Benchmark Test #2

Section 1 took the second of three parts of a benchmark test.  It was only 18 questions, but each question requires students to think hard about each answer.  It is just like the one students will take for the district in December and in the spring.  I am using these to assess how students will do on the real tests.  Even though they are practice, I feel they are good scores to have on record.  I counted the benchmark as a small summative because the students were directly tested on skills I have been teaching lately.

Sections 2 and 3 will be taking the benchmark test Thursday.

I am almost done the grades for the 1st marking period.  Please check HAC.

SECTION 1 Bonne Annee essays have been graded.

I spent a lot of time adding comments to these, so I hope the students take the time to learn from them.  Being able to write is very important.  If the students would like to make corrections for a higher score, that would be great.  We can dialogue through Google or meet during lunch. My goal is to make sure my students know how to claim, cite, and clarify so they can not only read a story and explain it, they can take a position and use the story to back up that position.

The students will be starting another essay in about two weeks.  Aren't they lucky?

-MrBoZ

I graded the snapshots for section 1

SECTION 1 ONLY

There are some big grades coming at the end of the marking period for section 1.  

Writing: Snapshot/Grammar

• I graded these as I had described on the original assignment.  I was looking for a short moment which was described using sensory details.  As the students led me through that moment with plot, they were giving thoughts.  All of this was to lead towards a theme.  Plus, the whole piece should be grammatically perfect.  I will give students time to correct their pieces Tuesday so this slideshow will look perfect!  We MIGHT make audio recordings, or we might read these to the class next week.
• I also see that I need to teach commas and periods.  I will do that individually with students for now.
• You can look at samples of 100% here.  I will need students to request access to edit the document.

Writing: Essay on Bonne Annee

• I will give these a score.  The score will reflect their ability to cite examples and clarify.  I will split the score into a formative and a summative. The formative will be the essay over all.  The summative will be their understanding of the theme as shown through examples from the text.

Benchmark: Apply close reading skills

• On Monday we will take another part of the district required benchmark as practice.  However, I do expect them to do well based on the lessons we have been studying.

There are things due Friday

Section 1
Quiz on Unit 3 vocabulary.
The Latehomecomer questions will be presented by groups.


Sections 2 & 3
This is due tomorrow:

The Latehomecomer has lots of figurative language and imagery.  One central image is the house.  Not only is the house described in great detail, the house is used as a symbol of something else. 

In other words, the description of the house is actually a description of something very important in this story! Through the description of the house throughout the story, you will come to understand the theme.

For this SUMMATIVE assignment, you are going to draw a detailed picture of the house. 

·      You may choose either the inside or the outside of the house.

·      The drawing must be neat and colorful.

·      You must identify ten features of the house.

·      Draw an arrow and label: #8 sloping roof.

(I will give you extra credit if you do both the inside and the outside.  In fact, it is very important to the story that you understand there is an inside AND an outside of this house.)

We will start the assignment in class.  The drawing is due Friday. 

The end of the marking period is approaching and grades are changing!

Section 1
These are the grades remaining this marking period:

1. LARGE FORMATIVE: I will be grading the snaphots/thoughtshots soon.  Right now you can view ALL of them here.
2. SUMMATIVE: Weeks ago, students quickly wrote an essay on Bonne Annee.  I read through the responses and was satisfied in general.  After teaching the other classes how to write the essay, I have asked these students to formalize their essays.  I want to be sure they know how to cite evidence like they need to do on state testing.  The rubric is at the bottom of this page.  
3. SMALL SUMMATIVES: There will be two vocab quizzes before the end of next week: Unit 3 and Units 1-3.  Practice with this Quizlet page.  (They also have all the bookwork for these units.)

Sections 2 and 3
I have updated the grades in HAC.  The assignment that has affected students the most is the essay we just wrote on Bonne Annee.  Mrs. Jamison and I spent day after day teaching and reteaching how to write the essay.  From the scores, it is obvious that we need to continue teaching students how to write these essay.  Students are expected to write essays like this for the Smarter Balance tests.  Here are the requirements for the essay and how it was scored.  If students would like to rewrite the essay for a higher grade, they can see us.

Right now we are starting The Latehomecomer.  Students have a SUMMATIVE drawing due by Friday.  Please see the requirements at the end of this page. We started this in class today.

Sorry I haven't posted all week.

I have been so busy
I will try to catch you up on what we have been up to in general.  However, I have been putting most of my time into detailed daily pages.  Please check them out.  They have all the links you need.

Sports Galleries
One thing that took up my time this week was taking pictures at two H.B. games.  Here are links to the pictures for Volleyball, Field Hockey, and Soccer.  Feel free to download the pictures of your children.  There is a download button below each picture.

Section 1

• We are half way through unit 3 in the vocab book.  I have entered the homework grades. They will have a quiz on Unit 3 on October 23.
• HAC: I need the summative grades to accurately reflect ability, so I have entered a grade from the inferencing warm-ups.  We practice inferencing a lot, and those score tell me how well students are understanding the concepts.
• Writing: We spent this week focusing on how imagery helps convey the theme of The Latehomecomer.  Students started the week off practicing writing with plot, snapshots, and thoughtshots in groups.  We applied those lessons to the literature, which uses an amazing amount of imagery. 
•   Over the weekend, students are expected to create their own snapshot project.  All the details are on this page. 
• Students will also be expected to quickly answer these questions.

Sections 2 and 3

• HAC: I need the summative grades to accurately reflect ability, so I have entered a grade from the inferencing warm-ups.  We practice inferencing a lot, and those score tell me how well students are understanding the concepts.
• Writing: Students are writing an essay on Bonne Annee. 
• The brainstorming was done using this sheet.
• The outlining was done using this outline.
• There are also some poor examples on this page.
• Students will have one more day on Monday to finish this piece. 
• This essay is a major grade because students are expected to be able to do this type of writing on the state testing.  The scores on the essays should reflect how well they will do in a testing situation.  

