Monday, September 30, 2013

Standard 09-30-2013

Yes, it is late.  That's what a cross country meet at Northwood Middle School will do to your evening.

Let's see...as I said here yesterday and mentioned in class, we will be working on our paper at home starting tomorrow.  Lots you need to include, so be sure to collect our hand-out tomorrow.

We are reading and analyzing The Giver.  Be ready for a pop quiz tomorrow--short one--just to check on reading and comprehension.

You'll probably write something in class tomorrow too that I'll be taking for an assessment.  Know the story!

See you soon.


Honors 9-30-2013

Ah...8:35 and I'm finally getting a chance to write the blog.  Late cross country meet.  Won't be anything huge tonight.

Be sure you come to class tomorrow with a couple options for your Fairy Tale-Allegory assignment (FTAA for short).  We'll identify your story for you tomorrow, so you can start putting together your information.  Remember: Be insightful.  Should be 25 points for everyone if done correctly.  And we could all use those 25 points.  Just to clarify, these are not extra credit points.  You will receive a score out of 25.  If you were absent today, be sure to see me about this ASAP.

Lot of info on the Russian Revolution tomorrow.  It's important stuff for you to know so that you can identify the allegorical elements of Animal Farm.  As you read you'll be identifying and fleshing out the  allegory.  At the same time, I want you thinking about its relevance to modern day.  Is the Animal Farm allegory still relevant today? The book will be in your hands tomorrow.

Remember euphemisms are basically nicer ways to say potentially offensive things.  Get those notes if you were absent.

See you soon.







Sunday, September 29, 2013

Standard 09-29-2013

We have two big things going on concurrently at this time.  First we have the paper we are working on.   We've discussed the intros and the importance of hooks, transitions, and claims.  You will need topic sentences in each body paragraph.  You'll need well ddeveloped ideas supported by quotes and clearly explained.  You'll need transitions between the ideas.  You'll need a conclusion.  I really wanted to keep this paper in the class, but I'm afraid time will not allow it, so tomorrow we'll start attacking that at home as well.

The other big thing we have going on is our reading of The Giver.  We should be actively reading (highlighting and text coding) as we move through the novel.  For tomorrow's class discussion, you should have completed your work on the first three chapters.  That's up to page 25.  Only two people had not completed the work in period three last Friday.  Let's get a 100% completion rate for tomorrow.  Period four?  I didn't check you on Friday, but you can bet your ticket in tomorrow will be the completion of the active reading.  100% in period four is expected as well.

As you read be thinking about the importance of word choice.  We discussed that in class on Friday.   It's Mother and Father not Mom and Dad.  It's male and female not boy and girl.  It's family unit not family.  It's apprehensive not frightened.  She's spending a lot of time on that and I want you to keep thinking about why she is doing that.

I also want you to think about the following questions:

Why does the community have so many rules?
What do you notice about the roles of Mother and Father?
Why do you think the animals were removed from the community?
The apple.  Gabriel.  The Bible.

See you soon.  

Honors 09-29-2013

I know on the last blog I mentioned that we would be discussing euphemisms on Friday and then we spent the entire time on allegories.  It was a good decision because I do think we left with a solid understanding of what an allegory is (as well as what allegorical figures are), and it is important to understand because Animal Farm--our next book--is an allegory about the Russian Revolution.  I'm sure you don't know much about the Russian Revolution, and I will be sharing information about it with you tomorrow (and who knows, maybe some euphemisms), but the neat/amazing/super cool thing about allegories is their flexibility, or, shall I say, their adaptability.  Yes, adaptability is the better choice here.  Just like we discovered when we were looking at the movie Avatar and its allegorical connection to the way the early settlers treated the Native Americans, the allegory also has present day applications.  So while we'll look at George Orwell's original intent with his allegorical story, we'll also be trying to see its application to our modern world.  In addition, I'll be asking you to consider an overarching question for our Animal Farm study.

How can an author's use of allegory promote social change?

On a lesser note, I'll want you to consider:

How can an author's personal experiences influence his/her work?

To help us in our continued comprehension of allegories, I'm going to ask you to do a little writing--of course--on the topic.  If you recall, we mentioned "Little Red Riding Hood", among other fairy tales, in class last Friday and briefly discussed its potential allegorical intent.  I'll be asking you to revisit other fairy tales this week and dissect them for the same purpose.  I'll explain more tomorrow, but be thinking about your favorite classic tales.

