Happy Monday!

For once, we have no vocabulary homework tonight. We'll begin our vocabulary review tomorrow.

So, our homework for the week is as follows:

Vocabulary review page - Due Wednesday
Vocabulary sentences - Due Thursday
Choice reading paragraph - Due Friday


This week, we'll continue asking the question, "How do we form our beliefs?"
We'll be looking at ghosts and other 'paranormal' phenomena.
Next week, we'll be selecting our own topics and researching them in the library before writing our own persuasive essays.

Welcome Back!
I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing October break.

This week we will be reviewing all the word parts (prefixes, roots, and suffixes) that we have learned so far. We will have our quiz on all the word parts this Friday.

We will also begin work on our five-paragraph essay on The Outsiders.
This work will be done in class, but those who do not finish will need to do so for homework.

Our homework for this week is as follows:

Vocabulary review sheet   - Due Tuesday
'Choice Reading' paragraph - Due Wednesday
5 Vocabulary sentences  - Due Thursday
'Choice Reading' paragraph - Due Friday

Remember, our Halloween dance is this Friday the 26th from 6:00 - 8:30!

Homework for the week:

> Subject / Predicate worksheet      (handout)     DUE WEDNESDAY

> 'Choice Reading' paragraph             DUE THURSDAY

Our first unit test is tomorrow (Wednesday). No need to study, but come to class prepared to read, focus, and do your best!

We will finish our novel, The Outsiders, on Thursday

Remember, Friday is a minimum day. And next week, enjoy your break!

Today,
> We predicted what might happen next in the novel. We then summarized what has happened recently in The Outsiders. Quite a lot has happened to Ponyboy in a short time, and we went over the series of recent events that led him there.

> Then, we spent most of the day reading on in the book . . .

No homework this evening, as we're taking a break from our normal vocabulary routine this week.

Homework for the rest of the week will be updated daily.

This week, we're continuing with The Outsiders. We will finish the book early next week.

In the meantime, we will learn about the elements of narrative that we didn't cover last week:

conflict
plot
theme

Our homework for the week is as follows:

Word Roots #5 ('celer' 'cede') worksheet - due Tuesday
choice reading paragraph - due Wednesday
vocabulary sentences  - due Thursday
choice reading paragraph #2 - due Friday

Grades are due Wednesday at noon! Last chance to turn in any missing work before the progress report is Wednesday by break.

Grade reports will be mailed out Friday. 

This week, we are looking at the 5 elements of Narrative

Monday: Setting

Tuesday: Characterization

Wednesday: Conflict

Thursday: Plot

Friday: Theme

Because of the work that we're doing on these things, we won't be spending as much time reading our novel.

However, some things we are doing like usual:

> Homework for the week is the same as last week

Word Roots worksheet - due Tuesday
choice reading paragraph - due Wednesday
vocabulary sentences  - due Thursday
choice reading paragraph #2 - due Friday

Our vocabulary quiz will be on Friday

Today, we:
> copied our week's vocabulary words and definitions into our notebooks
> completed one word web/drawing on one of our 5 words
> Began making the week's flashcards

> Continued reading The Outsiders silently and answered questions

Homework for the week:

Due Tuesday: Word Roots worksheet #3 'mob'
Due Wednesday: 'choice reading' paragraph
Due Thursday:  5 vocabulary sentences
Due Friday: 'choice reading' paragraph

As always, our vocabulary quiz will be on Friday.

Have a great week!

Today, we:
> Wrote about Decisions
What kinds of decisions do you make every day? What are some difficult decisions that you have had to make in your life?

> Checked homework (word roots #2)

> Entered this week's words into our vocabulary notebooks
> Added to our Outsiders character list
> made flashcards for our 5 new word parts

Homework:
  5 vocabulary sentences (one sentence for each of our 5 vocabulary words) Due Thursday

REMINDER:
If you need to make up a vocabulary quiz, you need to do it TOMORROW (Thursday) during break or lunch. 

