Today started off a little rocky as far too many students came to class without their homework or essay assignment ready to turn in.  When we had writing workshop on Wednesday, Mrs. Scales explained that there would be no class time after Wednesday to work on or print out essays.  She was very clear that if we didn’t get the final copy of the essay done on Wednesday that we could work on it at home, but there would be no class time on Thursday or Friday to print it out.  We had to come to class with the essay already printed out and ready to put in the tray today.  Not only did many people try to print out their essays at the last minute, someone had left letter head paper in the printer and everyone just kept printing on it.  Needless to say, this wasn’t our best moment.

 

It doesn’t matter what the assignment is, Mrs. Scales wants us to follow the written and verbal directions we have been given.  Every week we have a lesson plan to tell us what is due when.  Then each day we have this blog to review the most important bits of information that we covered that day in class.  We are even given time each day to review the blog in class.  Just showing up for class each day isn’t enough.  As students we have to be willing to take responsibility to use the information we are given and do things correctly and on time.  I sure hope everyone does better getting their homework in on Monday.

 

We used yesterday’s blog to finish the vocabulary worksheet we started yesterday.  All ten words were on the blog with definitions so that we could look at our predictions from yesterday and see what the words really mean.

There was a picture on the screen when we came into class today; it was CREEPY! It was easy to recognize the picture as a scene from the short story by Poe that we heard yesterday. We talked about how the picture shows suspense. There was also another giant piece of notebook paper on the board that said:

Suspense

1. Expression

2. Dramatic shadows

3. Jagged lines

4. Use of color

The picture is by an American illustrator named, Howard Simpson.

After listening to the story again, while looking at the creepy picture everyone took the AR test for “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Once we finished with the AR test, everyone had a choice as to do either an Acrostic poem or a comic strip based on “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Our root word today was mega.  Mega means extreme or a measure of a million. Example words were, megaphone, megaton, and megalopolis.

Mrs. Scales reminded everyone to read the lesson plans for next week and to do the “Quotation Marks with Dialogue” handout homework this weekend.

Lesson Plan for: October 3 – 7, 2011

English 7 / Mrs. Scales

Monday—

• Turn in Friday’s Homework ( Quotation Marks with Dialogue)
• Quick Write—Write an “I Remember…” poem
• Read Daily Classroom Blog / Daily Classroom Reading Activity
• Jeopardy review for 1^st grading period root words. (Extra Credit Points)
• Introduction to A Week of Poetry, Genre Study
• What is Poetry?
• How does a poem look?
• Craft in Poetry—Onomatopoeia, End Rhyme, Near Rhyme, and other crafting techniques
• Homework: Complete your “I Remember…” poem and you must write two other poems this week.  One needs to be in the style of one of the poets we study, and one is your choice (any format). All poems must be six (6) to ten (10) lines in length. (This is not the Quick Write responses to poetry you are doing in class)

Tuesday— Book Talk Tuesday

• Grade / Review Monday’s Homework (Usage, Comma Rules, Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement, Big/Little Rule, Numbers, Capitalization)

• Quick Write: “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman – Your response
• Read Daily Classroom Blog / Daily Classroom Reading Activity
• Book Talk Tuesday Presentations:
• The poetry of Walt Whitman —Writing a poem in the style of Whitman

• Homework: Continue Monday’s Homework / Study for Root Word Test

Wednesday—

• Grade / Review / Turn in Tuesday’s Homework (Interjection, Colon, Hyphen (Single-Thought Adjectives, Subject-Verb Agreement, Numbers, Apostrophe)
• Root Word Test
• Read Daily Classroom Blog / Daily Classroom Reading Activity
• The poetry of Robert Frost

• Writing Workshop – Writing a poem in the style of Robert Frost
• Homework:  Continue Monday’s Homework

Thursday—

• Grade / Review Wednesday’s Homework (Comma Splice, Verb Tense, Usage, End Punctuation, Numbers, Subject-Verb agreement)
• Quick Write: “I Too, Sing America” by Langston Hughes – Your response
• Read Daily Classroom Blog / Daily Classroom Reading Activity
• The poetry of Emily Dickinson and E. E. Cummings – Writing a poem in the style of Emily Dickinson or E. E. Cummings
• Writing Workshop – Poetry
• Homework: Continue Monday’s Homework, poems will be turned in tomorrow by the end of class.