All sections have a writing assignment they are working on.

Section 1 is writing a snapshot paragraph.  Examples are found on this page.  The basic idea (so I can keep this short) is to write about 400 words on a moment in their life- the way a picture captures that moment.  The piece will be more descriptive than plot based.  Snapshots use the five senses to bring the moment to life for the reader.  Thoughtshots allow the reader to know what the narrator is/was thinking.  Please check out this amazing example.

I am going to have the students create two pages in a Google Slides which the whole class will share.  I will set this up and assign slides tomorrow.  One slide will have the picture.  The other slide will have their written piece.  This way we can read each other's pieces and learn from each other.

Sections 2 and 3 are writing on this: The theme of "Bonne Anne" is that when you move to a new country at a young age, neither place seems entirely like home.  The writer uses facts, opinions, and anecdotes to convey this message.

Students used this sheet to practice citing evidence from a short film we watched.  From this modeling, students should understand how they are to take examples from Bonne Annee to support their claim.

Tomorrow we will organize and write a rough draft.  I would like to see what students are struggling with.

This girl's snapshot example was so good, I felt compelled to bow down.  Please check out this amazing example.

Interims have been submitted.

If you check HAC, the scores that are there today are what I used for the interims.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

Again, if a student is absent, he/she should go to www.mrboz.com and click on Today in Class.  Here is what we did in class today:

Section 1

Learning Objectives:  Students will be able to identify the writer's message and explain how it was conveyed through the text through facts, opinions, and analogies for Bonne Annee. Students will begin The Latehomecomer exploring the theme through the writer's use of imagery and figurative language. Whole Group Lesson Small Group work and/or Lesson Concept clarification. Comment on Bonne Annee paragraphs Assessment/Important Up-coming dates Vocab quiz Friday, October 8

October 7, 2015 Today’s Agenda 1. Warm-up: Buzzword: transcend 2. Enter page 41 Vocab in Context and practice  your Quizlet part of speech. 3. Experiment: Comment on Bonne Anne paragraphs. Performance Task: At the end of this collection students will write an expository essay focusing on the challenges immigrants face and the adjustments immigrants make. Vocabulary Study for quiz Homework Quiz Friday!

These are the Common Core Standards discussed throughout this unit.  I will highlight which standard or part of the standard I will focus on each day.

CC.8.R.L.1 I will be able to cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CC.8.R.L.2 I will be able to determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.
CC.8.R.L.3 I will be able to analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.CC.8.R.L.4 I will be able to determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.CC.8.L.4.b Vocabulary Acquisition and Use: Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., precede, recede, secede).

 Sections 2 & 3

Learning Objectives:  Students will have done a first read of Bonne Annee to have an overall view of the piece. Students will have read and summarized as they read Bonne Annee. Whole Group Lesson Introduce Bonne Annee vocabulary Small Group work and/or Lesson Concept clarification. Reading Bonne Annee and summarizing as they go.  Are they understanding what they read? Assessment/Important Up-coming dates Interims have been submitted.

October 7, 2015 Today’s Agenda 1. Warm-up: Buzzword: transcend 2. Introduce vocabulary for Bonne Annee 3. Read Bonne Annee and summarize each paragraph as you go. Performance Task: At the end of this collection students will write an expository essay focusing on the challenges immigrants face and the adjustments immigrants make. Vocabulary Practice these on Quizlet huddled    commingle indistinguishable    predominate incidental    adamant coup    inevitably persecution    dispossessed crescendo    buoyed natal

Just posting what we did today.

Section 1

Learning Objectives:  Students will be able to determine the writer's message and explain how it was conveyed through the text through facts, opinions, and analogies.. Students will have presented on Bonne Annee through focusing on author's message. Whole Group Lesson Warm-up Begin writing the paragraph. Small Group work and/or Lesson Concept clarification. Presentation work time and present. Assessment/Important Up-coming dates Vocab quiz Friday, October 8 Group presentations on Friday on Bonne Anne Worksheet

October 5, 2015 Today’s Agenda 1. Buzzword: Uproar 2. Worktime/present theme 3. Writing time Warm-up:  Buzzword: Uproar Performance Task: At the end of this collection students will write an expository essay focusing on the challenges immigrants face and the adjustments immigrants make. Vocabulary We are not doing Vocabulary Workshop words today. Homework Completing the Sentence unit 2 + Quizlet!

These are the Common Core Standards discussed throughout this unit.  I will highlight which standard or part of the standard I will focus on each day.

CC.8.R.L.1 I will be able to cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CC.8.R.L.2 I will be able to determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.
CC.8.R.L.3 I will be able to analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.CC.8.R.L.4 I will be able to determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.CC.8.L.4.b Vocabulary Acquisition and Use: Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., precede, recede, secede).

 Sections 2 & 3

Learning Objectives:  Students will demonstrate their mastery of the literature terms and close reading skills practiced in My Favorite Chaperone. Students will explore vocabulary examining prefixes and roots. Whole Group Lesson Buzzword: Uproar Long Reading passages. Small Group work and/or Lesson Concept clarification. Testing Assessment/Important Up-coming dates Interims: October 2, 2015

October 5, 2015 Today’s Agenda 1.  Buzzword: Uproar 2. Lesson on how to handle long reading passages in test situations 3. Take reading comprehension benchmark test Warm-up:   Buzzword: Uproar Performance Task: At the end of this collection students will write an expository essay focusing on the challenges immigrants face and the adjustments immigrants make. Vocabulary Figurative Language: Simile Metaphor Personification Hyperbole