy. Tenth graders have IXL standards due this week and will have more assigned.
Have a great week!
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Poetry and College Prep
Where did this week go? With that Monday holiday, this was a very short week; nevertheless, we accomplished quite a bit in all classes. In ninth grade, we read Walt Whitman poetry. We focused on Whitman's Drum-Taps poems, a collection written about the Civil War. This will tie into our next book, The Red Badge of Courage, which we will start next week. During class we focused on annotating with a broad to narrow approach, determining the overall tone and message before we look for specific literary devices like metaphors or alliteration. We will be ready to learn some new vocabulary and start reading the book next week. It will be very valuable learning experience to draw comparisons between Whitman's poetry and The Red Badge of Courage.
Tenth graders are in a College Prep unit. In a college experience, sometimes students have to write without much time (not for assigned homework, of course, but for timed testing situations). We spent time learning how to plan and write and essay response quickly. We also learned how to write when you are limited on words, like for a college application or scholarship essay with a word limit. Both present challenges to students that can be improved with practice. We also learned some strategies for attacking ACT reading passages.
It was only three days but we accomplished quite a bit, with bigger plans for next week. I appreciate the effort of all of these students!
Tenth graders are in a College Prep unit. In a college experience, sometimes students have to write without much time (not for assigned homework, of course, but for timed testing situations). We spent time learning how to plan and write and essay response quickly. We also learned how to write when you are limited on words, like for a college application or scholarship essay with a word limit. Both present challenges to students that can be improved with practice. We also learned some strategies for attacking ACT reading passages.
It was only three days but we accomplished quite a bit, with bigger plans for next week. I appreciate the effort of all of these students!
Monday, January 9, 2017
Welcome Back!
It's the first day of the third quarter and the second semester. We started the quarter off with new reading logs and a reminder of our next book report, coming up Thursday, Feb. 2. All students should select their book by this Wednesday, Jan. 11. The tenth graders started today with learning about the research of Carol Dweck, Ph.D, on Fixed and Growth mindsets. We learned about this before getting semester finals back, and wanted to view them with the idea of growth, not frustration. Having a growth mindset is critical to learning, so it is worth the time we will spend in the next few days on it. We will use this for a springboard for a College Prep unit of study we are starting, where we will have some training on reading and writing to succeed on college entrance exams and college applications. It may be a while before students are actually doing these, but preparation is a key to success.
Ninth graders learned about setting SMART goals and set two goals, one academic and one non-academic. They will do some writing to inform and explain about these goals and their plan to achieve them. Ninth graders will also start reading some Walt Whitman poetry this week, as a companion text to The Red Badge of Courage, a classic by Steven Crane set during the Civil War. Students will have opportunities to read and also to write about courage and challenges and how we and changed by them. It's an exciting topic to read about and I look forward to exploring these themes with the ninth graders. So far, 2017 is off to a strong start in the English classroom. Have a great week!
Ninth graders learned about setting SMART goals and set two goals, one academic and one non-academic. They will do some writing to inform and explain about these goals and their plan to achieve them. Ninth graders will also start reading some Walt Whitman poetry this week, as a companion text to The Red Badge of Courage, a classic by Steven Crane set during the Civil War. Students will have opportunities to read and also to write about courage and challenges and how we and changed by them. It's an exciting topic to read about and I look forward to exploring these themes with the ninth graders. So far, 2017 is off to a strong start in the English classroom. Have a great week!
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