Beginning of the 4th quarter! How time flies!

We are one quarter away from the end of the year. Although in August the fourth quarter always seems so far away, time really does go quickly and it is here before we know it. I am hoping that spring is also here, because it has been a long winter.
So what's up in the English room? The freshmen finished Romeo and Juliet this week, and they will have a test over the play next Tuesday. I think it was a unanimous decision that Romeo and Juliet were both a bit on the dramatic side. After break, we will be beginning our communications unit, so do not be afraid if your freshmen start talking to themselves. The sophomores are coming near the end of To Kill a Mockingbird. We will finish the book next week, but will watch the movie, review, and take the test after the break. We have had some good class discussions and I think they like the book better than they thought they might. The tenth graders will be beginning their ABC books very soon. The juniors have been taking a look at some multicultural literature before heading into the big end of the year research paper. We will get going on that after break. The juniors do have independent novel studies due next Wednesday. The 8th graders have had their weekly spelling and vocab. They have also finished some writing assignments like their name reports and their nursery rhyme mysteries. They will be starting their poetry notebooks after the break.
Happy Spring!

This Week and Next Week in the Wonderful World of English

We have been reading and reading and reading. The freshmen are reading Romeo and Juliet; ah, the joy of Shakespeare. The sophomores have begun reading To Kill a Mockingbird, and have been suffering through my Southern accent. Both of these will go well into the next couple of weeks. The juniors are finishing Of Mice and Men this week. I love this book. They will be watching the movie, completing a character poster, and then taking a test over the book next week. They always enjoy the book until I hit them with the end; that's when the shock kicks in. The 8th graders will be taken a parts of speech test next week as we wrap up our discussions of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. They will also have vocab due next Wednesday.

Classroom Update

Alright, everybody, it has been a while. Here is what is going on this week in the English room.

8th grade: They are working on a writing project dealing with the bill of rights (it is actually in a conjunction with a social studies lesson). They will also have vocab due on Thursday.

9th grade: They are beginning Romeo and Juliet. This will be pretty time consuming and will take several weeks. They will have reading guides to complete in class but no homework due this week.

10th grade: They are going to be finishing up Our Town this week. They will finish watching the PBS Masterpiece Theater version of the play and have a test at the end of the week.

11th grade: The students have begun reading one of my favorite books, Of Mice and Men. They have reading guides to complete for each chapter.

Welcome to the 3rd Quarter

Well, we have started the 3rd quarter. Here is what is going on this week:

The 8th grade will be continuing work on verbs, nouns, and modifiers. They will have a spelling test on Thursday.

The 9th grade have finally finished their mythology unit--snow days and breaks made it seem like it lasted FOREVER! This week we will start reading one of my favorite books, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. The majority of work will take place in the classroom.

The sophomores are continuing to work on their Essex research projects, the precursor to reading the play Our Town. They will continue to work on these projects this week and next.

The juniors are moving into the Modern era of American literature and will be reading stories by authors from the time period.

Novel/author studies due January12th!

Are we all tired of the snow yet? Between Christmas break and all of our snow days, the schedule in the English classroom has been crazy. Needless to say the willingness to adapt and revise have been key. The biggest thing to be aware of is the independent novel and author study each student is doing. These were assigned at the beginning of December and are due on Tuesday, January 12th. The freshmen, sophomores, and juniors all have novel/author studies due. These are the biggest projects of the quarter and will be a large percent of their quarter grade. It is VERY important to get them completed!

November 30-December 4

I can't believe that it is December already. I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving.

We are back to a full week of school and here is what is happening this week:
8th grade--The eighth graders are working on verb tenses this week. They will have daily assignments. They also have vocabulary due on Thursday.
9th grade--The freshmen are in the middle of their Greek mythology unit. They will not have any out of class work due.
10th grade--The sophomores are beginning Twelve Angry Men. The play will be a change of pace after Lord of the Flies. The will not have work to complete outside of the classroom.
11th grade--The juniors have been taking a look at the Transcendentalists and are focusing this week on the women of the movement. They will not have anything due this week, they should however be working on their independent novel/author studies. They have two books with accompanying report and projects due at the end of the quarter.

There will be a new face in the classroom for a bit. Nikki Graham is observing the classroom a couple of days a week during junior English.

Have a good week.

What's Happening?

Here is what's happening this week:
Freshmen--They are starting a mythology unit. They have mythology action figure posters due Wednesday.
Sophomores--The sophomores are finally finishing The Lord of the Flies. They will be writing biopoems which will be due next Monday. They will review for their book test on Thursday and will take the test over The Lord of the Flies on Friday.
8th--They are working on verbs this week. They have vocab due on Thursday and will have their vocab quiz that day too.
Juniors--The juniors were given guidelines for their independent novel/author studies today. They will be due in January. They will also be reading a couple of Poe pieces this week.