Friday, October 26, 2007

What's happening in class?

***Students do not have school on Monday. I have to say I'm a little jealous! :) Use that extra day to make your character sketch extra special and extra good!

In language arts, students will be turning in the final drafts of their character sketches on Tuesday, October 30th. Based on how detailed and insightful their rough drafts were, I'm looking forward to seeing the finished products!

We will also be working on Wordskills unit 5 throughout the course of the week, and we will be delving into the exciting world of pronouns!

In reading, we will start off the week with a review and a quiz on chapters 6-8 in the novel, The Outsiders. We will then continue reading, discussing and analyzing chapters 9, 10 and 11...........

***Currently, Johhny is in bad shape. He was burned badly in the church fire, and also broke his back when a beam from the crumbling church fell on him. Dally is in the hospital too, but a badly burned arm is not going to keep him there for long. The rest of the greasers are getting ready for the big rumble with the socs. The winners will get satisfaction as well as bragging rights, and if the greasers win, the socs will have to stay out of their terriory forever.

Will the greasers win the rumble? Will everything go smoothly, or will something go tragically wrong? Stay tuned to find out!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

What's Happening in Class?

This week in L.A., we are continuing our work on an expository essay in the form of a character sketch. By the end of the week, all students should have a well developed, detailed rough draft of their chosen person essay!

This week in reading, we will continue reading and discussing the novel, The Outsiders. Students just completed a quiz on chapters 1-5 and did a great job overall! ***I just posted the quiz grades online, so check them out if you are interested!

We will be covering chapters 6-8 this week, and the plot thickens. Stay tuned to find out what happens when Dally, Ponyboy and Johnny return to the church after their trip to the Dairy Queen..............Is smoke in the air?

***Click on the link below to find out a lot of cool information about S.E. Hinton, the author of The Outsiders! You will also find interesting information about the movie, The Outsiders, and the actors who starred in the movie!!
http://www.sehinton.com/

Friday, October 19, 2007

Human vocabulary!!!






On Thursday, October 18th, all my reading classes participated in a vocabulary review game to prepare them for the vocabulary portion of their chapters 1-5 The Outsiders quiz on Friday. Students were turned into living words, and all of them needed to obtain the signature of every "living word" when trying to match sentences with the correct word.

Students did a great job finding correct answers!! The first three correct finishers are listed below and were showcased on a Wall of Fame located in my classroom. GREAT JOB!
2nd hour = Alissa Z., Jeremy R. and Jerrika P.

4th hour = Keaton F., Andy K., and Kristin D.

7th hour = Karyna R., Alex I. and Brett B.



Monday, October 15, 2007

What's happening in class?

***This week will be a little crazy, schedule wise!:) On Tuesday, all 8th graders will be taking the Explore test during 1st-4th hours, but will have their regular classes 5th-8th. On Wednesday, we have early dismissal, so students will meet with all of their classes, but only briefly. Dismissal on Wednesday is at 11:30 A.M.

In language arts, we will be starting our next essay. This essay will be an expository essay, in the form of a character sketch. Students will be selecting a friend or family member to "sketch" through words.

In reading, we will continue reading the novel, The Outsiders. The socs, lead by Bob, did decide to take out their anger on the greasers, and Ponyboy and Johnny ended up being easy targets! Johnny, in order to save Ponyboy's life, stabs and kills Bob, and now, the two greasers are on the run............Tune in later to find out what happens next!

***The first quiz for The Outsiders will be on Friday, October 19th, and it will cover chapters 1-5.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

THE EXPLORE TEST

***The 8th graders will be taking The Explore test on Tuesday morning, October 16th. Downers Grove South High School requires all of its incoming freshmen to take this test. It is a 4 part, multiple choice test, covering language arts, reading, math and science. Each subject test is 30 minutes long. The Explore test will be one of several components used to help determine placement in freshment classes at DGS.

