Monday, March 31, 2008

Test on Friday

Review possessive nouns in an exercise on page 302 in Writing and Skills.

Review for Friday's test.

Discuss progress reports.

Read "Ballad of the Harp-Weaver" in LOL.



Homework:
All make up work due by Friday
Test on Friday
Recitation due 4/7/08


A farmer got pulled over by a state trooper for speeding, and the trooper started to lecture the farmer about his speed and, in general, began to throw his weight around to try to make the farmer uncomfortable.

Finally, the trooper got around to writing out the ticket, and as he was doing that he kept swatting at some flies that were buzzing around his head.

The farmer said, "Having some problems with circle flies there, are ya?"

The trooper stopped writing the ticket and said—"Well yeah, if that's what they are—I never heard of circle flies."

So the farmer says, "Well, circle flies are common on farms. See, they're called circle flies because they're almost always found circling around the back end of a horse."

The trooper says, "Oh," and goes back to writing the ticket. Then after a minute he stops and says, "Hey… wait a minute, are you trying to call me a horse's ---?"

The farmer says, "Oh no, Officer. I have too much respect for law enforcement and police officers to even think about calling you a horse's ---."

The trooper says, "Well, that's a good thing," and goes back to writing the ticket.

After a long pause, the farmer says, "Hard to fool them flies though."

Friday, March 28, 2008

Apostrophes

Do Exercise 8 on page 561 in Writing and Skills.

Write the following sentences. Place apostrophes wherever they are needed.
1. We cant afford a car, so my dad rides his bike to work.

2. Theres and excellent chance that Yolie will make the team this year.

3. The foreign students speech has really improved; she is already using slang words.

4. Theres nothing to do in a tornado but take cover in ones basement.

5. Walt Disneys first cartoon was released in 1928.

6. In 1940 womens nylon stockings were marketed for the first time.

7. Auto graph experts value Julius Ceasars signature at about $2 million.

8. If you dont keep up with your homework, youre certainly not going to keep your A average.

9. All businesses support will be necessary if the city Street Festival is to be a success.

10. The girls gymnasium will be closed next week.

After you finish the assignment, you may complete unfinished assignments and practice your recitation.

Exit Q: How could running a race be used as a metaphor.


Homework: Memorize recitation poem and share it with a mentor or parent.
Book report due March 31.
Recitation due April 4.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Short day

Reading in the round



Homework: Memorize recitation poem and share it with a mentor or parent.
Book report due March 31.
Recitation due April 4.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Progress reports and irregular plural forms

Complete exercise 6 on page 296 on irregular plural forms in Writing and Skills.

Exercise 6

Write the following sentences and change each italicized noun to its plural form. Underline the nouns you make plural.

1. The chief described the life of the tribe before their treaty with the United States.

2. In the story about Bluebeard, his wife had good reason to feel nervous after their wedding day.

3. Throughout the long journey the donkey brayed and the baby cried.

4. The family of osprey perched on the buoy in the bay.

5. The lady from the northern country spoke of the grief caused by the long war.

Pass out progress reports.

Practice recitations. Finish any incomplete work.

So I walked into the teachers' cafeteria and saw this one teacher jumping for joy.

"What happened, Mr. ____________?" I asked.

"Nothing, Mr. Hilbert. I just finished a jigsaw puzzle in record time!" The teacher beamed.

"How long did it take you?"

"Well, the box said '3 to 5 Years,' but I did it in a month!"



Homework: Memorize recitation poem and share it with a mentor or parent.
Book report due March 31.
Recitation due April 4.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Toes

Quick riddle: How can more than one potato, tomato, or mosquito have toes?

Answer: When you have more than one of a noun that ends with a consonant followed by an "o," you add "es." This would give "toes" to potatoes, tomatoes, and mosquitoes.

There are many musical exceptions to this rule, for example: solos, sopranos, etc.
There are many Mexican food exceptions to this rule, for example: tacos, burritos, etc.

Recitations

Do exercise 5 problems 6 - 10 on page 294 in Writing and Skills for practice changing singular nouns into plural nouns.

Exercise 5
Write the following sentences and change each italicized noun to its plural form. Underline the nouns you make plural.

6. The movie made by the film class will be shown during the afternoon.

7. Near the damp wall of the dungeon, the torch showed the ancient skeleton and pile of bone.

8. When the Jeep broke down high on the mountain trail, the mosquito swarmed around Sylvia as she wept and scratched her bite.

9. The amplified sound of the drum and guitar greatly annoyed the neighbor next door.

10. The wild throw knocked the batter out of the box.



Homework: Memorize recitation poem and share it with a mentor or parent.
Book report due March 31.
Recitation due April 4.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Persuasion Preview

Meet in library for instruction on how to make a PowerPoint presentation for upcoming persuasion unit.