I read all your timed writings and you'll be receiving them tomorrow.  A TREMENDOUS shout out goes to Katelyn Hestad for her splendidly written analysis of why Jonas was not a hero.  Bravo!  Yet it seems some of us still need to work on the depth of our development.  Too often we settled for one example when two or three or more were clearly available.  Too often we settled for topical explanations instead of insightful discussions.    Too often we settled for long, monster quotes, instead of brief, effective ones.  Good writing is not easy, but we'll get there.

See you soon.


Thursday, September 26, 2013

Standard 9-26-2013

Late night on the cross country course tonight, so I'm sorry this is so late.  We'll make it a quick one.

You received The Giver today.  You need to read chapter one and be sure to highlight and text code as you read.  At the end of chapter one, I asked that you write one question that comes to you as you read.  This will make up your ticket in tomorrow.

Personally I want you thinking about the family dynamics that you see in the first chapter.  How is Jonas's family like your own family?  How is it different?  Also why do you think Lowry (the author) spent so much time in the first chapter having Jonas try and discover the correct word for how he was feeling?  What does that tell you that they value in Jonas's community?

We took notes on good introductions today.  Part of our time together will be spent writing an introduction tomorrow.  Remember:  Hook---Transition---Claim.  You'll all have a strong intro before leaving class.  Then...on to the body paragraphs.

Since those two things alone are pretty time-consuming, we might skip Tool Time tomorrow or at least have a really quick one.

See you soon.



Honors 09-26-2013

Sorry about yesterday's white-out.  Makes it difficult to read.  I'll try not to do that again; although, I'm not exactly sure what I did.

The timed writing went well today.  I've started to assess the papers and already wish to commend Ricky Zhu and Garrett Pfrender from period one for their strong symbol examples for The Giver.  Decent, quick explanations as well. I can't wait to see what else is out there.  I'm sure there are plenty of others that are just as strong.

Our immediate work with The Giver is just about over, but there are a couple questions I'd still like you to discuss.  Here they are:

How does the novel connect with the other pieces we have looked at already this year?
What is Lowry's purpose for writing this novel?

 After that it will be time to start thinking about our next read.  I've been dropping hints, and a few astute readers of the blog have already figured out where we are headed.  The name of the book is Animal Farm. It was written by George Orwell.   Its length is similar to The Giver, but it is a much different read.  Yes, it is a bit more difficult.  That's one reason why I won't be just handing you the book and saying, "Read away!" We'll go through this one together, doing activities, writing, and discussing along the way to make sure our comprehension is where it needs to be.

One of the first things we'll discuss is the euphemism.  If you're not sure what it is, you'll want to look it up.  But beyond merely acquiring a definition, I'll want you to understand how and why they are used and why George Orwell used them the way he did.  What did his use of euphemisms add to the story?  That's a question that we will be discussing as we progress through the novel.

We'll do a Tool Time tomorrow.  It's Friday Read Day so bring a book to read to first hour.  Now I have papers to assess, so I'll be bringing this to a close.

See you soon.


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Standard 09-25-2013

The Acuity test revealed some serious shortcomings today.  I'll be looking at the scores and the data, but we'll need to pay attention to these results and change things up a bit.  Lots of time to learn before those ISTEP tests next spring.

I was looking at your papers last night and today and noticed that we need to work on a few things: hooks, titles and authors, and claims.  No one had a hook.  Few offered both the title of the stories and the authors' names.  The claims were pretty good, but clarity wasn't always what it needed to be and some of the claims could only be supported by two of the stories.  We'll work on some of those tomorrow.

You'll get The Giver tomorrow too.  I know, I know, I promised it to you earlier this week, but you can take it to the bank that you'll have it in your hands tomorrow before leaving class.  It's a good story.  We'll have some solid conversation over it as we move through the text.  I'm sure you'll find the book is the bees knees.

See you soon.

Honors 09-25-2013

Three months until Christmas!  No. I'm not excited; I just hope my wife buys me the Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time.  I'll sign your Archer card tomorrow if you tell me what movie I just alluded to.

Acuity came and went today.  We celebrated some perfect scores from several individuals and high scores pretty much across the board.  That's great.  It makes our goal of every honors student earning a pass plus on ISTEP next spring that much more realistic.  Keep up the good work.

