Dragon Writers

Wed., Feb.22

Here are the Journal Entries from the Outsiders:

Outsiders Journal #1

›  Reflect on The Outsiders so far.

›  Do you like the novel?

›  What part or character have you related to?

›  Can you see a theme evolving from the story?

›  Have any quotes hit you particularly hard?

Outsider’s Journal Entry #2

›  If you needed to run away, who would be the ONE person you would want to run with?

›  Why? Give characteristics about that person that would make them a good companion

›  What provisions (supplies) would you want to bring with you?

Outsiders Journal Entry #3

›  Imagine a situation like Johnny and Ponyboy came across at the church.

›  Would you go into a dangerous situation to help someone else? Why or why not?

›  If you’re thinking “it depends,” tell us what it depends on!

›  Be honest.

›  At least ½ a page please.

Outsiders Journal Entry #4

›  So… what did you think?

›  Give us at least half a page about the novel.

›  Include any, all of, or none of the following ideas.

›  My favorite part/character was…

›  My least favorite was…

›  I could really relate to…

›  I wish that…

›  If it were my story, I would have…

 The entries are due tomorrow as is the study guide for the test tomorrow:

Download The Outsiders Study Guide

Thurs., Feb.16

Warm-up is a Soda Quiz over Noun Functions.

Download Noun Function Quiz #2 Outsiders

First in the lab, you are to complete The Pronouns work in My Skills Tutor all the way through the quiz and the we will taker that for a quiz grade. (Now quizzes are worth 30% of your grade so work hard to achieve 80% of better on the lessons before taking the quiz!)

Next, you need to complete the Webquest from this blog entry:

http://mccleskeyms.typepad.com/dragonwriters/2012/02/thurdsday-february-2.html

Next, you can go back and retake the Jan. 26 work on My Skills Tutor to raise that quiz grade.

Finally, you may then go play the DO and IO games on the blog from yesterday.

http://mccleskeyms.typepad.com/dragonwriters/2012/02/objects-direct-and-indirect.html

 

 

Grading Announcement

Dear Parents and Students,

As we approach the second half of the third quarter, we have decided that a change is needed in our classroom procedures. Grades up to this point have been determined by a breakdown of three criterions. Major Assignments (45%), Minor Assignments (45%), and Homework (10%).

It has come to our attention that while classwork assignments are important and serve as a tool to let students see how they’re doing, they’ve been weighted the same as quizzes. To address this issue, we’ve decided to create a new grading category for quizzes. This decision will encourage students to take more responsibility to prepare for these assessments.

We will use the following weights to formulate students’ grades.

• Homework – 10%
• Classwork – 20%
• Quizzes – 30%
• Tests and projects – 40%

Thanks for your support,

Mr. Powell and Ms. Mourdock

Objects! Direct and Indirect

Try these to get your understanding up to speed!

http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/grammar/direct_objects/quiz546.html

http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/grammar/indirect_objects/quiz548.html

http://flang1.kendall.mdc.edu/3/342/6_L342act3lect3/L3_42act3lec3.htm

http://www.quia.com/quiz/424608.html?AP_rand=1415123956

http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=objects-direct-indirect

 

 

Thurs., Feb.9

Today, the warm-up was the following:

 

Then, we went to the lab to do the following activities online:

www.softschools.com/language_arts/.../pronoun/balloon_game/

http://www.eduplace.com/cgi-bin/hme-quiz-play.cgi

http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/vocabulary-games/parts-of-speech/pronoun-proper-singular-plural.html

http://www.ezschool.com/Games/Pronouns.html

A quiz on The Outsiders will be tomorrow (Friday), so please finish your comprehension worksheets to turn in and look over the character chart on that sheet.

Wed., Feb.8

Today, the warm-up was the following:

View this photo

Then we took a quiz covering the function of Nouns in sentences on the I Respond devices. here are some activities to practice for review if you end up needing to retake the quiz:

http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/grammar/functions_of_nouns/quiz3150.html

http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/noun.htm

All sentences have at least one noun, and the subject will always be your first one. What is your sentence describing? A feeling? A building? A person? An animal? The sky's the limit. If you like, you can pick more than one noun for your subject (Mary and Jennifer) or use a plural noun to describe multiple things (cats, people).

A direct object is a noun being acted upon by the subject noun. Literally, the subject is doing something to the direct object. For example, if your subject is "cat," you can create the following sentence using "mouse" as a direct object:

"The cat caught the mouse."

The cat's action (catching) is directly affecting the mouse, so "mouse" is a direct object. You can also create a sentence using more than one direct object. Here's an example of a sentence with three direct objects:

"The cat caught the mouse, the canary and the butterfly."

The cat's action had a direct impact on the mouse, the canary and the butterfly. "Mouse", "canary" and "butterfly" are all direct objects.

All sentences with direct objects can also have indirect objects, but indirect objects cannot exist by themselves. Indirect objects them are not affected directly by a subject; They are affected by a direct object. Here is an example:

The cat threw the yarn at the mouse.

The cat directly affects the yarn by throwing it, so "yarn" is the direct object. The yarn then hits the mouse as a result of that action, so "mouse" is the indirect object.

Prepositions are words like "above," "around," "under" and "over" that are used to link nouns and phrases to other words in a sentence. The noun that a preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition. For example, in the phrase "under the table," "under" is the preposition and "table" is the object of the preposition. A phrase with a noun and a preposition is called a prepositional phrase. Here is a way to use it in a sentence:

"The cat was under the table."

If you like, you can use multiple prepositional phrases in your sentence:

"The cat was under the table and on top of the rug."

Then, we continued reading The Outsiders through Chapter 4.

Tue., Feb.7

Today, the warm-up was the following:

View this photo

Then we went over the HW on pages 43-45 of the red Grammar workbook.

Next, we read Chapter 3 of The Outsiders.

There will be a quiz covering noun functions tomorrow using sentences from our novel study.

Mon., Feb.6

Today the warm-up was the following:

View this photo

Next, we went over predicate nominatives in whole group instruction as the grammar mini-lesson.

Download Linking Verbs Show

Then we continued through Chapter 2 in the novel The Outsiders.

The students will have to complete pages 43-45 in the red Grammar Workbook tonight for HW in addition to reading for 30 minutes daily!

 

Thurs., Feb. 2

In class today we will be completing a webquest about the setting of our novel, The Outsiders.

Click on the link below and follow the directions provided. :)

Flash Back into the World of The Outsiders

You will have an additional night to complete the possessive noun work in your red Grammar workbook on pages 37-39.

Wed., Feb.1

Today the warm-up was the following:

View this photo

The student's HW is to complete pages 37-39 covering Possessive Nouns in the Red Grammar Workbook.

We also read the author's introduction and Chapter 1 of The Outsiders to begin our novel study.

This is the handout we gave them to complete as we read the first few chapters:

Download Outsiders Reading Comprehension Questions Handout1