Homework: Memorize recitation poem and share it with a mentor or parent.
Book report due March 31.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Adverbs of sequence and Mr. Bean

Homework: Memorize recitation poem and share it with a mentor or parent.
Book report due March 31.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Little Nancy was in the garden filling in a hole when her neighbor peered over the fence. Interested in what the little girl was up to, he politely asked, "What are you up to there, Nancy?"

"My goldfish died," replied Nancy tearfully, without looking up, "and I've just buried him."

The neighbor was concerned, "That's an awfully big hole for a goldfish, isn't it?"

Nancy patted down the last heap of earth and then replied, "That's because he's inside your stupid cat."


Read "The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe from the handout.


Read and discuss Poetry Letter.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Finish District Assessment

Finish District Assessment

Finish Sonnet

Type Sonnet

Study Island



Homework: Finish Sonnet; book report due 3.31.08

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Finish District Assessment

Finish District Assessment

Finish Sonnet

Type Sonnet

Study Island



Homework: Finish Sonnet; book report due 3.31.08

Monday, March 10, 2008

District Assessment

Take District Assessment

Finish Sonnet

Type Sonnet

Study Island



Homework: Finish Sonnet; book report due 3.31.08

Friday, March 07, 2008

Write a sonnet

Finish rhyme schemes from yesterday.

Write a Shakespearean sonnet.

14 lines of 10 syllables each.
rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg

Final copy must be neat and legible.

Homework: Next book report due March 31. Finish Sonnet; due Monday.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Sonnets

Write the following sonnet titles and number your paper (1-14) under each title. “Sonnet 36” on page 118, “How Do I Love Thee?” On page 119, “Once by the Pacific” on page 119, “Childhood” on page 119, and “#24” on page 120. Find them all below.

Copy the last word of each line for 1 through 14 for each of the sonnets above.

Write the letter of the rhyme next to each word. See sample below.

Sonnet 36 on page 118

1 twain a
2 one b
3 remain a
4 alone b
5 respect c
6 spite d
7 effect c
8 delight d
9 thee e
10 shame f
11 me e
12 name f
13 sort g
14 report g


SONNET 36

Let me confess that we two must be twain,
Although our undivided loves are one:
So shall those blots that do with me remain
Without thy help by me be borne alone.
In our two loves there is but one respect,
Though in our lives a separable spite,
Which though it alter not love's sole effect,
Yet doth it steal sweet hours from love's delight.
I may not evermore acknowledge thee,
Lest my bewailed guilt should do thee shame,
Nor thou with public kindness honour me,
Unless thou take that honour from thy name:
But do not so; I love thee in such sort
As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report.

-William Shakespeare

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..."
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Once by the Pacific

The shattered water made a misty din.
Great waves looked over others coming in,
And thought of doing something to the shore
That water never did to land before.
The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,
Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.
You could not tell, and yet it looked as if
The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,
The cliff in being backed by continent;
It looked as if a night of dark intent
Was coming, and not only a night, an age.
Someone had better be prepared for rage.
There would be more than ocean-water broken
Before God's last 'Put out the Light' was spoken.

-- Robert Frost

“Childhood”

When I was a child I knew red miners
dressed raggedly and wearing carbide lamps.
I saw them come down red hills to their camps
dyed with red dust from old Ishkooda mines.
Night after night I met them on the roads,
or on the streets in town I caught their glance;
the swing of dinner buckets in their hands,
and grumbling undermining all their words.

I also loved in low cotton country
where moonlight hovered over ripe haystacks,
or stumps of trees, and croppers' rotting shacks
with famine, terror, flood, and plague near by;
where sentiment and hatred still held sway
and only bitter land was washed away.

- Margaret Walker


24


"next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn's early my
country 'tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?"

He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water

- e. e. cummings





Homework: Next book report due March 31.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Poetry forms

Copy the following definitions of various forms of poetry to study and memorize.


Ballad: story poem, often sung, often rhymes

Lyric: Rhyming poem with one voice or one speaker

Free verse: no specific rhyme scheme or meter; no specific form

Blank verse: iambic pentameter that doesn’t rhyme

Ode: Poem that praise something the speaker often speaks to his or her subject

Sonnet: 14 lines of rhymed iambic pentameter (10 syllables each line)

Epic: Very long story poem, often heroic

Elegy:
Poem that honors someone’s passing (death)

Narrative: story poem

Finish poetry chart

Homework: Book report due March 31.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Read Poems

Read poems and fill out organizer for each



Homework: Read poems in The Language of Literature.
Next book report due March 30.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Theme of The Outsiders

Quick Write: What is a possible theme from The Outsiders. Defend your theme with evidence from the movie.

Review photo poem. Make final drafts--if used in the poetry book, you earn 50 extra credit points.

Read poems in The Language of Literature.



Homework: Read poems in The Language of Literature.
Next book report due March 30.