Friday—

• Turn in Thursday’s Homework (Comma Rules, Usage, Capitalization, Spelling, Irregular Verb)
• Turn in your 3 poems for the week by the end of class today.
• Quick Write: “This Is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams – Your response
• Read Daily Classroom Blog / Daily Classroom Reading Activity
• Sharing poems in the style of Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and E. E. Cummings.

Parts of the blog written today by Josie C.  Way to go Josie!

Who was Edgar Allan Poe?  That was our quick write on the front board today.  I knew I had heard the name before, but for the life of me I just couldn’t remember why.  Since it is English class, I took a stab in the dark and guessed that he was a poet or an author.  Turns out, I was right on both counts.  He was an author and a poet.  He wrote some very weird stuff.  Today, we were introduced to his short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart.”  Now that was quite a story.

“True! – nervous – very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am! But why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses – not destroyed – not dulled them.”  Edgar Allan Poe “The Tell-Tale Heart”

Once we talked today about how writers add suspense to their writing it made perfect sense why Mrs. Scales would chose Edgar Allan Poe and his famous short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” as our example text for this lesson. I have never read a more suspenseful story in my whole life.

It was easy to pick out how Poe had:

Used an unreliable narrator

Described the character’s anxiety and fear

Used vivid descriptions of dramatic sights and sounds

Repeated words, phrases, or character actions to build the suspense of the story. We easily picked out examples of each from the text and it was definitely suspenseful. We listened a second time to the story and it was even better the second time around.

There were several words in “The Tell-Tale Heart” that we didn’t know.  We received a vocabulary worksheet with the following words and had a few minutes to predict what we thought the words might mean. Now we can check to see how close our predictions were. The list of vocabulary words for “The Tell-Tale Heart” were:

acute – keen, sharp

conceived – think of

vexed – to annoy or anger

stifled – smothered, quieted

crevice – crack or opening

stealthily – cautiously, secret

audacity – bold, shameless, daring

vehemently – with intense emotion

derision – ridicule, mock, being made fun of

hypocritical – false, deceptive, saying one thing but doing something else.

We are also still working on conventions.  We reviewed our homework sentences for the proper corrections.

The first sentence needed corrections with the placement of commas, apostrophes for possessives, capitalization, and a title punctuation using the Big/Little rule.

If you’d like a young people’s reference book, read The World Almanac for Kids 2000.  (We were hand writing the sentence, not typing it so we had to underline The World Almanac for Kids 2000 instead of using italics)

The second sentence was written in big letters across the front board to show the right word usage, comma, and plurals corrections.

 

The 19^th Amendment was proposed on June 4, 1919; it was ratified on August 18, 1920, and gave women the right to vote. 

 

The third sentence needed commas to set of a series of items and a semi-colon to fix a run-on sentence.

 

In the 1920s, it was illegal to buy, sell, or drink alcohol; this was called Prohibition. 

 

Some people fixed the run-on without using a semi-colon.  Instead they put a period after alcohol and capitalized the t in this.  That was fine too.

 

We had two more sentences in yesterday’s homework.  In all there were 30 corrections that we needed to make, and the rules for why they each needed to be corrected can be found in the handouts in our English binders.  We were reminded to use our English binders while doing our homework tonight.  There are 26 needed corrections in tonight’s homework. The clues in bold print above the sentences even tell us what to look for.

 

Our root word today was ped or pod, which means foot.  We learned from the example words that a podiatrist is a doctor for the feet, a pedal is a lever pushed by the foot, and a pedestrian is one who walks by foot.

Our log today was (mostly) written by Jeremy M.

Today we started out by taking a pop quiz on using resources.

“Right now, Mrs. Scales is giving us a lecture about doing our work.  She is saying that we will have homework every day until we start passing every piece of homework.”

(Okay, actually I said, “We will have daily homework assignments until the majority of students can demonstrate that they are using the resources provided for them.”)

 

Today our root word was cent, centi – it means 100 or hundredth. Our example words were, centennial, centimeter, and century.

