ELA+20+-+day+to+day

Nov 23, 2010
 * Here is the link where you should paste your questions


 * October 8, 2010 **
 * Work period


 * October 7, 2010 **
 * Discussion: how many found the poems enjoyable?
 * None: why not?
 * Because they were depressing
 * Do we expect poetry and the theme of recollection to be happy? Why?
 * Complete the assigned questions and response


 * October 6, 2010 **
 * Recollection: Always a positive theme?
 * Poetry and recollection
 * Read the two assignment poems as a class
 * Discuss figurative language and meaning of poems


 * October 5, 2010 **
 * Discussion and questions about unit end assignment
 * Examples of photo stories
 * Class critique


 * October 4, 2010 (Monday) **
 * Discussion of end unit assignment - a representation of your life so far
 * Things to begin brainstorming
 * Lessons you've learned
 * Places you've been
 * Accomplishments
 * Defining moments
 * Influential people
 * Proud moments
 * How you've become the person you are today
 * Significant events
 * Community you grew up in
 * Not so proud moments


 * October 1, 2010 (Friday) **
 * Revise and edit
 * Post short story to blog
 * Comment on your own
 * 1 thing you did well as a writer (be specific)
 * 1 thing you need to work on (again, be specific)
 * Also comment on everyone else's blog using the above as a guideline


 * September 30, 2010 (Thursday) **
 * Discussion - theme of recollection
 * Discussion - the writing process
 * Short story assignment
 * Write a short story about one of the following (1 page)
 * A time you seized the moment
 * A time you wish you could go back and do things differently
 * Write in 3rd person and focus on setting and character description


 * September 29, 2010 (Wednesday) **
 * Review from last year
 * Elements of a short story
 * Focus on - setting description and character description


 * September 28, 2010 (Tuesday) **
 * Final look at newsletter and production


 * September 27, 2010 (Monday) **
 * Finish newsletter


 * September 24, 2020 (Friday) **
 * Newsletter


 * September 23, 2010 (Thursday) **
 * Newsletter


 * September 22, 2010 (Wednesday) **
 * Newsletter


 * September 21, 2010 (Tuesday) **
 * Begin working on newsletter assignments


 * September 20, 2010 (Monday) **
 * Brainstorming of newsletter ideas:
 * What to include
 * How will it be assessed?
 * If it is done and published without mistakes - full marks
 * If published but mistakes - half marks
 * If not published - no marks


 * September 15, 2010 (Wednesday) **
 * Okay, so we need a bit more time to finalize presentations....done


 * September 14, 2010 (Tuesday) **
 * Class time to work on presentations
 * Get ready to present tomorrow


 * September 13, 2010 (Monday) **
 * Discuss what makes a good presentation
 * Here's what we came up with:
 * Entertaining
 * Not too much info (don't overwhelm your audience)
 * Knowledgeable presenters
 * Gets the audience involved
 * Interaction
 * Uses a wide array of presentation methods and tools
 * Presenters should focus on:
 * Articulation and pitch
 * Eye contact
 * Gestures and movement


 * September 10. 2010 (Friday) **
 * Class time to finish clause and phrases performance tasks (scroll down) and sentence structure performance tasks (again, scroll down)
 * Remember to post your assignments to the blog
 * Class time to work on expert group research
 * Create something - take notes of cool sites, links, important info etc...
 * If done - get into main groups and start putting down ideas for creating an interesting presentation


 * September 9, 2010 (Thursday) **
 * Time for you to research in you expert groups
 * Discussion: how the heck do we make this stuff interesting?
 * Sharing of resources (ie: youtube, the oatmeal, the onion, etc...)