Ah...speaking of work, you'll be doing that in class tomorrow in the form of a timed writing.  Good writing is hard work, but it will be easier if you prepared yourself by looking over the prompts and securing some quotes.  We chopped the options down to 11 possibilities.   I know, that's still a big number, but at least you have an idea what's coming your way.  On ISTEP, PARCC, AP tests, SATs and ACTs, you'll be going in cold.  At this moment, I'm feeling one short answer question and one essay.  Since you'll have 50 minutes, I'd keep about 40 for the essay and ten for the short answer.  It's your writing, so you decide what you want to do.  

One question which I really like, but didn't make it on the prompt list and wasn't discussed in class on Monday or Tuesday is the following: What was Lowry's purpose for writing The Giver?   What message did she intend on sending?  We might hold out some time Friday for that one.  And as much as I like the question, I'm not going to ask you to connect the novel to the other stories we read.  (There you go--that drops the possibilities to ten!) I'm not convinced we are ready to attack that one. Perhaps another one for Friday?

Friday will also be that start of our next reading.  It's an anthropomorphic revolution!  It's a devastatingly savage attack on an idealistic way of life.  It's a comedy that will make you cringe.  It's a superb example of situational irony.  

What's an Orwell, comrade?

See you soon.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Standard 09-24-2013

I'll open with an apology.  I'm sorry that The Giver was not passed out today.  I really felt that we needed to do a bit of writing on "Old Glory, "The Pedestrian", and "Harrison Bergeron".  Your goal is to find a connection between the three stories.  The more insightful your connection the better.  This is going to be an in-class essay.  Completely, in class.  You'll be assessed on your ability to clearly develop a unique, well-supported connection between the three stories.  Remember, after you make a claim you need to say something about the story, support it, explain it.  You'll do that for each story.  I have your initial drafts.  We'll take our next step as soon as tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the predictive Acuity test.  You need to start it and finish it tomorrow.  It's not for a grade, but it does indicate how well you'll do on ISTEP in the spring.

Great job overall on those figurative language quizzes.  So many perfect scores!  I felt great and you should too.  We added to our figurative language bank today with the word metaphor.  Can you define it?  Can you come up with an example?  Can you explain why your example is a metaphor? If you answered yes to all three, then you are well on your way to another perfect score on another figurative language quiz.

How important is it to know your grandparents?

See you soon.



Honors 9-24-2013

Loved that discussion today in period one about whether or not Jonas was a hero.  Great job by Renee Yaseen to bring in the Eric Snowden comparison.  THAT'S insightful!  She definitely scored a 10/10 on her discussion participation.  (Congrats!)  Several others did too.  If you got involved a minimum of three times and were drawing information from the text, then you landed in that 10/10 category as well.

Thursday will be our timed writing experience.  We'll travel up to the IMC and spread out and start writing. Look over the prompts on the back of your Giver instructions.  Review the classroom discussions over the last couple of days.  Know the book well.  You'll need to draw quotes from the text to support your answers.

I'll start assessing the agreement quiz tonight.  Hopefully, you all mastered that.  After all, you did get to choose.  I hope you chose well.

Let's see, six weeks in school and three standardized tests.  Not liking the feel of that.  Hopefully, our Acuity test tomorrow will be the last one this quarter.

What is anthropomorphism?

See you soon.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Standard 09-23-2013

Sorry that I've been gone so  long.  Been swamped with meetings, grading, and life.  Something had to give, but now I'm giving it back.  The blog has returned!

Had some good discussion today about "Harrison Bergeron".  Tomorrow we will discuss whether or not Harrison would make a good citizen and how the story connects to "Old Glory" and "The Pedestrian". You'll want to listen closely because you'll soon be doing some writing on that topic.

In 24 hours, you'll have a book in your hands.  It's called The Giver and it's an accessible read about a utopian world.  Jonas is the main character and he's about to uncover secrets hiding in his community.  It may sound like a few other current dystopian novels, but The Giver was written way back in 1993.  These modern books have definitely taken some story ideas from Lois Lowry, the author of The Giver.  We'll find out more about it tomorrow.

We took the figurative language quiz today.  The first two scores were perfect 8/8s.  I hope that bodes well for the rest of the class.

How important is color in your life?

See you soon.


Honors 9-23-2013

Sorry, I've been away for a while.  I was swallowed up by those meetings last week, and then once I returned I was swimming against the current to catch up before being engulfed by your responses and cohesive writing papers this past weekend.  I've finally got my head above water, and I'm nearing the shore.  Still some work to do, but it's a good time to come back to the blog.