 

Today was also a writing workshop day.  We are working on conventions and have to edit our essays.  After we have edited our essay’s ourselves, we have to trade and proofread someone else’s essay.  Our essays are due at the start of class on Friday, but today is the last class time we will have to do any work on them.

Today, we began by doing a worksheet on Title Punctuation.  There were 30 titles on the handout.  After each title it stated what kind of title it was, such as (book) or (poem). Using the handout from Monday on the Big and Little Rule, we had to underline the titles of big things (books, newspapers, magazines, ships, and so on) and put quotation marks around the titles of little things (poems, chapters, songs, etc.).  This was an activity that everyone should have been able to get a perfect score on.  However, many students did not read the  directions or use the information provided for them.

Now, we will be getting a daily reading activity in which we have to use our English binder or W-R’s Notebook to complete.  Every day this activity will be done for a grade.  The answers or explanations on how to do each day’s activity will be from specific information that we have covered in class and have written information on.  By reading carefully and thinking about the  information you will be able to do each day’s activity. 

Our root word today was onym, which means name or word.  Example words included:

acronym – a word formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term.

synonym: a word equivalent in meaning or nearly so to another word; a word that may be substituted for another word that has the same or a similar meaning, such as near and close (compare “antonym”)

pseudonym: a false and fictitious name, especially one adopted by an author; a pen name

 

Every period except second had some very good book talks.
Book Talk Tuesdays are a chance for us to share the good books we are
reading.

We also had additional time to work on our essays.
Again, it is very important to use the information provided to make sure
we are catching all of the convention errors in our essays.

We received our essays back in class today. Now it is time to look at the writing trait of conventions.  Conventions includes:

Capitalization

Punctuation

Grammar

Paragraphing

Spelling

We were given a lengthy packet to add to the writing section of our English binders covering a variety of these topics.  It will be a great reference for when we are writing or editing work we have written.

We also began putting commonly confused words into our W-R’s notebook. The last page of the notebook is a Usage page.  We added the following five word groups to the Usage page.

• two – to – too = two is a number, to means toward, too means also, much, or very
• their – there – they’re = their shows possession, there is a place, they’re is a contraction for they are
• its – it’s = its shows possession, it’s is a contraction for it is
• accept – except = accept means to receive, except means to leave out
• than – then = than is a comparison, then is a description of sequencing or time

Our root word today was mania, which means obsessive, excessive or madness.  Example words for mania include, manic, kleptomania, and egomaniac.

Lesson Plan for: September 26 – 30, 2011

English 7 / Mrs. Scales

Monday—

• Read Daily Classroom Blog
• Root Word mania – Margaret / Lance / Kiersten / Kassandra
• New Groups / Writing Contest Selections
• Peer Review Process
• Writing Trait Conventions
• Capitalization
• Punctuation (Comma Rules)
• Titles (The Big and Little Rule)
• Spelling and Using the Right Word
• To, Too, Two
• There, Their, They’re
• It’s, its
• Accept, Except
• Then, Than

 

Tuesday— Book Talk Tuesday

• Quick Write: Read Daily Classroom Blog
• Root Word onym – Karyssa / Isiah / Kristen / Josie
• Book Talk Tuesday Presentations:
• Writing Trait Conventions Continued
• More Comma Rules
• Review Title punctuation rules (Big and Little Rule)

 

 

Wednesday—

• Quick Write: Free Write
• Read Daily Classroom Blog
• Root Word cent, centi – Kyler / Payten / Levi / Jacob

• Writing Workshop –  Peer Review / Editing

 

Thursday—

• Quick Write: Who was Edgar Allen Poe?
• Read Daily Classroom Blog
• Root Word ped, pod—Jaide / Elizabeth / Koltan / Corissa

• Introduction to Short Stories – The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe

• Literary Analysis – Short Story – Analyzing Suspense

 

 

Friday—

• Edited Essay’s Due at the Start of Class
• Read Daily Classroom Blog
• Root Word mega –  Alec / Melody / Brian / Maya
• Analyzing Visuals Lesson
• Read – The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe

Essay Conclusions

Today in class we read yesterday’s blog and the best student examples of how to pick out the main point from the blog and list three pieces of specific supporting information concerning the main point. This is similar to the article reviews we had to do in sixth grade.  It requires us to read carefully, summarize and paraphrase information, all skills we will be using all year long.

