In class today, I announced that you will have a multiple-choice exam (25 questions) this upcoming Monday over “The Ebola Fighters.” (Time 2014 Person of the Year – The Ebola Fighters). You MUST read an annotate that article before class on Monday, and you must bring it with you to class — I will not have extra copies for you, and you will not be able to answer the questions without it. The test will also assess your understanding of the other nonfiction texts we have read during this unit (The Hot Zone, The Most Terrifying Thing About Ebola, Wild Flavor, and The Masque of the Red Death).

With the rest of the period, students began another expository essay over how people can stop epidemics — please come get paper copies of those materials from the classroom.

Today we had some lengthy discussions about The Hot Zone! The next reading guide (The Hot Zone Reading Guide 7) will be due on Thursday.

Today we took our Hot Zone List 3 Vocabulary quiz! If you missed it, please come make it up THURSDAY during lunch (since we won’t be here on Friday).

Also, remember that Reading Guide 6 is due tomorrow!

On Thursday, we discussed the next part of our book. We then began prewriting for an essay about altruism (Altruism Essay Rubric   Expository Essay – Altruism).

Students will compose their essays during class on Friday.

Today we discussed our Hot Zone Vocabulary List 3. Afterwards, I asked students to compose 16 sentences using those words and submit them through Turnitin.com. (Each of the sentences must be compound: that is, connected by a coordinating conjunction [FANSBOYS] with a clause that could function independently as a complete sentence on its own. If you were absent and this is confusing to you, please come see me during tutorials on Friday.)

Students also need to complete Vocabulary.com for List 3 before their quiz on Monday.

Welcome back from Spring Break!

On Monday, we read a lengthy essay about urbanization and disease in China (Wild Flavor – Abridged and Wild Flavor Reading Guide).

Today, we went over the most recent section of The Hot Zone. Students then practiced answering multiple choice questions over an article (The Most Terrifying Thing About Ebola – Slate Article).

Homework (due Thursday) is the next Hot Zone Reading Guide (The Hot Zone Reading Guide 5).

There will also be an extra credit movie — The Painted Veil — this Friday! 🙂

After we discussed the latest section of The Hot Zone, students had a choice to 1) work on the podcast homework, 2) begin the next reading guide, which will be due the Tuesday after we return from Spring Break (The Hot Zone Reading Guide 4), or 3) experiment with Plague, Inc. to see in action the dynamics that we talked about in Ebola’s mutation in the game.

Today in class, we are talking about the difference in the pronouns “who” and “whom” (Who vs Whom). Afterwards, students need to write 10 sentences using Hot Zone vocabulary words and submit it through Turnitin.com:

Choose 10 words from our Hot Zone vocabulary lists (you can choose from both 1 and 2) that you like. Write five sentences correctly using the pronoun “who” and five sentences correctly using the pronoun “whom.” Underline your vocabulary word in the sentence; highlight the word “who” or “whom.”

Finally, some of you wanted to get a head start on your homework for tomorrow; it’s this podcast (Radiolab Patient Zero Podcast Questions), and here is the link to listen to it. This will be due on Friday.

After going over Reading Guide 2, students read a short story of Edgar Allen Poe’s (The Masque of the Red Death) related to The Hot Zone and answers the questions at the end.

Homework (due Thursday) was the next reading guide (The Hot Zone Reading Guide 3).

Today we took our Hot Zone List 2 quiz. Afterwards, students finished their STAAR practice exams (I know… I’m sick of it too). Please remember to have your Hot Zone Reading Guides 2 tomorrow!