Friday, November 29, 2013

Letter about Theme -- A Great Student Example

Notice how he meets all of the requirements for the letter:

American Fork Junior High School     [He used correct letter format.]
Room 223
Period B4
Nov. 25, 2013

Dear Ms. Dorsey,

        I just finished reading The House of Hades by Rick Riordan. The biggest theme is the book is: 'It is admirable to risk your life for something worth saving."     [He included the title of the book -- italicized -- and the name of the author.]

 [He provided specific evidence from the book of how this theme is shown in the story.]
         In the House of Hades the seven demigods from the prophecy of the seven are on a quest to save the world from Gaea and the giants. The demigods risk their lives the save Camp Jupiter, Camp Half blood, and the world. 

         As an example, while Nico and Hazel are sick and about to die from poisoning, Frank saves them, single-handed, from a pack of strange poison cow monsters. He could have died while fighting the cow monsters, but he fought to save his friends. 

        Another example would be When Bob the Titan saved Percy and Annebeth from the vampires. Percy and Annebeth were in Tartarus, and Bob wasn't until he came to save them. He could have died from going into Tartarus, but also risked his life to save them.

        My last example is when Leo, Hazel, Annebeth, and The goddess of Magic fight the giant of non magic. Fighting him was very dangerous and they all could have died, but they risked death and they all saved the world.

 [He told how the theme could apply to his own life.]
        I haven't ever risked my life to save anyone or anything, but in the future I could serve in the Armed Forces, or  be a police man, or a firefighter. I have learned from this book that if you risk your life to save something worth saving it is admirable to others.

[He used correct letter format.]
                Sincerely,

                Easton A. (Last name removed for Internet use)

[He also edited carefully -- mostly!]

November Book Assessment

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Thank you!


“Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't.” 
― Bill Nye

Thank you to my students for teaching me so much!

Skyward Outage

I am continuing to grade student work, but with the Skyward outage, do not know when I will be able to update grades.  Like you, I will be busy with family activities over Thanksgiving, so will try to find a time when my schedule and Skyward availability mesh!

Monday, November 25, 2013

November Book Assessment



If you did not turn in your yellow packet on the day it was due, let me know when you have finished your letter. Turn in your packet. You could also email me before you turn in your packet but after you have finished your letter, and I'll try to grade your letter sooner.
Turning in the packet is how you let me know you are ready for your assessment on MyAccess to be graded. 
Don't forget to mark whether you have finished reading your book. 
Here is another example:  

Letter about Theme -- A Great Student Example

If you are ready to move on to the next project, use the pink packet you received on Monday or see the Required Reading tab above. 

Friday, November 22, 2013

Monday, November 25, 2013


Announcements and Reminders:
Have a Beautiful Thanksgiving!

1. If your "Effects of TV" essay is not up to a 3.2 score, get it there or higher as soon as possible. Make sure you have followed the essay outline given to you, and have followed all other directions.

2. If you are ready to go on to the December Book of the Month, remember that you are reading the genre you did not read in November -- either fantasy or science fiction.  Bring it to class each time.  

The assessment for the month will be preparing an entry for the Letters on Literature contest. Your letter does not need to be about the book you are reading in class.  It should be about a book that is especially meaningful to you.  See the tab above for Required Reading to find more information on your December assignment.  
 It will be due by January 7.  
  • It is not a summary.  The author already knows the story.
  • Correspond, don’t compliment! Your letter should inform rather than flatter the author. All FAN letters will be eliminated!
  • See the tab above for Required Reading for downloads and more information. 



Today's Class Activities:

1.  Individual Reading Time (and preparing for the book assessment) -- Introduction of December Book Assessment.

2. Today is the day for the November Book Assessment.
We will be in computer lab 223.
Receive this rubric:  November BoM Grading.doc
Log into My Access and find the prompt "Theme in a Novel Assessment."

Here are the handouts in case you have lost yours:

On MyAccess, find the prompt directions and sample letter under "Prompt," selecting "Instructional Resources" from the drop-down menu.  
   Don't forget to "submit writing" and "final submit."
When are you finished, hand in your yellow packet with charts and the half sheet.  Do not forget to mark how much of the book you have read. 

If you did not turn in your yellow packet today, let me know when you have finished your letter.  Turn in your packet.  You could also email me before you turn in your packet but after you have finished your letter, and I'll try to grade your letter sooner.  

Here is another example:  

Letter about Theme -- A Great Student Example


If you have extra time, work on your "The Effects of TV" essay. 




