Haiku Assignment

Here are the details for the last assignment:

Haiku's follow the pattern of 5 syllables / 7 syllables / 5 syllables

Students were to write five Haiku Poems on the following topics:

• A friend
• A room in the school
• A country or province
• Weather/season
• Favourite food

They were then to pick their best one and illustrate it on a white piece of paper.

This project is worth 10 marks and is past due.

 

Important Handouts for Final Exams for LA

Here are the links to copies of handouts and information on important dates:

LA June Calendar
Oral Exam Handout
Reading Comprehension Study guide

Oral proposal is due Monday June 4
Reading Comprehension Final is Tuesday June 26

LA 8 Final Exam Review

This is a link to the Terms to Review for the LA 8 Reading Comprehension Final Exam on Tuesday June 26.

Terms to Review Handout

Upcoming Due Dates

Please note the following Upcoming Due Dates!

Thursday May 24- Comic books due at the beginning of class.  We will be reading and evaluating them during class.

Wednesday May 30- All library books due back to school library
-Final oral exam topic choices presented (worth 50% of your final exam mark)

Monday June 4- Oral Exam Proposal sheet due

Tuesday June 5-Thursday June 7- In class time to work on Oral Presentation

Friday June 8- Determine presentation time slots for following week

Monday June 11-15 Oral Presentations during class time

Friday June 15- Book forms are due for Term 3

Monday June 18- Thursday June 21- Finishing Poetry and Review for Reading Comprehension Final

Thursday June 21- Last day of classes

Tuesday June 26- LA Reading Comprehension Final (worth 50% of your final exam mark)

Upcoming Due Dates

• Please check your son or daughter's mark at; http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b628/
• Click on the button that says Vincent Massey Online Reporting and select the class your child is enrolled in.  Email me if you do not know your child's password.  
• Students have until this Friday May 4 to complete assignments that have a 0 or missing beside them.

Myths & Legends

I am attaching the following handouts for students for the next project we are working on:

Apocalypto Letter for Parents
Myths & Legends Stories
Lesson Plan and Story Planner Handout
Comic book page 1
Comic book page 2
Comic book page 3

Jack & Jill Story Due Tomorrow

• Both rough copy and good copy of the Jack & Jill story is due tomorrow. 
• Students are expected to underline the five sentences where they used commas.
• Students are to highlight the ten verbs they added to improve their writing.
• MLA format is expected.  MLA formatting link
• Email your paper to Ms. Reiffenstein if you are unable to print, click here for my email.

Colons, Semicolons, and Elipses

Students had the following assignment due last week. They were to write:two sentences using semicolons(;), two sentences using colons(:), and two sentences using ellipses (...) Colons, Semicolons, and Ellipses Handout

Jack and Jill Story Rubric

Today was the last day for editing students' Jack and Jill stories. The rough copy is for marks and is a part of the rubric. Students had to demonstrate the use of ten descriptive verbs and the use of commas in five different sentences.

Here is the rubric they will be marked on:

Jack and Jill Story
Name: ___________________ Class: _________ Date: _________________
Rough Copy
• Ten descriptive verbs added and identified in a colour other /10 marks
than the story is written in.
• Added commas to five different sentences in another colour /10 marks

Good Copy
• Creative Content /8 marks
• Grammar and Spelling /10 marks
• Proper MLA formatting /5 marks
Total /43 marks

Tomorrow will be our only day in the computer lab to type up good copies of stories.

Comma practice and homework

Today in class students worked on a sheet called Practice with Commas. The sheet is due tomorrow. We will be taking up part one in class. Part two will be taken in for marks on Thursday. Students will have to complete only one example for each of the questions. They will only have to write four sentences on a separate sheet of paper.

Practice with Commas handout

Missing Homonym Story

I'm missing a number of Homonym stories from students who told me they were going to complete theirs over the break. I've given them until tomorrow to have them completed for class. If they are not finished when they arrive to class the student will be calling home to inform a parent that they have not handed in this assignment.

