April 14/15, 2010

April 14/15, 2010

A Reminder of the March-April Book-of-the-Month Assignment

Your Book-of-the-Month Club Project is due today!

Preparing for Core Testing.

Students took a brief practice test for the State Core Test

Practice for Core Test
B1 watched a PowerPoint about Main Idea.  If you were absent, see the PowerPoint and other materials at http://cavemanenglish.pbworks.com/Finding-the-Topic-and-Main-Idea 

All B-Day classes took notes on topic, main idea, and internal text structures (A-Day did this last time.)

Notes on Finding a Topic

Use these clues when looking for the topic of a passage :

illustrations, captions

titles, headings, subheadings

repeated words

synonyms

pronouns

Notes on Finding or Creating a Main Idea

Main Idea = topic + the idea the author is stating about the topic

Main Idea and Topic Sentence are synonyms.

We usually talk about the "Main Idea" when we are talking about nonfiction.

The "main idea" in fiction is called the theme.

The Main Idea must be a complete sentence.

The Main Idea will NOT be a question.  It must be a statement.

Most Common Places in a paragraph or passage to Find the Main Idea:

1.  Beginning/First Sentence

2.  End/ Last Sentence

3.  Middle

4.  Not there!  This is called Implied or Unstated  (Those two words are synonyms.)

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We learned about using the verbs lay and lie and reviewed subject-verb agreement.  

Subject-Verb Agreement

The verbs lay and lie:
verb              meaning     forms: 1. present, 2, present participle (with helping verb), 3. past, 4. past participle (with helping verb)
"lay" means "to place"   forms:   1. lay, 2, laying,  3. laid, 4. laid
"lie" means "to recline"  forms: 1. lie, 2. lying, 3. lay, 4. lain

Notes on Lie/Lay Confusions

Lay, laid, laid  = to place   -- Notice that this verb takes a direct object.  That means it is acting on an object.  In the following sentences the object is the book.

Present tense (happening right now):  I __________ the book on my desk. (lay)

Past tense (happened in the past): Yesterday I __________ the book on my desk.  (laid)

Past participle (has happened in the past and may still be happening):

       I have _________ that book on my desk every day for a week.  (laid)

Lie, lay, lain = to recline   -- Notice that this verb does not take a direct object.  It is not doing something to an object. 

Present tense:  I ___________ on the couch right now.   (lie)

Past tense: Yesterday I __________ on the couch.  (lay)

Past participle:  I have ___________ on the couch every day for a week.  (lain)

 

Using the Irregular Verbs Lie and Lay  -- See this post for more information.

 

Attention B4:

Finding the Topic and Main Idea in a Passage/Paragraph
If you were absent or would like to review, find downloads of materials used in class at
  http://cavemanenglish.pbworks.com/Finding-the-Topic-and-Main-Idea 

The download for B4 is here:

Work for B4 to do at home and hand in:  (Other classes may do these as practice.) 

You could download and print, complete the exercises and hand it in, or complete the exercises and then attach to an email to me.

August 27/28, 2008

Self-Starter: Can you read this? NE1410S It is a combination of letters and numbers that makes a complete sentence. Of course, we'd need to add capitalization, punctuation, and correct spelling if we were to write it out as a sentence!

1. Spelling Practice Test: Be ready for the real test next classtime. The test will cover correctly spelling, capitalizing, and punctuating the names of our administration, the seventh grade counselor, and your your own teachers.

2. We took the final portion of the Seventh Grade State Core Pretest today.

3. Students had time to read their books.

If you haven't turned in your disclosure document, book approval for the Book-of-the-Month club, or brought your composition book, do so as soon as possible. They will be late after the 29th.

August 25/26, 2008

August 25/26, 2008
*Find the extra credit opportunity for this week here on our blog.*

Self-Starter: Students wrote on the whiteboard teacher names as practice for the spelling test on Thursday/Friday.

1. Some of the students who hadn't done so yet handed in (into the top wire basket for their period) --
disclosure signatures,
the VIP sheet (on the back of the disclosure signatures),
the book approval,
and the composition book which is to be left in class.

2. We discussed
a. checking out books from the classroom library
b. book orders -- The first order will go in this Friday.
c. expected behavior for on the way to and from, and in the media center

3. Students took the second part (sections C and D) of the Core PreTest. If you are absent, you may need to arrange a time before or after school to make-up the tests.

4. We went to the media center to allow each student to look for a book for the Book-of-the-Month Club assignment or to read a book. Most students also had some extra time to read after finishing the test.

August 21/22, 2008

August 21/22, 2008
These are the things we're doing today to reach our current learning targets.
Student Target 1: I will be able to correctly spell, capitalize, and punctuate (where appropriate) the names of my teachers, counselor, and administrator.

Today I’ll practice for my first spelling test teachers’, counselor’s, and administrators’ names.
Students practiced a procedure for learning how to spell words.

Student Target: I'll understand the meaning of select terms we use in English class.
Today I’ll study two vocabulary words: genre and novel. I should have two pink vocabulary sheets -- each at least partially filled out -- in my English binder.

Student Target: I'll prepare for the Utah State CORE test by mastering knowledge and skills that will help me succeed in junior high and high school.
Today I’ll honestly do my best on a pretest of 7th Grade CORE knowledge and skills.