We practiced summarizing and paraphrasing during our Writing Workshop mini lesson on conclusions.  We read each paragraph of the handout, and then someone in class either summarized or paraphrased what that paragraph was saying.

Ending the Essay: Conclusions

So much is at stake in writing a conclusion. This is, after all, your last chance to persuade your readers to your point of view, to impress yourself upon them as a writer and thinker. And the impression you create in your conclusion will shape the impression that stays with your readers after they’ve finished the essay.

The end of an essay should therefore convey a sense of completeness and closure as well as a sense of the lingering possibilities of the topic, its larger meaning, and its implications: the final paragraph should close the discussion without closing it off.

Summarized by Isabelle W.

Your conclusion to an essay should close the conversation in a way that is final and goes over all your main points, but should keep the reader thinking, even when they are done reading.

Paraphrased by Olivia L.

The end of an essay should sound like the end of a book in a series, so it’s like it’s the end of this piece of writing but there is more on the topic and more can be written or thought about the topic.  So it can end the writing but not shut down the topic in the reader’s mind.

The conclusion is the end of the essay. It is the last part of the essay and it is the part that the reader may remember most. It should be clear and avoid confusing the reader.

The reader expects the conclusion to do some or all of the following

• rephrase the question
• summarize the main ideas
• give your opinion, if you haven’t given it already
• look to the future (say what will happen if the situation continues or changes)

The reader DOES NOT expect new information in the conclusion. Never add a new idea just because you have thought of it at the end!

If your essay is a story, the story is over, and the conclusion is for reflecting on its consequences and meaning.

You must do all of this in just three or five sentences!

Your conclusion should be based on the points made in your essay content. This conclusion needs to be relevant to the essay argument made by you. It could be a suggestion on getting over an issue or it could be a statement on something more general. Again, it is important that you describe this in a few sentences.

Word Choice is Important

The conclusion is very similar to the introduction. However, you should avoid repeating the same words. After all, if you only have a 250-word essay but use the same word 10 times, this will be repetitive.

Paraphrased by Noel K.

The conclusion is your last chance to convince your reader of what your essay is on. The wording must be perfect so you get the reader to remember the point.  You want your reader to think of you as a thinker and author.  The conclusion is where you must reinforce your ideas so the reader can take something away from this reading.

Paraphrased by Levi M.

So much is at stake in writing a conclusion. This is after all, your last chance to persuade your readers to your point of view, to impress yourself upon them as a writer and a thinker. And the impression you create in your conclusion will shape the impression that stays with your readers after they’ve finished the essay.

While summarizing involves gathering the main points and presenting them in a more concise (shortened) manner, paraphrasing allows for restating points in your own words.  When you paraphrase you give voice to the information, or explain it in a way that makes more sense to you or your reader.

We also receive a great list of transition words that can help us connect the different parts of our essays.

For the root word today, we made two root word cards for the words that were filled out as examples on our glossary. Those words are:

Acu which means sharp and Anni, annu, or enni which means year.

Example words for acu included:  acute, acupuncture, and accurate.

Example words for anni, annu, or enni included: anniversary, annually, and centennial.

We had the rest of the class period to revise our essay conclusions.  One change was made to the lesson plans for tomorrow – we don’t have to have our essay ready to turn in on our way into class.  Instead, we will have a few minutes to make any last minute changes needed and then print out two copies in class.  We will be doing an activity to examine the revisions we have made to our introductions and conclusions.  After that, we will turn in the revised copy stapled to the original rough draft of the essay.

Take out an index card.
Write your class header on the back.
Read the blog from yesterday.
On the front of your index card, identify the main point of the blog and three important pieces of information.

These were the directions on the front board when we came into class today. It was a test. Mrs. Scales explained yesterday that we have been using handouts from the class to look at finding specific information but we also need to be able to read something and summarize it. That means we need to be able to figure out what the writer’s main idea or main point is and find important details or supporting information from the piece of writing. The four directions on the board were to test us on being able to do just that with the blog from Tuesday.

Some of the best responses were:

Kyler K.

Main point of blog: Saving our typed work to moodle.
1. Save work in My Documents
2. Give your files a name
3. Select the Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP option, then save it.

Maddie W.

