Coulombe’s Corner

On Wednesday all eighth graders will be taking the State Writing Test.  I feel confident that YOU ARE READY!  You can do it:)  Get a good night’s sleep on Tuesday evening and eat breakfast before you come to school.  Don’t forget you will need #2 pencils and blue or black pens.

Homework:

1. Prepare for the writing test and a class quiz by studying the following: The outline for an essay ( should be in your mini-lesson section), examples of essay leads (5), and your transitions paper.  Look at the Power point for an example of thesis, supporting details and explanations, counter arguments, and conclusion. Three Little Pigs Final 2

2.  Read your sci-fi-fantasy book and bring it to class daily.  Complete your Select-A-Quote paper.Practice Writing Prompts and Select-a Quote

3.  Your Index Card project for this book is due Feb 2- I will be giving you the instructions next class.

…ended in a snow day.  I hope you are all rested and relaxed and ready to concentrate- we have 3 more classes until the State Writing test.  This coming week we will continue to practice thesis statements, practice organizing our thoughts for our essays, and look at past writing prompts and examples.  Please come ready to write!  Also- don’t forget to bring your sci-fi fantasy book to class daily- you will be writing a response to reading this week and will need your book.

Homework;

1. Complete your DGP Sentence 6- all days

2. Bring your Sci-fi- fantasy book to class daily. ( Be sure you have checked your title with me)

3.  Hand in your emotion poems to me.

4. B Day Dialogue comic strips due Wed. (A day will be due Thursday)

5. B Day- Complete your outline for teen curfews, and rewite the short paragraph I gave you about a food fight.  Use strong nouns and vivid verbs.

1.We will be selling gourmet lollipops on Friday from 8:50-9:15 AM in the Grand Atrium.

1.. Million Word Challenge- Fill in Bingo Card (5 books read) in library with correct information (must have call numbers!) and complete Non-Fiction Poster. Non-fiction book report  Due Dec 10 (B) and 11 (A).

2. A Day- write a rough draft of your emotion poem.

3.  Bring in baby pictures for yearbook.

1. DGP Sentence 5, complete all days for the next class-quiz grade.

2. Million Word Challenge- Fill in Bingo Card (5 books read) in library with correct information (must have call numbers!) and complete Non-Fiction Poster. Non-fiction book report  Due Dec 10 (B) and 11 (A).

3. Comma quiz next week. Comma Chameleon (A day- next Wed., B Day- Tuesday) (This is your last grade in your Conventions category for this marking period-Study!)

 The fllowing link will help you convert the above files in you don’t have Microsoft  Windows 7.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displayLang=en

Homework:

1. DGP Sentence 5, Mon. and Tuesday’s work

2. Million Word Challenge- Fill in Bingo Card (5 books read) in library with correct information (must have call numbers!) and complete Non-Fiction Poster.

Homework:

READ!  Million Word Challenge and non-fiction poster due December 11.  Non-fiction book report

Non-fiction book report

Today we read Stargirl, and we  read a sample expository essay. The we proceeded to circle and identify the Standards in the article.  The class spent the rest of the time discussing and reviewing for the Touching Spirit Bear test on Wed (B) or Thursday (A). Students that came to class without their novels werer a t a disadvantage.

Homework:

1. Novel test -Wed/Thursday. See notes-,   Touching Spirit Bear Notes10, conflictandplotstructure[1]

2. Million Word Challenge- Dec. 11 (See page above for book requirement) Poster Directions: (above)

In class we continued our comma rules and completed DGP Sentence 4.  We  continued our read aloud of Stargirl, and we all had a pop quiz on Touching Spirit Bear. We rewrote the standards for Expository Writing on our own words, and started to look at an article to see if we could find the standards present.  Next week we will be focusing on Thesis Statements.

At this point, all students should have completed any make up work due and handed in their compare/contrast essay of the two novels.

Homework:

1. Finish reading Touching Spirit Bear. Novel test Wed/Thursday.

2. Read for the Million Word Challenge.  Five books due December 11, along with a poster project on a non-fiction book.  Rubric and directions for poster will be given out this week.

Today in class, we talked about Our Million Word Challenge and reading 5 books this term for an A.  One of these books needs to be non-fiction for the final project. (at least 150 pages).  Several authors we talked about- Jim Murphy, James Cross Giblin, and Russell Freedman- all have excellent young adult fiction.

We worked on more comma rules, and completed Monday’s work for sentence 4 in DGP.  We aslo read chapter 17 in Stargirl. We finished class with a Feather Circle, discussing if Cole should be allowed to go back to the island and be given a second chance, or not. (A Day) In B day classes we discussed quotes from cahpetsr 16-18.  We aslo began unpacking the Expository Standards, rewriting them in our own words.  We then looked at an expository piece of writing and highlighted the standards present.

Homework:

1. Complete Tues/Wed for Sentence 4 in DGP.

2. Read chapters 16-18 in Touching Spirit Bear  and complete chart on quotes. (A)  Read Chapters 19-21. (B)

3. Remember to work on your Million Word Challenge.  Of the 5 required books for this term, both Touching Spirit Bear and Stargirl will count. That leaves 3 remaining books to read on your own, one being a non-fiction book.  A non- fiction poster with 25 facts (in sequential order and IN YOUR OWN WORDS) is due Dec. 11.  You will be receiving a more detailed rubric/directions for this project soon.