Sunday, February 28, 2016

Nouns, Vocab, and the Arts!

This week we continue practice with possessives, plurals, and functions of a noun in a sentence. The test for this unit is 3/8 and 3/9, your Day 2. This week you will have the test over Unit 8 vocabulary and roots on Day 3. Day 4 is a 1/2 day of special programming that kicks off our month of the Fine Arts, including the performances of Lion King, Jr. and the spring music concert. Complete reading your novel by March 10.

IN CLASS THIS WEEK
Day 1: Continued practice with possessives, plurals, and identifying the function of words that could be used as more than one part of speech.
Day 2: More sentence construction and diagramming practice, lit circles.
Day 3: Vocab and Roots Test
Day 4: Half Day Programming

HOMEWORK:
Continue reading your novel. Study vocabulary and root words. Be sure to review roots from previous units. No journal entry this week.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Week of 2/22 - 2/26 UPDATED

We will continue our grammar studies this week, moving on to the noun unit. I will return the verb unit tests most likely on Wednesday, provided all students who were absent have made up the test by that time. Literature discussion groups will meet again this week, and you have a new journal entry on Google Classroom due Friday by 4pm. Please aim for completing your novel NO LATER THAN March 10. If you finish before that time, it is even better since you can have deeper discussions knowing how the book ends.

IN CLASS
Day 1: Categories and functions of nouns
Day 2: Functions of a noun (Note: we did not have time for anything else)
Day 3: Grammar continues with plurals, possessive plurals. I hope we will have time in class for journal entries, but cannot guarantee it.
Day 4: Return verb tests, noun or adjective, noun review.

HOMEWORK:
Begin learning Unit 8 vocabulary and root words. VOCAB TEST will be Day 3 next week.
Continue reading your novel.
Journal Entry on Google Classroom due by Friday at 4pm.

****BONUS POST*****

This is the author of Peak. Click HERE.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Enjoy your break!

For those of you traveling, have a safe and fabulous trip! Next week we will wrap up the verb unit and begin discussion on the novels. Please be reading your novel, especially if you have down time while traveling. Don't worry if the story is confusing. That's quite typical for this genre as elements of the world of fantasy or science fiction come into play.

IN CLASS

Tuesday, Feb. 16: We will review in small group competition for the verb unit test, using Easy Grammar pages 91-96. If you wish to study using these pages, please complete only the even numbered items.

Wednesday, Feb. 17: Block 7 - see Feb. 16, Block 3 will have the vocabulary and roots test, then will have discussion questions to work on about your novel.

Thursday, Feb. 18: Blocks 4,5,7 will have the vocabulary and roots test, then will have discussion questions to work on about your novel.

Friday, Feb. 19: All blocks will complete the verb test. Bring your novel to read after completing the test.


HOMEWORK:
Review the verb unit. Identify any topics which are unclear to you and ask for clarification in class. Practice diagramming sentences with predicate nominatives, predicate adjectives, direct objects, and indirect objects. There are many online sites to help with this. See the tabs at the top of the blog.
Study unit 7 vocab and root words. Read your novel.

Sunday, February 7, 2016

New novel unit and grammar, grammar, grammar!

No, I did not watch the Super Bowl. I was grading essays so I could get them back to you more quickly. In fact, I will give them back in class Monday. Those of you scoring below 75% may revise your essays and resubmit them for up to 75%. These will be due to me THURSDAY as we are not in school on Friday or Monday. If I do not have your revision by the end of Thursday, your grade remains as is.

The unit of novels we will begin are all in the fantasy/sci-fi genre. They all have common themes which we will discuss in class. We will progress in our grammar studies and continue with unit 7 vocabulary and root words. The test over this unit will be 2/17 or 2/18 depending on your block.

Monday: Receive your essay. Novels will be distributed. We will hear some of the descriptive paragraphs today and some on Day 2. Grammar instruction on linking verbs and subject-verb agreement.

Day 2: Finish descriptive paragraph presentations. Continue in the verb unit with subject complements and diagramming.

Day 3: Review of direct and indirect objects, subject-verb agreement continued.

No class on Friday or Monday.

HOMEWORK:

Monday: Explore Telescopic Text HERE
Find the weakest sentence in your essay. Rewrite it as a stronger sentence. Submit BOTH to Mrs. Stein. (Feel free to type these and submit on a Google Doc.)

Resubmissions of your essay are due the end of the day THURSDAY. No exceptions.
2/9 - 2/15 be studying your vocabulary and root words as well as reading your novel. Aim for 10-15 pages per night.