Monthly Archives: January 2014

1/31/2014

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Happy Lunar New Year!

Today, we are starting our second major grade. We will writing an essay based on a memory from our childhood and we will publish it. Really and truly publish it! That means we will spend a lot of time on editing and revising to take this to a final copy.

I shared the story from the first time that I did this: Potty Training. It was a real story that I got from the actual foldable when I did it.

First, we made a paper house foldable. On the inside of the foldable, we drew a blueprint or the floorplan on the house(s) that you grew up in as a child. Don’t worry about furniture or labeling the house. This is for your memories, not for me. Then, we used 8 small post-it notes as windows of memories. The windows don’t have to be complete sentences – just ideas.

Then, you will choose ONE of those memories and write about it. Tell me what happened using as much detail as you can remember. Make sure you are comfortable with sharing this story with other people – it doesn’t have to be a HAPPY or a FUNNY memory – just a memory that you feel comfortable with other people reading.

When you finish writing your story, work on your Metaphorical Response!

metaphorical responseThe Epic Dude is also due today, so make sure that I get that by the end of the day if you want credit for Grade Check on Monday!

1/30/2014

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I started out today with an apology: Normally, I only read one section a day. BUT, because we have missed two days due to weather, I’ve had to compress two days of reading into one.

So understand that we are going to read WAY more than I usually ask you to do.

While we read, we take notes. Whatever I have highlighted or written down, I want you to write down or highlight. If you miss a day of reading, the best way to get caught up is by getting the notes from my hard copy in the classroom:

Beowulf NotesToday, we read The Wrath of Grendel and The Coming of Beowulf. For each of those headings, you should have turned the heading into a QUESTION on a Post-It Note. You will save these until the end of Beowulf and then you will turn them in. Please don’t give me your random Post-It Notes.

questions

Siria, since you missed today, you’ll need to make sure that you understand what happened. Get the notes, read on your own, and if you help, you can read this and this.

Lastly, I explained the Metaphorical Response. You will come up with ten metaphors from Beowulf. Make sure that your metaphors are real metaphors: don’t describe Beowulf as a soldier because he IS a soldier. Don’t describe Grendel as a monster because he IS a monster. Try to stick with inanimate objects.

You should have gotten the metaphor for Beowulf completed today. We will work a little each day on this, but you will need to keep up with the work. This will be due by Friday, February 7th.

When we finished reading, we

1/29/14

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I am so tired of snow days. Don’t get me wrong: I’d love them if we didn’t have to make them up, but I’m going to be cranky if I have to babysit you guys AFTER finals are over in June! Ick.

Arrrrrrgh!

We did a lot of little things today, me mateys.

We started out doing a word search – Riley gave us a picture from the book Animalia and a sheet with  a letter on it. If you have the letter A, write as many A letters down inside the letter that you can.

So, you can see from this picture that there are a whole bunch of A’s in here. Write them down inside your letter.

So, if you were absent and need a letter, choose one of the following:

Or you can choose this one:

To go get the letter, go to BB>Beowulf>Literary Terms> Drop Box: Alliterative sentence to find the PDF file of either C or P. Print it out and start writing down words!

When you are done with that, you will then a ten word alliterative sentence. If you have C, you are going to write ONE sentence that MAKES SENSE that has AT LEAST TEN (school appropriate) C WORDS. If you have P, you are going to write ONE sentence that MAKES SENSE that has AT LEAST TEN (school appropriate) P WORDS. Write this sentence around your letter.

Think of it this way: start out with a base sentence, like:

Ellen Eves entered the east entrance.

That’s only five E words, so I need to add more.

Think of and adjective for Ellen, like this:

Energetic Ellen Eves entered the east entrance.

Look at your VERB. Think of an adverb that can describe it.

Energetic Ellen Eves eagerly entered the east entrance.

Still short? Try adding adjectives such as colors and numbers.

Energetic Ellen Eves eagerly entered the east entrance eight times.

Energetic Ellen Eves, when she was only eighteen, eagerly entered the east entrance eight times.

Nine Words! This is  where I suggest going to the dictionary to find an E word that you can incorporate and using PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES.

Energetic Ellen Eves, when she was only eighteen, eagerly entered the east entrance eight times with an entourage after the examination.

Then, we listened to The Breaks and watched Riley dance crazily around the room. You kinda missed the show here, but she was demonstrating caesuras.

What you need to do is on an index card, write caesuras on the front, and then write the following four words around it in the four corners: pause, suspense, comma, break.

On the back of the card, write a definition for caesuras using those four words. Ask a crew member for help if you need it. :)

Then, we worked on kennings. A kenning is pretty much just a fancy nickname. The Anglo-Saxons used them, so to understand the bards, we need a little nickname practice. Go to the Beowulf vocabulary folder in BB and find kennings. You can either give those five objects a kennings nickname for 10 points, or create a Guess Who game for 20 points. It’s your choice!

We had time at the end of class, so finish your Epic Dude. He’s due on Friday!

1/27/14

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Riley as a CeltWe are moving quickly and assignments may not match up completely in BB since we are cramming two days into one – a few things have been skipped over, so make sure you keeping track of your grades in Gradespeed AND Blackboard!

The first thing we did today was take the Wergild quiz: You can find this in Beowulf: Peanut Butter Jelly Time: Wergild Quiz. It’s worth 30 points and it’s open note, open group, open internet, open OneNote, open poster! You can take it as many times as you want – the point of this is learning how to translate the textbook and the poster into test questions.