The main part of the blog was saving and uploading our work on moodle. Three important pieces of information on the blog were that everyone must have an update file saved to moodle of their essay, Mrs. Scales gave us a copy of the written directions for our English binders if we get lost, and that we didn’t have enough time to rewview the root words but the root word test is still tomorrow.

Lance F.

The main point of the blog is about saving work from open office to moodle.

Use the pull down menu under file and select Save As
Select the Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP option
Save your file in My Documents

It is important to be able to identify the main point and then give specific details to support that main point. Saying things like upload to moodle without giving any specific information on how to do so isn’t complete. Mrs. Scales’ example of the most correct response follows.

Main purpose – Using moodle instead of flash drives to store our work

1. Upload your saved word .doc from your computer or flash drive by selecting the Upload Your Files Here from the top Weekly Outline section in moodle.
2. When you open your file up from moodle it is a Read Only file so you have to save it as Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP in My Documents, Not the Temp file so that you can make changes to it.
3. Everyone must have an update file saved to moodle of their essay even if they are using a flash drive.

That wasn’t the only test we had today. We also had our root word test, which most people blew away. The first period had an average of 29.35 out of 30 and there were a lot of perfect scores on the test. The honors class wasn’t real pleased at coming in with an average of 28.14 and letting first period beat their scores. We will start up again on Friday with new root words.

After the tests we went through a check list for our English binders. Our binders will be graded at least once each grading period and we will lose points for any of the required items not being in the binder in the correct spot.

1st Grading Period English Binder Requirements Checklist

 Your Guide To Getting The Most Out of Mrs. Scales’ Room Blog
 Syllabus

Behind Writing Tab
 Well-Written Responses / Assignment Format
 Revision Cards (red)
 Formatting Instructions
 Saving and Uploading Work to Moodle
 Writing Trait #2 Organization / Developing a Paragraph
 Notes for Writing an Essay
o First Writing Assignment
o Essay ( All Drafts)

Behind Reading Tab
 All AR Summaries for this grading period

Behind Words Tab
 Root Word Study and Procedures (bright orange)
 Glossary with 15 root words filled out
 15 Root Word Cards

Most classes had additional time to work on their essays again today.

Okay, so pretty much everything we did yesterday had to be done over today. The problem is that many of the classroom flash drives have disappeared. That means that work saved on those flash drives can not be accessed. As with any problem, there is a solution. Today we went through the steps of how to save our work to moodle. This means that anything we save to moodle can be accessed from any computer with internet access. Along with doing a step-by-step demonstration, Mrs. Scales gave us a copy of the directions written out to keep in our English Binders.

Saving and Uploading Work to Moodle

Type your assignment in Open Office word on a classroom computer or open a document you have saved on a flash drive.

Use the pull down menu under File and select Save As
Give your file a name
Select the Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP option
Save your file in My Documents
Close your file

Log onto Moodle
Select Upload Your Files Here from the top Weekly Outline section
Click on the Browse Button
Select your file in the My Documents and click on open
Now your file name will appear in the box are beside the Browse button in moodle
Click the Upload This File button below the file name.

Now your file has been saved on Moodle.

Downloading from Moodle

Log into moodle
Open Upload Your Files Here
Find your file and open it
When your file opens it will be a “Read Only” file.
Use the pull down menu under File and select Save As
Save your file in My Documents (Not the TEMP file that is comes up showing)
Give your file a name (you can use the same name or if you want multiple copies of the file at different stages you can add a number to the file name)
Select the Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP option

Now you can work on the file. When you finish working on the file follow the same instructions to upload your updated work back to moodle.

Everyone must have an update file saved to moodle of their essay even if they are using a flash drive to carry their work back and forth from home to school.

We were also reminded that even though we didn’t get to play jeopardy as a review today, we will still have a root word test tomorrow over the first 15 root words we have had in class.

The root words we will be tested over are:

Arch – ruler, principle, or first
Bio – life
Crat, cracy – rule or government
Geo – earth
Graph, gram – to write, or something written
Log, logo, ology – word, thought, speech, or study of
Meter, metry – measure
Micro – small or tiny
Mono – one or single
Phono, phon – sound or voice
Peri – around, near, or about
Scope – watch, view, or examine
Tele – far away
The, theo – God or a god
Therm – heat