Wednesday, October 31, 2007

HAPPY HALLOWEEN. Enjoy this game of hangman.

HS 101: Ms. Wood discussed the idea of interviewing anyone in history. What would you ask them?

LITERATURE: Review for test on “The Struggle to be an All-American Girl,” “When I Lay My Burden Down,” and “The Talk.” Study the literary devices from each selection:

• non-fiction
• audience
• main idea
• supporting details
• autobiography
• biography
• diary
• subjectivity
• objectivity
• bias
• imagery
• idiom
• metaphor
• symbol
• exaggeration

HOMEWORK:

• Test tomorrow.
• Write a 2 paragraph response that explains what innocence is and choose one selection from this test to explain why it fits into the theme of innocence. This will be a part of your test grade.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Welcome back from the long weekend. I apologize for the hiatus from last week. Getting ready for report cards is a cumbersome process.

HS 101: Ms. Wood issued a writing challenge today about the topic of justice.

LITERATURE: We reviewed the story “When I Lay My Burden Down” from p. 357 for a test this week. I had planned for the test to be on Wednesday, but it looks like I will push it back to Thursday since we didn’t get as far as I had hoped. The test will cover “The Struggle to be an All-American Girl,” p. 344, “When I Lay My Burden Down,” and “The Talk,” p. 375. You will be tested on the plot, vocabulary, and literary elements discussed with each selection as well as the connection to the unit theme, Innocence. Here are a few items that you may need along with a couple of YouTube videos that we watched about the Maya Angelou and her autobiography.

• “The Struggle to be an All-American Girl”
  • study-guide-for-the-struggle-to-be-an-all-american-girl.doc
  • the-struggle-to-be-an-all-american-girl.ppt
• “When I Lay My Burden Down”
  • study-guide.doc
  • when-i-lay-my-burden-down-2.ppt
• Video of Maya Angelou interview about racist language and courage.
• Alicia Keys slideshow for the song “Caged Bird”

Monday, October 22, 2007

Welcome back from the weekend.

HS 101:

• Ms. Wood had a writing assignment on future goals about whether or not you might want to be valedictorian and why.

VOCABULARY:

• Review of Unit 5 vocabulary words and definitions.
• Unit 5 Test
• Introduce Unit 6, words 1-5

LITERATURE:

• Read “Sympathy,” p. 362 and answer question #8 on p. 363.

HOMEWORK:

1. Vocabulary Activities for Unit 6:
   1. CS (3, 5, 10, 19, 20)
   2. SA (3, 4, 13, 14, 16)
   3. CRW (5, 12, 13, 14, 15)
   4. VC (4)
2. Complete the study guide for “When I Lay My Burden Down.” study-guide.doc

Friday, October 19, 2007

AR PRESENTATIONS!!!

• No projects accepted late without a reasonable excuse.  (No, I had to stay home to finish my project is not a reasonable excuse.)

VOCABULARY:

• Vocabulary Review of Unit 5

HOMEWORK: 

1. Test on Unit 5 on Monday.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Sorry that I can’t be with you today. Hopefully you will be respectful for the substitute.

1. Composition: Students should turn their essays in as soon as they walk in. There will be a basket for them to submit them.
2. High School 101: 1^st and 4^th period, Ms. Wood will come in and lead the class through an activity. 3^rd period, you will lead the class through the activity. It should be an activity that they complete on their own and turn in.
3. Grammar: The students should use the books from under their desks to complete these assignments. They should all be done on the same paper and labeled with the book, assignment title, and page number.
   1. The Writer’s Craft, p. 564, Check Point activity. The students should read back over pp. 556-563 to review Reflexive, Intensive, Demonstrative, Interrogative, Indefinite, and Relative Pronouns before completing the assignment.
   2. Write Source, p. 706-707. The students should read p. 706 and complete the activity on p. 707.
4. Literature:
   1. Students should read the “Elements of Literature” section on p. 355 in their literature book.
   2. Students should read “Before you read” on p. 356 and then read “When I Lay My Burden Down,” p. 357-361.
   3. Students should complete the study guide handout for this selection.  Here is the study guide.  Just click, download, and print a copy.  study-guide.doc

Homework:

1. Complete the vocabulary assignments for Unit 5.
2. The Accelerated Reader projects are due on Friday, October 19^th, 2007

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

HS 101:

• Ms. Wood talked today about initiative in the workplace.

