January 29

The Great Debate – Who has the right to the treasure?

The debate was on today in class as each crew reflected and wrote about who they think is most deserving of the treasure. It was quite interesting to hear Sara admit that Long John Silver is amoral, but still make a case for why he has the most right to the treasure. Good debating.

Study Guides were reviewed through chapter 23 and time was given to catch up any missing information so everyone should have gotten all 25 points for their study guides today.

The book talks were announced for Tuesday of next week.
1st Period – Kelsey / Cracker and A.J. / The Akhenaten Adventure
2nd Period – Brandon / The Lord of Silver Apples and Debbie / Diary of a Wimpy Kid
4th Period – Sam / Cracker and Taylor / Sea of Monsters

Master At Arms were appointed for each period. The Master At Arms will answer the phone or take care of anyone who comes to the door in order to reduce the amount of distraction or interruption during a class period.
1st Period – Makenzie (Who did an excellent job on her first day)
2nd Period – Aaron
3rd Period – Brandessa
4th Period – Bret
5th Period – Bailey
7th Period – Brayden

General Announcements:
I will be taking any student who has read and passed the AR test with a 9 or 10 to see the movie, The Lightning Thief on Sunday February 14. They deadline for having the book read and the AR test taken is by the end of the school day on Monday February 8th. Because of liability issues I can not provide transportation, but if you will get your son or daughter to the theater in Muncie I will buy their ticket. I can’t tell you the exact show time because the theater says they won’t know until Tuesday February 9th. It will be the early afternoon show on Sunday and I will get the exact time out as soon as I know it. Anyone in the class is invited to join us, I will just be buying tickets for the students who meet the criteria listed above. Right now we have 19 students who have qualified for the free ticket: Katelyn Buchanan, Dougy Burgess, Tessa Chason, Michaela Cooper, Haleigh Fernandez, Ariael Hall, Payton Howell, Brayden Johnson, Jesse Jones, Bret Lawson, Makenzie McCormick, Donovan Owsley, Drew Smith, Cody Stewart, Sam Trego, Abby Vester, Kelsey Winters, and Dan Wright. Way to go!

Our Poetry Literacy Night will be on February 16th. Anyone who turned in the pink registration slip but changes their mind and would like to attend is welcome. Please just drop me an e-mail so we can plan on the number of people attending.

We still need any box tops you can send in.

Root words – you may notice that I made an adjustment to last week’s lesson plans and the same root words are listed for this upcoming week. I did not feel that the students were ready to move forward with new words and pushed these words out until next week. These root words are basic language learning blocks, similar to addition or multiplication tables. They are just something your son or daughter needs to study and remember. Please encourage them to study the words from their root word cards or glossary each week.

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January 28

The Adventure Heats Up on Treasure Island

We reviewed the action that took place in chapters 20 and 21 and then read about Jim’s adventure cutting lose the Hispaniola. The excitement was tremendous! We left Jim asleep in Ben Gunn’s little corscle dreaming of home and the old “Admiral Benbow.” Will the sea be his death or will Jim continue the adventure on Treasure Island? What do you think?

The root word test was taken for the second time this week and everyone was reminded that DLW sentences and study guides through chapter 23 are due tomorrow.

Oh, I almost forgot, four of our crew Jolly Rogers have been completed and hung in the classroom. It’s beginning to look a lot like pirate around here.

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January 27

Crew Workday

A.J. in pink pirate colors. Bret as a rather unattractive woman with “no taste in clothes” (student comments, not mine.) and Chris as one of the bounty hunter’s wives, all marked the very strange spirit day today.

Mrs. Scales reminded us to study for the root word test tomorrow. Everyone should be able to get a perfect score as this is the second time taking the same root word test.

Pink Poetry Night registration forms were passed out. It is a 5 point assignment to take the form home and get a parent signature. These forms are due back to Mrs. Scales by Friday.

There was also a sign up on the front board for anyone wanting to do a book talk next Tuesday in class.

We quickly reviewed the upcoming writing contest and opportunity deadlines and Mrs. Scales posted a calendar to help us keep track of deadlines.

The rest of the class time was used for crews to work on their Jolly Rogers.

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January 26

Progress Reports

Mrs. Scales had a progress report for each student as they came into class today. The quick write for today involved each student reflection on the their progress report and writing in their W-R’s notebook. Everyone had to think about their current grade and write about how they felt about that grade. Real progress reports go out to parents next Wednesday.