If you were absent:
Go to myaccess.com.  Log in using the directions on the tab above.
Type your letter.
Hand in this rubric showing how much of the book you have read:
November BoM Grading.doc
     Don't forget to do file submit and final submit.

On MyAccess, find the prompt directions and sample letter under "Prompt," selecting "Instructional Resources" from the drop-down menu.

If you need to make-up spelling, here is the document (or pick up the pink slips in the handout box): 
Commonly Confused Word Make-Up(4).doc



Thursday, November 21, 2013

Parent-Teacher Conference -- November 2013


If you were not able to come to our Parent-Teacher Conference, you may want to look at this document with helps for using our online resources including class blogs, Edmodo, and My Access.


Other Hints for Parents:

  • Check Skyward together -- parent and student -- at least once a week.
  • If needed, set a day once a week to work together on organizing the backpack and/or binder. 
  • Encourage your student to read -- both for the book-of-the-month assignment, and just for fun.  Reading is the best thing a student can do to improve both reading and writing skills. 

How was Parent-Teacher Conference for you last night? 

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Thursday, November 21, 2013




Announcements and Reminders:  

Parent-Teacher Conferences will be held today, Thursday, November 21.

You have four (4) days until your Book-of-the-Month  
assessment on November 25.   Read your book and collect themes and evidence for those themes!
You are welcome to hand this in early as a hard copy. 

You may now complete this assignment on MyAccess. The prompt is titled Theme in a Novel Assessment.


*******************
The Effects of TV Essay on MYAccess 
If you have below a 3.2 on your essay so far, work on it from home or during CaveTime to get it up to at least that before we go to the lab again as a class.  Full points will be 4.5.

When you work on your MYAccess essays, make sure you carefully read any teacher comments -- both those that come up when you log in, and the ones that are embedded on your essays.  I won't get around to all of the essays, but check to see if yours is one I have looked at.
Remember to organize your essay like this:
  1. Begin by telling your central idea and the three or four main pieces of evidence that you are using to prove it. 
  2. Each body paragraph should focus on one of those pieces of evidence, and add support (examples, statistics, explanation, anecdotes, etc.)
  3. The concluding paragraph will restate the central idea and your three supporting ideas for it. 
______________________
As you work, don't forget to make certain that you have correctly spelled  our Essential, Non-Negotiable Spelling words.
 Essential, Non-Negotiable Spelling – Set 1

Essential, Non-Negotiable Spelling – Set 2

If you need to complete a make-up assignment for spelling, pick up one of the make-up forms, or write on your own paper, writing five complete correct sentences, correctly using and spelling the work you had misspelled.
___________________________________
Book orders for Scholastic Reading Clubs are due by this Friday. See this link for more information.

Book Orders

Books make great gifts.  If you order now, you will have your book before Christmas. 


1. Individual Reading and collecting themes and evidence for those themes. 


___________________________________________________________________

2.  With a partner (appointment clock) --
Find a theme that "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and "The Dinner Party" have in common.
How does the setting suggest the theme? 
How do the characters suggest the theme? 
What else in the stories suggests the theme? 

A theme that "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and "The Dinner Party" have in common




____________________________________________________________________

Today:  More Practice with Themes
3.   (Last time or this time, depending on your class) Writing:  Select one of these ideas to respond to.  Label it 

with today's date and "Friendship and Right or Wrong?"


In your composition book, write for five minutes, writing at least 

a half-page. 

            a.  Friendship is more important than choosing right 


over wrong. 
     
(or)  b.  Choosing right over wrong is more important than 
friendship.

or         You should tell on a friend if he or she does something  wrong.
    
 (or) You should not tell on a friend if he or she does something wrong. 




Last time: B5 did the writing -- Today: Listen to the Story and fill out the worksheet. 
B6 did the writing and listened to the story. Today:  Fill out the worksheet. 
B7 discussed the continuums and. . . 
B8 discussed the continuums and . . . .

 

3.  Read and discuss "After Twenty Years" on page 192  in our 

Literature textbook.  Fill out the worksheet as partners. 


B5 and B6 watched the cartoon. 
B7 needs the worksheets. They already read and discussed. 
       Common theme?  
B8 listened to the story.  




Themes for After Twenty Years


Jimmy is described as staunch, true, a plodder.  He is a policeman, probably not wealthy, but fairly comfortable. 
Bob wears a diamond scarf pin, diamonds on his watch, is among the men top of his "professional," and is a wanted criminal. 
Both men started out in the same neighborhood. 
What themes do the differences between Jimmy and Bob suggest? 