Here are the initials of students that have not handed in their stories:
8-22 HA, TA, HB, CB, ED, MHY, ML, PL, JR, HS, JS, PL, GW, IY, AZ, SZ
8-26 JA, NH, NJ, SK, FL, VM, AM, MS, AU, NW

If students are experiencing printer problems they can email me their assignment. My email is dlreiffenste@cbe.ab.ca

Jack & Jill Story

I've told students they can write the rough copy story for homework tonight or they will have half of class tomorrow to complete instead of silent reading.

To write the story students have to answer the following questions in their story, each section is a paragraph.

Jack and Jill went up a hill
-What time of day is it?
-Where are they?
-What is the mood?
-Describe the hill
-Explain why they are going up it?

Here is an example:
It was a cold, wet, dark night. The clock struck 12. Jack and his friend Jill were looking for treasure. They had found a map in Jack’s grandfather’s basement. The treasure was supposed to be at the top of a hill. Jack packed his hiking gear and they headed up the dark moonlit trail.

To fetch a pail of water
-Why do they need water?
-How are they going to get it?
-Where are they going to get it from?
-Does the setting change?
-Does the mood change?

Jack fell down and broke his crown
-Is it a real crown Jack breaks or is it his head (concussion, coma)?
-How did the conditions change?
-Why did he fall?
-Where did he fall?
-What was Jill's reaction?
-Where did Jack end up?

Jill came tumbling after
-Did it happen immediately following Jack, at the same time, or later?
-What happened to her?
-Why did Jill fall?
-what was the end result?

Spring Break! Term 3 book forms are ready!

Hello all, I haven't had time to update yet for term 3.

Book Forms
I'm sure all students will be reading over the break (obviously Ms. R!). Here is a link to book forms for the final term. I will be handing out hard copies to students when they return, for those of you that can't wait here they are:

Book Form Expectations
Fiction book forms


Homonym Story
I have given students the option of completing their Homonym story for term 3 over the break. I have told them that they will lose two marks from their final mark for taking the extended time to complete it. Please see the previous entries for story expectations. The story is out of 30 marks total.

Rubric
Correct Homonym usage: /10 marks
Formatting correctly: /10 marks
Story content: /5 marks
Grammar and spelling: /5 marks
______________________________________
Total /30 marks
Work handed in after the break subtract 2 marks

MLA Style for Homonym Stories

Here is the proper way to format your work when you are typing your stories. This should apply to all future stories you will type for LA.

Click here:
MLA Format

Deadline for Term 2 Book Forms

The deadline for Term 2 book forms is Friday March 16, this is the last day of Term 2. Students have a copy of these book forms at school in their LA duotang but can print off more at home if they need to fill them out. Six book forms are due on that day, there are seven they can choose from. This is worth 10% of their Term 2 mark.

Print book forms here:
Term 2 Book Forms

Homonym story, Homonym Quiz Friday

We have spent the last two classes writing the rough copy of the Homonym story. Tomorrow we will be going to the computer lab to type up the story. Students will be learning to type their stories using the MLA format.

On Friday student's will have a test on Homonyms that are listed in the previous post. It will be multiple choice.

New Assignment: Homonym Story

Students brainstormed important homonyms that they need to know and learn how to use properly when they are writing stories.

Homonym List
Important Words to know

1) Where/were/we’re
2) Witch/which
3) There/their/they’re
4) Allowed/aloud
5) Hear/here
6) Write/right
7) To/too/two
8) Through/threw
9) Bye/by/buy
10) No/know

ASSIGNMENT
Students were asked to supply random locations, moods, and characters. They then had to pick number between 1-5, for each category. The following is the list of what must be in the story they will be writing tomorrow. They must use 10 homonyms correctly from the list above and the randomly chosen item from the categories below.