Our adventurers came back from their reconnaissance mission tired, but with much knowledge. We learned that there is an old, epic king who is very generous, noble, and honorable who might be willing to help rebuild The Revenge (that’s the name of the ship, remember?). We have to learn what EPIC is before we actually go meet him. So listen up!

To prepare, we watched the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny and wrote a list of five EPIC things that we saw.

Then, we went to Beowulf: Epic Hero and printed the Characteristics of an Epic to OneNote and took notes. You can get this from a neighbor.

We ended the day with Epic Dude. Make sure that you look in BB for the instructions and that you use complete sentences. I don’t need five sentences for each square: I need a total of five sentences.

Epic DudeHopefully, I’ll see everyone tomorrow! Boo for inclement weather days!

1/23/14

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Ahoy, mateys!

We started out the day trying on chain mail (while slackers finished their pictures). Once completed, you taught the rest of your group what your pictures meant (you will be taking a quiz tomorrow based on what they taught).

Then, we did a Gallery Walk. That means in YOUR group, ONE person stayed with the poster to teach the students from the other groups and the rest of the group wandered over to the OTHER groups to hear. There are a few reasons we did the Gallery Walk, even though a few people found it repetitive.

  1. It *is* repetitive – the more you hear it, the more likely you’ll remember it for the quiz.
  2. If you had a group member who didn’t do a very good job, this gives you opportunity to fill in the gaps from the other groups.

We did a Word Storm of important vocabulary words that will be used for an activity tomorrow (and you can use on the final exam).Word StormYou assessed which group had the best poster and which presented was the most effective (those were rewarded with extra XP and extra booty!)

And finally, we reviewed MY Peanut Butter Jelly Time pictures! I told you that if I expect YOU to do the assignment, I’ve done it myself.

Peanut Butter Jelly Time Riley

1/22/14

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Day 2. Today is the day that we started real, academic work.

On our trip to Jamaica, we got attacked by the dragon. Yikes! A few people were able to hit the dragon in the eye, but the majority of us ran away in fear. It knocked down the mast of our whip, which seriously crippled our mobility. All we know is that we are located between two islands, so before we do anything, we need to figure out WHERE we are.

If you missed today, if you go to Beowulf < Peanut Butter Jelly Time, you will see the map of where we are. You can print this out and fill it in. Here is a completed map:

Map of British IslesIf you fill this map out, you can use it on the final exam.

Now that we know where we are, I set you up into groups based on your Nature and Demeanors from yesterday. Each group member picked a card: Peanut, Butter, or Jelly.

We printed the Anglo-Saxon History (Peanut, Butter, Jelly) into OneNote. Except Shelby. She was Time. We are not going to read this all individually ourselves, we are going to split up the work within our group. The sections you are responsible for are listed on the back of your card.

Read your sections, highlighting what you think are the important notes. If you need help or just want to double check to make sure that you got the best information, call me over so I can double check it.

Once you have read all of your sections, then you can DRAW your notes. You will draw each section on an index card for a total of three index cards.

Tomorrow, you will teach your groups members the information, make a poster, and take a group test over the information (using your notes and text).

1/21/14

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Welcome to Term 3!

If this is your first time on board, welcome! If you are a returning member, I’m glad to have you back! :)

So glad I got to meet all of my present students (unless you were a dork and ended up sitting in Mrs. Bollato’s class for the entirety of Block 1).

If you were absent, you can probably catch up without staying after school, but you’ll need someone to explain the details of what we did.

levels

I did explain a few key differences of my class: namely, that I am on a point system. There most points you can earn for the term is 1500 points. That means that if you have 1500 points at the end of the term, you will have earned 100%. If you earn 130/1500 points, you’ll have earned a 90, 1200 points earns an 80, 1100 points is a 73, and 1050 points is a 70.Levels

The first thing we did on day one was create to characters for The Pride of Riley. The things that I’ll be focusing on when I grade them are your Nature, Demeanor, Attributes, and your (4) R’s. If you weren’t here, you can find this material in BB under Welcome to the Ship: First Day Stuff: Gamification.

The big things that I will be grading are your Nature and Demeanor, your Attributes (7/5/3), and your R’s. Remember to copy your nuggets down each day while I’m taking role: those are your learning objectives!

Most classes were able to do the First Day survey (located in First Day Stuff: A Few Assignments). It’s a pretty short survey, so 2nd block can do it tomorrow.

And lastly, we did a neat little test circling numbers. It was more of an experience than an assignment, so if you missed it, you missed some fun.

See you all tomorrow, mateys!

1/13/14

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Today is the Block 3 Final.

Things that will be on the final:

  • Carpe Diem
  • To the Virgins
  • Coy Mistress
  • YOLO
  • Time by Pink Floyd
  • Passionate Shepherd
  • Nymph’s Reply
  • Ecclesiastes 3:1
  • Psalm 23
  • Parable of the Prodigal Son
  • Paradise Lost
  • Dante’s Inferno
  • Othello
  • Pygmalion

1/10/14

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Pretty easy day – we worked on the Pygmalion Menu!

Congratulations to all the students who met the requirements to clap out today!

The final exam schedule for next week is as follows:

Monday (Full Day)

Block 3 Final

Tuesday (1/2 day)

Block 1

Wednesday (1/2 day)

Block 2 (1/2 day)

Thursday (1/2 day)

Reading Final and Pancake Breakfast!