Monday 12/20

Period 1:
We are putting our smiley face tricks to use writing a  creative, humorous story for our class.  The topics about which we are writing include the following:
You went to bed Christmas Eve 2010 and woke up Christmas Day 2020.
Christmas is here and you just won the lottery.
You plan to catch Santa in the act
Christmas has been cancelled this year.
How do you go about getting the present you want?
Tell about the embarrassing, dreaded relative.
No homework


Period 2,7,8
We discussed the fine art of writing thank yo letters in class today. We then discussed some of the totally useless gifts we have been given in our lifetime and began writing sincere letters of appreciation for them.  We will share them in class tomorrow!
No Homework

Friday 12/17

Practice ELA in class today.  HAve a fabulous weekend and don't forget to come in with two titles and authors listed on Monday.  See below for some resources:
Berlin Airlift
Jackie Robinson
Child Labor another
children and women in factories/sweatshops
Robber barons another  Ugh Maris and Laura I am still looking check these --we'll chat Monday

Thursday 12/16

More fun with Smiley Face Tricks today.
Period 1: Today we wrote about pets in writers notebooks. We then did some writing to begin the process of sharing and supporting an opinion.  We also briefly spoke of anthropomorphism which is something we will be looking at closely when we read Call of the Wild after break.  HW: Two titles and authors for Ir books by Monday 12/20

Period 2,7,8:  We reviewed smiley face tricks and their effectiveness.  We then wrote in our writer's notebooks about dogs and our experiences with them which led to a discussion about how dogs can seem to have human qualities.  HW: Two titles and authors for IR books by Monday 12/20

Wednesday 12/15

Check out my last post to see some student Flocabs.  They really did a great job and I am so proud of each of them for pushing themselves out of their comfort zones!
Today was really a catch up/catch our breath sort of day. I returned lots of papers and students got online to get five week grades.  Some minor adjustments were made where necessary.  Students in periods 2, 7, and 8 were presented the opportunity to locate lost reading logs and turn them in by tomorrow for some credit and the opportunity to rewrite an essay on the short stories (rewrites due Friday).

All students have the assignment of locating an IR book to read next.  We will not begin reading the books until the Monday after break but students do need to come to  class on Monday the 20th of December with two titles (and author's names) that might work.  The trick to this IR book choice is that the connections topic they chose at the beginning of the year has to be the backdrop of the IR book they choose.  I have encouraged anyone struggling with finding a title or two to come see me, the librarian or get online!

FLOCABS

Click the following link to see/hear some of the awesome flocabs from this year!

http://lakeplacidcsd.net/lpcsweb/webdesign/clarklistosite/FLOCABS.html

Tuesday 12/14

We are relaxing and listening to the flocabs in class today.  Overall we are impressed witht the products and the amount of work invested in these.  Great job.  Thanks for being willing ot put yourselves out there. They sound and look great! We will send a few along to Mr. Dodd to post to the website.  No English homework tonight but be sure to be looking for a new IR book--It should have your connections topic as the backdrop. It may be fiction or non-fiction.

Thursday 12/9/10

I am sorry I have neglected to update the last two days.  Tuesday we worked hard on composing our flocabs, Wednesday was demo day--we looked at how to create and i movie, find pictures, create audio for imovie etc... then it was back to work on MLA, picture search and flocab writing. You guys have all been working hard and seem to be taking our suggestions to liven up our songs with emotion and sensory detail to heart awesome.
Thursday: we started recording

Monday 12/6/10

We worked on writing the final draft of our songs today.  Keep working on showing instead of telling and using symbols and other poetic devices.  Remember word choice is important.  Have fun with this. Tomorrow is a day devoted to finalizing the song, finding pictures and completing the MLA citation.

Friday 12/3

Today we spent time moving from notes to storyboards.  Students bounced ideas off one another about the message they were intending to send with their song then drew the song out verse by verse on a storyboard.  The second half of the block was devoted to writing the really rough draft of the song.  This draft does not have to rhyme, be a certain amount of lines or even employ a certain number of vocabulary words.  It is really the first articulation of the theme and can, therefore be very rough.  HW: Finish rough drafts of songs and READING LOGS will be collected on Monday--90 minutes reading for last week and one parent signature are what I expect to find in order to earn a perfect grade! (dates read including Dec 1 30 min worth, page #s,  a rating too!)

Thursday 12/2

It's finally here--Kickoff day for Clarklisto Flocab Project! (click to go to  my locker to see the handout your children received).  We went over expectations today and completed the brainstorming worksheet with partners or solo.  Nice job. We would encourage you to have conversations about your project at home aslo remember  to be reading/logging and taking Cornell Notes! 11 days left.

Wednesday 12/1

Period 1:  Great job with the songs today, it requires getting out of your comfort zone to understand figurative language and several of you were brave enough to "think out loud"  which is always appreciated.  HW: Read/Log/Cornell notes--12 days left!

Period 2,7,8: Most of you remembered your IR books and your Cornell Notes today which is great, HOWEVER, too many of you are WAY behind in reading.  I have been assigning 30 minutes of reading night.  The least amount of time you should have read by now is 120 minutes but many of you are not even past page 30 in your books--12 days left to complete the books and the Cornell Notes.  Stop dragging your heals and get reading!!!  HW: READ/LOG/NOTES