Monday, November 30, 2009

11/30 and 12/1

Prayer
Attendance
New Vocab
Vocab Worksheets
Chapter 15 Test
Poetry Lecture/Notes

Homework:
Graph the types of sentences in the Reading Comprehension section of your vocab worksheets AS DESCRIBED IN CLASS. Credit is for neatness AND correctness.

Vocab Quiz next class

You received a final study guide today. This the ONLY day to receive one. If you were absent, you must copy a classmate's study guide. If you lose your study guide, you are responsible for copying a classmates.

11/24 and 11/25

Prayer
Attendance
Vocab Quiz
Chapter 15 Chapter Review

Homework:
Process "It Bids Pretty Fair" and "Eldorado" from Adventures in Reading
Chapter 15 Test next class

Friday, November 20, 2009

Chapter 15 Chapter Review Answers

Chapter 15 Chapter Review Answers
1. Noun clause
2. Independent
3. Adjective clause
4. Adverb clause
5. Noun clause
6. Independent clause
7. Adjective clause
8. Adverb clause
9. Independent clause
10. Adjective clause
11. Before you buy the sweater-adverb clause
12. whose mother is a dentist-adjective clause
13. who won the speech contest-noun clause
14. that scattered our garbage-adjective clause
15. if you don’t like to paint-adverb clause
16. that she would provide food for the trip-noun clause
17. Until you pay back the money-adverb clause
18. what you game him for his birthday-noun clause
19. that scared even the bravest of us-adjective clause
20. that you borrowed yesterday-adjective clause
21. After we have dinner-adverb clause
22. what the capital of Nigeria is-noun clause
23. which was invented by Jonathan Swift- adjective clause
24. what you said about her-noun clause
25. who climbed the tree to save the parakeet-adjective clause
26. that moved them deeply-adjective clause
27. what happened at the intersection this morning-noun clause
28. If you don’t like camping-adverb clause
29. they would pay our dog’s boarding costs-noun clause
30. who is responsible-noun clause
31. simple
32. compound-complex
33. complex
34. compound
35. complex
36. compound
37. simple
38. compound
39. compound
40. simple

How to Process a Poem

Process a Poem means the following:

1. Read the poem aloud.
2. Make a word for word copy of the poem. (capitalize, punctuate, end lines in the same way as the original)
3. Circle all words that you do not understand and look them up in your dictionary.
4. Write your own explanation of the poem in your own words. Use the poem's length and format as a guide for how long your explanation should be.

11/20 and 11/23

Prayer
Attendance
Analogies
new vocab
worksheets
Pop Quiz on "The Fifty-First Dragon"
Grammar Fun
Grammar Review
Poetry Introduction

Homework

Process
"The Face in the Mirror" on page 298 of Adventures in Reading
"The Cloud" on page 300 of Adventures in Reading

Vocab Quiz next class
Vocab worksheets due next class
Answer the following question in any way you can: What is poetry?
HONORS: Research essay due Tuesday

Thursday, November 19, 2009

11/18 and 11/19

Agenda:
Prayer
Attendance
Return things
Submit Vocab Worksheets/Review Exercise 4
submit grammar
vocab quiz
new vocab
HONORS: Writing Exercises
analogies worksheets
return grammar/review

Homework:
Ex. 7 in chapter 15 elements of language and Chapter 15 Chapter Review
Reread "The Fifty-First Dragon"
HONORS: Bring writing worksheets back...you do not have to complete them.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Info for Academic Decathletes and Parents

Dear Parent or Guardian:

As a member of the Academic Decathlon team, your Celt will be participating in a scrimmage test for the Southern California Private Schools Academic Decathlon on Saturday, November 21, 2009. The contest is a great opportunity for an Academic Decathlete to get a sense of how the competition is run, and it usually inspires a new attitude toward studying and practice. I hope that you support your Celt’s participation in this event.