Since I last wrote, you have completed your reading of The Giver.  You've turned in three reactions.  Today we started a discussion on the text.  Everyone spoke in period two, but we had a few wallflowers in periods one and six.  Important to get involved because you will learn more that way, and, besides, you are getting scored on this as well.  Tomorrow's lead question in periods 1 and 2 will be:

What happened at the end of the story?

Tomorrow's lead question in period 6 will be:

Did the Giver help Jonas or was he using Jonas?

That timed writing is happening this week.  Review the prompts and know the book well.

Tomorrow we will have the agreement quiz.  Just make sure you understand what needs to agree.  You should also be able to explain why the changes you make need to occur.  Knowing is one thing.  Explaining is even better.

What do you get when you mix Stalinist Russia with an egotistical pig with a drunk farmer?

See you soon.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Standard 09-12-2013

Deeper.  Deeper.  Deeper.

More explanation.  More explanation.  More explanation.

Support.  Support.  Support.

The minute you think you've gone deep enough in a piece of writing, push yourself to go deeper.

The minute you think you've explained enough in a piece of writing, explain more.

The minute you think you've offered enough support in a piece of writing, offer more support.

Today's quiz on the title of "The Forecast" and it's double meaning coupled with the PPP papers I have read so far clearly show that we are stopping too soon, under-developing our ideas, and overconfident with our meager explanations.  You can't be willing to settle.  Anything worth doing is worth doing well.  Learning how to write and defend your opinion are worth doing; thus, they are worth doing well.  Plenty of writing ahead.  I want you to take what you've learned from these writing experiences and apply it to your future ones.

We seem much stronger on our introductory clauses and our AAAWWUBIS words today.  keep up the good work.

I like how some people read the blog last night and then told others to read the blog as well.  Good team work.  Keep it up.

You should be reading "Old Glory" tonight and marking up the text and text coding.  Be sure to come up with your one open-ended question as well.  That'll be your ticket in tomorrow.  I want a full house at the start of class!

As you read "Old Glory"  be thinking about what it means to be a good citizen.  Be thinking about the legitimacy of the S.O.S. law.  Be thinking about what you believe in.  Be thinking.

See you soon.

Honors 9-12-2013

What did we learn today?  That a lot of us crumbled under pressure.  The pressure of a time constraint, that is.  Eventually we were able to come up with a variety of symbols to help fill our charts; however, the hesitation under pressure reminded me of something else.

Timed Writings!  We're in our fourth week and we haven't done one yet.  Practicing timed writings is important because it allows us to simulate the pressure of writing under the gun for ISTEP or Performance Tasks or AP tests, etc.  There are many other times you'll have to write in a limited amount of time, so doing timed writings in class will definitely be beneficial.  Get ready.  There's one around the corner.

You finally met Harrison Bergeron!  Well, if you finished reading the story before you read the blog you've met him.  Loud noises.  Weighted ballerinas.  Clown noses.  One nasty Handicapper General.  What does it all mean?  What was Vonnegut trying to say with this story?  What's his purpose?  Do you see any connections to our lives?  Jaffe?  Szymborska?  More? Is it a satire?  What's a satire?  Do you see any irony?  What's irony?  Was the piece funny?  And...am I going to go there?...yes, I am...how does this connect to the video "What Does the Fox Say?"?  

That's about all I have for now.  I need to assess some reaction papers.  Don't worry, I won't concern myself with being fair.

Friday reads tomorrow.

See you soon.




Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Standard 09-11-2013

Do you know what AAAWWUBIS stands for?

What type of clause is it associated with?

If I have a dependent clause, what other type of clause must I have to make a sentence?

Can you write me a sentence with an introductory clause?

Why did Jaffe title his poem  "The Forecast"?

What is its literal meaning?

What is its figurative meaning?

Could you write a paragraph explaining both?

Am I giving you a quiz tomorrow that will ask you to do exactly that?

Do you need to refresh your memory so that you do well on the quiz?

Will I see you soon?

Honors 09-11-2013

Fast day today.  An IMC trip always gets things moving.  Hopefully, you all now have a book to read for your own enjoyment.  Oh, I know that you are all thoroughly enjoying The Giver, but I want you to have a choice book as well.

I'm not sure how you talked me into waiting until the 19th to turn in the cohesive writing assignments, but so it is.  I know several of you did a great job finding examples.  Others struggled.  Remember, if a piece of writing talks about the same topic throughout the entire piece, it's not an example of cohesive writing; it's just focused.  Look for an idea brought up in the introduction, abandoned in the body, and returned to in the conclusion.  That's cohesive writing.

