English 9 & Accelerated - Please make sure you finish reading To Kill a Mockingbird by January 3rd when we get back. You also need to have either the "Symbolism" or "Theme" handout done by January 3rd as well. If you do both handouts, you are eligible for up to 10 points of extra credit.

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A RESTFUL BREAK.

English 9 - Read chapters 25-27 for Monday. Theme and Symbolism handouts were passed out. You need to pick one of them to do, the other can be done for up to 10 points of extra credit. These handouts will be due the day we get back from Christmas break.

Accelerated - Go over Tom Robinson's testimony. Read chapters 20-22 for Monday. Trial Study guide and the 'personal profiles' handout are both due Monday.

English 9 - Read chapter 20 and 21 in Mockingbird. Finish the trial study guide for tomorrow.

Accelerated - Vocabulary bingo. Test on Thursday. Read chapter 18 for Thursday.

English 9 - Vocabulary packet is due. 1-15 Vocab test today. Start Ch. 18, no homework.

Acclerated - Read ch. 15 and 16 and do 1-4 on side one of the trial study guide.

December 9, 2010

English 9 - Finish chapter 17 in class and update the trial study guide. Vocab bingo. All English 9 classes: VOCAB TEST TOMORROW and Vocab packet due tomorrow.

Acclerated - Vocab Bingo. Read chapters 13 and 14 for tomorrow.

December 7, 2010

English 9 - We played vocab bingo today. Please read chapter 16 in To Kill a Mockingbird for tomorrow.

Acclerated - 4 Virtue notes on Courage, Justice, Prudence, and Temperence. Read chapter 11 and find Atticus' definition of courage.

December 6, 2010

English 9 - Discuss the Maycomb caste system and compare it to the Finch household. Read chapter 15 in To Kill a Mockingbird for tomorrow. How are Mobs stopped?

Accelerated - Finish and present Local Color Posters. Finish chapters 9 and 10 for tomorrow.

English 9 - Read Chapter 12 for tomorrow. Please continue to study your vocabulary flash cards.

Accelerated - Start look at local color categories. Notes and examples for the 6 groups from Minnesota and Maycomb.

November 30 , 2010

English 9 - Notes on the 4 chief virtues.

Accelerated - Read chapters 5 and 6 in To Kill a Mockingbird for tomorrow.

November 29, 2010

English 9 - Please read chapter 11 in Mockingbird for tomorrow.

Accelerated - Please make sure you have read chapters 2-4 in Mockingbird for tomorrow.

November 24, 2010

English 9 - Make flashcards for the 1-15 vocabulary. Read chapters 9 and 10 in To Kill a Mockingbird

Accelerated - Read Chapters 2, 3 and 4 in To Kill a Mockingbird for Tuesday. Create 10 trivia questions from the Harper Lee article "The Worlds Best Reading" for the trivia challenge on Monday.

EAT TURKEY, LOTS AND LOTS OF TURKEY!

November 22, 2010

English 9 - Continue your 'Local Color' poster with your group. "In Someone Else's Shoes" handout is due tomorrow.

Accelerated - Notes on the great depression. Read Newsweek article "Hard Times"

November 19, 2010

English 9 - Read Chapter 8 in To Kill a Mockingbird. Also, complete the handout titled "In Someone Else's Shoes" for Monday.

November 16, 2010

English 9 - Local Color category notes. Read chapter 6 and 7 in To Kill a Mockingbird for tomorrow. Find two examples of each local color category and put them in your notes.

Accelerated - Shakespeare's London is due. Tossing lines activity. Overview of the plot of "Midsummer Nights Dream" (it's complicated).

ALL CLASSES: REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR PERMISSION SLIPS AND MONEY FOR THE TRIP TO SEE TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD AT PARK SQUARE THEATRE.

November 12, 2010

English 9 - Read the Harper Lee article and create a list of 10 questions with answers that will stump your classmates. We'll be playing the trivia game using these questions on Monday. Also, read chapter 5 in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Accelerated - Work time on revision and editing for the Irony paper. The final draft is due on Monday with your partner edit and rough draft materials.

Have a good weekend.

November 10, 2010

English 9 - Discuss perspectives and the advice Atticus gives to Scout about school. Start vocab 1-3. No homework.