Mrs. Scales announced that although several people did well and got all 30 points on yesterday’s root word test, there were enough people who did poorly that we will have another test on Thursday. The lesson plans for the week are being adjusted and no new root words will be given this week. Everyone needs to study root word cards #38 – 52 for Thursday’s test.

All final copies of any Martin Luther King essays for the contest were collected and mailed today.

Crews got together and started reviewing how they have been working together and booty was tally-ed up. Each crew has a bright green crew evaluation checklist and rubric that has to be filled out and turned in by next Monday. A web page was reviewed and all crew Jolly Rogers were began. The completed Jolly Rogers also have to be turned in on Monday.

There are 155 points available between now and next Wednesday when the progress reports go out: 30 points for the root word test on Thursday, 25 points for the study guide check on Friday, 75 points for the crew checklist evaluations and 25 points for the Jolly Rogers. Everyone should be working hard to earn as many of those 155 points as possible and turning in make up work to recover some of the previous points they may be missing.

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January 25

Jim Returns

After turning in all of the homework from last week:

Treasure Island Letter
Crossword Puzzle
Anchor Piece Sentence Fluency Revision

We got the great news that 74% of all the 7th graders scored 90% or higher on last week’s DLW sentences. Only the people who didnot recieve 90% or higher have to keep doing DLW sentences. Since there are fewer students who have to do the DLW, Mrs. Scales will not be writing the sentences on the board each day. Instead those people who haeve to do the DLW sentences were given a handout with all five sentences and instructions to write each sentence corretly on their own paper and turn it in by Friday.

The rootword test was then taken on moodle.

Next, we reviewed the newest character in Treasure Island Ben Gunn. Benn has been marooned on the island for the last three years. Naturally, he is a little crazy from being all alone for so long. He really wants some cheese. He sees the British flag flying over the stockade and tells Jim that it must be his friends. Jim then makes his way to the stockade and is reunited with his friends, Dr. Livensey, Squire Telawney and the others.

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January 22

Friday

ROOT WORD CARD #51 DUC, DUCT—lead, bring, draw

These ROOT-WORDS are DUC, & DUCT which come from the Latin ducere meaning LEAD. It will indeed LEAD, BRING OR DRAW you to many places, people, and subjects.

1. Abduct : ab DUCT (ab dukt’) v. To take away by force; kidnap

2. Deduct : de DUCT (de dukt’) v. To take away from; as, deduct ten percent of the price

3. Deductible : de DUCT ible (de duk; ti b’l) adj. Can be taken off; as, tax deductible

4. Educate : e DUC ate (ej; u kate) v. To develop; teach; lead out from ignorance

5. Introduction : intro DUC tion (in tro duk; shun) n. The act of bringing together

6. Inductile : in DUCT ile (duk’ til) adj. Inflexible; unyielding; not easily led

7. Produce : pro DUCE (pro dyuse’) v. To bring forth; lead forward

8. Product : pro DUCT (prod’ ukt) n. Anything produced by growth, labor, thought

9. Productive : pro DUCT ive (pro duk’ tiv) n. Causing to bring forth; creative

10. Production : pro DUC tion (pro duk’ shun) n. The act of bringing forth; creation

11. Reduce : re DUCE (re dyuse’) v. To lead to a lower position or price; as, reduce to poverty

12. Reduction : re DUC tion (re duk; shun) n. A lowering; as a reduction in price

13. Seduce : se DUCE (se dyuse’) v. To lead apart; lead astray

14. Conducive : con DUC ive (kon dyue’ siv) adj. Tending to promote; as conducive to good health

ROOT WORD CARD #52 INTRO, INTRA—inside, within

This ROOT-WORD is the Prefix INTRO, INTRA meaning INSIDE, WITHIN. The three ROOTS – INTER, INTRA & INTRO – must be clearly spoken and exactly understood. INTERnational means between all the nations of the world. INTRAnational means within one nation. Notice the change in spelling. Notice how similar it is to INTER. Notice how careless pronunciation makes them sound almost exactly alike. The meaning is very different. In ancient days every city had a protective wall around it. Within the wall meant with the city. That is why sports or events within one city are still called INTRAmural.
1. Intracollegiate : INTRA collegiate (in tra ko lee’ ji at) adj. Within the college