Scored some reactions yesterday and today.  Hope Gilbride earned the classes' first perfect ten on hers. Original idea.  Super focus.  Solid development.  I was impressed.  Who's next?

I've been leading up to it for a while but "Harrison Bergeron" will be with us tomorrow.  Don't worry.  It will prove to be worth the wait.

Archer card signature if you can tell me who was writing first: Thomas More or William Shakespeare.

See you soon.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Standard 09-10-13

IMC tomorrow.  Bring those books to return and that money to pay those fines.

Items in a series and commas.  That went well today.  It's quizzable material as is all Tool Time information.

Tomorrow morning and during lunch it's combining sentence retest time.  Don't forget.  You have these two chances and that's it.

I'm assessing your PPPs tonight.  Off to a rough start in period three, but then I read Jacob Thompson's paper and a smile came to my face.  It wasn't flawless, but he definitely had the right idea.  Seems most of us are having a difficult time clearly explaining how the examples we bring up in our papers relate to Bradbury's purpose of showing technology's negative impact on society.  Need to proofread for clarity and fully explain those ideas.

We'll finish our discussion of "The Forecast" tomorrow and then move on to "Old Glory".  You'll see more connections as we read these works.

See you soon.

Honors 09-10-2013

Making meaning is hard work.  We saw that in a couple ways today.

First your small group discussion of the poem 'The Forecast" left many of you confused by the overall meaning.  What was Jaffe trying to say?  The key wasn't in the technology and definitely wasn't in the weather.  Instead it was about being afraid...fear...what we do to maintain our safety in a world we don't understand.  Was Jaffe's poem upbeat?  positive?  a harsh look at reality?  We'll wrap up our discussion tomorrow.

We also saw a reaction paper or two that weren't quite cutting the mustard.  The ideas might have been okay but the development and explanations were not always clearly presented or well explained.  Challenge yourself to fully flesh out the ideas you are trying to get across.  Then be sure those ideas are clear.  I should start seeing some handed in by tomorrow.

IMC tomorrow.  Bring you books to return and change to pay any fines.

"Harrison Bergeron" tomorrow. What does it mean to be fair?

See you soon.


Monday, September 9, 2013

Standard 09-09-2013

The PPP typed, double-spaced, final copy should be handed in tomorrow.  No excuses.  If you need to come in early to type, then I expect to see you either before school or during lunch.  No printing once class begins.

We'll continue to look at the poem "The Forecast" together.  Here's a question to ponder: do you see a connection to 'The Pedestrian"?  I hope so!

"Old Glory" has been on the schedule several times.  Tomorrow, we find out what it's all about.

See you soon.

Honors 09-09-13

Just finished reading an article in Sports Illustrated.  Guess what I saw.  Cohesive Writing!  It's everywhere!

Remember, your task is to find two examples from any source possible and bring those examples in to school by Wednesday.  You'll be doing something with one of them after Wednesday, so choose wisely.

We started breaking down "The Forecast" in class today.  Some groups are effectively writing down their entire process from how they approached the poem initially to the questions they generated to the discussions they have had.  Then, and only then, are they proceeding to the three questions I want you all to answer.  This will show me the process they used to find meaning in the poem and gain understanding of the deeper issues.  Just answering the three questions won't do that.  I want you to think about how to attack an unfamiliar poem or piece of writing because that is what I will be asking you to do often this year.

Good news?  I guess this is good news for you.  I've decided to switch the due date of the reading of The Giver and the three responses to Thursday, September 19.  My absence on the three days preceding the 19th convinced me that it would be better to hold off.  I want to be there for the discussions that will be coming.  It'll also give me a chance to toss in an extra short story or two.  Let's see, you've had the non fiction utopian article, two poems, The Giver, and now a few short stories.  Your first one..."Harrison Bergeron".  Coming to you tomorrow.

Do you like to laugh?  I just watched one of the stupidest/funniest videos in a while.  Check it out if you have a chance.  I know it doesn't have anything to do with language arts...it's just, well, check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.  

See you tomorrow.


Sunday, September 8, 2013

Standard 09-08-2013

We ran out of time last Friday for typing our papers in class.  Hopefully, you should be coming to class with the finished typed version that you worked on over the weekend.  I know some of you were unable to use Google Docs for a variety of reasons, so hopefully, you typed the papers on your home computers and printed them off so you will have them in class.  We'll edit them using our rubrics and then decide our next step.  Regardless, you will all turn them in no later than Tuesday.

