Thursday: Period 5

Today we continued the personal narrative the personal narrative with a graphic organizer in class, but absent students may use the prewriting activities on page 172 of the textbook. Students then began their rough drafts.

HW: Work on the rough draft. Students should be more than half-finished with their initial draft by tomorrow.

Thursday: Period 1

Students had the opportunity to finish their rough drafts at the start of the period. We spent some time going over the revision strategies on page 173, and then students had some time to work on revision and begin typing.

Revised first drafts are due tomorrow. These may be handwritten, but should show evidence of revision on the draft itself.

Period 5

Today we started the period by finishing and handing in the assessment on pages 176-180 we began yesterday. We spent the rest of the period working on some personal narrative prewriting including looking at the sample personal narrative on page 169, and finished with the prewriting activities on page 171 of the textbook.

HW: Students should be finished with the prewriting activities on page 171 by class time tomorrow.

Period 1

Today we continued the personal narrative the personal narrative with a graphic organizer in class, but absent students may use the prewriting activities on page 172 of the textbook. Students then began their rough drafts.

HW: Work on the rough draft. Students should be more than half-finished with their initial draft by tomorrow.

Period 5

Today we spent the period on the unit assessment on pages 176 to 180 of the textbook. Students may finish the assessment for homework if necessary, but should not use any outside resources to do so.
I also checked planners and binders (absent students will have to show me these on their own time).

Period 1

Today we started the period by finishing and handing in the assessment on pages 176-180 we began yesterday. I also checked planners and binders (absent students will have to show me these on their own time). We spent the rest of the period working on some personal narrative prewriting including looking at the sample personal narrative on page 169, and finished with the prewriting activities on page 171 of the textbook.

HW: Students should be finished with the prewriting activities on page 171 by class time tomorrow.

Assessments and 4-Year- Plans

Today in period one, we began with a short personal narrative warm up, and then spent the rest of the day on the unit assessment starting on page 176 of the textbook. Students may finish the assessment for homework if necessary, but should not use any outside resources to do so.

In period 5, we spent the whole day creating 4-year-plans in the computer lab. Students who were absent or who did not finish will need to log in to Navigator and finish by this Friday.

Remember: Binder and Planner Check Tomorrow!

The End of Unit 1 and Planners!

Today we began by reviewing some poetic terms--rhyme, rhythm, repetition and alliteration--and then went over the homework questions about Richard Wright's "The Rights to the Streets of Memphis." We wrapped up the period with a look at the poem "Incident in a Rose Garden" on page 147 of the textbook.

Students also received a school-provided planner today (if they didn't already have a planner). Students are expected to have their planner in class everyday so they can use it to record assignments and due dates. There will be another binder/planner check on Tuesday, 9/28.

More Verbs and More "Memphis"

We continued our verb review today with page 11 in the grammar book. After that, we spend the rest of the day finishing up Wright's "The Rights to the Streets of Memphis" and questions 1-8 on page 117.

HW: Finish the questions if necessary. Due 9/24.

Verbs & Autobiography

We started our review of verbs in the warm up today (page 10) and then began reading Richard Wright's "The Rights to the Streets of Memphis" on page 112 of the textbook. Most students finished the story, and we'll spend some time on the questions tomorrow.

Pronouns & the "MDG" Questions

We started the day with a final review of pronouns on page 7 of the grammar book. Most of the rest of the period was spent discussing the questions and the story in general. At the end of the period, I collected the questions and the time travel essay revisions from yesterday.

Words, words...

Mr. Raymer began the period with a warm-up focused on students' favorite words. Meanwhile I checked the homework questions and returned papers. After the warm-up, we went over question 10 from the homework, which appeared to have caused some confusion. Students spent the rest of the period revising their Time Travel Essays based on the following directions:

Revise Your Time Travel Essay, Due 9/21

• Make at least 10 changes.
• Highlight changes or make them on an attached paper.

Basic Changes: Must ALL be corrected.

• Spelling and Capitalization
• Run on Sentences & Fragments
• Have 3 to 4 Paragraphs
• Include Examples from BOTH texts.

Intermediate Changes:

• Avoid you and most I statements.
• Have clear topic sentences with transitional phrases.
• Multiple examples per paragraph.

Advanced Changes:

• Expand Introduction and Conclusion.
• Develop paragraphs by adding discussion/ analysis.
• Add quotations smoothly.
• Consider individual words, especially verbs.

Oh, and if you didn’t do it, DO IT! And then revise it.

Finishing MDG

Today we finished "The Most Dangerous Game" in class and students had a good half hour to work on the questions on page 75 in the text. Students were reminded to write in complete sentences and paragraphs citing specific examples and quoting where appropriate. If you quote, don't forget to cite the page #.

HW Finish questions if necessary. Remember that the text is online as well.

Picture Day!

Today we did page 6 in the grammar book and read some more of "The Most Dangerous Game." A large chunk of the period was spent getting school pictures taken.

More MDG

Today we worked through page 5 of the grammar book and continued our reading of "The Most Dangerous Game" (through page 66). Remember, the book is online (see the directions to the right), so you can keep up even if you are not in class.

Pronouns and MDG

Today we did page 4 of the grammar workbook, talked about the school discipline policy in period 1, reviewed the standard plot arc, and started "The Most Dangerous Game."

Vocab & Time Travel

We began today with a new set of vocabulary words (from page 53 in the textbook), and then spent some time going over the homework before I collected it.

More Thunder

We began the day with page 3 of the grammar book, then talked a bit about school pictures and my homework grading policy, and wrapped up with a discussion of the homework questions.

School pictures are Thursday, September 16th.

Finishing "A Sound of Thunder"

After briefly completing page 2 of the grammar book today, we finished "A Sound of Thunder" in class and started the questions following the story on page 48.

HW Finish the questions (will be discussed and collected in class), Due 9/9

Grammar and Foreshadowing

Today we started with a review of nouns and a graded binder check. After reviewing foreshadowing and some new vocabulary words (page 33 in the textbook), we began the short story, "A Sound of Thunder."

Finally the Course Description

Today we spend part of the day on the course description, discussing the framework for the class and my expectations. I also collected the introductory business letter assignment (w/ rough draft). We wrapped up the period with a quickwrite about time travel in preparation for our first story out of the textbook.

HW By Tuesday, students should have a binder with three, labeled sections, and plenty of paper.

New Books & Letter Drafts

Today we got new textbooks, I collected more signed course descriptions, and we reviewed the final draft letter format.

Final draft type letters with attached rough drafts are due tomorrow.

Socrates and Letter Time

Today we began by writing about a quotation by Socrates in the warm-up and then discussing it a bit. After collecting some course descriptions, we spent the rest of the period working on rough drafts of the introductory letter.

HW Students should have completed letter rough drafts in class tomorrow.