Week of February 25th

English 10: We will begin reading Animal Farm this week. The grading for this book is unusual because we are trying to capture the mood of the story. We will use either socialist or communist criteria for grading while the book is being read.

Literacy Development: We are reading two books, one novel and one non-fiction book about the civil war. The students have done some research, and we are hoping to learn a lot about the civil war.

English Literacy: We are wrapping up our project from the novel Monster. We will be reading some non-fiction beginning tomorrow.

February 4th

English 10 students are finishing their world-changer projects. The two-page paper is due by Friday. It should be submitted electronically. The presentations will begin on Thursday.

Literacy Development is working on an article about thin ice on Lake Minnetonka and reading Wringer.

English Literacy is reading the same article and reading Monster.

Where to find information on MLA format

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

Make sure that you use headings properly. Everyone will have an introduction and a conclusion, but I would recommend writing them last. They are where you will explain what it means to change the world (criteria) and how your person did so.

January 22, 2013

Literacy Development finished reading "Monster" last week. We will be choosing a new novel or novels this week. We are also working on defining vocabulary words in newspaper articles.

English Literacy is still reading "The Trouble with Lemons." We are getting closer to solving the murder mystery.

English 10 will be in the library all week doing research on a person who changed the world. They will use the information to write a short research paper and to give a speech.

January 14

Literacy development has been working on a couple of different things. We are continuing to read the book Monster and looking for the literary signposts. In addition, we are adding comic-strip creation to our repertoires. Students have been on the site bitstrips.com making avatars and practicing. This week they will use bitstrips to demonstrate their understanding of our vocabulary words.

English Literacy is reading The Trouble with Lemons aloud as a class. We are working on reading fluency. Please encourage your students to read as much as possible.

English 10 finished Of Mice and Men on Thursday, and they were given the essay assignment on Friday. If they submit their essays today, they will have the opportunity to revise them. The due date is Tuesday. On Wednesday, we will be starting a research project. Students will be asked to choose and research a person who has had a significant, positive impact on the world. The final products will be a presentation and a paper.

January 7, 2013

Literacy development started reading the book Monster today. It is written from the perspective of a 16-year-old on trial for murder. The novel is interesting because it is presented like a movie script. We are using literary signposts to study this novel.

Third period is finishing the introduction to the first three literary signposts. They will begin reading the novel Among the Hidden later this week. this novel is the story of a third child in a society where only two children are allowed. It is the first book in a series.

English 10 will finish Of Mice and Men this week or early next. Students have printed off three possible themes and are gathering information from the text to support those themes. The final product will be an essay based on theme.

January 2, 2013

Literacy Development will be continuing to work on vocabulary based on common prefixes. We will also be reading the novel "Monster" as a class in order to introduce "signposts." This is a technique for teaching reading based on a new book by Beers and Probst. I hope that it adds a new dimension to the reading by these students.

Period 3 will also be reading a novel in order to learn the signposts. This will be our first class novel, and I look forward to it.

English 10 will be reading "Of Mice and Men" with a focus on understanding theme.