Reading and Writing Work

With our final completed, this week we will finish important reading and writing tasks and move on to our final project.  Ninth graders will finish The Great Gatsby this week.  They should be prepared for a pop reading comprehension quiz any day this week.  We are having great discussions about different themes in this book.

Tenth graders started working on a final writing assignment using a classwork assignment they completed earlier this quarter.  They are taking their most valuable idea from Animal Farm and the current news articles they found that represents this idea.  Students are wriitng to explain how this important idea shows up in various genres of literature, from Animal Farm, to a current news article, to a fable, to their own book, or maybe even to a Dr. Suess book.  This essay is due on Thursday.  We will also spend class time on their #adulting website project.  Both classes have graded assignments so please encourage your student to stay engaged and keep working!  Have a great week!

English Final This Week

This week we will take the English final in all classes on Tuesday.  All classes have had a list of topics that will appear on the final.  We have reviewed ways to prepare for this final as well.  Students may use their notes, but will only have the class period to complete their exam.  Of course, we still have three weeks of school left so there will be additional grades in the fourth quarter, but the final counts as 20% towards the semester grade.

Ninth graders will continue on reading The Great Gatsby after the final.  We are enjoying reading that book and had fun acting different parts of it out last week.  Tenth graders will have some companion texts to compare with a valuable idea they found in reading Animal Farm.

In addition to the final for all classes, the reading log assignment goes back into effect this week.  We suspended that assignment with state testing for the last two weeks, but we are back to reading a minimum of 20 minutes a night.

Have a great week!

More Testing

This week starts another week with standardized testing.  This week we are focusing on the End of Course exams, which students are required to pass before high school graduation.  Congratulations to the Sophomores who already passed and get a little break with a delayed start time this week.  Freshmen have full days all week.

All students will take their English final in class on Tuesday, May 9.  All classes have a study list on Classroom, which includes categories that will be covered on the final exam.  This test counts for 20% of the semester grade, but not for the fourth quarter.  Freshmen will not have finished The Great Gatsby by the time of the final, so the final will cover chapters 1-5.  We will still finish the book and have a test on that book.  This week we are working with all 9th graders to prepare skits from the book as a way of reviewing for the final.

Tenth graders are finding the Most Valuable Idea from Animal Farm and then taking that idea to apply to a current news item.  Then will find a few articles and then compare the book to the article and how their chosen idea presents itself in both texts.

Have a great week!