Next week:
Students will be going to the computer lab to type out the good copy of their story. Stay tuned for a copy of the proper formatting for typing out the assignment (no jumbo font and short margins)

8-22
Location
1) Saskatchewan
2) Disneyland
3) The Moon
4) North Pole
5) The Beach

Mood
1) Science Fiction
2) Action Adventure
3) Horror
4) Romance
5) Comedy

Character
1) Chris Brown
2) Siri (Apple Iphone voice)
3) Electrician
4) Lifeguard
5) Pizza Delivery Guy

8-26
Location
1) Zoo
2) Pluto
3) Hockey Arena
4) KFC
5) The Bus

Mood
1) Nostalgic
2) Horror
3) Suspense
4) Craving
5) Happy

Character
1) Astronaut
2) Janitor
3) Kenny Rogers
4) Engineer
5) Ninja

Romeo & Juliet Voting on Best Game

We have spent the last three classes playing the games that students made. Each class had over 12 different games to play. We will be voting on different aspects of the best game in the class as soon as I can get students to the computer lab to vote.

Here are the links for the vote:

8-26 Voting link:
Click here to take survey

8-22 Voting link:
Click here to take survey

Irony redo is due Monday

I've handed back the sheets that students did on Irony earlier this week. If students are unsatisfied with their mark there are able to redo the assignment and hand it in on Monday. There is a link in my previous entry for students that require a copy of it.

The assignment is worth 15 marks. Each questions from 2-6 is worth 3 marks. One mark is for the correct type of irony, one mark is for correctly explaining the irony, and one mark is for a full sentence.

The Irony of Homework

Students had a handout on Irony to complete that was due yesterday. If they need a reprint it is available here:

Irony Handout

There will be a quiz on this topic next week. They should know the three types of Irony; verbal, dramatic, and situational.

Romeo & Juliet Board Game

Here is a link to the new assignment that was given yesterday. We will be working on the board game for the rest of the week. Class time will be given based on how students use it to work. The due date for this project will be Wednesday January 22.

Board Game Assignment

Romeo + Juliet

Since mid year exams we have been watching Baz Luhrmann's version of Romeo and Juliet. We have just completed the movie this week. 8-26 has begun working on a plot diagram and 8-22 will begin on Monday. We had class interuptions with the assembly yesterday. Stay tuned for more activity updates.

Interim Reports will be coming home on Monday February 6.

Marks are Updated

It looks like I'm back up and running. I've updated the online marks at 2:30 this afternoon. Please contact me if you have trouble view the marks. Students wrote mid year exams this week. Their mark is up for their multiple choice exam but it will take me longer to mark the written story exam. Thank you in advance for your patience. The combined LA exams are worth 20% of their term 2 mark.

Here is the link to the school website. Click on the online marks icon and look for my name under the language arts section.
CLICK HERE FOR ONLINE MARKS

Online Marks Info

Please lower your head for a moment and take the time to remember my laptop in a moment of silence. The hard drive is gone and they are ordering me another one. I regret to inform you I have lost all the information on my laptop. In the meantime I have hard copies of students marks and I am in the process of transposing them back into my mark program this week. Please be patient and I will have marks up and running as soon as possible.

Point of View- Study Help

Here are some extra study help for students that want to study more about Point of View. The Multiple Choice LA exam will take place on Thursday January 19.

Point of View Notes
Point of View Readings
Point of View Answers

Welcome Back!

My work laptop has decided to take a holiday and isn't functioning properly. The Tech Person is in on Wednesday so I have high hopes that everything is still in tact and will be up and running soon. My marks will not be updated until I can get my laptop back. My apologies.

MIDYEAR EXAM INFORMATION
I'm attaching a copy of the midterm review guide for students. Students will be receiving a hard copy of this guide in class today. The midterm is scheduled for Monday January 16 is the written story portion and Thursday January 19 is the multiple choice portion.

Mid Year Exam Review