It does make for an early morning. The competition will start promptly at 8:00 A.M. on Saturday at Bishop Alemany High School in Mission Hills. Given the hour and the size of the team, I will not be coordinating a team bus from Crespi, so it is important that you and your Celt arrange for his arrival at Bishop Alemany High School by 7:45 A.M. to receive last minute instructions and room assignments. Unlike the main event in February, the scrimmage does not have a spectator component, so you can plan on a drop-off and pick-up arrangement. The event should end between 12:00 and 1:00 P.M., and I will have more specific information about pick-up times later in the week.

I encourage the boys to stay hydrated throughout the day, so if you could remind them to bring plenty of water, that would be a great help. Furthermore, I am asking for your help in providing breakfast and lunch snacks for the team on the day of the scrimmage. In the past, I have requested funds from Crespi to provide brain-healthy snacks as well as some fun ones, but this year I am relying on parent participation to help with food for the event. If you are willing to provide fruit, snacks, or drinks for the team, please email me at aswaney@crespi.org, and we can coordinate further.

Each participant should pack a lunch and plenty of water, and with your help, I hope to have brain-healthy snack such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, and cheeses as well as some fun snacks such as chips, cookies, and pastries. Crespi’s Academic Decathlon team will consist of fifteen Celts this year, and with a few enthusiastic returning team members, we have potential for a great year of competition. No matter what, however, I expect all of the team members to benefit from the experience of this scrimmage as well as the main events on January 30 and February 6, 2010.

Thank you for your help in coordinating this event, and I look forward to a fun and challenging day of academic excellence on Saturday, November 21, 2009.

11/16 and 11/17 including HONORS

Attendance
Prayer
Return Items
After returning homework and essay assignments, we spend a few minutes discussing common errors and comments that appeared on interview essays.
PEER REVIEW
A large number of students failed to produce a rough draft. Those students were sent to the library while the rest of the class worked on a peer response. We read our essays aloud and looked for places to improve our writing.
PIE PARAGRAPHS
We reviewed a worksheet that explains how to write a paragraph that has POINT, shows INFORMATION, and incorporates an EXPLANATION.
Pop Quiz on "The Musgrave Ritual"
New Vocab
Vocab Worksheets
Analogies
We practiced understanding analogies
Grammar

HOMEWORK:
Exercies 4,5, and 6 in Chapter 15 in Elements of Language
Read "The Fifty-First Dragon" in Adventures in Reading
Vocab Quiz next class

Thursday, November 12, 2009

11/12 and 11/13

Agenda:

Prayer
Attendance
Loose Ends
movie
homework misinterpreted
HONORS: annotated bibliography
Vocab Quiz
New Vocab
Grammar

Homework:
Re-read "The Musgrave Ritual" from Adventures in Reading
Exercises 1,2, and 3 in Chapter 15 Elements of Language

1. appreciable adjective able to be estimated or measured; noticeable.

2. breadth noun a. The distance or dimension from side to side of something, as distinguished from length or thickness; width. b. Wide extent or scope. c. Freedom from narrowness of views, interests, or attitudes.

3. copious adjective a. Large in quantity; abundant; containing an ample supply. b. Filled with matter, thoughts, or words; wordy.

4. gargantuan adjective Of immense size or volume; colossal; huge.

5. innumerable adjective Too many to be counted or numbered.


Sunday, November 8, 2009

11/11 and 11/13

In class you will be watching and taking notes on a movie version of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty."

Vocab quizzes will be deferred until next class.


HOMEWORK:
For homework, you will write a two to three page essay that examines how and why the movie is different from the story version. Your sub will give you a handout on which you may take notes, and you'll find a thesis that you can use to direct your writing. The essay must be MLA format....

