Monthly Archives: October 2009

Happy Halloween tomorrow:-)

1. Over the weekend please continue to read your independent Civil War novel.  As you know, it takes some rereading to write a good letter, so I want you to finish reading your section asap so you can start to work on your letter #2 and make it great!

2. Continue to read Chapter 4 in Lincoln and work on answering all the questions on a separate paper.  You may do this with a partner.  You will, ultimately, have a quiz/test on the information and you should not leave this till the last minute. Lincoln4QuestionsRevised

That’s it for now!

Thank you for the Minimester reflections.  We hope that you had a great time.  We heard great things about the eighth grade from all of the teachers!

Due Wednesday:

1. Tomorrow we will have writing workshop.  Complete an entry in your Writer’s Notebook on the topic that you picked last, last week.  (i.e. “first crush”,”glasses”, “warm tea”, etc)  Be prepared to share tomorrow in our writing workshop groups.  You are not required to share but sharing provides so much for the group! 

2. Look through chapter 4 again and choose 3 methods of resistance that you think you would like to write about in the essay.  Write those methods on the front of the essay packet you were given today.  Here is a link to the TBAS essay packet.  I changed the wording a bit but the ideas are the same.  Please do not get confused if you download and print this version. ToBeASlaveEssaydraftpacket

3. Read in your Civil War independent book and begin to conceptualize what you’d like to write in your letter #1. Begin letter.

***Here is a Civil War Cheat Sheet  that I handed out at the end of the day.  It has a list of facts about the Civil War that will help you understand what is going on in your independent novel.

Due Thursday:

1. Read Chapter 5 in TBAS and complete the same assignment as you did for chapters 4 part 1 and 2.  That is, read it and identify 2 forms of resistance with an example from the book. Write/type this out and bring to class.  (Hint: this is basically background research for your essay)

Due Friday:

1. Civil War Independent Book Letter #1.  Have TWO copies at the beginning of class, one for me and one for your partner.

Wednesday, October 20

Due Tuesday, October 20:

• Complete the Assignment I: Resistance to Slavery on the first half of in TBAS Chapter 4 “Resistance to Slavery-1”, pages 76 to the middle of 97 after Henson’s quotation. The assignment is only the front assignment. TBASch4Prep2Essay

O N G O I N G

Due Monday, October 26: Bring in your OWN copy of your Civil War book. No exceptions! The list is posted earlier this week. Be sure to check in Momii’s room to see if the book you want is at your reading level. Start NOW finding the book, please!

Check out the “Theme B” inspired poems on the bulletin board when you come to school on Monday! Great job, everyone.

Due Monday:

1. Read chapter 1 and 2 in Lincoln: A Photobiography. Be quiz ready!

2. Review major topics in “Plantation” Chapter 3 from TBAS and be quiz ready* for that, too.

*When I say “quiz ready” I mean that you should be able to remember examples from the section of reading that represent major themes or ideas. On quizzes like this in Core, you will often be asked to give me an example about something or describe what you remember. I don’t put tricks or expect you to memorize; I want to know if you have read the material.

3. Select and order or buy in a bookstore your Civil War Independent Book Project book due Monday, October 26. Start this process now so you have it in your hand on time for this important due date. Remember, you will have about one month to read the book and you will also want to select something on your reading level or just a bit above it. Here is the list from which you may select: CivilWarBookChoices0910

Due Friday:
1. read Ch. 3 in TBAS. Compose two discussion questions for the class based on the topics that were brought up in the chapter. Remember, a discussion question is a question that doesn’t have a single answer, is provocative, has a deeper meaning and helps people share their thoughts when grappling with it.
2. If you haven’t already, print a clean copy of your Theme B poem, according the the guidelines.

Here is the minimester list.Minilist2009-1

Due Thursday:

Read one half of Chapter 2 in TBAS. Page 39-58

Write a 3/4 page response to the entire section. You can pull out quotations that you were struck by, you may discuss surprising sections, you may elaborate on ideas that were discussed.

bring this into class and be prepared to share.

Due Wednesday:
Prepare for our first Writing Workshop! Get a special journal and pen/cil for the class tomorrow. Tonight, write your first entry, date it, and plan to share what you write. Use the following prompts to help you free write: Describe your relationship to writing. Do you write for fun or just school? Do you journal privately? Do you share writing often? What writing piece are you most proud of? Describe. Anything else? Please do tell!

Due Friday:

• Based our activity in class, revise your family/friend interview, add in your photo if you haven’t.

• Turn it in your final draft with your rough draft and your peer edit sheet.  Also, bring a treat to share in class if you wish!

Note: you will be sharing your work aloud in groups of 3 tomorrow and to the class.

Due Tuesday, October 13:

1.    Read chapter 1 of TBAS and select 3 passages you find striking, interesting or important. Copy down the page # and then write a paragraph about each passage, saying why you chose it, responding to it and/or connecting it to other parts of the text.

2.    Complete reading the article about Michelle Obama and slavery from Thursday’sNYTimes.  Underline important sections.  Write a letter that is ¾ of a page long to Michelle Obama. Begin with [Dear Ms. Obama] and sign your name. In your letter, detail your reaction to the article about her family history, including at least one quotation from the article. You may want to connect it to our study of To Be a Slave.

Note: Here is a link to the article:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/us/politics/08genealogy.html.  There are also 35 primary source documents loaded onto the NYTimes webiste that show how the historian did her work! Very cool. We will look at these next week.

Due Wednesday:

1. Read pages 13-27 in To Be A Slave.  As your reading, take notes in your Core Notebook.  Now, I have taught you how to do this.  I want you to try on your own and we will discuss what you did tomorrow in class.  Hint: use bullet points and jot down main ideas in short form.
2. Complete the “Timeline of American Slavery” sheet handed out in the class.  I can not post this to the blog so I hope you have it!
3. Continue doing anything you need to complete your assignment for Friday – Family Interview.

Due Thursday:

1. Have a draft of your interview (1-2 pages typed or hand written) done so we can edit this together before the final draft is due.

Due Friday:

1. Family Interview complete and with picture!