 * September 8, 2010 (Wednesday) **
 * Sentence structure performance tasks are now homework
 * Now for some group stuff:
 * This will be your jigsaw group:
 * Reegan, Chad, Dillon, Melyssa (Euphemisms…)
 * Scott, Meagan, Kaitlyn, Justin (Punctuation)
 * Kelsey, Sarah, Rebecca, Galyn (Adverbs and helping verbs)
 * Haylee, Cole, Conor, John (Spelling)
 * These will be your expert groups:
 * Adverbs & helping verbs (Reegan, Meagan, Rebecca, Conor)
 * Euphemisms, Doublespeak and Gobbledygook (Chad, Scott, Kelsey, Cole)
 * Punctuation (Dillon, Kaitlyn, Sarah, John)
 * Spelling (Melyssa, Justin, Galyn, Haylee)
 * Get into your expert groups
 * Research your topic: talk about what you find, take notes - become an expert on the subject
 * Keep these things in mind:
 * What the heck is this all about?
 * Why is this important for writers to know/understand?
 * Educate your group about your topic
 * This is the topic you will create a presentation about
 * Your presentation should outline what the topic us and why it is important for writers to know and understand it
 * Most importantly, your presentation must not be boring - use multimedia, get people involved, make them move, create a game (I can help you with some ideas)


 * September 7, 2010 (Tuesday) **
 * Review of sentence structures
 * You have this class to finish Sentence Structures performance tasks #2.

** September 2, 2010 (Thursday) **
 * Complete mini quiz and performance tasks from yesterday
 * Now to really confuse you
 * A clause is not a complete sentence, but a complete thought
 * A clause needs to have a subject and a predicate
 * A sentence needs at least one independent clause (a clause that can stand alone on its own)
 * Let's practice creating some independent clauses (simple sentences)
 * FYI: simple sentences contain only one independent clause
 * Now to join more than one independent clause (a compound sentence)
 * Compound sentences need more than one independent clause. You join these with coordinating conjunctions.
 * The independent clauses in a compound sentence carry the same weight, or are equally important
 * Let's practice some
 * What do we notice about compound sentences with tons of independent clauses: your writing seems immature
 * Getting more complex now: 1 independent clause and at least one dependent clause is a complex sentence
 * You join independent clauses with dependent clauses using subordinating conjuctions
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">More practice
 * <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 0px;">Good guide to refer to
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Whew! Confused...I hope not. Moving on to the last type of sentence: compound complex
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Compound-complex sentences have at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">If it includes a compound sentence and a complex sentence it's a compound-complex sentence
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">And finally - some more practice.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Done, good job.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Performance task #1:
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Write 5 simple sentences (bold or italicize the independent clause)
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Write 5 compound sentences (bold or italicize the independent clauses)
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Underneath, write the coordinating conjuction(s)
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Write 5 complex sentences (bold or italicize the independent and dependent clauses)
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Underneath, write the subordinating conjuction
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Write 5 compound-complex sentences (bold or italicize the independent and dependent clauses)
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Underneath, write the coordinating and subordinating conjuctions
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Performance task #2
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Answer the following question: Why is it beneficial for writers to be able to identify different sentence structures, understand the differences between sentence structures and be able to use different sentence structures?


 * September 1, 2010 (Wednesday) **
 * Practice, as a class, creating sentences
 * Pick out the phrases and clauses
 * Check to make sure everyone understands
 * Mini quiz:
 * What does a phrase do?
 * What is a clause made up of?
 * What is the subject of a sentence?
 * What is the predicate of a sentence?
 * Performance tasks:
 * Write 5 phrases
 * Write 5 clauses
 * Write 5 sentences
 * Underline the clause
 * Bold or italicize the phrase
 * Answer the following question:
 * Why is it beneficial for writers to understand phrases and clauses?
 * Post quiz and performance tasks to blog


 * August 31, 2010 (Tuesday) **
 * Finish learner profiles
 * Introduction to grammar, usage and punctuation
 * Collaborative note-taking
 * Post notes to the blog (understanding this process)
 * Clauses, Phrases, Subjects and Predicates
 * Class activity: Write phrases on the board - students transform them into clauses
 * Writing activity #1: 1 group writes phrases, 1 group writes clauses
 * Exchange papers
 * 1 group expands phrases to clauses
 * 1 group adds phrases to clauses
 * Wrap up notes and post to blog


 * Everyone demonstrated a good understanding of phrases, clauses, subjects and predicates
 * Mini quiz and performance task tomorrow to wrap up

**<span style="background-color: #ffff00; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">August 30, 2010 (Monday) **
 * Back to school, back to school...
 * Sharing - somewhere interesting you went or something interesting you did
 * 1 hope/wish for this year
 * Course Outline
 * Discuss Year Plan
 * Questions and concerns?
 * Learner Profiles
 * Survey
 * Place results on wiki