First Week of October...Already!

Wow, time moves fast!  Here we are, already entering the first week of October.  That also means that we're halfway through Term 1, so everyone (including me) needs to check their student's grades!  I'm keeping up with the grading pretty well, but grading their writing takes me longer, so I hope everyone has patience with me. I have a 3-paragraph essay in my hands to grade, and we're writing a 5-paragraph essay this coming week.  With 160 kids, it's a lot to read.  I like to really take the time to read them well and I try to give feedback, so patience is the name of the game!

We're doing a lot in English 9.  When students are out it's difficult because we have so little down time.  We're always doing something, whether it be grammar, reading, writing, PSAT, educational/work technology...we're quite busy.  So here's what we accomplished last week:  we wrote, self-edited, and turned in a 3-paragraph essay that is the mid-unit assessment for Unit 1; we worked on grammar (prepositional phrases, subjects, verbs, adverbs, and infinitives); we did an annotation activity with a PSAT reading passage; we finished reading our short story "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" and annotated it, as well as doing a study guide.  So here's what's coming up this week:

• Monday, 10/3 - we'll review for the "St. Lucy's" Assessment
• Tuesday, 10/4 - objective portion of the "St. Lucy's" test; we'll go over the written portion which will begin either today or tomorrow.
• Wednesday, 10/5 (1/2 Day - 25 minute classes) - we'll plan out the 5-paragraph written assessment for St. Lucy's.
• Thursday, 10/6 - Career Advisory Day - we'll work on drafting the 5-paragraph assessment - paragraphs 1-3.
• Friday, 10/7 - we'll complete the 5-paragraph assessment, read-aloud and self-edit, and then submit it by the end of the hour.

That's the plan.  I hope everyone is having a good weekend.  The weather seems to be cooperating at this moment, but give it a minute.  I'll be that will change.  Ciao!