Accelerated - Writing and work time on your essay. Final draft with 2 edits is due on Monday.

November 9, 2010

English 9 - Review the characters introduced in chapter 1 of To Kill a Mockingbird. Read chapters 2 and 3 of the book.

Accelerated - Paper requirements. Edit "I me my you your our us we" out of the paper. Peer edit before typing your final. Formatting the typed paper (page 40 of your writing manual). Using quotes, and writing conclusions. The week now, due to field trips and ceremonies, will be for you to work on the final draft. The paper is due Monday 11/15.

November 5, 2010

English 9 - Irony Paper due. Read "Hard Times" article about The Great Depression. Start To Kill a Mockingbird. Read chapter 1 for Tuesday and fill out information about the characters on the Personal Profiles.

Accelerated - Irony paper rough draft due Tuesday.

October 28, 2010

English 9 - Irony paper. Rough drafts of introductions and body portions of the essay are due on Monday. Writing time after looking at example.

Accelerated - Making inferences. Read "The Cask of Amontillado."

October 26, 2010

English 9 - Short Story Unit Test

Accelerated - Disaster Poems are due. Read "Sorry Right Number" by Stephen King.

October 25, 2010

English 9 - Review Jeopardy today. Review Grid due tomorrow. TEST Tomorrow.

Accelerated - Grammar recharge. Review Poem assignment, disaster poems are due tomorrow.

October 20, 2010

English 9 - Work on the short story review grid. It is due before you take the test on Tuesday, October 26.

Accelerated - Read "The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson for Monday. Keep working on your disaster poems.

October 19, 2010

English 9 - Vocabulary and inferences due from "The Cask of Amontillado." Read "Annabel Lee and The Bells" by E.A. Poe. Review short story list.

Accelerated - Read "The Wreck of the Hesperus" by Longfellow. Disaster poems assignment, Due Tuesday 10/26.

October 18, 2010

English 9 - Finish reading "The Cask of Amontillado" and watch the film version. Discuss names, irony, and character flaws. Vocab and Inferences are due tomorrow.

Accelerated - Finish posters and present them. Read the excerpt of "The Perfect Storm" in your textbook for tomorrow.

October 15, 2010

English 9 - Read "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe. Complete the inferences on the yellow handout dealing with the quotes that Montressor, the narrator and killer seeking vengeance, says in the story. The inferences will be due on Tuesday.

Accelerated - Work on your group poster poems from the short story "Marigolds" by Eugenia Collier. We'll finish them up and present them on Monday.

October 14, 2010

English 9 - Disaster Poems are due Friday written or printed on unlined paper. Here is the scoring breakdown for the poems: A Range = 4 stanza poem that follows the ABCB Rhyming pattern and the Longfellow Rhythm. B Range = 4 stanza poem that follows the ABCB rhyming pattern. C Range = 4 stanza poem. Please email me if you have any questions.

Accelerated - Finish "Marigolds" and start group posters with text poems.

October 11, 2010

English 9 - Discuss the crisis in "The Perfect Storm." Read "The Wreck of the Hesperus" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Create a poem about a disaster, big or small, due Friday.

Accelerated - Discuss "The Most Dangerous Game." Irony definition and examples from the text. Background on the 1960's.

October 8, 2010

English 9 - "2 Faced" drawings are due. Grammar Recharge 169 dealing with capitalization. Read "The Perfect Storm" on page 112-121 for Monday.

Accelerated - Grammar Recharge 48 dealing with abstract and concrete nouns as a group. Read "The Most Dangerous Game" on page 32 for Monday.

October 6, 2010

English 9 - NWEA results and discussion. Look at the quote "The true measure of a persons character is how they act when they think nobody is looking." Read "The Possibility of Evil" for tomorrow.

Accelerated - NWEA results and discussion. Vocabulary for "The Necklace." Read the story for tomorrow.

October 4, 2010

English 9 - Finish group posters and present them. NWEA Testing schedule for tomorrow. Please eat a good breakfast and try your best on the test.

Accelerated - Correct the textbook scavenger hunt. Parts of fiction and reading strategies. NWEA Testing schedule for tomorrow.


Conferences Thursday: I will be there between 6:30 and 7:00 until 7:30 due to coaching. Please let me know if you need to get in touch outside of this time frame, I can free up some time in order to do so.

