Peppler’s Classroom Blog

Monday: DOL Quiz. Students filled out 1st Quarter Reflections (just in time for PT conferences!)  Grade sheets handed out today, questions answered, problems dealt with. A little time left for vocab review.

Tuesday:  Vocab quiz 4 scheduled.  We’ll hopefully have time to discuss the reading so far.  I may introduced the concept of Theme, if time.

Another quote and idiom, and we’ll start up DOL again next week.

We spent a few minutes dealing with clarifying questions from the overnight reading (Chps 5 and 6).  Homework for Monday: Read Chps. 7-9 (finishes up the first section).

I mentioned today about a project that we will start up soon to create a study guide (rather than just use one) for the book we are reading right now.  I’ll be giving more details soon about the expectations and opportunities, as well as the tools we will use to accomplish this.

For the last half of class, we played a review game to practice and test our knowledge of the roots for the last three vocabulary units.  I think most students realized that they need to do a little more studying in this area.  Don’t forget: Vocab Quiz Unit 3 is next Tuesday. 

It appears that the school network is back up and running.  (I’m not positive as I am posting this from home) but at least some things are working.  I’ll be going in and getting caught up with some entering of grades (I couldn’t even get to my gradebook) and some email replies over the next couple days.

Hopefully Monday will be back to normal (well, as normal as a Monday CAN be…)

Have a great weekend!

Network down today, so I’m posting this from home…it’s a little late.

Discussed the quote at length (including fear and overcoming it.)  Then moved on to reading assignment.

We focused on conflict today, and I asked for examples of some of the conflict types that already exist in the book.  We looked at how the book was organized so far (not in chronological order) and why that is effective. 

We began reading chp. 5 but didn’t get very far.  Homework for tonight: Chps. 5 and 6.  Be ready to answer questions tomorrow.

With only a three-day week ahead of us, I’m skipping DOL for the week (typically four days on a sheet).  We will, however, still learn a new idiom and have a quote for each day.

Today, we spent quite a bit of time just talking about the first two chapters of Big Mouth and Ugly Girl. We talked about the point of view, the setting, how the two characters are characterized, and some specific language issues (like why Ugly Girl and Boring Fact are capitalized.)  I hope we can have some further discussions on how we build up emotional walls and barriers to “protect” ourselves…just like Ursula does in the book.

Homework for tomorrow:  Read chps. 3 an 4 and be ready to discuss them.

Reminder/clarification: Vocab quiz 3 on Wednesday.

After DOL, etc (we tackled the difference between lie and lay today…), we focused our attention on elements of fiction. 

I reviewed/explained plot and the various stages within a plot line, and we used examples of novels, movies, and video games to illustrate plot structure.  We also touched on the element of setting a little, too.

Tomorrow, we’ll discuss point-of-view, characterization, and conflict and do a few activities to get us ready for some of the issues that exist in Big Mouth and Ugly Girl, the novel we’ll be starting later this week.

Tomorrow, I’ll also give more details (if time) on how to log in to their blogs and get a few basic things set up.

Reminder: Description papers due Thursday.  Come see me if you have any questions.

Started DOL Week 6 today.

I collected the Unit 3 sentences, then I explained the final steps for the descriptive paper:

• Make sure you (and others) have done the editing (DOL stuff) for the paper.
• Make the changes to your document (either at home or on a school computer)
• Do one final proof to avoid typos
• Turn paper in on Thursday, Oct 18 (You may also turn it in before then, if you are finished.)

We also spent a little time on a quick overview of our class blog and the individual blogs that go with it.  I’ll be walking you through the setup for your individual blog one step at a time, and you’ll need to do much of this work on your own as homework.

Take a look at the class blog (with the links to student blogs), but please understand that I’m finishing up registering each student.

We will likely begin a little discussion tomorrow leading quickly into our first novel Big Mouth, Ugly Girl.

Finished DOL week 5, and the quotes and idioms for the week. 

I ‘collected’ vocab exercises, and we spent some time going over the words and exercises, especially some of the more confusing words. 

Sentences are due on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

Sorry, with progress grades due and my absence on Thursday…I’m a little behind.

Tues: in the lab, making the revisions to the descriptive paper.

Wed: Vocab 2 quiz, a little time to do some “editing” to the paper.

Thurs: I’m gone. Some concentrated time to do some editing, including some peer editing (at least three editors).

Both Wed and Thurs we did DOL, and all three days we had a quote and idiom.

Thanks for your patience!

Hmmm, I wonder if Eisenhower had their homecoming this weekend?  Energy level in the building might be at an all-time low…

We started week 5 of DOL, including a quote from James Thurber and an idiom that is also a slogan for a popular brand of salt.  Parents?  Trivia question??? 

After that, we did a little review of adjectives and some practice, as a class, on rewriting boring adjectives with strong, effective ones.  We then moved immediately to the descriptive papers and revised them for strong adjectives.  With all that we’ve done in revision so far, we are ready to move back into the lab tomorrow to make many of these important changes and move into the editing process.

Reminder: Vocab Quiz Unit 2 on Wednesday (moved one day back).  Also, make sure the Language Network books are covered by tomorrow!

Finished the week’s DOL, etc. 

We looked briefly at verbs, reviewing the difference between action and linking verbs.  To practice, we did an activity from the Language Network books (p. 16) in class and corrected it together.

Then, to apply this directly to student writing, everyone took out their descriptive pieces and we spent the remainder of the hour revising for verb choice.  I asked students to try to remove as many linking verbs and replace them with strong active verbs.  We did some examples in class before students began working.

The only homework for the weekend is to finish the verb revision that we started in class.  Please make sure that all revisions that we’ve covered are complete by Monday.  We’ll move on to another aspect of revision then.

Have a great weekend!  Come to Ike Stock!  Go Lions!