***Please encourage your teenagers to do their best on the test, get a good night's sleep Monday evening, and have a healthy breakfast Tuesday morning before the test!

Narrative Essay #1

His Death, to the Magical Pond
By Jennifer

I heard my mom coming upstairs. I forcefully, but quietly, pulled the sheets of my bed over my head. Still sad and mad over what had just happened. I told him not to go, but he just had to. My mom opened the door as quietly as she could and sighed as she heard me whimpering. “David,” she said. “Can you please just listen?”
“What,” I said in a quiet voice.
She walked over to sit on my bed and stroke my hair. “Dad had to go,” she exclaimed. “It was his duty if he has this job.” I took the covers of my bed and looked outside my window as I saw the fire still going and spreading from the distance. I felt like I should have run after him or punching something so hard it would bleed to death, but I couldn’t. “I know this is hard,” she exclaimed,” but it was his time.”
During the funeral, I found out my dad had died in the fire while trying to save a trapped kid. I felt sorry for the child, but proud that my dad had tried. “Mom,” I asked. “Are you ok?”
“Yes dear,” she said, as I she tried not to cry while the priest was saying his words. I was holding my dad’s firefighter hat close to my heart so I could feel he was close by me. I started thinking of the good times we had spent with each other and just thinking of them made my stomach sick. After the funeral, many people brought wondrous, delicious foods for my mom and me to comfort us.
“Mom, I’m going to go take a walk to try and get some air to clear my thoughts,” I said.
“Ok, but don’t go too far,” she replied.
“Yeah, I know.”
As I was walking, I spotted a family of deer and started thinking mine and how that could’ve been us, still together. “Stop it David!” I told myself. “Thinking about it will just make you feel worse.” Soon I started to get thirsty and I was pretty far from the church. “Hey, there’s a lake,” I said, “and oh thank-you God.” As I ran towards the sparkling water, I put my hands in. The water was so cool and I felt like I could swim in it. “I’ll just take a sip and then go back,” I said. As I drank it down slowly, it was really refreshing and cold, until I heard a loud boom that made the water ripple. “Who’s there?” I cried. All of a sudden, I felt a cold, wet hand around my wrist that pulled me in the water. “Oh no, help!” I yelled. “I’m drowning!” Soon, I sank into the deep water and felt every part of my body become numb with the coldness. I opened my eyes and felt like this was the end for me, but it wasn’t. “I can breathe underwater?” I asked.
“Well, now you can,” a man’s voice said.
“Who are you and what do you want?” I said. I soon saw a white figure coming close to me. I looked at him and saw myself as a white figure also, but floating in the water.
“Son,” he said, “I’m your father.”
“What?” I said. “No you’re not. My father’s dead and you couldn’t possibly be him!”
“But I am his ghost,” he said. I soon saw his face, it was him.
“Oh my God! You are!” I said. “Is this a dream?”
“No David, it’s real,” he said. “It can be, if you stay with me here forever.” I was shocked, here with him?
“Yeah dad, I want to,” I said, as I cried and hugged him. “I’ve missed you so much and so has mom, but if i stay here, what will mom do?” I asked. “She’ll worry about me and have no one with her.” I saw my dad’s expression and knew he was disappointed, but knew that was true.
“Ok son, I’ll let you go,” he said. “Just remember, I’ll always be in your heart and never forget you.”
“Thanks dad,” I said, as I hugged him once more.
“Now, close your eyes,” he said, “and wake up.”
“Wake up David,” Mom said quietly. “We’re about to close the coffin honey. Do you want to say any last words?” I was back at the church and looked at my dad once more. Everyone was watching me as I said my words in a quiet voice.
“Thank you dad. You were the best and now that you are gone from this world, just remember, you’ll always be in my heart and I’ll always be thinking of you,” I said proudly. A tear dropped from my eye and as it fell on his suit, I thought I saw him smile at me.

