"The Tell-Tale Heart" III

Finished reading the story and worked on the following questions in groups:

♥Is the narrator of the story insane, or is he just evil?

♥How do you explain the power that the old man’s eye and heartbeat had over the narrator?

♥Why did the narrator continue to hear the old man’s heartbeat after he was dead?

HW:

Study Spelling/vocab

"The Tell-Tale Heart" III

Finished reading the story and worked on the following questions in groups:

♥Is the narrator of the story insane, or is he just evil?

♥How do you explain the power that the old man’s eye and heartbeat had over the narrator?

♥Why did the narrator continue to hear the old man’s heartbeat after he was dead?

HW:

Study Spelling/vocab

The Tell-Tale Heart II

Students copied this week's spelling/vocab list (see 10/27 post), final copies of "Sleepy Hollow" assignment were collected.

Continued "The Tell-Tale Heart" (for full text of the story click HERE ) up until the murder of the old man.

Story endings were predicted in journals to end the period.

HW:

Vocab definitions in notebooks.

Spelling/Vocab Quiz - "The Tell-Tale Heart" I

1) Took spelling/vocab quiz

2) Reminder given about expected quality of "Sleepy Hollow" assignment due Monday. As it is a final copy, all effort should be made to make it as well written as possible. Remember, 10 words from the vocabulary project must be used correctly and underlined or highlighted. This will count for 50% of the grade.

3) Discussed Edgar Allen Poe briefly. Read first paragraph "The Tell-Tale Heart".

Bonus Points Opportunity! Do Monday's vocab definitions over the weekend for 20 bonus points! Here's next week's list:

mirror

occasionally

dilemma

necessity

disapprove

accumulate

questionnaire

guarantee

syllable

official

"The New Colossus"

Periods 1&2:

OM: What is the difference between prose and poetry?

Examined the poem by Emma Lazarus after sharing answers to the above question. Worked on multiple choice questions.

Period 3:

Went over the directions for the "Sleepy Hollow" assignment. Students were given time to edit drafts and begin final copies.

HW:

"Sleepy Hollow" assignment due Monday.
Spelling/vocab test tomorrow.

Benchmark Wrap-up

OM: Use as many of this week's spelling/vocab words to describe a fictional event that happened at a Teen Town.

Benchmark scantrons and booklets were handed back. We went over the answers, concentrating on the more problematic questions. Strategies for working such questions were discussed. Of particular note was the difficulty caused by vocabulary. Students were told to pay close attention to the key words in questions, and use context to determine meaning. Students were also strongly counseled not to change answers unless completely certain a mistake has been made.

HW:

-Study spelling/vocab
-First draft of "Sleepy Hollow" news story due tomorrow.

Look ahead: We'll begin Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" shortly.

Sleepy Hollow V

(Note: I was absent yesterday.)

Finished "Sleepy Hollow." Students were given the following assignment:

Write a newspsper article on the events in the story. You are a journalist investigating what happened to Ichabod Crane. First paragraph should be a brief summary. Body of the story should contain interviews with some of the characters in the story. The story should conclude with what really happened to Ichabod, support by evidence (thesis-proof).

Story must contain 10 vocabulary words from the list worked on last week. Appropriate use of the words will determine 50% of the final grade.

First draft due Thursday (minor grade for visible effort).

Final copy due Monday. Bonus points awarded for creativity and appearance.

HW: Work on story project. Study spelling/vocab

Sleepy Hollow IV

OM: What do we know of the story so far? (who, what, when, where)

Continued the story. All classes completed up through the party at van Tassel's. Period 2 is with Ichabod and the Horseman by the bridge.

Extra Credit Opportunity!

Next weeks spelling/vocabulary is:


1. negative

2. opposite

3. reflection

4. rotation

5. translation

6. infinity

7. certain

8. coordinate

9. match

10. positive

Show me definitions in notebook on Monday morning for 20, minor grade, bonus points!