2. Intraschool : INTRA school (in tra skule’) adj. Within the school

3. Intramural : INTRA mural (in tra myur’ al) adj. Within the community or institution; as intramural sports

4. Intragroup : INTRA group (in tra grupe’) adj. Within the group

5. Intracoastal : INTRA coastal (in tra kose’ tal) adj. Within coastal water

6. Intracontinental: INTRA continental(in tra kon ti nen’ tal) adj. Within the continent

7. Intradepartmental: INTRA departmental(in tra depart ment’ al) adj. Within the department

8. Intrabred : INTRA bred (in tra bred’) adj. Mating within tribe or race

9. Intravenous : INTRA venous (in tra vee’ nus) adj. Within the veins
10. Introceptive : INTRO captive (in tro sep’ tiv) adj. Capable of receiving into itself

11. Introduce : INTRO duce (in tro dus’) v. Lead into; present

12. Introduction : INTRO duction (in tro duk’ shun) n. Act of presenting

13. Introflex : INTRO flex (in tro fleks’) v. To bend inward
14. Introject : INTRO ject (in tro jekt’) v. To throw within; as, introject new ideas

15. Introjection : INTRO jection (in tro jek’ shun) n. Act of throwing oneself into a project
16. Introvert : INTRO vert (in’ tro vert) n. One who turns inward; draws

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January 20

Why do we have SO much work?

Extra work was assigned in class today. A handout with two crossword puzzles has to be done by Friday. One crossword puzzle covers 20 words from Monday’s two root words. The other crossword puzzle covers 30 words from the Treasure Island glossary through chapter 13. Why do we have to do these two crosswords? It’s not because Mrs. Scales simply has nothing better to do than create more handouts or grade more papers. It isn’t even because crossword puzzles are good exercises for the brain. No, let’s be perfectly clear: It is because so many students are not studying their root words or reviewing the glossary words for our reading on their own. If we won’t do it on our own, the only choice left is to make it an assignment which will be graded. The lesson being, do the work that is assigned if we don’t want to have to do extra.

Our DLW sentence for today was: If you could crush an lump of coal with enough pressure you’d get a diamond for you like the ones mined in South Africa. The errors are with missing Commas (To separate Phrases and Clauses), Apostrophe, and incorrect use of an Adjective (Articles) an a Pronoun (Reflective). Just as explained yesterday, from now on every correction in the sentence must be accompanied with the rule and location of that rule to receive credit for the correction. Again, this is an example of having to do more work because students were not taking the time to look up the corrections and missing grammar errors that they should have been able to find. The really good news is that anyone who gets 90% or higher on this week’s DLW sentences and weekly review paragraph will no longer have to do the DLWs.

The root word today was:

ROOT WORD CARD #50 PRO—forward, before, in front of

This ROOT-WORD is the Prefix PRO which means FORWARD, BEFORE, IN FRONT OF. It is a very simple ROOT-WORD to learn and most convenient to use. It opens doors to a variety of things from the PROfessional who is today called a PRO, all the way back to ancient days in Rome when the meanest work was done by the lowest class citizen called a PROletarian.

1. Proceed : PRO ceed (pro sede’) v. To go forward; advance

2. Procedure : PRO cedure (pro see’ jur) n. Method of going toward a goal

3. Proclaim : PRO claim (pro klame’) v. To bring before the public

4. Proclamation : PRO clamation (prok la may’ shun) n. A notice officially declared

5. Procure : PRO cure (pro kyur’) v. To get; to gain

6. Produce : PRO duce (pro kyur’) v. To lead forward; as, produce a play

7. Production : PRO duction (pro duk’ shun) n. The act of bringing forth

8. Profess : PRO fess (pro fes’) v. To take vows; to openly admit

9. Professor : PRO fessor (pro fes’ or) n. One who professes; a teacher of high rank in an institution of higher education