1 inch margins
typed
12 point font
times or times new roman
double spaced

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

11/4 and 11/5

Agenda:

Attendance
Prayer
New Vocab
sentences
Chapter 15
In class reading

Homework:
Read "The Musgrave Ritual" on page 46-60 of Adventures in Reading
Write out and answer all Reading Check questions on page 60 of Adventures in Reading, #1-10
Write out and answer all Study and Discussion questions on page 67 of AinR, #1-5
Write or type all rules from Chapter 15 in Elements of Language, 15a-15g(4)

HONORS HOMEWORK:
Compile a 10 item annotated bibliography according to MLA formatting. The sources should relate to your essay, and though you do not have to use 10 sources for the essay, you still need 10 sources for this bibliography. NO WEBSITES are allowed. You must use books, magazines, or online journals as described in the library.

Monday, November 2, 2009

HONORS example essay

The Sleeping Giant of School Schedules

Many people who debate educational issues are aware of the metaphor that compares the biology of students to the lighthouse that cannot move. The metaphor extends to suggest that teaching strategies are ships that, though stubborn, can be changed to accommodate the needs of students as mandated by that biology. In recent years, in fact, in recent decades, many adjustments have changed the shape of the classroom around the nation, and in many ways, these changes, such as increased technology in the school and more appreciation for controlled chaos, have had great success. Still, one fact about the standard school day is detrimental to the overall development of a young brain, and the stubbornness of the establishment promises to keep that one fact from ever changing. That fact is that teenagers are not awake for the first third of the class day, and as a result, they lose valuable instructional time. Research proves that teenagers are nocturnal creatures, and their learning has greatly suffered from the diurnal rotations of the normal workday. In order to help young learners, and thusly our future, attain all the success that they can, teachers and administrators need to change the hours of the typical school day despite the inconvenience it may cause to parents and other professionals.

“In many animal societies, adolescents are banned from the group,” writes Jessica Beach in her depiction of the parallels between humans and many other animal species (100). Her research has shown that adolescents of many species reflect a sleep pattern very distinct from that of the adults in the community. The reason is simple: “For the sake of self-preservation, adolescents, especially males, must operate during the hours of slumber for the mature, more dominant males” (Beach 192). Because adolescents pose a threat to the ruling figure in many animal communities, they are exiled to be on their own. In an attempt to exploit the same food and water resources that they remember from their youth, these animals must approach such locations when the older males no longer threaten them. As a result, the biorhythms of most adolescent animals change to enable them to function at different hours. In the human world, this means that adults, teachers included, have returned from their former adolescent night carousing, and they can function very efficiently in the prescribed workday. The youth of the community, however, especially in school, are at a disadvantage.

The average teenager needs about nine and a half hours of sleep to function at their best, and “This sleep is necessary to the total physical and mental development of the human being” (Crowley 88). If school starts at 8:00 am, the average teenager probably needs to be awake by 6:45 am in order to prepare for breakfast and the commute to school. If that student needs nine and a half hours of sleep, they need to be asleep by 9:15 pm. Anybody who has lived with a teenager knows that a bedtime like that would be impossible to maintain. It is not just because teenagers choose to stay up late. In fact, adolescents are simply suffering from the effect of their natural biorhythms, “The physiological cycles that determine our sleep and wake schedules” (Finklestein 12). So, physically, teenagers cannot be rested by the time they start school, and in fact, these biorhythms prevent them from being fully prepared to learn in the early hours of the school day.

Many people have thought about the possibility of changing school schedules, but those ideas usually meet great resistance because of the existing routines of adults and the entire working world. Parents would not be able to drop off students while en route to work, and teachers would not be able to live normally with spouses that are not on the same education schedule. Because the students that are suffering form the basis for the future of civilization, these objections seem trivial, and therefore, school schedules “Must be altered to account for the learning styles of young students” (Weiland 108). Furthermore, because of the advances in construction and lighting technology, extra-curricular activities will not suffer the onset of darkness as they once might have in the past.