___________________________________________________________________


With a partner (appointment clock) --
Find a theme that "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and "The Dinner Party" have in common.
How does the setting suggest the theme? 
How do the characters suggest the theme? 
What else in the stories suggests the theme? 


A theme that "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and "The Dinner Party" have in common


B7 did this, but needs to look at real themes for these stories. See the link above.
_______________________________________________________________

More Themes:
What theme(s) do "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse" and "After Twenty Years" have in common?  

The Country Mouse and the City Mouse
video: 

The story:
http://www.taleswithmorals.com/aesop-fable-the-town-mouse-and-the-country-mouse.htm

"Better a peaceful life in poverty than a turbulent life in luxury."
for "After Twenty Years":  It is better to live with honesty and poverty than with dishonestly and wealth."



 If you were absent: 
Continue to read your science fiction or fantasy book if you have not completed it, and collect themes and evidence for those themes on the chart.  If you need more room, you can print the chart:  Book of the Month Theme Chart.doc
Here are the other handouts in case you have lost yours or left them at school:


If you haven't yet, complete this outline for your essay on The Effects of TV:   Essay Outline for Effects of TV.doc   If your essay does not follow the outline, go to MyAccess and revise it to follow the outline.  You can have more than three reasons, but make sure you support each with a body paragraph.



Writing: If you haven't already done this,  select one of these ideas to respond to.  Label it with today's date and "Friendship and Right or Wrong?"
In your composition book, write for five minutes and writing at least a half-page. 
      a.  Friendship is more important than choosing right over wrong. 
      (or) b.  Choosing right over wrong is more important than friendship.

or  You should tell on a friend if he or she does something wrong.
     (or) You should not tell on a friend if he or she does something wrong. 

Read "After Twenty Years" online at  http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/636/
Fill out the literary elements worksheet for it:  Literary Elements Worksheet.doc

See other theme activities above that we may have done today.



For More Help on Theme:

Themes from The Outsiders

Hungry Games

A Sesame Street Take on Hunger Games: Catching Fur
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT7nD02Im5E&feature=share

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Themes in Deltora Quest: Forests of Silence

Themes in Deltora Quest: Forests of Silence by Emily Rodda

Help often comes from unlikely places.
We often misjudge a man when we do not look beyond his appearance.

Greed destroys, and it most destroys the greedy one.

We shall win only by working together.
Gnassingbe Eyadema 
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/working_together.html#e1YEe4XsghZaGpel.99





Adjectives: Equal (Coordinate) or Not?


And standing in the middle of the opening was a hulking, terrifying figure.
Deltora Quest: Forests of Silence by Emily Rodda, p. 113

Lief and Barda froze as the hollow, echoing voice rang out.
Deltora Quest: Forests of Silence by Emily Rodda, p. 113

Overjoyed, Lief saw that ideed the wound was repairing itself.  Already, it was just a raw, red scar.  And as he watched the scar itself began to fade, till it was nothing but a thin white line.
Deltora Quest: Forests of Silence by Emily Rodda, p. 125

. . . the last few golden drops dripped into it.
Deltora Quest: Forests of Silence by Emily Rodda, p. 126

How can I tell whether to add the comma?

  • Can you reverse the order of the adjectives -- and it still sounds right?
  • Can you replace the comma with "and" -- and it still sounds right? 



Have you learned the Gettysburg Address?

Earn Extra Credit by Reciting it to Ms. Dorsey.  Print and bring this copy:  
Gettysburg Address Numbered.doc
-- Up to 15 points of extra credit
Here is the full text:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
-- Abraham Lincoln
Nov. 19, 1863

Here is a class from Forbes Elementary reciting it:  http://www.learntheaddress.org/videos/state/?page=14#Qua2YBnyPfs

from http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/abraham-lincolns-gettysburg-address-150th-anniversary-full-text/story?id=20928973

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/11/19/246109496/listen-for-its-150th-a-reading-of-the-gettysburg-address

http://www.npr.org/2013/11/19/246095479/gettysburg-address-turns-150

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gettysburg-address/exhibition-items.html

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/calendar-activities/abraham-lincoln-delivered-gettysburg-20347.html

Monday, November 18, 2013

Saturday, November 16, 2013

November 19, 2013




Announcements and Reminders:  
Grade letter reports go out to parents today, November 19.
Parent-Teacher Conferences will be held on Thursday, November 21.
You have six  (6) days until your Book-of-the-Month 

assessment on November 25.   Read your book and collect 

themes and evidence for those themes!


