WEDNESDAY Themes 6-8

Please be on time for class.

5/7

Please finish Watership Down if you haven’t already.

Please pick one of the questions

1. Woven throughout the novel are five legends recounted by the rabbits. How do these tales reflect actual events taking place in the story? Why is storytelling such an important part of the rabbits’ life?

2. Toward the end of the story, Hazel is saved from the cat by a child and is then driven back to Watership Down by a man in a hrududu. After all of his cleverness and bravery, Hazel is saved by a human and driven back to Watership Down in a truck, two of the things rabbits fear most. What do you think of this?

Then I would like to see a “Story board” of your fictional animal story –

this means:

1. The main story line out-lined

2. A list of characters

3. Description of antagonist and protagonist

4. A description of the main problem and solution in the story

You will also need a list of 100 interesting facts about the specie that you choose

4/30

Wonderful Day today. We almost had 100% homework completion. I am holding fast to my commitment to send all of you off for summer break with a sense of “job well done”.

Make sure that you understand the role of Protagonist, Antagonists and what a theme or motif mean in the context of a story.

Home work for 5/7:

What set backs do the rabbits experience on their journey (list). Describe one of the challenges and how they overcome it.

Blackavar, a prisoner, was tortured for trying to escape. Why is Bigwig determined to save Blackavar when he leaves Efrafa even though it means risking his own life?

Write an epic poem that utilizes a theme/motif from Watership Down. (whole page).

Write a list of character traits that you have that would make you an important member of our crew if we were hiking to Mt. Rainier and trying to find our way and survive.

Those of you still reading – keep up the good work. This has been a challenging and terrific book.

4/23

Welcome Back to Tyler. And to everyone else I might add, finally nice to be back to a routine. - Time to get moving on our new theme Animals.

Please keep making progress on Watership Down. I hope that you will all be through Parts I and II by the 30^th and finished by May 7^th.

I am looking forward to seeing 6 to 8 Poems from

Andrew, Kaitlyn, Lincoln, Joe, Chris, Hunter, Colin and Nick

We will look forward to hearing them on the 30^th.

Please bring your poetry books and the work that you went home to search for on Wednesday.

Begin a 50 word vocab. List (from our current reading)

Finish the in class questions if you didn’t

And Pick your favorite character from the book and tell me why and your least favorite character and tell me why.

This should be typed and well written, full sentences etc… you know the drill.

Take good care and let’s make these next weeks productive and enjoyable.

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4/15 Well I am back at my desk but I will not see you all tomorrow morning because you will be WASLing.

Try to get through parts one and two of Watership Down by next week (I know this will be tough for the European travelers but try.)

I will hand out study guides on the 23^rd and we will discuss the book at length so, if you are not absorbing all of the details - fear not.

- Looking forward to getting back in the swing----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 3/26 we had quite a few students absent as they were departing that morning for the European adventure. We still had a terrific class.

We saw excellent photo stories. We read aloud and turned in our finished Listen to a Life Essays, I am sending them in today.

Please rewrite your warm up poems in you poetry books, rewrite the Mending Wall analysis if you did not complete it well the first go around. Also, write 3 poems using the word groups that you drew from the jars.

Tyler here are your word groups: 1. air, soft, leaves - 2. Clouds, caravans, promise, Rain - 3. Engine, roar, complete, stand

We will see each other again after Conference week, after Spring break, after WASL Wed. on April 23^rd.

Please have the book Watership Down

Or if you have already read that one Where the Red Fern Grows and Old Yeller

Completely read by then. Please write a brief summary of each Part (not chapter) as you go.

Good luck, have fun. Beeeee gooood.

3/19 We saw the rest of the Photo story projects. They were wonderful! Nick and Kaleb recorded their voices and completed the project to perfection. We still need to see Joe and Hunter’s – they seem to be experiencing technical difficulties and Chris T. seems to be unprepared.

Next week the Listen to a Life Essay is due. Remember to include entrant’s complete name and age, address, email and total number of words, also the co entrant’s (person you interview) full name and age.

Also please turn in: a well written Spring - The Mending Wall analysis - Langston Hugh’s Questions

I will also have a list of books for you to choose from. Our schedule is wacky for the next few weeks.