Narrative Essay #2

The Red-tailed Tale
By Greg

“Ah, the woods, so peaceful and quiet,” James said. “Let’s pause and appreciate its beauty, Kyle.” The boys hear ominous roars, birds chirping, and a chainsaw chopping down a large evergreen tree.
“Yeah, really peaceful,” Kyle said sarcastically. Kyle and James have been friends since the first grade. Even though they really are best friends, they don’t like to say it because they think it sounds girly. These so called Men are camping in the woods for the weekend: if you call living in a cabin with wool couches, indoor pluming, and an HDTV camping. James has always been the funny guy while Kyle is more serious. They tend to even each other out.
On their way to the cabin, the boys spot a deer. While Kyle looks through his backpack to find his camera, James decides to catch it as a pet. There was a thud and Kyle looked up. He saw the deer running away and James wrapped up in his net, struggling on the ground. As Kyle watches, the deer run away, he sees that the deer had a red tail, all while James is still on the ground. “A red tail?” Kyle asked puzzled. As he wonders about it, Kyle steps over James and walks away.
“H- Hey! Where are you going? Ugh! Get back here and help me!”
While in the cabin, Kyle is making Mac and Cheese in the microwave. Real outdoors men, right? He was watching cartoons on the big screen, when in comes James who was covered with leaves, branches, and what he hopes is mud.
“Thanks for the help,” James said sarcastically.
“That was your own fault,” Kyle reacted. “Now shut-up, I’m watching this,” he said with his mouth stuffed with cheese and pasta.
“What are you watching?” James asked. “Oh, SpongeBob, Big macho man. Why don’t we watch baseball or something?”
“Nothing’s on, it’s just news,” Kyle remarked.
“I don’t believe you, change the channel,” James demanded.
“Alright then, I will change it,” Kyle said all sure of himself.
“Click. Click. Click.”
“See, just news. I win,” Kyle said with his hollow victory.
“Yeah, way to go,” James said while sitting down.
While enjoying his Amazing accomplishment, Kyle overheard the reporter talking about a red-tailed deer. He was talking to a hunter. The hunter said that the red-tailed deer’s blood gives someone the ability to live forever!
The boys, jaws open, immediately started to scream. Kyle was screaming because of the fact that there was a hunter in the woods that would kill anybody to get to the deer. James was screaming because Kyle was screaming right in his ear. Once out of breath, Kyle began to explain his thoughts to James. James wanted to find and sell the deer.
“No,” yelled Kyle, “we have to put it in the zoo.”
“Well, whatever we do, we have to catch that deer,” James explained.
James and Kyle set out on their hike to find the red-tailed deer. For hours and hours, they were out on their dedicated and dangerous journey.
“What was that?” James asked after hearing a strange sound.
“That was a squirrel… again,” Kyle said, now irritated. While in the woods, the boys began to get tired and hungry.
“Let’s go back,” James suggested. “I can’t stand hiking,” he began to whine.
“It’s a good thing that we came to the woods than,” Kyle said sarcastically. “We’ll just stay out for a few more minutes.”
“You said that an hour ago,” James said with anger. “I’m going back.”
“No, we have to stay together,” explained Kyle.
While on the road, they saw headlights and turned back. Knowing it was the hunter, the boys looked around for the deer.
“There it is!” James exclaimed. They saw the hunter go right for it. While running after the car, they heard a thud. As the hunter stepped out, Kyle went to help the deer, while James went after the hunter. To help James, Kyle got out his camera, flashed a shot, and stunned the dangerous man. While James tied up the hunter, Kyle called the police.
“I still think we should have sold it,” James said at the zoo. The majestic animal has brought in enough tourism to put every other zoo out of business. While watching the deer, Kyle felt some sort of gratitude, from the deer. This was going to be his one, silent victory.
“Yeah, we Really should have.”

