Standard 10-30-2012

What a great day!  Of course, what else would you call a day where you get to take an Acuity test (aside from the norm)?  Anyway, with the pretest for quarter two under our belts (see that agreement?), we'll soon have a good idea where we need to focus our attentions this quarter.  I'll keep you posted.

Speaking of posted, I posted the 2nd quarter critical common core standards today.  Many of the standards from the first quarter remain but a close look at the top of the will reveal a stronger emphasis on informational texts.  Get ready for some non-fiction.

For now, though, we'll be finishing up our fiction work with our book talks.  You will see a practice talk tomorrow--at least one question's worth--and then have a chance to sharpen your presentation skills as well.  You see, we'll discuss it thoroughly, breaking down what worked well and what didn't really pan out.  That way there will be no surprises when you present yourself.  The assessment rubric you'll receive tomorrow should help with the expectations as well.  Will your group be the one to volunteer?  You'll be helping yourself and the rest of the class.  See me if you are interested.  First come, first serve.

I'll also pass back the papers tomorrow.  We'll share some of the better ones, so that you understand what generated a successful piece.  After our discussion, you'll be asked to type a reflection on the writing.  One good paragraph on each of the following prompts.

What did you do well in this piece of writing?  Be specific.
What do you need to work on in this piece of writing?  Be specific.
What are you going to do differently next time to be sure you are as successful as you could be?  Be specific.

With our computers handy, we might be able to type those reflections in class and print them off as well.  We'll see.

I'm going to cut and paste something from the enriched blog because I want to share it with you as well.  I started reading this great book over the weekend called The Twelve.  Well, here's what I wrote for the enriched blog...  

One final thing that I'm going to use as my excuse for not blogging over the weekend. I received a book on Friday night that I used every non-spoken-for minute reading.  It's called The Twelve by Justin Cronin.    It's the long-awaited sequel to Cronin's world wide bestseller The Passage, a book that will have you leaving the lights on at night.  The setting is a post-apocalyptic world that has been overun by vampire like creatures called virals that were created by a governmental biological weapons experiment gone very wrong.  These virals are mean, vicious, blood-thirsty creatures who move in pods at amazing speeds.  They attack humans hard.  They attack humans fast.  They leave behind a horrific mess.  The heart of the book takes place about 100 years after the disaster started to take hold.  There are several heroes, mostly out of necessity, since Cronin has few qualms about killing off characters he has spent time fleshing out.  Cronin does a fantastic job of making us care about each character--even the less virtuous ones.  I loved the first book, and the sequel has picked up right where the original left off.  This is a trilogy and I can tell I'll be waiting impatiently for the third book due out in 2014.

Here's a link to the text.  Watch the video, short but engaging.

If you're interested in finding out more, just ask me or do some digging on that link above.  Archer card signatures if you tell me the last line in the short video.

See you tomorrow.