Recapping Spare Change

Today we reviewed the notes we took yesterday on the Spare Change presentation. We then summarized the notes and wrote a correct works cited entry for the presentation.

Spare Change

Special guests Spare Change presented on topics related to the novel Speak today. Students took notes on the presentation. This is the first part of the research for the formal papers we will be working on for the next two weeks.

Meet the FANBOYS...

Today we reviewed the coordinating conjunctions (fanboys) and used them in a little sentence combining activity. We then continued to refine our research questions, first in groups and then as a whole class.

The Research Paper Begins

We began the day by adding the terms simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentence to our grammar notes. After a sentence identification warm-up, we moved on to some general discussion of plagiarism and the research paper. We brainstormed possible topics from the book Speak, and students chose one they might like to write about.

HW Respond to the following regarding the topic you have chosen:

1. Why does this topic interest you?
2. Come up with three to five questions about the topic that you could answer in a research paper.

Welcome to the New Semester

We began the day with new seats, then discussed the clean slate aspect of the new semester, and wrapped up the day with a reflection/revision activity on the essay from the final exam.

HW Finish the revised essay paragraph that we we started in class.

Revision Time

Today, after a short phrase/clause warm-up, we revisited the poetry unit final exam and, using our CAHSEE essay norming work as a guide, revised the essay portion. MOst students finished these rewrites in class, but some took them home for HW.

HW Finish Speak w/ notes

Norming Fun

Today we completed the Exit Exam essay norming activity, discussing the scores on the sample essays that we read last Friday. We apply this knowledge to revision of the poetry final essays tomorrow.

We also discussed and turned in the theme and symbol work from yesterday.

HW: Reading #8 with notes.