September 30, 2010

English 9 - Create poem posters for "Marigolds"

Accelerated - Final Q & A for intelligence paper. Final paper due tomorrow.

September 28, 2010

English 9 - Hand in "Charming Billy" question about dynamic and static characterization. Read the poem "I Like a Look of Agony" by Emily Dickenson. Start the short story "Marigolds" by Eugenia Collier. No homework.

Accelerated - Check off Rough drafts. Read "The Felling of Power" by Asimov for tomorrow.

September 27, 2010

English 9 - Read "Where Have You Gone Charming Billy?" from 62-70 in your textbook and answer the following question:

Is Paul Berlin a static or dynamic character? Provide 2 examples from the story to support your answer.

Accelerated - Field Trip info due Thursday. Book orders due Friday. Fallout shelter activity.

September 22, 2010

English 9 - Quiz on "The Most Dangerous Game." Irony paragraph due. Review the plot chart for short stories.

Accelerated - Practice works cited due. Look at in-text citations. Outlines in Library for research and writing time.

September 20-21

English 9 - Read "The Most Dangerous Game" in your textbook. You will be focusing on word choice and how it creates mood. Select 8 'mood words' and define them in your own words on the gold sheet. Then, describe what you think is ironic about General Zaroff and his situation on the island. The gold sheet is due Wednesday.

Accelerated - Library for research and writing of the M.I. paper. Outline is due Wednesday along with your practice works cited page.

September 17, 2010

English 9 - Reading day #2. Read for 1/2 hour and complete a 1/3 to 1/2 page reaction log. Focus on making predictions, clarification, questions, relating to your experience or evaluation (being judge).

Accelerated - Documentation practice and Works Cited. Practice W.C. page due Monday.

September 16

English 9 - Active reading and vocabulary are due for "The Necklace." View the film version. Grammar recharge, concrete and Abstract nouns.

Accelerated - Thesis statements and introductions. View samples, and then research/writing time in the 9th grade lab.

September 15

English 9 - Book covers due. Read "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant and complete the vocab and 5 active reading strategies for tomorrow.

Accelerated - Book covers due. Library for initial M.I. research.

September 14

English 9 - Scavenger hunt due. Read 6-7 and 23-24 in your textbook to review short story elements of fiction.

Accelerated - Continue our look at the 8 M.I. Library tomorrow.

***All classes, be sure to cover your books by tomorrow!

September 13

English 9 - Final draft and edit for success essay is due. Grammar Recharge packet and page one. Textbook Hunt is due tomorrow.

Accelerated - Multiple Intelligence assignment and components. Scoring for the paper. Start a closer look at each of the 8 intelligences.

All Classes *** Books must be covered by Wednesday!!!

September 10

English 9 - Reading day. 30 minutes and then we looked at a handout of possible options for writing a reaction log. Your final draft of the success essay is due on Monday with the self and peer editing sheet completed.

Accelerated - BGFL multiple intelligence inventory in the 9th grade lab. List your top intelligence on the board and begin to think about which of the 8 multiple intelligences you would like to focus your research on.

All classes, books need to be covered by Wednesday next week. Have a good weekend.

September 9

English 9 - Book checkout in the library. Review 6 traits of writing. Self and Peer Edit your rough draft. Final draft with edit sheet is due Monday. Be sure to bring a book for our first reading Friday tomorrow.

Advanced - Final draft of your success essay is due. Multiple Intelligence inventory is due tomorrow.

September 8

English 9 - Class information sheets due. Rough draft of your 4 paragraph essay on a time you experienced a success based on Aristotle's definition is due tomorrow. "It is possible to fail in many ways, while to be successful is possible in only one way."

Advanced - Class information sheets due. Final draft of you Aristotle quote analysis and the edit are due tomorrow.

All classes: Books covered by Wed, 9/15

September 7

English 9 - Course information sheets are due tomorrow for extra credit. Make sure you bring a notebook, pen or pencil, and folder with you daily.

Accelerated - Course information sheets are due tomorrow for extra credit. A 1-2 page typed rough draft is due tomorrow. Explain what you think the following quote means. What is the 'one way' Aristotle is referring to?

"It is possible to fail in many ways, while to be successful is possible in only one way."