Monday 5/23/11

All classes should be keeping up with their reading schedule for their lit circle books. Because block scheduling is irregular, all classes are in slightly different places with the books. This week is a vocab week. Here is the schedule of due dates and quiz dates for all classes:

Vocab Lesson 32 due dates:
Hour 2-Wednesday, May 25
Hour 3-Thursday, May 26
Hour 4-Tuesday, May 24
Hour 5-Wednesday, May 25
Hour 8-Wednesday, May 25

Vocab Quiz 32 dates:
Hour 2-Friday, May 27
Hour 3-Friday, May 27
Hour 4-Friday, May 27
Hour 5-Friday, May 27
Hour 8-Wednesday, May 25

In class today:
Today hours 2, 4, 8 began with time for independent reading. Then students used 5 sentence starters to do some writing about their lit circle books. Here is the list and instructions:

Choose five (5) of the following sentence starters and write a brief reflection for each.

• I noticed…
• I wonder…
• I was reminded of…
• I think…
• I’m surprised that…
• I’d like to know…
• I realized…
• If I were…
• The central issue(s) is/are…
• One consequence of________________ could be…
• If _________________,then…
• I’m not sure…
• Although it seems…

Then write a QUESTION about the book (this should NOT be a one word or YES/NO question…it should lead the group to a deeper discussion).

In hour 2 and 8, students then had a discussion with their group members, recording the answers the group gave to their question. This work got turned in at the end of the discussion. In 4th hour, we will have the discussion during the next class meeting time.

Next we went on to continue our grammar work. We've been working on the difference between adjective and adverb clauses. In hour 2, we are now doing mixed practice distinguishing between the two different types. Hours 4 and 8 are still working to correctly find the clause within the sentence and tell what word in the sentence it is modifying.