Thank you, students, for an excellent mock STAAR session this morning. I was so impressed with how well you behaved and how seriously you took it – I am going to brag to the other English teachers that I have the best 9th grade students in the school.

No homework for tonight – enjoy the respite! One note though – I heard that there might be some sort of dance performance for which some of you would like to miss class tomorrow? If that is at all optional, you need to be in English. Tomorrow we’re starting Dracula and setting up some big expectations for how class over the next three weeks is going to work, what you need to be watching for as you read the novel, how our reading is going to lead to a major grade, etc.

So please – come to class. See you all tomorrow (I hope!).

We continued working on our multigenre projects today in class. Students should have now completed pieces from all three genres. Tomorrow we will discuss the remaining unifying elements. (And homework for tonight is to finish the element you started in class.)

***Important Announcement: On Monday, February 23, all Pre-AP English 1 students will take the mock STAAR exam. Please report to the Science Conference Center no later than 7:40. You will stay with me for periods 1 – 4 (your other teachers know about this, and I have alerted the attendance office). Please bring with you two sharpened pencils and a highlighter. Your performance on this exam will count as three major grades (the essay, the short answer response, and the multiple choice questions).***

Today in class, students broke into genre groups (poetry, prose, and image) and critiqued one another’s pieces of the multigenre hero project. Then students chose a new genre for today and began working on the next element (due, in paper format, at the beginning of class tomorrow).

I also handed out Dracula books to those students who ordered them. If you did not order a Dracula book, please remember that you will need one (a paper copy!) by Monday. We’ll start reading on Tuesday.

Today in class, we discussed the multigenre hero project. I have created a tab on the homepage with all sorts of resources – we looked at examples of what the different components could look like, as well as a full project based on Dracula.

Homework for tonight is to finish one of the elements for the project – a piece of prose, poetry, or an image. Students must bring a hard copy of their product with them to class tomorrow – I will not send anyone to the library to print at the start of class.

Today students worked in small groups using Google Docs to co-write essays over some of the major themes in The Count of Monte Cristo. Here is that assignment: The Count of Monte Cristo Thematic Response. Essays are due on Tuesday.

Homework for this weekend was to read your free choice novel for an hour and a half and bring me a note from a parent to that effect.

Have a sweet Valentine’s Day! 🙂

Really important – I forgot to remind you to bring your laptops tomorrow! If you’re reading this, would you be able to get the word out via your favorite social media platform that students in my classes will need to have their laptops for an assignment tomorrow?

Today in class we discussed all of our Dracula List 1 vocabulary words and looked at infinitive phrases. Please see me for an infinitive phrase packet if you were absent. If you need a little help reviewing, check out this website.

Homework for tonight was to complete this phrase summary notes page – Different Kinds of Phrases Review Sheet – remember, you do not get an automatic 100 for turning it in! I am looking for depth and elaboration!

Today students wrote an in-class essay using the following prompt for a major grade:

Hope Essay Prompt

If you were absent, please come make this up Friday during lunch tutorials.

Also as a reminder, students who made less than a 70 on the CMC exam may take a retake for up to a 70 on Friday during lunch.

Homework for tonight was the following:

Homework – Reviewing The Count of Monte Cristo

1. Log on to your Goodreads.com account.
2. Find the version of the book that we read by searching for its ISBN (0553213504).
3. Add the book to your “Read” list and give it between one and five stars.
4. Write a review of the book. Your review should:
   • be approximately 200 to 300 words – one, two, or three sentences is not sufficient
   • lead with a short summary of the plot (but no spoilers!) so that potential readers will have a sense of what the book is about
   • include discussion of both the strengths and the weakness of the book
   • mention anything special that the reader might want to watch out for or keep in mind to be able to better appreciate the book
   • be professionally composed – no excess of positive or negative emotion (extraneous exclamation marks, words like “love,” “hate,” “boring”), proper use of grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.
5. Print off your review from the Goodreads website after you have posted it and turn it in to me on Thursday, February 12.

*Hint – if you are not sure what a good review should look like, read some of the most helpful reviews on the website.

On Monday, students took their Count of Monte Cristo exam. Homework for tonight is to master the words on the Dracula Vocabulary List #1 on Vocabulary.com. (As a reminder, you can just click on “Ms. Chapman” under your class vocabulary site and it will take you to the list I generated.)

On Friday, students finished their prepositional phrase practice activity and then had the rest of the period to work on their multigenre projects (due February 23). I emphasized how important it is to be working on those gradually over the next few weeks, as opposed to trying to complete everything the weekend before the project is due.

Please remember – on Monday, CMC reading guide 10 is due, and you will take your CMC novel test! If you haven’t read the book, it will be extremely difficult (nay, impossible!) to pass! 😉

Lots going on today!

We began with an article about revenge and a set of questions: The Complicated Psychology of Revenge

Next, we discussed your Multigenre Portfolio – due on February 23. Definition of Genres and Elements of the Multigenre Essay        Multigenre Rubric

Finally, we practiced identifying prepositional phrases. Prepositional Phrases For each of these sentences, I want you to 1) circle the prepositional phrase, 2) draw an arrow to the word it modifies, and 3) label the phrase as an adjective or adverb.

Homework for tomorrow is CMC reading guide 9.

Please make sure that you bring your (charged) laptop tomorrow!