MEDIA CENTER:

• We went to the media center to work on the AR project which is due on Friday and the Position Essay which is due on Thursday.
• Here are the links to the AR project format example and the rubric for the essay.
• rubric-for-being-an-american-today-essay.doc
• ar-format.doc

HOMEWORK:

• Finish essay and AR project.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Welcome back from Homecoming weekend. Congratulations to the Homecoming Queen and her court, as well as to the football team for their victory over C. E. Murray.

HS 101:

• Ms. Wood discussed the concept of initiative today.

VOCABULARY:

• We started Unit 5 today by going over words 1-5.
• I will be absent on Thursday, so the test will be held over until Monday.

COMPOSITION:

• We took notes on effective paragraphs and the four types of paragraphs from the Write Source books on p. 561-564.
• We then began working on our own 5 paragraph essays on the topic “What does it mean to be an American?” by using a blank essay form to guide us through the essay. A link to the form and the descriptions is provided here:
  • 5-paragraph-essay-format-instructions.doc
  • 5-paragraph-essay-format-blank.doc

HOMEWORK:

• Vocabulary activities for Unit 5.
  • CS (6, 12, 13, 14, 20)
  • SA (2, 8, 11, 13, 20)
  • CRW (4, 8, 10, 14, 16)
  • VC (2, 4)
• Complete the first draft of essay.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Welcome back from the long weekend.  I hope you all are in the homecoming spirit and are dressing up for the spirit days this week.  I’ll try to join you when I can.  I could not do camo day today because I don’t have any camoflauge.

HS 101:

• Ms. Wood talked about the topic of “Citizenship.”  Are you doing your part?

AR PROJECT:

• We went over the Accelerated Reader Project for the first 9 weeks period which is due on October 19th.  I hope you have been reading your books and getting ready.
• You have four main parts:

1. Read the book and pass the AR test this 9 weeks.
2. Create a movie poster for your book.
3. Create an outline of your book covering the required topics. Here is a link to the outline format I gave out in class today. ar-format.doc
4. Give an oral presentation about your book that encourages your classmates to read your book.

GRAMMAR:

• We did not do well on our pronoun test last week.  Obviously, some information fell through the cracks.
• We will be revisiting this topic this week to try to correct that.

HOMEWORK: 

• Worksheet #2 in pronoun packet from class.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Good luck JV Football and JV & V Volleyball.

HS 101:

• The character trait for today was trust/honesty.
• Unfortunately, not one student from any of the three classes brought in an extra credit assignment for the character words.

VOCABULARY:

• We went over last night’s activities and then discussed words 16-20.

GRAMMAR:

• Test on Pronouns today.

HOMEWORK

• Complete the remaining vocabulary activities.
• Vocabulary Test for Unit 4 tomorrow.  Study!!!  Go to www.vocabtest.com for some extra practice.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

HS 101:

• Today’s topic was fairness and justice.
• No one has taken advantage of the extra credit assignment, yet.  Thursday is the final day.

VOCABULARY:

• We went over the words and activities from yesterday and introduced words 6-10 today.

GRAMMAR:

• We talked about problems with pronouns.  You were given a packet of 3 worksheets for pronouns and we began the first one in class.
• We will have our test on pronouns on Thursday.

HOMEWORK:

• Unit 4 Vocabulary Activities:
  • CS (4, 11, 13, 19, 20)
  • SA (1, 7, 14, 15, 19)
  • CRW (2, 3, 6, 11, 12)
  • VC (6)
• Problems with Pronouns Worksheet, p. 174