Invitation to Excel

Students were told they have the option for a major grade by reading a novel (one per marking period), keeping a reading log (date, pages read, summary) and completing a book project (essay, comic strip, poster, etc.) Books must be a minimum 100 pages and approved by me.

Sleepy Hollow III

Students wrote for a few minutes on reactions to yesterday's exam: how they think they did, their emotional response to the situation, how well or not the strategies worked, etc. We then talked a bit about general results. Students will receive their individual marks early next week.

Continued reading "Sleepy Hollow" through the description of Ichabod's contest over Katrina with Brom.

Benchmark the Second

All students took the second benchmark exam in preperation for the state assessment in Januarly. There will be one more benchmark before that test.

Students went to period one as usual, where we went over a passage completed last week.. We reviewed the procedures for taking the benchmark test.

The test was given period two. This time, there was a strict 45 minute time limit, except for those students allowed time extensions.

Overall, the students took the situation very seriously, were focused and worked hard. The results indicate some overall improvement in scores over the first benchmark exam. Given that the first test wasn't timed, I am very encouraged by the outcome.

There was no period three today.

Students are reminded to complete the vocabulary activity by Friday.

Sleepy Hollow II

OM: What is the procedure for attacking a passage with multiple choice questions?

The procedure was reviewed.

We began reading "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and finished up to the description of Katrina van Tassell. (Again, the text may be seen HERE. The version in our book is abridged.) A lot of time was spent discussing the vocabulary, which can be difficult, imagery and tone of the story.

Students should be working on their vocabulary assignment.

Sleepy Hollow I / Book Fair

Students copied down the definition of legend: a nonhistorical or unverifiable (not provable) story handed down by tradition from earlier times and popularly accepted as historical.

Examples of legends were listed such as King Arthur, Johnny Appleseed, etc.

"Word, words, words" assignment was distributed. Students were assigned 5 of 25 "Sleepy Hollow" vocabulary words to find synonyms for. They may obtain the synonyms for the rest of the words from classmates or do all 25 on their own, but all 25 words and their synonyms must be listed in the spelling/vocabulary section of their notebook by Friday. They should use the synonyms to determine the meaning of the word. If they still don't understand the word they should then use the dictionary. (Note: Dictionary.com, linked in the sidebar, contains a fine thesaurus function. The thesaurus in MSWord can also be used.)

We begin "Sleepy Hollow" tomorrow and plan to finish by Friday. At that time, they will have to write a news article about the story using at least 10 of the words from the above assignment.

Classes spent 15 minutes in the library browsing the Scholastic book fair.

Notes: The second benchmark exam will be given Wednesday. Open house is Thursday evening.

Power Logic II

OM: What is power logic? (review)

We went over last nights homework, identifying proofs for the passage questions, then selecting answers. Reasoning between question, proof and answer was demonstrated for each question.

Review:

Students were strongly encouraged to stick to a procedure for attacking passages and multiple choice questions:

1) read the directions
2) examine extra information (maps, charts, pictures and captions)
3) Read each paragraph
* underline topic sentence (Is this what the whole paragrpah is about?)
* write a short chapter title (3-5 words with a verb)
4)Read questions (idenitfy key words).
5)Find proofs, highlight and number
6)Select answer. Check reasoning between question, proof and answer.

Next passage distributed for independent completion.

HW:

Study for spelling/vocab test.
Finish passage begun in class.

Notes:

1)Students were informed I will be at a conference elsewhere in the building tomorrow. The substitute will administer the spelling test, collect the homework and distribute another passage to be completed. One of the passages done will be graded.

2)There will be no spelling next week due to a rather involved assignment to be given on Monday which will parallel "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", which we will be reading in class next week. (You will find the text of the story HERE, although the version read in class will be shorter than the original text.)

3) The second benchmark exam will be given on Wednesday, 10/18.

4) Open house wil be Thursday evening, 10/19.

Power Logic / Chapter Titles

OM: How do you write a good chapter title? (Chapter title: 3 to 5 words containing a verb which states the main idea of a paragraph.)