3/26 Normal schedule

4/2 Conference week – 4-8 Field Trip

4/9 Break

4/16 9 – 11 am WASL

4/23 Normal schedule

Thank you to those that have made an effort to get to class on time. Please remember the importance of coming with completed homework. For this once a week thing to work, students need to come to class prepared and ready. 30 to 45 min. a day of Themes reading/writing isn’t too much. High school will be much less forgiving. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

. Class actually begins at 9:00am not 9:25.

If your bus is late – well, we have to roll with that but bike riders and car drivers please, please leave a little earlier than you have been and get to your job (I mean class) on time.

First the Penalty Box: Chris Tronsen and Andrew came to class with out their work in hand. It is very important to have your work with you so you can 1. Turn it in on time. 2. So that you can participate in the discussion 3. So that you can read your work out loud and practice presenting. This is essential!!!

Golden Circle: Colin Floyd you did a fantastic job on all of your assignments this week! Yippeee. Well written and very complete.

The students that missed last week went to the lab and learned Photo Story with wonderful Karen Mayfield.

Please use this tool to create a 1 – 4 minute Photo story that “illustrates” a poem that you have written or found.

We will present these on 3/12.

Also due next week is the 300 word rough draft of your Listen to a Life Essay. Remember that this essay includes you and the person that you interviewed. It is about how knowing them or talking to them affected you. How you are influenced or inspired by them. http://www.tcpnow.com/contests/ltalrules.html Check the website for rules, guidelines and past year winning essays.

Please make sure you are keeping up with your Free reading and bringing your sheet in so I can view it each week. (70 Pages remember) Last but not least is the “Tolls for Thee” interpretation. Use the hand outs that I gave you to analyze this poem. We will also read our two Small Steps essay questions out loud.

Have a good weekend. Mrs. G.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today in class we missed Joe, Christie, Lincoln, Antonia, Hunter and Stephen.

We had Karen Mayfield in to show us how to use the computer program Photostory. She will come next week to work with those of you that missed it. Please bring 10 images on a zip drive and a poem of some kind to work with.

Kaitlyn, Colin, Chris Tronsen and Tyler – keep your Free Read Logs up to date please.

Home work for 3/5 –

1. Answer small step relationship questions. (below)

Small Steps and Relationships

“A state of connectedness between people”

Describe the relationship between the following people. Use full sentences and explain if the relationship changes by the end of the book. Do this on another sheet of paper.

Armpit and Ginny –

Armpit and Kaira DeLeon –

Armpit and his mom –

Armpit and X-Ray –

Armpit and himself – (what is the most important discovery Armpit has made about himself?)

2. Write two short essays to answer the question below.

There are many themes in this book. The big ones are Achievement, Racism and Prejudice, Trust, Honesty and Betrayal. Please choose 2 out of these 6 and in complete paragraphs, discuss how this theme plays out in the book. Use quotes and examples to support your thesis……

3. Continue to Free read - 70 pages a week is our goal

4. Analyze the Robert Frost Poem that I handed out. If you missed class you can get it next week.

Thanks everyone! Have a great week and get healthy!!

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2/13 - Missed a few home sick today but we strode forward. Have a good break and keep thinking themes!

Finish Small Steps, And turn in the Small Steps questions, story and character out lines (3 sheets).

Free read 140 pages of something wonderful - (yes Hunter I will get you a book list)

Write a "What is....... poem 35 words or more. Here is a piece of one that I read in class

Spring wears on her shoulder. Make sure to use Simile and Metaphors and understand the difference between the two.

6) click on practice papers (it will give you the prompt, responses and scoring)

1/16/08 - Due to the 2 hour delay today we did not have time to see all of our presentations. We did see Kaleb - Art, Nick - Inventions, Colin - Architecture and Callie - Agriculture. We will see the rest of the presentations on Wed. the 23rd. You should have finished papers to turn in as well as the other assignments.

1/9/08 Today in themes we did a long warm up discussing the role and expertise of an Archeologist, Anthropologist, Sociologist and an Historian as they relate to our study of the Mesoamerican cultures. We also worked on polishing our Power Point presentations which we will present next week. We also designed travel brochures to Macchu Picchu and Tikal. The word for the week is JAGUAR!

Due 1/16 Power point presentation worth 50 points. Graded on content, visual aspects of the power point and your oral presentation.

Due 1/23 - 1. A paper that compares one aspect of the Maya, Aztec and Inca cultures. 2. Your Comparison chart. 3. the 100 word vocabulary list.

