Fifty-Third Class Period: Great Expectations 30-35

Quiz: Great Expectations, Chapters 28-29

Students listened to Chapters 30 to 32 in class.

Homework: Read Chapters 33-35 of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.

Fifty-Second Class Period: Great Expectations 26-29

Quiz: Great Expectations, Ch. 24-25

Students listened to chapters twenty-six through the beginning of twenty-eight in class.

Homework: Finish reading Ch. 28 and read all of Ch. 29.

Fifty-First Class Period: Great Expectations 21-25

Students listened to chapters twenty-one to twenty-three in class.

Homework: Read Great Expectations, Ch. 24-25.

Fiftieth Class Period: Comma & Sentence Combining Test

Students completed a test over commas and sentence combining. They had to insert commas where needed and identify the principle behind their choice for inserting the comma. They had to identify the correctly combined pair of clauses from a set of options as well as combine to clauses on their own.

Homework: Try to finish your book report book over Thanksgiving.

Forty-Ninth Class Period: Test Review

Mr. Stone passed back the last of the graded comma exercises and went over the answers and took questions. He offered extra study sheets for those who had misplaced the ones they had previously received. He offered a second practice test for students to complete. Answers are available here. Answers for Practice Test One are available here.

Students are to bring all of the papers for the film analysis essay to class tomorrow for Mr. Stone to record any missing items. Mr. Stone gave students a list of the items they should bring and the order in which they should be arranged.

Students are to bring their book report book to class tomorrow to read after their test.

Homework: Study for the comma and sentence combining test, bring film essay papers, and book report book.

Forty-Eighth Class Period: Great Expectations 18-20

Students practice combining two sentences using conjunctive adverbs. They received feedback before the end of the class period.

The class listened to Chapter 18 and most of Chapter 19 of Great Expectations in class.

Students received volume two of Great Expectations.

Homework: Finish reading through Chapter 20 of Great Expectations.

Note: Few students have taken advantage of the tutoring available for this week's test.

Forty-Seventh Class Period: Great Expectations, Chapters 15-17

Students were to write a minimum of a half-page summary of Chapters 13-14 of Great Expectations in their journals.

They practiced combining two sentences using a coordinate conjunction. They received feedback before the end of the period.

The class listened to Chapters 15-16 of Great Expectations.

Homework: Read Great Expectations Chapter 17 in preparation for a quiz.

Don't forget your test over commas and sentence combining is the last class period before Thanksgiving break.

Forty-Sixth Class Period: Comma and Sentence Combining Practice Test

After taking a quiz over Chapters 11 & 12 of Dickens' Great Expectations, students completed a practice test over the use of commas and combining clauses. Mr. Stone went over the correct answers.

Homework: Read Great Expectations, Chapters 13 & 14. Begin reviewing for comma and sentence combining test. Take advantage of the links to the right on this blog for web-based comma quizzes.

Forty-Fifth Class Period: Great Expectations 8-12

Quiz: Great Expectations, Chapter 8

Students listened to Chapters 9-10.

Homework: Read Chapters 11-12.

Don't forget to try out one of the comma quizzes to the right on this blog.

Forty-Fourth Class Period: Great Expectations 6-8

Students were to write at least a half-page in their journals summarizing the events of chapters one to five of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations (entry titled: GE 1-5). They were encouraged to add questions, comments and connections to their summary.

Quiz: Great Expectations, Chapters 4 & 5

In class students listened to Great Expectations, Chapters 6 & 7.

Homework: Read Chapter 8 of Great Expectations. Begin studying for the sentence combining and comma test. See previous blog entry for details.

Next Test: Sentence Combining and Commas

Students will be receiving back this week their graded sentence combining and comma exercises during their second and third class periods this week. (Any students who did not complete these exercises should see Mr. Stone to check out a book and/or receive the handouts necessary to complete theses exercises.) Links to self-grading quizzes will be posted on Tuesday. A pretest will be given during the fourth class period of this week. The actual test will be given the last class period of next week (November 17th/18th). Mr. Stone will be available for questions or additional review during lunch time on Wednesday, November 9th and Monday November 14th. He will also be available during optional periods on Wednesday 11/16, Thursday 11/17, Monday 11/14, and Tuesday 11/15.

Forty-Third Class Period: Great Expectations 1-5

Students began reading Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. A copy of the first volume of the novel was distributed to each student. In class they listened to chapters one to three.

Homework: Read chapters four and five of Great Expectations. There will be a quiz over chapters four and five at the beginning of class.

Forty-Second Class Period: Silent Sustained Reading

On either Thursday/Friday, students had class time for silent sustained reading of the books they selected to read for their second quarter book report (our first of the year).

Second Quarter Book Report

A permission slip was sent home earlier this week for parents/guardians to approve their student's reading selection for the the second quarter book report. Mr. Stone approved most of the books selected. The books some students selected were not approved for the assignment because their reading level or content was inappropriate for English I. Details about the writing of the book report will be given to students next week. The second quarter book report will be due on Monday, December 12th for periods one, two, five and six, and on Tuesday, December 13th for period seven.

Students should spend at least a half-an-hour this weekend reading the book they chose for their second quarter report.

Forty-First Class Period: Punctuating Interrupting and Conventional Elements with Commas

Mr. Stone reviewed rules for punctuating interrupting elements and conventional elements with commas.

Students applied the concepts in completing Exercises 11, 12, and 13 in the punctuation section of the Writing and Grammar text in class.

Homework: Get approval for book report book if you haven't already. Bring book for reading time on Thursday.

Fortieth Class Period: Commas--Coordinate and Introductory

Mr. Stone collected last night's homework: using commas to punctuate items in a series. (See yesterday's blog post.)

Mr. Stone distributed "Parent Approval and Book Confirmation" forms and comma rules handout.

Mr. Stone discussed how to use commas to punctuate coordinate and introductory elements.

While students worked on Exercises 7 (479), 9 (482), and 10 (484) using a Prentice Hall Writing and Grammar (Gold Level) from the classroom set, Mr. Stone worked on checking student's film analysis essay.

Homework: Select a book for your second quarter book report and get your parents to sign the "Parent Approval and Book Confirmation" form.