September's+Class+Notes

Thursday, September 27
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 * Period 1** We spent quite a bit of time today talking about exam exemptions and how we earn them. We also talked about the exam schedule, concerns about writing a two-hour exam and how marks are compiled to include both day-to-day work and an exam mark. We also took notes on PLOT today from this site: [|http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/lit-elements/overview/.] Students were asked to watch a sit-com tonight and note the exposition, inciting force, climax and resolution.
 * Period 5 -** Finally!! A stab at creating wikispaces. More on this tomorrow.

Tuesday, September 25==
 * Period 1:** We were able to use the laptops today for the first time. Each student has an assigned laptop which remains in the classroom. These laptops do not travel with the students. Today we re-visited the class wikispace, and established a list of Favorites for daily use. We will finish up creating wiki spaces tomorrow.
 * Period 5:** Since most students in this class have not returned their __Acceptable Use Agreement__ form, we were unable to use the laptops today and, instead, read "Teenage Wasteland" a short story by Anne Tyler. Hopefully, all students will return forms on Wednesday and we will begin work on the laptops.

Monday, September 24
We had our first test today, on the short story. These tests will be marked by __Thursday__ and marks, with student numbers, will be posted on the wiki.
 * All students** should have chosen a novel for the __independant novel study__. The outline and assignments for this project are found here at [|Ms. Dawn Hogue's CyberEnglish site].

Friday, September 21
We reviewed our notes on The Elements of Fiction and finished the notes on Character. We will have a test on this material on Monday. For the test, students will be given a short story to read and will be asked to use the story to explain or illustrate the terms and concepts we have discussed this week.

Thursday, September 20
//**For Parents**// Period 1: Click here to see who had their homework done.

We continued our discussion on the elements of fiction and looked at Character today. The major news is that the entire tech crew arrived in our classroom today to connect our laptops to the school server. We should be online again by Monday!!

Wednesday, September 19
Today we talked about the elements of fiction - specifically, Setting - and used the following site for our discussion:http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/lit-elements/overview/
 * Homework:** Complete the Short Story Analysis sheet provided in class.

Tuesday, September 18
We have started our work on the Short Story unit with the reading of "25 Reasons to Hate my Brother Todd" found in the text book //**On Common Ground**//. Every student should have read this story by Tuesday ... with the potential for a reading quiz. On Wednesday, we will discuss the [|elements of the short story].

Work on our wikispaces also continues. Certainly, there have been frustrations, but most students have had success. These spaces will be used to store our developing projects and assignments as well as act as a way to show-case our work to our peers, our parents and our teachers. Really, given the nature of the wiki, our pages will publish our work to the whole world! The big news is that we have been promised our laptops within the next two or three days!!!

Monday, September 17

 * Period 1**: We began our wikispaces today! We'll continue that work tomorrow and talk about what will and won't be on the page.
 * Period 5:** We began the Short Story unit today and received the text books we'll be using, **//On Common Ground//**. We read "25 Good Reasons for Hating My Brother Todd" in class today. __Please finish the story for Tuesday__. We will start our wikispaces in class tomorrow.

You can check [|here] to see how Ms. Hogue's students are instructed to set up their pages. We'll be using the same guidelines for ours. We'll also have a look at some of Ms. Hogue's student pages tomorrow.

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Friday, September 14
We have (or should have) finished the **research, reading and summary-writing** we did on our Introduction to the Internet assignment. Have a great weekend!!

Thursday, September 13
We continued working on our __Intro to the Internet__ assignments today. They should be completed and handed in by the end of class on Friday. Most students need only a few minutes of class tomorrow to finish them. Today, we also logged on to student email accounts and will continue that tomorrow - especially for the Period 1 class who only had one-half hour today because of the Guidance Information sessions.

**Wednesday, September 12**
We started working on our __Intro to the Internet__ project today. Most students have at least half of the assignment done already! We will work on it again in class tomorrow and finish it on Friday - when it must be submitted as described in the instructions. Students should take the time to look at the assessment rubric.


 * Anyone who is finished could take the time to look at the Independent Novel Assignment. Check the calendar for deadlines!!**

__Parents:__ Please join us tomorrow, Thursday, September 13 in the evening for our "Meet the Teacher" evening!!

 * Remember, you can email me at mary.stilwell@nbed.nb.ca*