March 18/19, 2009

March 18/19, 2009

Announcements:
1. Mr. Christensen will have all personal narratives back to students by the end of the first class period on the 18th. All revisions of these handed back papers have to be back to him on Friday, March 20th at the absolute latest.
a. If you did not hand it in by last Friday (the late deadline) you do not have the opportunity to revise.
2. Any work that was handed in after Thursday, March 12th has not yet been entered into the computer. It does take time to grade and enter scores. This is one of the reasons we have due dates and deadlines!


1. Students wrote in their composition books responses to the following questions:

What is was the most interesting/Fun thing that you did this term in English?

What one activity/thing would you cut if you had been teaching this term?

If you could give Mr. Christensen (or Ms. Dorsey) one piece of advice as a teacher, what would it be?

2. Students retook the SRI -- Scholastic Reading Inventory -- in the computer lab. Students whose scores show the need will be placed in a reading skills class in eighth grade as one of their electives. Do your best to show what you really know.

3. Students did a WebQuest to learn more about Ernest Shackleton and his expedition, and to show that they can use external and internal text structures to find information. If you are absent, see an adjoining post for the sites and questions from the WebQuest. You may do this at home and return your work.


-3rd Term -- What we did --
Read excerpts from "Survive the Savage Sea"
Non-fiction reading logs
book of the month reading
book of the month assessment
computer lab to learn about finding and citing sources
media center to find books
reading Words by Heart
watching Words by Heart video
Words by Heart hotseat
Forgiveness essay
Revising Forgiveness essay
Sharing Forgiveness essay
Learning how to cite sources
Leaning about Jim Crow laws
Making lie-lay poster
Learning about lie-lay verbs
Calvin and Hobbes cartoons
Learning about capitalization and punctuation
Watching Grammar Rock
Punctuation Takes a Vacation book and activity
Reading Ice Story
Watching Ice Story video
Learning about internal structure and external text features

WebQuest Assignment

For this assignment, you will be asked to complete the WebQuest found below.

A WebQuest, just as the title suggests, is a quest through the World Wide Web. It is used to learn new things about a topic. In this WebQuest, you will be researching topics related to Shackleton and his misfortunate expedition of 1914-1916.

Just as with any other quest, there is a goal to this WebQuest: To complete the entire sheet by the time the end of class bell rings. If you complete the sheet by this time, you will receive 10 points on your third term grade. The first 3 individuals who finish the WebQuest in each class period, and have all answers correct, will receive a bonus of 5 points extra credit on their third term grade.

There is a map associated with this WebQuest: the URLs that are listed below will act as your map. It is up to you to determine how you will navigate the points on the map. Be sure to type in all of the URL correctly, or you will find yourself falling off into Nowhereland (i.e. you will get a page cannot be displayed error).

Good Luck, and don’t get stuck in the ice!

http://www.time.com/time/2003/adventures/water/index.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/1914/

http://www.south-pole.com/p0000097.htm

http://www.salariya.com/web_books/explorer/index.html


Questions:
1. Where was Shackleton born? ______________________
2. On what date did the efforts to free the ship end? ___________________
3. This Handy Hint will help you get supplies and animals off of the ship: ___________
4. Who was the first officer of the Endurance Crew? ________________________
5. How many Flashes did Hurley set up on the ice to take a picture of the Endurance at night?
6. What happened to Shackleton during the summer of 1900? _____________________
7. Describe Thomas Orde-Lees: ____________________________________________
8. How many miles was it from where Shackleton and his men were originally stuck in the ice to Elephant Island? ______________________________________
9. According to one Cartoon Shackleton, How fast are they going to “get there” when sledding down the mountain? _________________________________________________
10. What was the name of the camp that the men moved to after the ship sank? ________
11. What Celebration took place on June 22nd? ____________________________
12. After the toot of the morning whistle, how long did it take for Shackleton and the three men to make it to the whaling station? ____________________________________
13. On what date did the efforts to free the ship end? _________________________
14. How many men were left on Elephant Island? __________________________
15. What was the name of Shackleton’s first polar Expedition? _________________
16. How often did the crew clean “The Ritz?” ____________________________