Our combining sentence quiz did not go well.  Sure some of you scored perfect 6s but there were also a slew of 0s.  Many of you will need to review with me and then retake this quiz.  We'll talk more about it in class tomorrow, but be ready to come in early or see me during lunch.

We have a poem "Forecast"and a short story "Old Glory" that we'll be looking at this week.  You'll be reading them actively, discussing them and, yes, writing about them.  They are both good and I want to see how you relate them to "The Pedestrian".

See you soon.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Honors 09-07-2013

Ah...Saturday morning, a time of freedom and opportunity.  Or an opportunity to use your free time to read The Giver!   September 16 is when it needs to be read by.  As long as you pace yourself, that time table should not be a problem.  Remember to be actively reading (text-coding) as you go through the book.  Remember my tips as well: give each chapter a title; write a word atop each page for a quick reference as to what that page is about.  Both of these will make finding the information you need later a lot easier.

In addition to reading, you know you need to produce three one-page reaction papers over the next ten days.  I posted a few quick tips on Thursday's blog, but I'll offer a bit more info now.  A reaction is not a book report.  It is not a summary.  It is an attempt on your part to connect with and make meaning out of your reading.  You see, the goal is not for you to write about the story.  The goal is for you to write about what you think about the story .  What it means to you.  What you get out of the story.  What the story makes you think of.  What the story makes you feel.  You will interact with the text in a meaningful way.  Get it?  

Now, nobody is saying that this is going to be easy.  Making meaning is hard work.  Yet one of the goals of this course is to make you a more conscious reader--one who actively reads, thinks and reflects on the words on the pages.  That’s where reaction writing comes in.  You will read The Giver, and you will write three reactions to it.  

These reactions will be formal papers where you find connections with or have reactions to the story and write about them. You’ll offer an introduction which always includes the title of your book and the author’s full name.  A claim, which is usually the final sentence of the first paragraph, is also a must.  That claim will identify the single idea the reaction paper will be focusing on.  You’ll follow that with a body paragraph or paragraphs of well-developed thoughts with supportive quotes.  Those quotes, which will be cited correctly, must be present.  You’ll then complete the paper with a conclusion that sums up and effectively closes the paper.  

“But Mr. O’Malley, where do I find these connections of which you speak?  Where do I begin?”  

Fortunately, I anticipated those queries.  Below you will find some prompts to consider as you attempt to make meaning.  Obviously, these can be used anytime you write a reaction this year, so you’ll want to hold on to this paper tightly.  

Think of...

what the author did well
what the author did not do well
what you noticed
what stands out
what surprised/startled/shocked you
what it reminded you of
what you understood
what you didn't understand
what themes might be taking shape
what you loved/relished/enjoyed
what you hated/loathed/reviled
what made you happy/sad/angry
what you could relate to
what you wondered
what you would have done inside the text

In addition you could consider the following ideas:
*what do you like about the protagonist/antagonist?
*what feelings, ideas, traits, experiences or goals do you share with the protagonist or    
          the antagonist?         
    *what message is the author trying to get across?
*what do you think about the author’s writing style?

This should give you something to think about for a little while.  

Here's a reminder on how to cite those quotes which each one of your reactions should have.

It was obvious Jonas started to become aware that his community was not what he had always thought it was when he looked at the piece of fruit and thought, "the apple had changed" (Lowry 24).  

Hopefully this will help you write some good reactions.

One final thing today.  Our semi-colon paragraph quizzes were not nearly as strong as I thought they would be.  Several people still used capital letters after the semi-colon.  Several people did not combine two independent clauses with the semi-colon.  While there were plenty of perfect scores, there were also plenty that demonstrated to me that they need more work with the semi-colons.  Keep using them in your writing and you will become more aware of the correct ways and the best times to use them.  In addition, check out these links to a couple semi-colon practice websites.  Practice makes perfect.

See you soon.






Thursday, September 5, 2013

Honors 09-05-2013

We just beat the buzzer for The Giver.  Almost ran out of time again.  Block scheduling, where are you?

Well you do finally have the book in your hands.  You have 11 days (two weekends) to read the book and type up three one page reactions to what you are reading.  You decide when and how much you want to read, but be sure you are text coding as you read.  We will be returning to the book often, and you'll want key lines/ideas/points/examples/support clearly identified so that it will be easy to find.  One more time:

MARK UP THE TEXT!