10. Profession : PRO fession (pro fesh’ un) n. Art or skill which is the result of study and experience

11. Progress : PRO gress (prog’ res) n. The act of going forward to a goal

12. Progressive : PRO gressive (pro gres’ iv) adj. Causing the going forward

13. Progression : PRO gression (pro gresh’ un) n. The orderly going forward

14. Project : PRO ject (pro jekt’) v. To throw forward; to create a plan

15. Proliferate : PRO liferate (pro lif’ e rate) v. To bring forth by rapid production

16. Prolific : PRO lific (pro lif’ ik) adj. Bringing forth young or fruit

17. Promote : PRO mote (pro mote’) v. To move forward; to advance in station

18. Prolix : PRO lix (pro liks’) adj. Drawn out; needlessly prolonged

19. Proficient : PRO ficient (pro fish’ ent) adj. Showing skill; adept

20. Profluent : PRO fluent (prof’ lue ent) adj. Flowing smoothly

Today was also a Writing Workshop day. Our letters from a Treasure Island character are due tomorrow at the start of class. We also talked about Robert Louis Stevenson’s incredible sentence fluency and have to do the next revision to our Anchor Pieces. On a fresh copy of our piece of writing we were instructed to highlight at least three sentences in blue. Then using the sentence fluency handouts in our English Binder we have to make revisions. The revised copy must say Sentence Fluency Revision under our header and be stapled to the copy that we highlighted blue. This writing assignment is due on Friday.

Our homework assignment was to read and update our study guides through chapter 15.

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January 19

Letters from Treasure Island

After reviewing everything that has happen through chapter 13 of Treasure Island each crew member must select a different character and write a letter about what is going on. Each team must turn in two friendly and two business letters. Instructions for writing friendly letters can be found on pages 149-151 in Write Source 2000 and instructions for writing business letters are on pages 241 – 250.

Our DLW sentence for the day was: new york city includes the following 5 bouroughs bronx brooklyn manhattan queens & staten island.

The errors can be found in Capitalization, Numbers, Abbreviations, Comma (Series), Colon

Starting this week each correction in the DLW sentence must be accompanied with the rule and where the rule was found. For example, in today’s sentence New York City should be capitalized and the rule can be found in the WS2000 on page 405.2 – Capitalize Geographic Names – Cities.

We did two root words today.

ROOT WORD CARD #48 -PORT—carry, bear, bring

This ROOT-WORD is the PORT which means CARRY, BEAR, BRING. All the words on the list have something to do with carrying in one way or another. Look at No.11. The two e’s at the end of the word have a special meaning – the deportee is the one who receives the action, the one who is deported, carried away, banished.

1. Port: PORT (port) n. Place ships may wait in, or bring or take cargo to or from

2. Porter: PORT er (port’er) n. One who carries things, as baggage

3. Portable: PORT able (port’ a b’l) adj. Can be carried

4. Export: ex PORT (ek sport’) v. Carry out; bring or sent elsewhere

5. Exporter: ex PORT er (ex sport’ er) n. One who sells goods to other countries

6. Exportation: ex PORT ation (ek spor tay’ shun) n. The act of carrying goods out of the country

7. Import: im PORT (im port’) v. To bring in goods; as, from a foreign country

8. Importer: im PORT er (im port’er) n. One who brings in goods from a foreign country

9. Importation: im PORT ation (imp or tay’) shun) n. The act of bringing in goods from a foreign country

10. Deport: de PORT (de port’) v. To sent a person away; to banish

11. Deportee: de PORT (de por tee’) n. One who is sent away

12. Deportment: de PORT ment (de port’ ment) n. Manner of behaving oneself; conduct

13. Report: re PORT (re port’) n. An account of something which happened

14. Reporter: re PORT er (re port’ er) n. One who brings news; as, for a newspaper

15. Reporting: re PORT ing (re port’ ing) verbal noun. The bringing in of news

16. Support: sub PORT (su port’) v. To carry along with help

17. Transport: trans PORT (trans’ port) n. Act or means of carrying from place to place; as, an airship to carry soldiers

18. Transport: trans PORT (trams port’) v. To carry from place to place

ROOT WORD CARD #49 PEL—push, drive

The ROOT-WORD is PEL, which come from the Latin pellere and it means PUSH, DRIVE. It is a ROOT-WORD that takes seven Prefixes to give full range of its violence. There isn’t a peaceful word on the list nor is there a quiet moment in its usage-Inner and outer turmoil accompanies this ROOT-WORD. Of course, if that is the impression wanted, there’s nothing better, but be certain that that is the word you want before you use PEL.