Today "Power Logic" was introduced and defined as the process of effectively answering a multiple choice question. Power Logic has three parts:

A- the Answer choices
P- the Proof for the answer
L- the reasoning used to Link the proof to the answer.

The following demonstrates poor linking between answer and proof:

correct proof / wrong answer
wrong proof / wrong answer
wrong proof / right answer

In order to achieve correct proof /correct answer, engaged, mindful reasoning has to occur.

A passage titled "Young Riders", about the Pony Express was distributed. Students were instructed to read the first paragraph and underline the topic sentence. From the topic sentence, a chapter title for the paragraph was constructed.

Note: After selecting a topic sentence, one should ask, "Is this what the whole paragraph is about?" The answer should, of course, be yes. If the answer is no, another selection should be made.

Examples of good chapter titles for this paragrpah were generated.

Students completed reading the passage, underlining topic sentences and writing chapter titles. We went over the results when done.

Homework:

Read the questions to the passage. Ignore the choices! Highlight or underline and number proofs to the answers in the passage.

Study spelling/vocab

Spelling-Vocab List #3 / Writing Rubric II

OM: How do you answer a multiple choice question?

1) Students copied spelling-vocab list. (See Friday's entry below for list.)

2)Continued writing rubric activity. Groups reported back on words found to be difficult. Lists were generated and synonyms found to replace the words.

HW:

1) Reading, as usual
2) vocab definitions in notebook

Spelling Quiz / Writing Rubric

Students were reminded of the effective way to study spelling:
-seperate words into smaller parts
-write each part in a different color
-repetitively spell the words, out loud, while tapping out the rhythm

Students took spelling test #2

With remaining time, we examined the scoring rubric for unfamiliar words.

Look ahead: For those who wish to get a start on next weeks spelling, here's the list.

1. character

2. choir

3. chemical

4. chaos

5. chlorine

6. charity

7. channel

8. chimney

9. chipmunk

10. Chinese

Portfolios/ Return Work

OM: What is the most difficult part of listening activities? Why do you think it is difficult?

The end of The Dinner Party was read to the class. We discussed how the end was projected earlier in the story.

Folders for portfolios were passed out. Three majory assignments were handed back: Letter to Mr. Lambert from the first week of school, benchmark multiple choice, benchmark essay (from listening portion of the test). Table of contents was set up for the portfolio.

Criteria for grading the essay was discussed, as was passing criteria for the multiple choice part of the test.

Students were reminded that they have to come to me for work missed due to absence.

HW:

Study spelling and definitions for test. As usual, students should be reading for 15 minutes every night.

Projecting Story Endings

Note: Five Week Grades will be closing tomorrow. There have been a lot of absences so far this year. Students must be responsible for making sure they keep up with assignments. Students must see me to determine if any work is owed..

Students completed another listening activity. They were read most of The Dinner Party by Mona Gardner. They had to project three different ways the story could end. Then they chose one ending and explained how this ending connected to events in the story.

Finish for homework if not done.

Study spelling and definitions.

Thesis/Proof and Listening Activity

Students copied notes on how to answer thesis/proof questions:

Thesis-Proof

Thesis: A statement that is proven by argument.

Example of a thesis statement:

The theme of “Thank You, M’am” is hope.

The rest of the paragraph proves the statement by using details from the story.

Example:

The theme is hope because in the story Mrs. Jones takes him home, feeds him and tells him she also did things she was ashamed of. Doing this showed she had hope for the boy.

Students then listened to a passage, "How I Came to the Museum." They took notes as usual, and were given two constructed response questions.

HW:

-Study spelling and definitions
-Finish constructed response questions.

Spelling List #2 / Dear Author

Note: I was not in class today. Classes did the following:

I. Copy spelling list:

capitalism
immigrant
industry
investment
dividend
corporation
stockholder
natural resources
diversity
revolution

II. Dear Author

This activity asks the student to write a letter to the author of a story, in this case Langston Hughes telling him/her:

-parts of the story especially you liked and why
-parts you have questions about
-parts thought to need revision and why you a new version would work better.

HW:

-Spelling definitions
-Finish Dear Author