Today we had our PIE celebration, and students got to snack on your delicious confections as they took the vocabulary quiz. (I think it was probably the sweetest quiz you will take all year.) Speaking of quizzes, here is an announcement that I made today:

If you would like to improve your last vocabulary quiz score, you can raise it to an 80 by writing sentences for every word on the list, and bringing them to me tomorrow by the end of lunch. Your sentences must be high-quality and demonstrate that you understand the meaning of the word. If you’re just throwing words into a sentence willy-nilly, I won’t give you any credit whatsoever.

No homework for tonight, but you can be reading your free choice book and doing your second Ella Minnow Pea reading guide: EMP Reading Guide 2

Today in class, we began with 10-or-so minutes of free choice reading for a warm-up. Next, we talked about the first 35 pages of Ella Minnow Pea using your discussion guides. Finally, we took notes on a writing method called PIE, which you will be using very frequently from this point on. Here is that PowerPoint if you would like to review: The PIE Method for Building Paragraphs

Homework for tonight is to either: 1) read your free choice book for 45 minutes, 2) practice using Vocabulary.com for 45 minutes, or 3) do both of those things (each one for 45 minutes) for an extra 10 points. You must bring a signed note from a parent telling me what you did.

Also, I think I mentioned this in all of the classes, but just in case, your printed HUB pages are due on Monday, since we won’t have class on Friday.

Today we took the English (reading and writing) portion of the PSAT, in preparation for the real thing, which you will take on October 15. I told you about a couple of different options that are available to you if you would like to further prepare for that exam: Testmasters (which is very expensive, although I think it can be effective), as well as the free PSAT and SAT offered by Mr. Wolf after school on Monday and Wednesday.

Homework for tonight was just to finish your reading guide for Ella Minnow Pea. I told you that if you did not yet have yours, you can borrow one of the few that I have during lunch.