Ms. Hargraves' English 9 Class

March 31-April 11

hargraves — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:34:26 +0000

Unfortunately, I’ve fallen behind with updating this blog. In an effort to catch up, I’m going to outline our activities for the past few weeks here:

Students have reviewed grammar quite a bit these past few weeks. We have reviewed correct verb and pronoun forms. We have also reviewed punctuation, capitalization, and agreement. Finally, we have applied these skills in several proofreading activities as well as some peer-editing exercises.
Students have continued to work in their reading circles. At this point, all students have presented their group projects for their first reading circle novels. They are now working on reading their second reading circle novel.
Students will do a brief overview of poetry this week and next week. Today we examined visual and tactile imagery in James Wright’s ”A Blessing.”
Tomorrow is a very exciting day as students will receive their laptops at an assembly at 6:00 p.m. in Moffat Auditorium. Parents must attend in order for students to receive their laptops.

There is more to come as I continue to update this blog.

Monday-Thursday, March 17-20

hargraves — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:45:16 +0000

This week, we will be working on the following activities:

Clauses (work book, pp. 89-91 and p. 97)
Sentence types (workbook, pp. 102-103)
Literacy circles
Abstinence essay (due by Thursday)
Speech practices (for those competing on Thursday)

I hope everyone has a fantastic Spring Break! You deserve it!

Technology Club

hargraves — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:28:48 +0000

I’d like for you guys to find some good websites that will help us design, create, and distribute the following school spirit items:

Bumper stickers
Key chains
T-shirts
Pencils
Bracelets

We also need to create a flyer advertising the items for classmates. The flyer should contain a description (and, if possible, a picture) of the item, order deadline, and cost.

Thursday and Friday, March 13-14

hargraves — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:27:25 +0000

Because all students were not present due to MAP testing, students had a variety of learning activity choices:

Participate in literacy circles
Write limericks
Compose abstinence essay (for an essay contest)
Make a one-pager based on novel

On Monday, we will continue learning about clauses and sentence types. Have a great weekend!

Daily Vocabulary Game

hargraves — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:04:56 +0000

http://www.merriam-webster.com/game/index.htm

Monday, March 10

hargraves — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:44:10 +0000

Today students shared their “Why me? Why not?” speeches. Their classmates responded with positive and constructive comments. The speech contest is sponsored by the Goldsboro Optimist Club and will be held at Wayne Community College at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 20. Several of my students will be participating in this contest.

Thursday, March 6

hargraves — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:02:01 +0000

Today students formed literacy circles and selected books. They then worked together to set and record goals on their course calendars. Finally, the groups began reading their books. Most made considerable progress and seemed to have a good time.

I showed students their nine-weeks test grades today. After I curved the tests scores, the average score was a C (79). After the curve, the highest score was a 93; the lowest score was a 58.

I know that many students are concerned because they did not score an A on the nine-weeks tests. Please remember that this is an Honors course, and that Honors courses are more challenging than courses offered in middle school. Grades in Honors courses are weighted, so a B in my class carries the same weight as an A when your GPA is calculated.

Lots of students made A’s for the nine-weeks, which is wonderful, but students who made B’s and C’s should not beat themselves up. Give yourself some credit! If you tried your best but you still made a B or C for the nine-weeks, you should not feel bad. You need to be realistic…because a B or C in an Honors course is not a bad grade by any means.

Wednesday, March 5

hargraves — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:16:01 +0000

Today, students took a nine-weeks test. This assessment score will serve as 20% of the third marking period average. Students will have time to work on their speeches tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 4

hargraves — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:14:32 +0000

Today we accomplished the following tasks:

Finished phrases presentations
Began working on a phrases collage with a partner
Participated in essay conferences with me
Started working on a speech for a contest (this speech is due Monday)

Monday, March 3

hargraves — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:28:15 +0000

Today I began essay conferences; I only got to work with a few students, however. The rest of the class finished preparing for the phrases presentations.

We had presentations on nearly all of the phrases, and we will finish the rest of the phrases tomorrow. Here are the phrases you will be responsible for knowing:

prepositional (adverb and adjective)
gerund
infinitive
appositive
participial

I will give a nine-weeks test on Wednesday.