Furthermore, students would benefit greatly if all extra-curricular activities had to change their schedules. For instance, studies prove that, “Students who participate in sports or art early in the day perform better on standardized tests” (Weiland 223). So, practices that, at one point, kept students away from home in the late evenings could be moved to morning hours to accommodate a change in the schedule, and that physical activity early would be more beneficial than the same activities in the afternoon hours.

Students will benefit from the change in schedule. “In a landmark decision, Western School in East Occidental, Maine recently changed their schedule to accommodate the sleep patterns of their students,” writes Christopher Crowley (178). This change resulted in an immediate increase in test scores, and “Western School’s principal, Louisa Louis, earned a Nobel Prize for Education when the school’s standardized test scores doubled the average of all other schools in the United States”(Crowley 115). With such incredible results in Maine, other schools should be anxious to change schedules.

Standardized test scores are not the only statistics that improve when a school changes its schedule. In fact, “Teson High School in New Mexico has completely replaced all of their teachers with peer educators” as a result of their decision to change schedules (Weiland 208). The students at Teson began creating lesson plans that far outshined those of the staff at Teson, and class presentations often created more of a stir than the classes planned by the teachers. After several instances of students correcting the misinformation that the teachers were providing, the administration took the bold step of employing the top five percent of the school instead of the existing faculty. Since then, Teson has recorded the highest college placement record in New Mexico’s history. With standardized test scores and college placement improving as a result of the schedule change, it is clear that the schedule benefits students, and when students who used to struggle can thrive to the point of leading a classroom of their peers, it is clear that the adjustment of class schedules can lead to a brighter future.

Though many people feel that a major overhaul of the school schedule would create insurmountable obstacles, the science and the evidence shows that teenagers would greatly benefit from a school schedule more compatible with their natural Circadian Rhythms. Teaching has long been a source of creativity and innovation, and the education system has a chance to usher in a new era of success. Teaching strategies are necessarily fluid to accommodate the hardwiring of human beings and the multiple intelligences present in the classroom, and the schedule of a school day is the last mainstay of resistance to unlocking the full potential of young learners.

11/2 and 11/3 Answers to Diagnostic Preview and HONORS due dates

Attendance
Prayer
MLA Check (HONORS ONLY)
Library visit (HONORS ONLY)
Submit Homework
Vocab Quiz (HONORS QUIZ WILL BE WEDNESDAY)
New Vocab
Read-a-long/discussion of "The Necklace"
Pop Quiz

Homework:
Write one (1) sentence for each new vocab word

1. c cessationnoun The act of ceasing or stopping; a halt.

commence trans. verb To begin; start. intrans. verb To come into existence; have a beginning.

deter trans. verb To prevent or discourage from acting, as by means of fear or doubt.

4. h hamper trans. verb To prevent the free movement, action, or progress of; limit. noun A large basket, usually with a cover.

obs obstruction noun An obstacle; something that blocks or gets in the way.

Review Diagnostic Preview answers from blog

HONORS ESSAY ASSIGNMENTS:
Annotated Bibliography due November 10.
this website is a great resource to help you figure out what an annotated bibliography should be. For another site, click here.

Researched Essay rough draft due Monday, November 16.

Researched Essay final draft due Tuesday, November 24.

Diagnostic Preview Answers:

1.which spans the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan in New York City-adjective clause
2.The bridge was designed and built by John Roebling and Washington Roebling, a father-and-son engineering team-independent clause
3. that resembles a spider web-adjective clause
4. What impresses many people-noun clause
5. that are supported by concrete-filled shafts-adjective clause
6. Although she was not an engineer-adverb clause
7.that construction work could be both slow and dangerous-noun clause
8. Because they were required at times to work underwater in airtight chambers called caissons-adverb clause
9.Since they were used to working ships' rigging at great heights-adverb clause
10. John Roebling injured his foot at the work site-independent clause
11. compound sentence
12. compound-complex sentence
13. compound sentence
14. complex sentence
15. complex sentence
16. simple sentence
17. complex sentence
18. simple sentence
19. simple sentence
20. compound-complex sentence