March 14

Thank you for an interesting and entertaining period of presentations. It will be difficult to choose between them. If you did not get to present today, please be ready on Monday March 31. Please also get your story posted on the wiki by the end of Spring Break. Read Things Fall Apart and do the project. Remember that the link is on my website. Read some of Mockingbird and read something else for fun. Have a great break. I know I will.

March 13

Sorry, I got side tracked last night and did not get the blog done. Anyway, we marked part of the unit exam and then heard our first Dystopian presentations. I have made a few changes to the wiki that you might want to check out. I you haven't done the exam, you must do so today (Friday). We will hear the rest of the dystopian presentations on Friday. Make sure you have a Things Fall Apart and Mockingbird book before you go away for spring break. The Things Fall apart link is now running on the website. Thanks Preet!!

March12

Well, today was a fairly chaotic day. We marked part of the exam from yesterday and then went to the new computer lab. Everyone was asked to choose a topic for research and then find their way to the online worksheet. Your goal will be to produce a web poster about your topic. Don't lose those little slips of paper, because you need the class code to log in to make your poster. If you did not write it down, the URL is http://poster.4teachers.org/ We also signed out books, "Things Fall Apart" and "To Kill a Mockingbird". You must read Things and do the assignment over Spring Break. Try to read as much Mockingbird as possible. I also got several people to register for the wiki and have accepted them as members. Have a look at the first story that is on the wiki, not quite done maybe?? but interesting none the less.

March 11

Today we did the Short Story Unit Final. There was a little time left over for projects. I also gave out some copies of "Things Fall Apart". These will be signed out tomorrow. Please bring your short story books in so they can be returned. The first projects need to be ready for Thursday. Those people who were away today should be prepared to write the exam in class time tomorrow or on Thursday after school.

PS. I seem to be missing a lot of utopia/dystopian protagonist sheets. etc.

March 10

Today we did a sheet on "dependent clauses" and another "identifying run-ons and fragments". After this, there was time to work on the Dystopian stories. The first presentation will have to be on Thursday, as not all of them will fit on one day. The Short Story Unit Final Exam will be tomorrow. It will require you to know terms and the names and characters in many of the short stories we read this term.
Also you may need to know the following:

• A story of Plot is a story where you just want to find out the end; it has plenty of twists and turns and suspense, etc.; detective and adventure stories are usually stories of plot
• A story of Character is a story which focuses on some trait or peculiarity in one of the main characters and the plot is largely about how this affects the character or changes them etc.; it usually has some internal struggle but can also include external struggle as well.
• A story of Setting is one where the setting plays a major part in the story, ie., as the antagonist; it is often full of "local colour"; more time is spent on the setting than on the characters or plot.
• There is no such thing as a story of theme.
  

Bonus: The first one may be challenging as you might not know some of the stories; do your best. Do this for 1 point. Send me the winning screen shot.
http://www.quia.com/rr/221947.html

You can do the second bonus 2 times for 2 points if you wish.
http://www.quia.com/jg/1061816.html

March 7

Today we did quite a lot of grammar/sentence review looking at subordinating & coordinating conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs. We did a worksheet on independent clauses and marked it and there was a minimum of time to work on the Dystopian stories. It was also record sheet day. The Short Story Unit Final Exam will be on Tuesday, March 11. Have a great weekend.

Bonus: Send me your winning screen shot!! Good for 48 hours!
Differentiating Sentences, Run-ons, and Fragments
http://www.quia.com/rr/243116.html

March 6

Today we did a DOGO quiz (do one, get one free) on terms list 3 and short stories. Then we reviewed what a sentence is and how to fix run-ons fragments. A worksheet was given out. My website is currently inaccessable to me so i won't be posting any new sheets on it for a while. Seem me if you need this sheet. I also handed out the outline for the dystopian story project. It has to be done by next Friday. The Unit exam scheduled for Friday will now be on Monday. Happy dancing.

March 5

Today we went over Terms list #3 in preparation for the quiz tomorrow. After this, I gave out the new Wiki instructions. Remember to get your Google accounts so we can get started. Then we played a couple of review games on those terms and the short story terms. Finally, I gave out a disordered paragraph about story structure that has to be rearranged into the proper order. Also, interims were given out. Please get these signed and returned.

Bonus: This offer is good for 48 hours only!!! Send me the screenshot or print out the winning page. P.S. play on medium or hard!!!

Poetry Battleships
http://www.quia.com/ba/103618.html

March 4

What do you know? We did some English today. We watched a segment from "The Matrix" and filled in the dystopian protagonist sheets. We also discussed direct vs indirect presentation in characterization. We watched the introduction to the Macintosh computer and the first Mac ad, a parody of "1984". There was an accompanying worksheet that asks you to select examples of dystopian characterization etc. from the ad and then explain the negative characteristics that it is referring to. Please have all these sheets done for tomorrow and fill in terms list #3 for tomorrow too. There will be a quiz on terms list #3 on Thursday. The unit final exam is scheduled for Friday but may be postponed due to the various interruptions we have had this week. Stay tuned!

Image »Chris« (1994) taken from the series »Dystopia«

March 3

Hmmmm. Course Planning now. Well, we'll try again tomorrow to do some English.