One hundred years after his death we are still learning so much about Mark Twain and his wholesome brand of comedy. Today most students began or continued working on the three worksheets following the February 8 Scholastic Scope article entitled, The Year of Twain. The first worksheet focused on something we did a lot last year in sixth grade, reviewing a nonfiction article. We have to review the article and find the three main ideas and list supporting details for each. The second worksheet has to do with interpreting text by reviewing some of Twain’s most famous quotes, what they mean and if it is humorous, why? The final worksheet is a Mark Twain treasure hunt, which reminds many of us of our research strategies rotation class.

We reviewed the lesson plans for this week and talked again about using the information from the lesson plans, the blog, and the webquest to know what needed to be done when. Critical Thinking Skills that we will need the rest of our lives, was about what Mrs. Scales said about being able to pull information together and think about what it was telling us. She sure expects a lot from a seventh grader. She just knows we can do it.

Chunk 2 of the Literary Circle books needed to be posted on the forums by the end of school today.

Our root word today was corp, which means body. It is from Latin and our example words included: corpse, corporation, and corpuscle.

Oh, I almost forgot, we had a fire drill today and got to go outside. It was very nice, so sunny and bright.

Day 2 of the Twain WebQust focused on the essay each group must write on the Twain Prize. As a class we reviewed the writing genre – Essay. Our working definition of an essay is: A short, nonfiction piece of writing about one topic. In step one of the webquest the assignment is to write a summary essay about the Twain Award and its past recipients (our one topic for this assignment). An essay is a structured form of writing and always needs to include an introduction, body, and a conclusion.

Mrs. Scales made us some sticky note checklists for our essays. We have to review the essays and then staple the Twain WebQuest Group Grading Sheet to the front of our essays before we turn them in. No one in the group may move on to the second step in the process until the essay for the first step has been turned in.

It was explained to us that there are really three components to the Twain WebQuest.
1. Content Information (What we will learn about Mark Twain, Humor, and the Twain Prize.
2. Working together in cooperative learning groups.
3. Being able to follow written directions from multiple resources. (Twain WebQuest instructions in process and time line sections, lesson plans, blog recaps.) Critical Thinking Skills

Our root word for today was chrome, which means color. Our three example words were, chromosome, polychrome, and bichrome. Chromosome is a word we use often in science, so Mrs. Scales expected us to know that it has to do with hereditary traits that may determine the color of our eyes, hair and even skin being passed on. Poly is a root word that we have had earlier this year. Poly means many so polychrome means many colors and bichrome therefore means two colors.

We have one more week to earn AR points. Right now in seventh grade as a whole 51% of the students have earned all of their AR points for the third grading period and 4th period is in the lead with 67%.

The first round of ISTEP testing for Spring 2010 is finished. We were able to get back to our normal routine in English class today.

Literary Circle Chunk 2 Forums are due by the end of school on Monday. Mrs. Scales reviewed some of the posts already submitted. As a result we reviewed the importance of NOT using unclear pronouns such as she, he, they when writing our responses. This is a formal writing assignment and all of our posts must be well-written responses that include the name of the book(written in italics if typed: underlined if hand printed),author (full name the first time used and last name only after that), and a complete explanation of who we are talking about when we answer all of the chunk questions. Remember that you must make your own original post and then reply to at least 2 other student’s posts who are reading the same book. This is your time to talk about what has happened so far in this book. Remember that Mrs. Scales will be reviewing your chats. Show that you have read the required portion of the book and what you like or don’t like about it so far.

Once you have finished this third chunk forum you may complete the back side of your Literary Circle Lesson Directions sheet. Please read all of the directions on the Summarizer sheet and complete each section completely and as neatly as possible. Turn your final assignment in to the basket for grading. You may check your book back in with Mrs. Scales one you have turned in the final assignment.

The root word for today was aud, which means sound some example words include;auditorium, audible, audiologist, and audiotape.

We listened to “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain and then got into our cooperative learning groups and began our Twain WebQuest. Everything is spelled out on the web pages of the webquest but we have to work together as a group and read the instructions carefully to make sure we accomplish the task. Did you know that Mark Twain is considered by many people to have been the first stand up comedian? He was definitely the first American stand up comedian.

Today every group should have read ALL of the Introduction, Process and Time Line webquest pages. The first step in the process is to review and then write a summary of the Mark Twain Award. No one can move on to the second step until they have completed all of step one.

The final 7th grade writer has been selected to attend the Selma Elementary School Young Author Conferences on March 16, 2010.

Dougy Burgess will be joining Drew Smith, Olivia Buffin, Jayden Pfleeger, Tanna Riggin, A.J. Zeiger, Keeley Cherry, Chris Cooper, Katelyn Buchanan, and Ryan Ritchie as readers at the Young Authors Conferences at SES. Kiley Lingenfelterhas been selected as the first alternate. If any of the 7th grade authors are absent on the 16th, she will fill in for them.

Each author will read a piece of their own original writing and talk about writing tips to a group of about 15 students at the elementary school. Those going will leave SMS shortly after 4th period. Mrs. Flatter will have an informational meeting when they arrive at SES.

Congratulations to all of the authors taking part in this fun and exciting event.

Nine of the ten available guest author spots for 7th grade have been filled. Drew Smith, Olivia Buffin, Jayden Pfleeger, Tanna Riggin, A.J. Zeiger, Keeley Cherry, Chris Cooper, Katelyn Buchanan, and Ryan Ritchie will all be reading a piece of their original writing to a group of about 20 grade 2 through 5 students on March 16th at Selma Elementary School. There is still one 7th grade spot available. Mrs. Scales will read all of the final submissions tonight and the final spot will be awarded tomorrow.

In a final review for the English portions of the ISTEP we talked about those tricky words in the English language that are easily confused. Examples included:

presents – gifts versus presence – being there
there – place versus their – possession versus they’re they are
allusion – indirect reference versus illusion – false impression
cite – quote an authority versus site – location
lay – past tense of very lie versus laid – past tense of past participle of lay
to-location versus too – also versus two – the number 2
and several other examples.

ISTEPs start tomorrow. Get plenty of rest tonight and eat a good breakfast in the morning.