Monday, October 26, 2009

Week 11: 10/26-30

Mon. Students continued preparations for Of Mice and Men trials. Lawyers met with same today to brainstorm witness lists and questions.

Of Mice and Men test will be Friday.

Tuesday: First Of Mice and Men trials!

Wed: Trials continue...
Thurs: Trials continue...Of Mice and Men postponed to Monday.
Fri: Trials almost completed.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Week 10: 10/19-23

Mond. Whole book quiz on Of Mice and Men.
Tues. Class discussed patterns in the book, most notably those relating to "hands".

Wed. Of Mice and Men trial preparation has begun. Students were assigned to characters and to positions. The positions are as follows:
Curley a)should be charged with a crime, b) should not be charged with a crime.
George a) is a good friend, b) is not a good friend.
Lennie a) is responsible for the death of Curley's wife, b)is not responsible for her death.

Students must scour the book in search of evidence supporting their position. 10 "pieces of evidence" are required, and should be written down. Evidence should be a minimum of one sentence.

Also, OMM quizzes were returned, an OMM test was announced for next Friday (10/30), and draft #2 of the Autobiographical writing assignment is due on Friday, 10/23 along with draft #1.

Thurs. Students prepared for Of Mice and Men trials by searching for evidence in the book which supports their position. Evidence must also include 50 words of comment, which details how the evidence is supportive.

Friday: After submitting a draft of the Autobiographical Narrative assignment, students continued to prepare for Of Mice and Men trials by collecting evidence, preparing comments, witness lists, or questions.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Week 9: 10/12-16

Mon. Notes were given on John Steinbeck's life. Students need to read through page 65 of Of Mice and Men by Wednesday, and should finish reading the whole book by next Monday (10/19). Expect a quiz!

Tues. Students received one handout on Word Choice and another handout on Sentence Fluency. We discussed these handouts quite a bit; students studied their drafts of the Autobiographical Narrative assignment and marked them up so they have ideas on how to improve them. The improved, second draft will be due next Wednesday.

Also, everyone was supposed to read Of Mice and Men through page 65 for today, and the book needs to be finished by Monday. Expect a quiz!

Tuesday and Wednesday we've been discussing the autobiographical narrative assignment.

Thursday: Class studied a story that appeared in a newspaper. Students examined sentence structures present throughout the article. This is an example of the "Journalistic Style," and its merits and shortcomings were discussed.

Students then received a two-sided handout containing the vocabulary from Of Mice and Men, and a poem. There will be a quiz in the next couple of weeks on the vocab.

Also, students received a poem titled " To a Mouse". A line in the poem matches the title of the current novel we're studying; students thus should answer the questions and be prepared to discuss this on Friday.

Finally, students received the second of three handouts on 6 Traits of Effective Writing. This handout covered Ideas and Organization.

Friday: Class reviewed chapters 1 and 2 in Of Mice and Men, and started working on questions from chapter 3. Additionally, the class's attention was drawn to the "hands" motif which appears most notably in the fourth chapter.

Assignment: All 3 classes are to revise their Autobiographical Narratives, with particular attention paid to verb choices and adjective choice (i.e. beware of
"nickel words.")

Monday, October 5, 2009

Week 8: 10/5-10/9

Mon. Class copied Greek roots #25-36 and discussed sample words. Students then reviewed their Autobiographical Narrative papers, circling weak verbs, which were defined and explained in class. Finally, the class started reading Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men.

HW: Students should start their outside reading and should use edublogger to record comments on their reading.

Tues. Class read and discussed Chapter 1 of Of Mice and Men.After reading, class discussed traits of George, Lennie, and their relationship. Opinions of character traits varied, so students also produced evidence from chapter 1 supporting their beliefs.

Wed. Class continued discussion from Tuesday, plus 2 aspects of Steinbeck's style were added: his use of animals and his use of symbols. Today's focus especially zeroed in on Steinbeck's use of "dog" imagery and language to portray Lennie.

Thurs. Class examined central symbols in chapter one, including the path, water, and fire. Students drew a "plot graph" representing George's rising anger in chapter one, and correlated it to the fire imagery within the chapter.

Fri. Students took "9th Grade ELA Benchmark One," an interim assessment from the FSUSD office of Assessment and Accountability.