Narrative Essay #3

GO DEEP!
By Keaton

"HUT!” Shane heard someone shout. He started to back up from what looked like giants. He looked down and he had a ball in his hand. He looked around and he was in a stadium of some sort. He looked to his right and there was someone in a headset yelling at him. He looked forward and… BOOM!!!! He was down.
Shane stood up and realized that he was the quarterback in the Super Bowl. He had zoned out for a second and forgotten where he was. The excitement must have overwhelmed him, but it was all coming back to him. He was the starting quarterback for the Chicago Bears. He became the starter when the Bears dropped Rex Grossman, which was a smart move, since Shane and the quarterback behind him were way better than Grossman.
“Shane, are you ok?” asked one of his lineman as he helped him up.
“What happened?” asked Shane.
“You got hit so hard, I thought you got knocked back into yesterday,” said his lineman.
Shane looked up at the scoreboard. It said Bears 0 Patriots 0, with 14:37 left in the first quarter, 2nd down and 15, and the Bear’s ball on their 19.
“Hut!” yelled Shane. He dropped back, stopped, and threw a 15 yard pass. The ball was now on the 34 yard line. During the next two plays, he handed the ball off to Cedric Benson, and he had gotten the ball to their 47 yard line
“Hut!” yelled Shane again. This time, though, the Patriots had blitzed. Shane dodged Patriot after Patriot, but finally he ran toward the sideline and threw a pass to a wide open Bernard Berrian. Berrian dove into the end zone, stretched out as far as he could, and caught it one handed. The referee raised both arms, signaling a touchdown. Everybody went crazy and was happy. Shane, getting high fives, walked back to the sideline.
By halftime, the score was tied at 7. The Patriots’ quarterback, Tom Brady, had thrown a 20 yard touchdown to Randy Moss in the second quarter, tying the game. In the locker room the Bears head coach, Lovie Smith, was giving his halftime speech.
After, the Bears went back on the field not knowing what would happen later…
It was the 4th quarter, and there was 1:10 left in the game. The Patriots had the ball on the Bears 20 yard line. The Patriots drove the ball to the 10 yard line with 25 seconds left in the game. Tom Brady dropped back to pass, threw it over the middle, and Brian Urlacher picked it off! He ran it back to the Bears 40 yard line. He got hit before he could run out of bounds, so the Bears had to use their last time out to stop the clock at ten seconds.
The Bears had time for only one last play. Shane lined up and got ready. “Hut!” he yelled. He dropped back and rolled to his right. He saw Devin Hester down field and just before he got tackled, he threw a deep pass to him. It seemed like the ball stayed in the air forever. Shane saw the ball hit off Hester’s hands, but then Hester dove and caught it in the end zone. The Bears had won!
After the game, hundreds of reporters asked him the same question, “What are you going to do now?”
“I’m going to, going to, going to school?”
“Yes, Shane. It’s Wednesday morning. You have to go to school. Get up or you’ll be late”

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

What's happening in class?

L.A. = In language arts class we are finishing our review on nouns. On Wednesday, October 10th, students will demonstrate their brilliance by performing well on a 15 point noun quiz!

Wednesday, October 10th also marks the day I will return final draft narrative essays! Overall, students did a very nice job on their essays! Students turned in a variety of original story ideas, ranging from serious - a teenager deals with the realization that her best friend has a life-threatening illness, to silly - a family of pickles panics when the baby pickle goes missing, to adventurous - two boys outsmart a hunter and save a rare red-tailed deer.

***Check back later this week when I'll have 3 student essays posted on my blog for you to enjoy!

READING = This week we will continue to read and discuss the novel, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Ponyboy, the lead character, and his friends, Johnny, and Two-Bit, (all Greasers), have just spent the evening at the drive-in movie with Cherry and Marcia, the girlfriends of two Socs, their arch rivals. Once the Socs find out, will they let it go, or will they seek revenge on the Greasers? Stay tuned to find out!

***Students should also contunue reading their AR silent reading book. AR quizzes are due to me by Tuesday, October 23rd!