Friday, 9/18/09

I'm so proud of your hard work during the interval test yesterday and today. Fifth period did especially well. I am working to have them all graded by the end of next week.

HOMEWORK: Review your vocabulary words. Make flashcards. Practice with a friend, sibling, or family member.
Bring THREE PARAGRAPHS about your name on Monday/Tuesday. (This was due today. It will be marked down 2 points out of ten for every day it is late. This is part of a test/project grade.)

Have a good weekend!

Interval

The interval test is coming up on Thursday and Friday. You will be required to write an expository essay. You should use the prewriting technique we talked about today to write a wonderfully detailed and passionate piece. It will be graded using the same iLEAP rubric we have been looking at these past couple of days.

Homework tonight is to complete a bubble-map of your name. This is the first step of the five required by this writing project. You get points for each step of the process that you complete. I will explain the details tomorrow.

Shout out to 3B today for doing an excellent job!

PDREP!

Prewriting/Drafting/Revising/Editing/Publishing. These are the steps of the writing process.

Class went wonderfully today. A big shout-out to my A-day classes for being incredibly diligent and attentive today (a rainy Friday, no less).

HOMEWORK: Create a logical bubble map (at least three main ideas, with two supporting details for each) about your name. See the example and non-example handout I gave you in class for further clarification.

Complex Sentences and the Clave

We had a great day today- 3rd and 4th period were lucky enough to catch a little presentation about music, dance, and rhythm from Brazil, West Africa, Portugal, and Spain. It will be exciting to learn more over the next few weeks. I am going to try to incorporate more readings about these places to tie in to what we're doing day to day in class.

4th period gets a shout-out for being on their best behavior today. Your enthusiasm is contagious!

HOMEWORK is to finish the worksheet on complex sentences if it was not finished in class.
Check out the video on complex sentences (listed in the previous entry) for more help.

You Tube: You Can Still Learn When You're Home Sick!

Thank goodness for the internet!

There are many great, educational videos on youtube. For those of you who are out sick, or who just need a little more review, check out these videos about things we're talking about this week in class.

Subject/Predicate
(Grammar Rock) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGN_NxKIIFM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qKjKC5RFhg

Simple sentences
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESxFRENglPQ&feature=PlayList&p=44A292E4FBC86AF0&index=3

Compound sentences
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM0hY53hlcU&feature=PlayList&p=44A292E4FBC86AF0&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=4

Complex sentences:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A6CiemR8Rk

Here's an extra credit opportunity: Watch this video. Make a list of 20 of the nouns featured in the pictures. For each one, tell if it is 1. common or proper, 2. concrete or abstract.

The Electric Company and Schoolhouse Rock both have wonderful videos for phonics and grammar. You can watch many of them for free online.

Vocabulary Words

These are our vocabulary words for the next couple of weeks.

1. Affection (n.)
2. Assistance (n.)
3. Subconscious (n.)
4. Infection (n.)
5. Gadget (n.)
6. Inhabit (v.)
7. Precede (v.)
8. Premeditate (v.)
9. Submerge (v.)
10. Postpone (v.)

Parents: Please practice these words with your children! Flashcards are great... but also, it is important that the students can use these words correctly. Ask them to use the words in a sentence, and to give you examples of what each one means.

Noun Rap

• A concrete noun is a person, place or thing that you could smell, see, taste, touch, hear, like a bell that rings...
• An abstract noun is an idea you can’t see: happiness, solitude, religion and belief...
• Common nouns are everywhere, names of things of which there are many;
• Proper nouns are capitalized- specific, like Aunt Betty.
• Harvard, Yale, and Truman Middle: these are proper nouns. Specific names of things- that’s how proper nouns get down.
• College, school, class: these are common ones. There are lots of them so you know you don’t capitalize these guys, Son.

• Ideas are abstract, things are concrete.
• (We’ll get the verbs poppin’ the next time we meet.)