Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Comma Test

Tuesday 16 December 2014 for Periods 2, 5, & 6 and Wednesday 17 December 2014 for Period 7

Students took their comma test and had time to begin reading their homework. Most students finished reading the homework in class.

Homework: Read John F. Kennedy's "The New Frontier" (644-646) and the excerpt from Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics (696-704).

Open-Book Quizzes and Final Comma Review

15 December 2014 for Periods 2, 5, & 6 and 16 December 2014 for Period 7

Open-Book Quiz 1: Joan Didion's "Georgia O'Keefe"

Open-Book Quiz 2: Alex Chadwick's "Earhart Redux" and Steve Geitschier's "In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle"

Students received back their graded comma exercises and their comma practice test with a key for them to self-grade and use as an additional study tool.

Students also received a test practice sheet for the table portion of the upcoming nonfiction test.

Homework: Finish preparing for the comma test. Remember the online comma quiz links you can find on the right-hand side of this blog.

Mr. Stone Out Sick

Mr. Stone was out sick last Thursday and Friday. He's back this week.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Comma Exercises Graded and Biographical Essay

Wednesday 10 December 2014 for Periods 5 & 6 and Thursday 11 December 2014 for Periods 2 & 7

Students had time to review.

Quizzes: A White House Diary and Arthur Ashe Remembered

Students exchanged their comma exercises with a classmate and graded them using a key projected on a screen at the front of the classroom.

Students received their papers back and had a chance to see their scores. The papers were submitted to the teacher to be recorded.

Homework: Read Joan Didion's Georgia O'Keefe.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

More Comma Exercises, a Diary Excerpt, and a Rememberance

Tuesday 9 December 2014 for Periods 2, 5 & 6 and Wednesday 10 December for Period 7

Students finished Exercises 7-13 using the classroom set of Prentice Hall Writing and Grammar (Gold Level) books (479-491).

Homework: Read the excerpt from Lady Bird Johnson's A White House Diary and John McPhee's "Arthur Ashe Remembered" (674-684).

Comma Exercises and a Reflective Essay

Monday 8 December 2014 for Periods 2, 5, & 6 and Tuesday 9 December 2014 for Period 7

Students began working on Exercises 7-13 in a classroom set of Prentice Hall's Writing and Grammar (Gold Level).

Homework: Read Rudolfo Anaya's "A Celebration of Grandfathers" (662-668).

Thursday, December 4, 2014

The Persuasive Essay & More on Commas

Thursday 4 December 2014 for Periods 5 & 6 and Friday 5 December 2014 for Periods 2 & 7

Students had ten minutes to review at the beginning of the period. Mr. Stone emphasized the need to think of the text as an essay as opposed to a story.

Quiz: Lorraine Hansberry's "On Summer"

Mr. Stone shared from a letter he was sending his mother about the class's discussion of Singer's "The Washwoman."

Short Lecture: The Three Appeals of Persuasion

Rhetorical Analysis: "On Summer"

Mr. Stone went over more on the comma rules.

Homework: None (Banquet weekend) Have a great time!

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

The Narrative Essay & Commas as Separators

Devotional Text: Luke 1:26-28

Quiz: Isaac Bashevis Singer's "The Washwoman" (650-655)

Short Lecture: Narrative Essay

Short Discussion: Thesis in "The Washwoman"

Mr. Stone began reading through the comma rules packet with the class, explaining each grammatical construction and providing extra examples. Mr. Stone emphasized how commas function as separators, not joiners. He defined comma splice.

Homework: Read Lorraine Hansberry's "On Summer" (656-661).

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Description, Observation, & Grading of Comma Pretest

Devotional Text: Isaiah 9:6

Quiz: Sally Ride's "Single Room, Earth View"

Students received a table of common nonfiction genres with definitions and another without the definitions. The definition of these terms will be evaluated on the nonfiction test given before Christmas break. Students may find the table without definitions useful as they study for the portion of the test where they will need to be able to classify nonfiction genres by primary intention/form of discourse.

Students also received a packet on the five rules/principles of commas.

Mr. Stone reviewed the introductory material on observation and description in the text(635) and students took notes on the definition of description and on description techniques--naming, detailing, and comparing. Mr. Stone explained the writing adage: "Be concrete and specific" by using an example from his recent writing.

The class finished correcting their comma pretests. Two separate scores will be recorded, one showing how many commas the student properly inserted and another showing how many times the correctly identify which rule/principle supported the use of a comma in the given instance.

Homework: Read Isaac Bashevis Singer's "the Washwoman" (650-655). There will be a quiz at the beginning of the next class period.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Introduction to Nonfiction and Comma Pretest

Devotional: David Stone's "The First Day of Advent on a Bus"

The class read the two page introduction to nonfiction in their textbook (630-631) and Mr. Stone gave some additional introductory comments.

Mr. Stone reminded students to review the reading check questions and the questions at the end of the passage in preparation for a quiz over the passage. He encouraged them to read the piece twice since it is only four pages long.

Pretest: Students completed a pretest over comma usage and rules (principles).

Students who finished their pretest early were able to begin reading their homework.

Once all the students were finished with the pretest, the class began correcting them.

Homework: Read Sally Ride's "Single Room, Earth View" (636-640).