Peppler’s Classroom Blog

Starting routine (finished DOL for the week), then we went over the homework for today (Nouns).  Depending on the class, we had some time to read the “creative homework” excuses to each other. 

I introduced pronouns and assigned Exercise A on both page 10 and 13.  (For the exercise on pg. 13, they also have to write down the type of pronoun that it is.)  This is due tomorrow. I gave them permission to work together on this assignment with a couple others, and I gave them a little class time to get started, too.

We are focusing quite a bit on grammar skills at the beginning of the year.  This is to give them a refresher or a base for building their other writing skills.  When we are talking about how to inject a piece of writing with voice, we can’t stop in the middle to define what I mean by “adjective”. 

We’ll be moving into their first “official” writing assignment next week, as we continue to review parts of speech and other grammatical issues.

DOL routine starts the class period.

Explained and assigned Nouns exercises A and B (p.8) for tomorrow.

Reminder: Study the Roots!!  (Quiz on words and roots next Tuesday, Sept.  25)

We did some practice writing today related to Ideas trait.  Practice generating ideas and including details.  Entry entitled “Why I don’t have my homework…”  (Hope I’m not giving them ideas…:)

As a quick aside in class, I showed them a blog entry from a projessional colleague who is in Shanghai, China right now with a number of other educators (some of whom I “know” through digital connections) for a technology/education conference.  Stuck back here in the states, I’ve been able to follow along with the conference and all the digital conversation related to it, thanks to all sorts of Web 2.0 technologies that available.  As a cool side effect of these connections, I have also been able to get an on-the-ground perspective of Typhoon Wipha that struck near Shanghai last night (?) and has stranded these colleagues.  Amazing to follow along in real-time what I would never have known about even just a few years ago.  Then, I might have caught a small headline in the paper; now, I’m getting photos and instant messages from the 31st floor of an apartment in Shanghai. 

Now, to stretch the students’ learning beyond the four classroom walls and help them make these kinds of connections….

After the starting routine, we reviewed last nights assignment.  Because we had little time for questions at the end of the hour yesterday, we simply went over the answers in class…no one was penalized because of my “speed” of handing them the assignment on Monday.

After reviewing Adverbs, I gave a quick overview of the Ideas trait of good writing.  We especially focused on the need for details, and looked at a couple examples.  Then, the students did a little practice, taking a plain sentence that was lacking detail and wrote a short paragraph developing the single sentence into a detailed description.  At the end of the hour, I asked for some volunteers to share what they had written.

No homework for tonight, other than the regular (10 min.) review of vocab words and roots.

My apologies for the delayed “report”; this will not be a habit.

Monday, we started Week 2 of DOL, etc.

I gave an overview of the writing process, stressing the difference among the four “stages”.  Absent students should get the notes from a classmate.

We started a quick review of Parts of Speech (this will fit with the Conventions trait of writing).  The assignment was pp 21-22, Exercises A and B for tomorrow.

It was long week for all of us as we adjust to a 5-day school week again, but the students have been great!  What a great group; I hope to accomplish much with them in the coming months…

Today, I collected the vocab sentences, then we just had a quote and idiom, as we will often do on a Friday.  No DOL.

We also did a little analysis of the diagnostic grammar test we took.  Students looked through the results for the three most significant strengths and weaknesses that appeared.

We also spent some time doing some free-writing.  This both generates ideas for future use and increases the fluency of their writing. Today’s two entries were…

• Describe yourself as a stranger would see you
• Describe yourself as someone very close to you would see you (best friend, parent…)

Homework for the weekend: Review roots in Roots Binder and add some final thoughts to the two free-writes that we did in class.

Have a great weekend!  Go Lions!

Great to see so many parents at open house last night.  Any who were unable to make it, but you’ve stumbled upon this blog, I recorded my “session” with the 3rd hour “class” last night.  I’ll try to podcast that out soon so those who were absent can hear what I discussed.

Today, we finished the DOL for the week.  We’ll still do a quote and idiom tomorrow, and maybe a little free writing for practice.

I “collected” the Vocab exercises for Unit One.  We went over the answers to the exercises in class.  Tomorrow, the sentences are due.

We also finished (finally!) scoring the diagnostic test.  Tomorrow, we’ll look at to assess individual strengths and weaknesses in the grammar/usage area.  This will give each student a good place to focus as we begin the year.

The students have been great this week, very patient with all the start-up business and things taking longer to explain for the first time.  Plus, today every student in all three of my English 9 sections turned in their vocab homework!!  What a great start!

Today, we continued with Week 2 of the opening routine.

I reviewed the Roots Binder with students, suggesting how they should use the binders to study for vocab. 

A reminder:  Vocab Exercises 2-6 due tomorrow.  Sentences due Friday.

We spent the last half of the hour scoring (our own) diagnostic tests.  We got about half-way through, and we’ll finish tomorrow.  This should give the students a pretty clear idea of strengths and weaknesses in the area of “conventions” (grammar and usage).  We’ll use this to build on for the remainder of the year.

Don’t forget, parents: Open House tonight, starting at 6:45.  See you tonight!

Today, we started with our typical routine of a quote, an idiom, and DOL.  Students already seem to be catching on quickly.

We had to spend some time going over how vocabulary works today.  Students got their vocab books.  We went over Unit One words and I showed them how to put together their “Roots Binder” (the 3X5 card binder). 

A couple of due dates:

• Tomorrow they need to have the roots written in their binder and bring their letters of introduction back so I can recollect them.
• Thurs, Sept 13: Exercises 2-6 are due for Vocab Unit One.  These should be done directly in the book.
• Fri, Sept. 14: Exercise 1 is due.  These sentences should be written out entirely and on a separate sheet of paper to be handed in.

Here we go.  Our first full week!

Today, we started with the memory quiz.  In general, students did a little better using the associations that I taught them on Friday.  The point: in order to memorize anything so that it sticks and you can access it when you need to, you need to create associations in your thinking.  Your memory just can’t handle very much stuff for very long with just a random list of information.

After this, we had to walk through the typical “start-of-class” routine.  This took almost the rest of the hour because there was a lot of explaining.  We did a quote, an idiom, and DOL for the day.  I showed students what they need to do for each and why we are doing each one.  These three things, done in the first ten minutes of class, will help them become more proficient in their language throughout the year.

No homework for tonight.  Tomorrow, we’ll go over vocabulary and they’ll get their vocab books. 

I can’t wait until we get through most of this start-up business.  Then we can get down to some real work and learning…

I think we are all ready for the weekend after a week of transferring from a summer schedule to the school day.  Earlier alarm clocks, more focused attention needed, brains working in ways that they haven’t had to for a while. 

And that’s just me!

Today, we finished the diagnostic grammar and usage test.  We’ll score these early next week.  We ended the day with a little memory game to illustrate the need to associate new material with something we already know (like an image, another word, etc.)  There will be a “quiz” on Monday to see how well the associations worked.

No homework for the first weekend.  Next week we’ll start in with some DOL, our vocab system, and some initial writing activities. 

Have a great weekend!