1. Compel :com PEL (kom pel’) v. To urge; force

2. Expel :ex PEL (ek spel’) v. Drive out; throw out; as, expel from school

3. Repel :re PEL (re pel’) v. Drive back; as, repel the enemy

4. Propel :pro PEL (pro pel’) v. Push forward; as, the use of steam to propel ships

5. Impel :im PEL (im pel’) v. To force; to urge; as, facts impel the jury to judge him guilty

6. Dispel :dis PEL (dis pel’) v. To scatter; to drive away; as, dispel doubt

7. Repellent :re PEL lent (re pel’ ent) adj. Driving back; as, water-repellent fabrics

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January 14

Think Aloud Reading Strategy

Today’s strategy for our Reading Comprehension Toolkit was the “Think Aloud” strategy. I demonstrated the strategy while reading aloud a part of chapter 11 of Treasure Island. After the demonstration, the crews got together to try the technique out on their own. Sometimes you just have to stop reading the words on the page and think aloud about what is going on in the story.

Crews also added booty to their ledgers for each purple word on their Word Choice Revision writing assignment. No writing assignments turned in late will receive any purple words.

We reviewed the chapter summaries through chapter 10 so everyone should be up to date on what is going on. We also covered all of the characters. Anyone who does not have the study guide completed through chapter 10 needs to make sure the get with someone who was in class today, because we covered it all.

The root word for today was, Ex, which means out, former, or entirely. We came up with lots of example words such as exit, explain, and example. Because all of the words we came up with use ex as a prefix, Mrs. Scales reminded us to add it to both our root word glossary and our list of prefixes. Tomorrow we have the first root word quiz of the grading period. It will cover root words #38 – 46.

The Daily Language Workout Sentence for the day was:

mt vesuvius the only active volcano in Europe erupted and completely buried the city of pompeii italy in C.E. 79.

The errors to look for in this sentence include; Comma (Appositives and Addresses), Spelling, Capitalization, Period.

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January 13

Last Two Days

I was having a little trouble connecting to the internet yesterday, so this is the post for both yesterday’s class and today’s.

The root words:

Tuesday Able, Ible meaning able to. Example words included curable, ability, capable.
Wednesday Re meaning again or back. Example words included revise, reestablish, reverse.

The DLW sentences were:

Tuesday – The Petrified Forest located in the Painted Dessert of Ariz. is a hole forest of trees turned to stone by ancient volcanic lava. (Hints, Comma for nonrestrictive phrase and clauses, Using the Right Word, Abbreviations)
Wednesday – 1/2 of the people of nev. lives in las vegas and the other half live outside it. (Hints, Abbreviations, Numbers, Hyphen, Subject-Verb Agreement, Capitalization, Comma between Independent Clauses)

Tuesday was a Writing Workshop Day and we looked at all the writing contest opportunities listed on the Writing Workshop page. I offered to help any student before school, after school, at lunch or between classes who might like to enter any of the writing contests. Prizes range from cash, savings bonds, scholarships and other prizes. Our mini lesson for the day’s writing workshop was on word choice and many of the different types of word that we can look at to improve word choice in our writing. I gave the students a packet to put in their English Binders that covered Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, and Heteronyms. We also reviewed Antonyms and Synonyms. Several resources (Dictionaries, Thesauruses, Other writers’ work, Descriptive Word Poster, etc.) were listed for finding alternative words for our writing. Then we were given most of the class period to write. We were instructed to turn our revised Anchor Piece in by the start of class on Wednesday with the phrase: Word Choice Revision written under the date in our header. The revision must also be stapled to the top of the original Anchor Piece with the yellow highlighted words.

Wednesday we were back to Treasure Island. The book is getting very interesting and there is a lot going on now. We read aloud in class chapters 8 and 9 and most of chapter 10. We practiced stopping at a few points and visualizing the scene that was taking place. We have to have our study guides ready to be graded for points tomorrow and we need to have two to three sentence summaries for each chapter through the end of chapter 10. There are a lot of characters now as well. A list of all the characters that we need to have some description for has been put on the back board in the room. That list includes:

Squire Telawney
Doctor Livesey
Jim Hawkins
Mrs. & Mrs. Hawkins
Billy Bones (captain)
Black Dog
Pew
Israel Hands
Long John Silver (Barbecue)
Mr. Dance
Tom Redruth
Harry
Ben
Tom Morgan
Mr. Arrow
Joyce
Captain Smollett
Hunter
Mr. Blandly
Job Anderson

It is important to keep all of the characters straight so I am continuing to keep my book highlighted and available for any student who might start getting confused on which character is which.

There was also a writing assignment today. Each student has to put themselves in Captain Smollett’s shoes and write a ship’s log from his perspective. How are things looking to Captain Smollett and what might he have included in the ship’s log for the beginning of the voyage? This writing assignment is to be done in the Response section of our WR’s notebook.

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