Tuesday, March 21st

Today we will read "The Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury!

We will focus on symbolism, imagery, figurative language, theme and tone and how they help convey the theme of the short story.

Text of the Story if Absent

The story takes place in 2053 but was written in 1951!

SIFT Powerpoint

Video of the story (just one person's interpretation)

TO DO

AOW due Friday

Monday, March 20th

AGENDA-SUB TODAY

Goals: To continue to develop our skills as writers. To practice writing well-written sentences. To practice our revision skills.

Copy this sentence seed in your notebook.

The storm hit.

Add this information to your sentence. Use proper punctuation. Remember, it must be ONE sentence.

1. Specify the story or form of precipitation
2. Identify the place where the storm occurred
3. Tell when the storm took place
4. Describe the damage done, casualties resulting, etc.

You can pretend you are a television or newspaper reporter and give the aftermath details of a recent storm in a particular city, town, state, etc.

REVISE THIS PARAGRAPH-You will need to make a copy first. Feel free to use the SAS Writing reviser!

TO DO

AOW due on Friday (Newsela and personal response) Take the quiz.

Friday, March 17th

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Goals: To continue to apply what we've learned in our writing workshops to revising a piece of our choice.

Agenda

Collect AOW
Continue revising a piece of writing of your choice
In order to receive credit, you will complete this sheet showing me what you revised.  
Pre-reading discussion before "The Pedestrian"

To Do

Thursday, March 16th

Active vs Passive Voice-Great Resource and Examples
Notes
Video

SAS Writing Reviser Lesson

Text #1

Text #2

We will be using SAS Writing Reviser.  We will open the SAS Writing Reviser Add-on and look at these two texts to learn more about active vs passive voice.  We will look at number 1 and the passive verbs. Then, we will look at the second number 2 for passive verbs.  Which is better? Why?

Now, you will open one of your previous writing assignments and begin using SAS Writing Reviser to revise for the following:

Consistent verb tense
Active voice
Run-on sentences, fragments, and comma splices

In order to receive credit, you will complete this sheet showing me what you revised.  
Pre-reading discussion before "The Pedestrian"

TO DO

Book review submitted by tonight at 10PM
AOW due tomorrow. Just print out personal response. Make sure to include the title of your article. :)

Wednesday, March 15

Agenda

Run-ons and Comma Splices
We will take notes on the video and play a few games to practice. You may have to play the HTML versions of these games.

Play this

and this

or this


A run-on is a sentence in which two or more independent clauses (i.e complete sentences) are joined without an appropriate punctuation or conjunction for example: It is nearly half past five we cannot reach town before dark.


Sentence fragments are groups of words that look like sentences, but aren't. To be a sentence, groups of words need to have at least one independent clause. An independent clause is any group of words that contain both a subject and a verb and can stand on its own. For example, 'I like cheeseburgers' is an independent clause.

Sentence fragments never have independent clauses, but instead are dependent clauses or phrases. Fragments can masquerade as real sentences because they begin with a capital letter and end with a period. If you read them more closely, you'll see that fragments don't form a complete thought. A sentence fragment is a little like having only half of the pieces to a puzzle. Without all the pieces, you won't have the whole picture.

Examples and Revisions

Fragment Phrases

Phrases are groups of words that are missing a subject or verb, or both. Phrases can also masquerade as sentences, like dependent clauses can. Here are some examples.

Here's an example missing subject and verb:

From morning until night.

This fragment can be made a complete sentence by changing it to:

I worked from morning until night.

Adding 'I' as the subject and 'worked' as the verb corrects this fragment and makes it an independent clause and a complete thought.

Here's an example of a missing subject:

Start after the weekend.

This fragment can be made a complete sentence by changing it to:

Classes start after the weekend.

Adding the subject 'classes' corrects this fragment and makes it an independent clause and a complete thought.

Finally, here's an example of a missing verb:

Some girls in the class.

This fragment can be changed to:

Some girls in the class study together.

Adding the verb 'study' corrects this fragment and makes it an independent clause and a complete thought.

Peer Feedback on Book Reviews

Student Example of Book Review

TO DO

AOW due Friday. Read Newsela article, take quiz, and write 3/4 page personal response.

Book review submitted to turnitin.com by tomorrow night at 10PM. 

Tuesday, March 14th

Happy Tuesday!


Goals-To finish our book reviews and possibly learn how to use the SAS Writing Reviser to help you revise!

Agenda
Lesson on verb consistency
Watch video/notes
Quizlet
Work on Book review. Rubric is in turnitin.  

TO DO

Rough draft of book review due TOMORROW.  It must be in your SCHOOL google docs. By Friday, take your Newsela quiz and write your 3/4 page personal response! Print it! Title it the name of your article.

Friday, March 10th

WHOO HOO!  It's Friday.

Agenda:

Collect AOW
Review notes on book review.
Example of a book review of The Outsiders 
Mrs. K's book review - Please know this is a rough draft
Work on book reviews

TO DO

AOW due FRIDAY
However, we are going to try something DIFFERENT. You will go to Newsela and read an article of YOUR choice.  Please read it at 1000 or above.  You must take the Newsela quiz AND write a PERSONAL response to the article.  In other words, you do NOT have to write the summary portion.  You will create a Google Doc and title it the title of your article. You MUST print your personal response and bring Friday.