*******************
The Effects of TV Essay on MYAccess 
If you have below a 3.2 on your essay so far, work on it from home or during CaveTime to get it up to at least that before we go to the lab again as a class.  Full points will be 4.5.

When you work on your MYAccess essays, make sure you carefully read any teacher comments -- both those that come up when you log in, and the ones that are embedded on your essays.  I won't get around to all of the essays, but check to see if yours is one I have looked at.
Remember to organize your essay like this:
  1. Begin by telling your central idea and the three or four main pieces of evidence that you are using to prove it. 
  2. Each body paragraph should focus on one of those pieces of evidence, and add support (examples, statistics, explanation, anecdotes, etc.)
  3. The concluding paragraph will restate the central idea and your three supporting ideas for it. 
______________________
As you work, don't forget to make certain that you have correctly spelled  our Essential, Non-Negotiable Spelling words.
 Essential, Non-Negotiable Spelling – Set 1

Essential, Non-Negotiable Spelling – Set 2

If you need to complete a make-up assignment for spelling, pick up one of the make-up forms, or write on your own paper, writing five complete correct sentences, correctly using and spelling the work you had misspelled.
___________________________________
Book orders for Scholastic Reading Clubs are due by this Friday. See this link for more information.

Book Orders

Books make great gifts.  If you order now, you will have your book before Christmas. 



1. Individual Reading and collecting themes and evidence for those themes.

2.  Outlining your essay about the effects of television. Essay Outline for Effects of TV.doc

3. Finish looking at literary elements in "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi."
     Complete partner work on characters.   Ranking Characters in Rikki.doc
        How do these ideas about the characters suggest themes?



“Common sense ain't common.”   Will Rogers

“Common sense is seeing things as they are; and doing things 
as they ought to be.” 

― Harriet Beecher Stowe



Evidence of theme? 

Some possible themes for "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" include these:

Courage and skill can defeat the forces of evil.

When lost or abandoned, one can still find a place to be fostered and loved.

One can find love and acceptance in a new and different society.

Kindness to the weak and needy often pays off in the end. 

Hints to other themes:
What is the author saying about bravery?
What is the author saying about common sense? 
What is the author saying about the differences between males and females? 

We only learn confidence and competence by facing hard things. 

It takes going out on your own to become the best you can be.




B5 did not yet do this.
B6 needs to finish.
B7 needs to finish.
B8  did not yet do this. They need to fill out their worksheets and look at the poem  (D, below) also.
 
_________________________________________________________ 

4.   
Writing:  Select one of these ideas to respond to.  Label it 


with today's date and "Friendship and Right or Wrong?"

In your composition book, write for five minutes, writing at least 
a half-page. 

            a.  Friendship is more important than choosing right 

over wrong. 
     
(or)  b.  Choosing right over wrong is more important than 

friendship.

or         You should tell on a friend if he or she does something 

wrong.
    
 (or) You should not tell on a friend if he or she does something 

wrong. 


B5 did the writing
B6 did the writing and listened to the story.
B7 discussed the continuums
B8  

 

5. Read and discuss "After Twenty Years" on page 192  in our 

Literature textbook.


Themes for After Twenty Years



 If you were absent: 
Continue to read your science fiction or fantasy book if you have not completed it, and collect themes and evidence for those themes on the chart.  If you need more room, you can print the chart:  Book of the Month Theme Chart.doc
Here are the other handouts in case you have lost yours or left them at school:


Complete this outline for your essay on The Effects of TV:   Essay Outline for Effects of TV.doc   If your essay does not follow the outline, go to MyAccess and revise it to follow the outline.  You can have more than three reasons, but make sure you support each with a body paragraph.



Writing:  Select one of these ideas to respond to.  Label it with today's date and "Friendship and Right or Wrong?"
In your composition book, write for five minutes and writing at least a half-page. 
      a.  Friendship is more important than choosing right over wrong. 
      (or) b.  Choosing right over wrong is more important than friendship.

or  You should tell on a friend if he or she does something wrong.
     (or) You should not tell on a friend if he or she does something wrong. 

Read "After Twenty Years" online at  http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/636/
Fill out the literary elements worksheet for it:  Literary Elements Worksheet.doc




Note to teacher:  We need a lesson on logical fallacies.