Now that we are finished with the book, Flowers for Algernon, we are going to view the year 2000, made for tv, version. There are certain aspects of the film that I would like for you to pay close attention to, because you will be writing a four paragraph essay about what you see versus what we read.

Here is a list of what you will compare in the book and the movie. A more detailed outline of the project is included in the link.

1. Setting

2. Conflict

3. Climax

4. Character:

Tell me one thing that you have learned in this class so far. It can be anything from reading strategies, to social behavior. (positive comments only please!)

So I bet you are wondering if we are having tutorials today. I will be back after lunch and yes we will have tutorials. We will meet in the compter lab today, so bring your thinking caps. In class today you have a test over "The Monkey's Paw". It is open book and you may use your interactive reader. When you finish, you need to read "The King of Maizy May" in your interactive reader. You will have a quiz and also I will award AR points for your quiz grade! See ya soon!

Coming soon! If you are absent and miss the daily journal, I will have every journal posted here so that you will have a place to go to get what you miss!

This week we are writing a narrative story. Writing about something you know is easier than writing about something you don't know much about, and who else is an expert on you than, well, you? We are doing pre-writing exercises in class today to come up with a topic and hopefully start on rough drafts. If you are having a hard time coming up with a topic, think about the journal entries you have written about memories. The field trip to the State Fair is a good one to write about because there is so much sensory detail to choose from. I have a rubric to give you so that you will know exactly how your paper will be graded and what I expect you to have in the story. Check back for a link of that rubric and added information.

http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp

Here is an example using the book we are reading in Reading class. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

We are down to the wire (idiom, haha) for getting our AR Points. The Deadline is Friday at 3:30pm. Due to lack of clarification on when the alternative projects were due, I will allow you to turn those in on Friday. Normally I would want to get those from you at least a week before points are due so that I would have time to grade them. I will remind you next six weeks. Each six weeks, I will assign short stories from your literature book along with an assignment. You will have several to choose from and you can earn up to 5 AR points depending on the quality of your work. Next 6 weeks you will be able to get points from your Science class.(Thanks Mrs. Jarvie! more info soon) Remember, reading does not just mean library books. Although I would like for each of you to acquire a love of reading, there are other purposes for reading besides entertainment. Newspapers, magazine articles, textbook chapters, instruction manuals, applications, schedules, contracts, facebook, myspace, web sites, email, this blog....... you name it! No matter how you feel about reading, you are going to have to read at some point. I will never give up trying to convince you of how fun it is to read, and I will convert some of you before the year is over, but in the mean time, I just want you to READ!!!!!! The links added will show the short stories and assignments for this six weeks. (nothing like waiting until the last minute) and alternative activities you can do instead of tests over books that are not AR.

Earn one AR Point here! Give an example of figurative language and tell me what kind it is. If you do this correctly you will get one AR point! Don't forget AR points are due Friday. If you are doing an alternative project, they are due Friday as well.

http://www.sadlier-oxford.com/phonics/analogies/analogiesx.htm

This link is a one or two person game on analogies in the Jeopardy Format:

http://www.quia.com/cb/7146.html

Here is a neat spelling resource. (This example is not on the list, but here is my spelling tip of the day. Please note the difference between the words loose and lose. I don't like to correct people, as I make mistakes too, but this one drives me crazy!

If you lose weight, your pants might be loose.

You might lose your car keys if they come loose from your key chain.

Check out this list of commonly misspelled words:

http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/misspelled.html

Here is a lesson on an author's use of figurative language using Edgar Allan Poe's poem, The Bells

More information on subordinating conjunctions, (subordinating or dependent and independent clauses)

http://www.poeticpower.com

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LAPoetry9.htm