Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Rain, rain, come back someday soon, we need you!

Today was our first annual Bring your Mom to School Day. If the parking lot was any sign, then today was a rousing success. It was nice to meet or re-meet some of your moms! Then, we saw the play “This is a Test….” by the drama department, so we had a shortened period.

SAT Prep — We reviewed S/V agreement rules. HW: None

American Lit.: Before the play, I collected last night’s homework, gave you a completion grade and gave it back to you. Then, after the play, we discussed each question and then went over it, but we didn’t finish, so we will tomorrow.

NO HW

10th honors lit.: Before the play, I answered any questions that you might have on your portfolio. After the play, I allowed anyone that needed help to come up and have me read a section of your poem, paper, or essays.

Remember to make sure your essay and paper are scanned through www.turnitin.com and that your receipt numbers are on your essays.

HW: Finalize portfolio.  Remember, I will answer emails through 10 pm tonight.

Chow!

Mrs. B

Monday, November 26, 2007

Hey folks!

Welcome back. Today was a toughie — some of you were extra sedated. All that turkey and rest, I know…I know. 

Here’s what we did:

SAT Prep: A plethora of handouts on: S/V agreement, Subject complements and Pronoun Case. We checked your grammatical exercises from last Monday. Vocab. words (available via the Internet) from: pernicious to rebuke. HW: None

10th honors lit.: Today was peer editing/revision day for your character or thematic analysis. I checked your papers for MLA format, length and you earned a quiz grade. Then, I assigned you partners. Here was the checklist for editing:

• Read through once without marking anything
• Highlight thesis and topic sentences
• Does the thesis show profound critical thinking? Is it arguable and provable? 
• Are the topic sentences analytical and answer the questions “what” and “why?”
• Is the paper organized logically and clearly?
• Has the best possible evidence been selected?
• Edit for: diction, sentence structure and to be verbs
• leave positive and constructive criticism in a paragraph at the end of their paper.

HW: Work on portfolio!

American Lit.: We continued with our Rev. speech unit. We read Patrick Henry’s “Speech in the Virginia Convention” pages 186-190 and Ben Franklin’s “Speech in the Convention” pages 191-192.  I introduced you to the following rhetorical devices: repetition, restatement, and parallelism.

HW: Questions page 193 (#1-6; 8-9).