Twenty-Third Class Period: Peer Edit of Political Cartoon Description

Using a peer-editing check sheet, students edited a classmate's description of a political cartoon.

NOTE: Mr. Stone has changed his mind. He does NOT want to receive the final draft of the political cartoon description as an actual e-mail. He DOES WANT the political cartoon description submitted in MLA format. Students should take what would have been the subject line of their e-mail and make it the paper's title. (Remember a good title typically includes the subject and the viewpoint.)

Students should keep the salutation, body, and closing as would be done in a letter/e-mail. They should be careful to make sure that the entire paper is double-spaced.

MLA Bibliographic Form for a Cartoon

Cartoonist's last name, First name. "Title of Cartoon If Present." Cartoon. Name of Newspaper. Day of Month Month Year: Section and Page Number. Print.

Sample:

Sutton, Ward. "Why Wait 'til November?" Cartoon. Village Voice. 7 July 2009: A6. Print.

Students were to pick up the three research handouts from the round table at the back of the classroom and read them.

Homework: Complete final draft of the description of a poltical cartoon and bring all drafts and peer critiques with you to class.

Twenty-Second Class Period: Third Quarter Book Report Peer Edit

Mr. Stone shared a humorous anecdote about the literalness of children as a devotional thought and lead into considering the importance of making sure our words are well-chosen and clear for our readers.

Students used a peer-editing check sheet to assist them in editing a classmate's book report.

Homework: Make final revisions to your third quarter book report. Bring the final draft of your book report to class tomorrow. Make sure you also bring the revised draft of your political cartoon that you should have completed last week to class tomorrow for a peer edit.

Students should be bringing their copy of Diana Hacker's Pocket Style Manual (5th edition) to class every day until further notice.

Chapter 1 of the Vocabulary Energizer book is due at the beginning of the last class period of this week (Thursday/Friday depending on your period).

Twenty-First Class Period: Peer Critique of 3rd Qtr Book Report

Mr. Stone checked for the completion of the students eight prewriting journal entries for the third-quarter book report. He also checked for the completion of a typed rough-draft of the book review. Students needed to have a minimum of seven paragraphs in their review.

Students completed a peer critique of a partner's paper in class.

Students began working on Chapter 1 of the Vocabulary Engergizers book. Their test will be the last period of this class next week (either Thursday/Friday).

Homework: Complete a revised draft of the book report. Bring also the revised draft of your description e-mail to class and your copy of A Pocket Style Manual, Fifth Edition, by Diana Hacker.

Twentieth Class Period: More Prewriting Time

Students had class time to finish the prewriting for their third quarter book report. They had an opportunity to review their graded second quarter book report. They received a copy of the book report peer critique sheet and an MLA style sheet.

Homework: Complete a typed rough-draft of the book report including an introduction, one-to-two paragraphs of plot summary, three-to-five paragraphs of analysis, a conclusion, and a work cited page.

Nineteenth Class Period: Third Quarter Book Report Prewriting

Students were given class time to work on the prewriting for their third-quarter book report.

Homework: Continue working on prewriting in journal.

Eighteenth Class Period: Note Taking & Housekeeping

Mr. Stone reviewed some common format information for note-taking and had students copy notes on description from the board.

Students received their third-quarter grade reports. Students passed back papers and had the opportunity to verify the accuracy of their grade report.

Mr. Stone checked for the completion of the students' peer critique and revised draft of their e-mail describing a political cartoon for an imaginary visually-impaired friend.

If students have finished reading their third quarter book report book, then they have no homework over the long weekend. If any have not finished reading his/her book, then he/she should finish reading it before class on Tuesday.

Seventeenth Class Period: Description Peer Critique

Mr. Stone reviewed the three most common description techniques: naming, detailing, and comparing. He also gave notes on the difference between objective and subjective description, types of sensory details, and guidelines for description.

Students peer-critiqued a classmate's describing-a-political-cartoon-to-an-imaginary-visually-impaired-friend paper (See the link-list "Description" to the right for a link to the peer critique sheet.

Homework: Complete revisions of the describing-a-political-cartoon-to-an-imaginary-visually-impaired-friend paper. Bring revised draft to class tomorrow.

Sixteenth Class: Nonfiction Test Part Two

Students took part two of the nonfiction unit test.

After the test, students wrote in their journal in response to the following prompt: Valentine's Day is ___________________. They were to fill one page/minimum of 25 lines in their journals.

Homework: Finish journal entry if not completed in class. Spend time reading book report book and/or if finished reading your book report book, work on the eight prewriting entries for the next book report as done for the last book report if you would like to work ahead.

Career Writing

For the career writing question of the nonfiction test, students will be asked to identify the career of one of their parents or guardians and list at least the two most common types of writing they do for their job: business letters, charting, e-mails, blogging, PowerPoint scripts, business proposals, menus, shopping lists, etc.

Fifteenth Class: Grammar Review

Mr. Stone listed again the sections of part two of the nonfiction unit test:

Section one: subject verb agreement

Section two: verb tense consistency

Section three: distinguishing between nonstandard and standard English

Section four: classifying common nonfiction genres (graphic organizer)

Section five: career writing

Section six: identifying quotations

Students completed three exercises in class to review the grammar concepts on the first three sections of the test. Mr. Stone went over the answers to the exercises at the end of the period.