Today, we:
> learned 'starting with a sentence' as a writing strategy
> Began reading The Outsiders
> Started a character list with details about the 7 main characters in the novel

Homework for the week:

> Word roots vocabulary sheet - "tract, vinc" Due Wednesday
> 5 Vocabulary sentences, (use each of our 5 vocab. words in a sentence) Due Thursday
> 'Choice Reading' paragraph Due Friday


Vocabulary quiz on Friday

> Today, we finished up with our work on the biographies of S.E. Hinton, author of The Outsiders.
We also went to the library in order to check out books for our 'Choice Reading' homework

Due Friday:
Read your choice of book - fiction or nonfiction - for 20 minutes.
Write one paragraph (four or five sentences will do) that describes what you read.

Remember, our first vocabulary quiz is Friday! Study your flashcards so you will know the definitions of all 8 word parts! Know the 5 vocab words too . . .

Today we worked heavily in our journals. We:
> Wrote about one thing we are good at or interested in
> Filled in our 'Writer's Eye' with our experiences, interests, talents, etc.

We also:
> Began learning about prefixes, suffixes, and roots as a warm up for our regular Word Root vocabulary routine (starting next week)

Homework: Finish writing your Autobiographical incident, Due Friday 8-31

Instructions for writing an Autobiographical Incident (due Friday, 8-31)

An autobiographical incident is simply this:
Autobiography = Someone writing about his or her life
Incident = something that happens, an event

So, an autobiographical incident (A.B.I.) is when you write about some event in your life.

Pick an event that was fun, scary, interesting, memorable - anything is good as long as you will enjoy writing about it (and your reader will enjoy reading about it). It can be about a special day, something that happened on a trip, a cherished gift, a lucky moment, something tragic, or something joyful. As long as it's about an actual event in your life that you can describe with good detail.

Tips:
> Be specific. Pick an important moment in your life and build your writing around it. Don't spend time on unimportant details.
> Use detail. Describe sights, smells, sounds and feelings using interesting language. Paint a picture for the reader using words.
> Include some dialogue. Even if you don't remember someone's exact words during a past event, include some dialogue (what people say) in your A.B.I.
Requirements:
Write neatly on binder paper (or type if you wish). It should be at least one page handwritten (one side, no skipped lines). If typed, it should be one page double spaced.

Our homework this week is due Thursday morning (Autobiographical Incident).

An autobiographical incident is simply this:
Autobiography = Someone writing about his or her life
Incident = something that happens, an event

So, an autobiographical incident (A.B.I.) is when you write about some event in your life.

Pick an event that was fun, scary, interesting, memorable - anything is good as long as you will enjoy writing about it (and your reader will enjoy reading about it). It can be about a special day, something that happened on a trip, a cherished gift, a lucky moment, something tragic, or something joyful. As long as it's about an actual event in your life that you can describe with good detail.

Tips:
> Be specific. Pick an important moment in your life and build your writing around it. Don't spend time on unimportant details.
> Use detail. Describe sights, smells, sounds and feelings using interesting language. Paint a picture for the reader using words.
> Include some dialogue. Even if you don't remember someone's exact words during a past event, include some dialogue (what people say) in your A.B.I.

Write neatly on binder paper, or type if you wish. It should be at lease one page handwritten (one side, no skipped lines). If typed, it should be one page double spaced.

It's the second week of school, and so far we have done a lot in this class!
We have:
> Learned the rules and routines of the classroom and school
> Conducted silent interviews and introduced each other to the class
> Written about and discussed the purpose of education
> Read about a person's ability to apply oneself and achieve great things ("Ben Carson")
> Begun writing in our class Journals
> Learned some fun drama exercises ('keep your cool', 'copy me', 'pantomime') 
> Read a fictional account of the first day of school and a student's effort to be noticed ("Seventh Grade")

More to come!