Enriched 11-11-12

Where were you at 11:11 on 11-11-12?  I was engaged in a chess match against my son.  Not so lucky for me, however.  I lost.  Guess it could have been worse.

I've scored all the agreement quizzes and the results are pretty good.  While we have a few anomalies, overall, you demonstrated a solid grasp of the agreement rules we've been going over.  Good work.

This week we'll use our Tool Time time to work on writing vivid and clear and precise and concise sentences (Archer card signature for anyone who can tell me the difference between precise and concise AND then explain it to the rest of the class).  This was one of our major areas of concern on the second quarter Acuity pre-test we took a few days ago.  By the way, I have some news about Acuity testing that you might find interesting.   Ask me about it tomorrow.  I'm sure you'll be happy.

Every class has some group book presentations to finish up yet.  Period one, as usual, is a bit behind and actually has four yet to go.  We'll hopefully finish all those up the beginning of the week and continue our shift to our nonfiction studies.

Speaking of which, I hope you've been looking for a good nonfiction book to read.  You saw plenty in class on Friday.  Mom and Dad undoubtedly have a few recommendations.  There are a plethora of possibilities at the library and the bookstore.  Check out this link for a list of HOT NONFICTION READS.  You should be able to find something that interests you and meets our 8th grade enriched standards.  Remember you will be writing a paper on the book and be giving a QBT (Quickie Bookie Talkie).  More details on both assignments coming tomorrow.

Yet before we go full bore into our nonfiction, we need to finish up our reading of "Flowers for Algernon".  "Flowers" is an excerpt from a much longer novel.  The novel was also made into two films.  One was a successful, though psychedelic, award winning film.  The other was a more modern made for television adaptation.  In all forms, the protagonist Charlie is engaging.  He's easy to care about.  The story itself is a fascinating "What if?"  It offers plenty of topics to consider.  If you are super observant (which I'm sure you all are) I'm sure you noticed a connection between "Flowers" and "Harrison Bergeron".  You had to know that would be coming!  If you didn't pick up on it yet, give it a second look.  I'll be asking you to finish reading the story for Tuesday.  We'll start a serious look at the tale then.

Remember, your irony examples are due tomorrow.  We've already collected over thirty good ones.  And best of all, no redos have been necessitated yet.  Perhaps we'll all be perfect on our first submissions.  That's a lot of 10/10s!

So tomorrow: a little Tool Time, a book group presentation or two, info on the nonfiction books and assignments and perhaps a bit of "Flowers for Algernon" discussion.  See you then.