Mrs. Stubbs's English Blog: Will It Be One of THOSE Winters?

It's funny, but I sort of feel like we had a mini-vacation from our vacation by going back to school for two days last week. We'd just started to get back into the groove, and then Mother Nature said, "Nope! Go back to vacation mode." Mind you, I don't mind being off, but it certainly doesn't help with the motivation factor in getting things done!

Despite that, I have gotten some things done, including grading some papers. My plan is to continue working on them today. And despite only having two days last week, we did get a couple of things accomplished. English 9 wrote the third body paragraph for their Romeo and Juliet essay and then started watching the movie Letters to Juliet. English 10 read the final section of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and took a quiz. Their other quiz for this section will happen on Monday (it was supposed to happen on Friday).

In addition to this, I have decided to give a short semester exam. The biggest complaint I hear from returning college students is that they had trouble with exams because they'd never had to prepare for them. This will not be huge, and will not be a huge part of their grade, but we'll go through some study skills and preparation techniques and then do a short written exam that gets to the heart of what we've done this semester. Both classes will be doing this. These exams will not happen until the last week of the semester (watch the calendar - I have them posted there).

So here's the plan for this week:

English 9

Monday, 1/8 - watch the rest of Letters to Juliet.
Tuesday, 1/9 - Academic Advisory - write the introduction of the Romeo and Juliet essay; edit and revise the body paragraphs, copying them into the full essay; write the conclusion of the essay.
Wednesday, 1/10 - revising activity for the Romeo and Juliet essay.
Thursday, 1/11 - PSAT Advisory - print and submit the Romeo and Juliet 5-paragraph essay; begin review for the semester exam which will happen on Wednesday, 1/17.
Friday, 1/12 - continue review for semester exam.

English 10

Monday, 1/8 - quiz for pp. 261-67; finish study guide and turn in; begin body paragraph #3.
Tuesday, 1/9 - Academic Advisory - finish body paragraph #3 and write conclusion.
Wednesday, 1/10 - revising activity for the 5-paragraph essay.
Thursday, 1/11 - PSAT Advisory - print and submit the Henrietta Lacks 5-paragraph essay; begin watching the Henrietta Lacks movie; directions for exam review given out - exam will be Friday, 1/19.
Friday, 1/12 - continue watching the Henrietta Lacks movie.

Those are my plans, but we'll see what the weather does next. I'll keep things updated as we go. I hope everyone has a great week! Ciao!