While students were working on their grammar exercises, Mr. Stone checked for completion of the political cartoon journal entry, the describing a political cartoon pre-writing journal entry (naming, detailing, and comparing), and the typed rough draft of the describing a political cartoon e-mail.

Homework: Study for part two of the nonfiction test for tomorrow.

Fourteenth Class Period: Highlighting and Reading

Mr. Stone reviewed the expectations for the two political cartoon journal entries.

The first entry should be titled "Political Cartoon" and contain the name of the newspaper, its publication date, the section letter and page number where the cartoon was located, and the actual cartoon pasted to the page.

The second entry should be titled "Political Cartoon Prewriting." This page should be fully filled with a description of the cartoon. Students should highlight their use of the three primary description techniques: naming, detailing, and comparing. The names used to describe the people, places, things, ideas, and actions found in the cartoon should be highlighted blue. The adjectives and adverbs that provide details about these items should be highlighted yellow. The similes and metaphors used should be highlighted orange.

Mr. Stone checked to see if students brought their book report book to class.

Homework: Type a rough draft of your description of your political cartoon for your imaginary visually-impaired friend. Use the drafting directions found to the right on this blog under the heading description.

Thirteenth Class Period: Nonfiction Test Part One

Students took part one of the nonfiction test.

After the test students had time to read their book report book, work some more on their describing a political cartoon prewriting, or begin prewriting journal entries for their third quarter book report.

No homework was assigned for the next class period; however, students would be wise to be studying for part two of the nonfiction test.

Part Two of Nonfiction Test Delayed

To allow a little more time for instruction and review, Mr. Stone has decided to postpone part two of the nonfiction test (identifying quotes from nonfiction texts read for class, subject-verb agreement, consistent verb tense, formal/standard English versus informal/nonstandard English, classifying nonfiction genres.)

In particular, Mr. Stone would like to give some more time to classifying nonfiction genres.

Periods two, five, and six will take part two of the nonfiction test on Tuesday, February 14th. Periods one and seven will take part two of the nonfiction test on Wednesday, February 15th.

Twelfth Class Period: Description Prewriting & Test Review

Students were given time to write one page of description of the political cartoon they cut the previous period from a newspaper. They were to use naming, detailing, and comparing. Over the upcoming weekend, students will write their descriptions in an e-mail to an imagined blind friend, describing the cartoon and its humor. (Students will not send the rough draft of their e-mail to anyone. The final draft of their e-mail will be sent to Mr. Stone: dstone@lla.org.)

Mr. Stone described again how the upcoming test will be divided between two days. The first day's portion will include author-title, title-genre, literary terms, and vocabulary. The second day's portion will include identifying quotations, grammar (subject-verb agreement, consistent verb tense, and standard/formal English and nonstandard/informal English), and classifying genres of nonfiction.

Mr. Stone discussed the classification of nonfiction genres using a graphic organizer on the front whiteboard of the classroom. A revised copy of this graphic organizer will be posted on this blog for students to use for review.

Homework: Study for part one of the nonfiction test.

Eleventh Class Period: Description Techniques & Political Cartoons

Mr. Stone gave each student a newspaper and pointed out the typical location of political cartoons on the opinion/editorial/op-ed page usually located near the back of the first section of most daily American newspapers.

Students were directed to label a new page in their journals: "Political Cartoon." Before cutting out a political cartoon from their newspapers, they were instructed to write down the name of the newspaper they received (New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Press Enterprise, The Sun, or USA Today), the publication date, and the section and page number where the cartoon was located.

After cutting out the cartoon, they were to paste it in their journal.

Mr. Stone described the three most common techniques of description: naming, detailing, and comparing.

Homework: Read "In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle," a book review by Steve Gietschier (715-716).

Tenth Class Period: Grammar

Mr. Stone collected reading strategy worksheet 167 (Finding Writer's Main Points and Support), literary analysis worksheet 164 (essay), and literary analysis worksheet 168 (biographical and autobiographical writing)at the beginning of the period. He reviewed the key concepts for subject-verb agreement, consistent verb tenses, and the differences between standard and nonstandard English.

Students worked with classmates to complete four grammar skills worksheets: 158 Subject-Verb Agreement, 162 Consistency of Verbs, 166 Subject-Verb Agreement:Confusing Subjects, and 170 Varieties of English: Standard, Nonstandard.

All four worksheets were collected before class was over.

Homework: Read "Earhart Redux" (711-714).

Ninth Class Period: Analyzing Nonfiction

Mr. Stone described the common ways nonfiction is divided. He defined essay, formal essay, informal essay, narrative easy, persuasive essay, reflective essay, biographical and autobiographical writing. He pointed out to students the relationship between the students expository writing assignments and the terms under discussion, including main point and supporting details.

Students began working with class mates to complete reading strategy worksheet 167 (Finding Writer's Main Points and Support), literary analysis worksheet 164 (essay), and literary analysis worksheet 168 (biographical and autobiographical writing).

Mr. Stone announced the nonfiction unit test will be given over the last two class periods of each section next week.

Homework: Finish the three worksheets began in class.