As for those reaction papers, I will be discussing the expectations tomorrow in class.  Here are some quick general pointers.  Each one should:

     1) Have an introduction
     2) Make a claim
     3) Be focused on a single idea
     4) Be supported by evidence from the text (quotes)
     5) Include cited quotes
     6) Be well developed and fleshed out
     7) Have a concluding paragraph
     8) Be kept to a single page

Since it is only one page, a single idea is all you need.  Since you are only writing about a single idea, you should be able to flesh it out to fill the page.  More coming tomorrow.

Good work on the agreement errors today.  Obviously, we aren't masters yet, but, at this point, just being aware of the issue is enough.  As the year progresses it will become more ingrained and you will be the experts you long to be.

Here's another sampling:

I let all my friends read my paper during lunch to give me their personal opinion.   

Tell me the error and I'll sign your Archer card tomorrow.

I have a short story and a poem option for tomorrow.  I'm leaning towards the poem because we could probably handle it in a single class.  That way we can start the short story on Monday.  

What's a Bergeron?

See you soon.

Standard 09-05-2013

Here is the checklist for the Bradbury paragraphs you need to be correcting and perfecting tonight.

CHECKLIST FOR “THE PEDESTRIAN” PARAGRAPHS

1) Uses Ray Bradbury's full name
2) Mentions the title in quotation marks in the first sentence
3) Opens the paragraph with a claim about technologies negative impact on society
4) Transitions to the first item of support
5) Uses a cited quote for support
6) Offers an explanation on how the quote supports the claim
7) Transitions to the next idea
8) Repeat 5 and 6
9) Transitions to the third idea
10) Repeat 5 and 6
11) Offers a closing sentence

This is the general format you should follow for your paragraph; however, you have some options.  While you do need the transitions and the quotes and the explanations, how you present them is up to you.  How much depth will you offer?  How much detail?  How creatively will you transition or explain your ideas?  There's a lot of room for individuality in this writing.   

Tonight you should revise your paper to include the changes we discussed during class today.  Come with as polished a paper as you can.  Tomorrow we have the lab reserved for typing.  We will probably go and type up a draft of the paper.  Will it be the final one?  We'll see.  

We covered three ways to combine sentences today.  I am seriously considering giving you two sentences tomorrow to combine using the techniques we discussed today.  Here's a refresher:


      1) David is going to Michigan to cheer on the maize and blue.  

      2)The Wolverines will be black and blue after being battered by the blue and gold.

Combine the sentences using a comma and a coordinating conjunction.
Combine the sentences using a semi-colon.
Combine the sentences using a semi-colon and a conjunctive adverb.  

Be ready.

See you soon.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Standard 09-04-2013

Well, well, well.  I guess we see that we aren't taking advantage of the blog the way we should.  The quiz questions were right here last night.  If only you'd checked...

Intense class today.  You had to have some good conversations to move forward.  Some of you were more successful than others, but by the end of the class, progress had been made by all.  Tonight you'll be writing a paragraph in your language arts notebooks on the purpose of "The Pedestrian".  Through your discussions with your peers you discovered the support you need and hammered out the explanations to be sure the quotes support your claim.  We'll be examining those tomorrow before moving on to stronger/final drafts.

Remember, you should be starting the paragraph off with a claim like the one below:

In "The Pedestrian" Ray Bradbury set out to show that technological advancements can have a negative impact on society.

--OR--

Ray Bradbury clearly shows the negative impact technology can have on society in his short story "The Pedestrian".

Play with it a bit.  Come up with an original way to state your claim.  After that, you'll need to support the claim with cited, quoted evidence from the text and then clearly, thoroughly explain how the quote supports your claim.  You'll do that a minimum of three times.  Good papers will be easy to identify.

Write well tonight.

See you soon.

Honors 09-04-2013

Welcome back to the best male-written 8th grade language arts blog at Discovery Middle School!  Glad you cared enough to return.

One more day.  Less than 24 hours.  That's how long you have to wait for the new book you'll be receiving from me.  Okay, it's no secret that the title of the book is The Giver.   It's written by Lois Lowry (she's a woman) and is an accessible yet thought-provoking read.  You'll be asked to read it on your own over about a ten day period.  That comes out to about 16 pages a day.  Not too bad.  You'll also have a few writing assignments to be turned in during that time.  We'll also be studying a few short stories to use with it during those ten days.  There will be a lot coming your way over the next few weeks.  Hope you're ready.  It's going to be a wild ride.