1/2/08 Today we had a presentation by Sandie Ely a teacher from Monroe who brought slides and interesting info. on her trip to Belize and Tikal. We did an in class paragraph comparing a 4 oz. piece of fruit with a 4 oz. piece of candy using the hand out on comparative writing. Please bring a finished paragraph if you didn't turn it in already.

Andrew, Hunter and Chris still need to turn in their maps!! See Assignment below - 12/19

Due 1/16 Power point presentation worth 50 points. Graded on content, visual aspects of the power point and your oral presentation.

Due 1/23 - 1. A paper that compares one aspect of the Maya, Aztec and Inca cultures. 2. Your Comparison chart. 3. the 100 word vocabulary list.

Kaleb took excellent notes and is willing to share them with those that missed class.

12/12 - Work continues on our Power Points. We worked on paragraph writing and outlines.

Homework due 12/19 - A map (yes, a map) that includes: Continents, countries, sites or ancient Civilizations (Maya, Aztec and Inca), modern cities, bodies of water, mountains ranges - use color :)

Bring a USB stick so you can take your Power Points home to work on. Due date for those is January 16th.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

12/5 - We are working on Power Point presentations of an aspect of the Maya, Aztec, Inca cultures. This is a comparison. Students will: 1. write a comparison essay

Homework is to research your topic and come to class next week with printed notes and a book.

Our testing time went more smoothly this time. We are still learning to become better writers. Home work for next week is to come with a typed paragraph that you will read out loud to the class.

Please 1, research, 2. Form an opinion, and 3. Write a good topic sentence followed by concrete details and commentary and a conclusion. All of which will help to answer who, what, when, why and where.

READ< READ< READ READ< READ Did I mention that I hope you are all reading at home.

Keep your vocabulary list going. Kaleb is putting you all to shame with 66 words done.

Next class will include clay time where we will continue to work on your ancient Mexican jewelry designs.

11/21 Class today showed us how important it is to take tests and quizzes seriously and to bring note cards when asked to do so. Please read the Machu Picchu guide and come with notes that will help you answer direct factual questions on a quiz. Also, those of you who now have the orange book please bring in your finished 8 questions.

Please answer the first three questions that you wrote using the National Geographic Magazine. Also fill your note card with any useful info. that you would like to bring to class with you for our in class - Quiz on 11/21. The following students should also answer the additional 5 questions that you wrote - using the orange easy reader: Lincoln, Callie, Colin, Tyler, Hunter, Julianne.

Kaleb, Andrew, Chris, Nick, Antonia and Kaitlyn will answer their questions for 11/28.

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We had terrific presentations today as we wrapped up our Industrial Revolution and Invention quarter. Home work for Nov. 14^th is to finish our ‘Grace’ book and write a 5 paragraph summary using a prompt of your choice or “Counting on Grace” painted a picture of the Industrial Revolution that transported me to a different time and place by…”

Please look on the website and read Parade Press about the field trips that happen next week. Thanks to those that were able to come to the presentations today. We had a wonderful time.

We had a terrific day today figuring out the pluses and minuses of industrialization. We watched a short video, participated in a craft making experiment, read our paragraphs out loud and Tyler presented his Smithsonian Article summary.

Everyone but Callie is heading home to “doctor” their Most Important Invention paragraph.

If you have questions about writing a complete sentence or a paragraph – if concrete detail and commentary are new to you, please let me know and come in for some extra writing help.

Thank you all. Mrs. G---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today in class we worked on note taking and summarizing skills, sentence structure and paragraph writing. We added to our knowledge about the Industrial Revolution, discussed important inventions of the last 2000 years and defined our Invention groups.

As many of you know, on our first day of class, during our Power Point workshop, I received a phone call that my husband’s Dad had passed away suddenly and unexpectedly at 66 years old. It was a shock and the students were supportive and kind. Thank you all!

We did finish our Power Point class and the presentations were wonderful. This is a valuable skill that we will be using throughout the year.Our current theme is The Industrial Revolution and Inventors/Inventions.

Students are reading ‘Breaker’ or ‘The Blue Door’ to Chap. 9 for this week and to Chap. 18 by Oct. 3^rd.

As with many things at Parade, if your student finds a book that is similar but more to their liking or level feel free to contact me, individual arrangements are welcome.

We are also working on lists. Lists of what we deem to be the 10 most important inventions of the last 2000 years and what inventions we think will help to make or break the next 2000 years. We will be writing an in class paragraph to support our choices on 9/26 and students will be taking home a writing assessment challenge to be turned in Oct. 3^rd.