Ms. Dean's Blog

Research Pretest

WEDNESDAY: After completing today's warm-up and a mini-lesson on punctuating dialogue, we took a pretest on research terms. Students  who earned an "A" on the test will not take the post test in two weeks. We then discussed research terms ( Download Notes for terms).

Tomorrow there will be a short assessment requiring the students to properly punctuatate three pieces of dialogue. I have attached sentences so they can practice. If they print the attached practice sheet and explain to you how and why they are using the punctuation, they can bring that printed sheet to school tomorrow for extra credit. Please sign that you have seen what they have done. Download Dialogue Quiz

KWS

TUESDAY: After completing today's warm-up ( Download CRCT Prep Week Eight), the students practiced writing complex sentences ( Download Complex sentence practice). While they did this, I was able to review and approve their selected research topics. Once everyone had an approved topic, they began creating a KWS chart ( Download Kws and terms). THIS MUST BE COMPLETED AS HOMEWORK.

 

Introduction to Research

MONDAY: After completing today's warm-up, the students read page 454 in The Reader's Journey. They worked with a partner to answer the question "What aspects of your own life are specific to the time and place in which you live?

As a class, we took these answers and turned them into topics for research.

HW: List three events, time periods, or historical figures from before you were born that are of  interest to you. Do not include prominent figures that you have been learning about for years (MJK, Jr., Abe Lincoln, Rosa Parks) or events with which you are already familiar (example: Underground Railroad). Put a box around the one selection that you feel has the most impact on your life today.

Click this link to access The Reader's Journey

Type in euk 1001 to access the 8th grade book. Click on Unit 6 and scroll to page 454 to read today's assignment and answer the questions if you were absent.

Download CRCT Prep Week Eight

Finishing Newspaper Projects

TUESDAY: After today's warm-up, the students worked on laptop computers in the classroom to add artistic elements to their newspaper projects.The project is due at the end of class tomorrow.

Download Warm-ups_ week 7

WEDNESDAY: Today we will be in the computer lab using a checklist to ensure we have included everything in our newspaper projects. We will print and turn in the project today.

Students will also be given a rubric and a template to help them prepare for the Listening, Speaking, Viewing element of this project. Each student or set of partners will give a 3-5 minute presentation that demonstrates his or her area of expertise.

Download Peer Presentation Evaluations

Download Newspaper Project Publisher checklist

THURSDAY & FRIDAY: Presentations will be conducted on both days. Third period students should complete the assigment attached below.

Download Brain activator for time period

 

Computer Lab

WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY: We will complete the warm-up daily and then work in the computer lab to complete the Newspaper Project. It is due at the end of class on Tuesday, February 21st. See previous Blog posts for project guidelines.

Artistic Elements

MONDAY & TUESDAY: Today and tomorrow, the students will complete their warm-up and then work on the "Artistic Elements" portion of the Newspaper Project. They will have access to laptop computers to do any needed research and to type drafts.

Download Newspaper Project Information

Download Warm ups_ Week 6

WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY: We will be in the computer lab using Microsoft Publisher to complete the Newspaper Project. The final project is due at the end of class on Tuesday, February 21st. This is a change to the original due date of Friday, February 17th.

CRCT Prep Quiz 3

FRIDAY: Today the students took a quiz and continued to work on their rough drafts of their cause and effect article. Many students also had the opportunity to go to the Media Center to return, renew, or check out materials. Today I checked the "Cause and Effect Outline" as a classwork grade.

Most students were able to finish in class, but if they were not able to do so, then homework this weekend is to finish the four-paragraph rough draft and the cause and effect checklist.

Download Cause & Effect Rough Draft

Download Cause and Effect Self Editing Form

 

Brainstorming and Prewriting

WEDNESDAY: After completing today's warm-up, the students selected from a variety of graphic organizers to help them identify the focus of their cause and effect article. Next, we deconstructed a student model of a cause and effect essay so that we could understand how an outlines can be used as a prewriting strategy.

Download 1 cause multiple effects

Download Cause_and_Effect_Chain

Download Effect and three causes

Download Cause and Effect Outline Blank

Download Cause and Effect student model

THURSDAY: We completed this week's warm-up and discussed tomorrow's quiz. Then we completed an outline for our cause and effect articles. Tonight's homework is to use the outline to write a rough draft of two body paragraphs.

Tomorrow is Media Center day. Please ensure all checked-out materials are here at school so that they can be returned or renewed.

Download Cause and Effect Outline Running

Download Cause and Effect Outline Blank

Download CRCT Warm up Week Five Key

Cause and Effect (What is it????)

TUESDAY: After completing today's warm-up and doing a quick review of gerunds, the students will begin activities that help them understand what we mean when we use the phrase "cause and effect." First, students will work with a partner to arrange sentence strips into cause and effect order. Next, they will use a graphic organizer to help them analyze a cause and effect article. This graphic organizer will help them recognize cause indicates the "why something happened" and effect indicates the "what happened because of the cause."

Download Cause and Effect Graphic Organizer

Download Teen Texting While Driving Caused Crash

 

Compare and Contrast Checklist

MONDAY: After completing today's warm-up, I checked the students' compare and contrast rough drafts that were due today. Students who did not finish this assignment over the weekend worked on it in class while those who had completed it worked on a revision checklist.

Download Compare and Contrast Checklist

Download CRCT Warm up Week five