I hope to return your Writer's Autobiographies tomorrow, but they might have to wait until Friday.  In the meantime, I'll be using them to focus on another area of concern: agreement errors.  This is when you have errors in subject-verb agreement or with pronouns and their antecedents.  Here's an example from one of your papers:

Good authors write about their life.

Do you see what's wrong here?  "Authors" is plural.  "Their" is plural.  "Life" is singular.  All the authors don't share one life.  They all have their own lives.  The correct way to write this sentence is as follows:

Good authors write about their lives.

We'll talk about this more tomorrow during Tool Time.

Another thing I noticed in your papers is the proliferation of the word "you" or "your".  Don't use the second person in your formal writing.  Consider anything you write for me to be formal.

One last thing about I gleaned from your papers is your preference for starting your leads off with questions.  Don't do that.  In fact, I challenge you to avoid that throughout the rest of the year.  Don't open with a question.  Make a statement instead.  

Fine start to the "Utopia" poem discussions.  I loved hearing what you had to say as I moved from table to table.  Good, rich discussion.  I enjoyed seeing you find meaning and generate understanding as you discussed the poem.  Tomorrow we'll share our thoughts and conclusions before moving on to The Giver.  Don't worry, our utopia article and our utopia poem all relate to the novel and the other things that will be soon coming your way.

Enough for today.  Tell me the two things--other than agreement errors--I took from your papers, and I'll sign your Archer card tomorrow.

See you soon.

The clock is ticking on The Giver...

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Standard 09-03-2013

I told you I would tell you all about the quiz tomorrow if you read the blog.  Here it is.

The five questions will be as follows:

1) Name the eight main parts of speech.
2) Tell me what goes on both sides of a semi-colon.
3) What part of speech comes after a semi-colon but before the comma?
4) Define an independent clause.
5) Where does the introductory clause go in a sentence?

It pays to read the blog.  100% if you did.

We tried to figure out what Bradbury's purpose was in his story "The Pedestrian".  That was a little difficult.  We had some reasonable ideas from all the groups, but they were usually pretty safe guesses and very surface oriented.  Bradbury, like most authors, wants to challenge his readers to look deeper.  That's what I want you to do too.  Now we decided on a couple possible topics.  In period three they looked like this:

Option#1:  Bradbury's purpose was to explain that futuristic technology can not only be a distraction but can be dangerous if used incorrectly.

Option #2: Bradbury's purpose was to show that technology can have a negative impact on society.

Both of those ideas are similar. Your job tomorrow will be to select one of those options and explain/support/find evidence for why you feel it is the best answer.

In period four they looked like this:

Option#1: Bradbury's purpose was to show that electronics are absorbing us.

Option #2: Bradbury's purpose was to show that "something" is taking over our lives.

Both of these ideas are also similar.  They are also more vague and not as strong as the ideas from period three; although, they have a similar idea running through them.  You will also need to make some choices, period four, and then back up those decisions with evidence/support/quotes from the text.

"Old Glory" is on its way.  I'll sign the Archer card of whoever comes up to me and tells me what Old Glory is a nickname for.

See you soon.

Honors 9-03-2013

Late night after the cross country meet.  We didn't fair too well in the meet, but I know language arts class will generate some much better results tomorrow.

As you know, I hinted at a semi-colon paragraph quiz tomorrow.  I still think that's a good idea.  I'll have you write a paragraph on a topic of your choice--no, I'll give you the topic tomorrow.  You will need to include at least three properly used semi-colons.  You'll need to exhibit some variety.  To get a perfect score, you'll need to make sure the entire paragraph is written correctly: no run-ons, no fragments, and no other obvious errors.  You'll have six minutes to write it.  Let's have this worth...7 points.

Big things tomorrow include our discussion of the poem "Utopia" by Wislawa Szymborska.  Period six got a look at it already, but periods one and two will set their eyes on it for the first time tomorrow.  Lots to do with that piece.

You will also be receiving your very own, brand new copy of The Giver by Lois Lowry.  Great book.  A ton to talk about their.  You'll be reading it on your own.  More details on that one tomorrow.  Do you know what symbolism is?  You better!  Ask me if you don't.

Do you know anyone named Harrison?  You will soon.

I'll sign the Archer card of anyone who tells me the word I misspelled in this blog.  (No it's not Szymborska's name).

See you tomorrow.