Homework: Please finish your cross-out poems for tomorrow.  They should be placed in your writers notebook. This week, all grade nine students will be completing a mock reading assessment.  We want students to have more practice with the style of questions that they will see on the ELPA.  Like the reading portion of the ELPA, this is a multiple choice assessment.  The students will be given their marks so that they can see areas of improvement that are necessary.  It will also allow Mrs. Mac and I to see if there are any particular areas that need more teaching.  The assessment will start tomorrow.

Today, we started our poetry unit with a creative activity - Wordberry Pie!  In periods 1 and 3, students handed in their website analysis.

Periods 1 and 3:  Essays are due in good copy tomorrow.  We have been working on reading comprehension and multiple choice strategies over the last few days.  Yesterday, we analyzed an infographic, and students answered literal, inferential, and evaluative questions on the graphic.  The students learned a lot by working through this process.  Today, the students worked on reading graphs - again the questions were literal, inferential, and evaluative.   Periods 4 and 6: Essays are due in good copy on Monday.  We have been working on reading comprehension and multiple choice strategies over the last few days.  Yesterday, we analyzed an infographic, and students answered literal, inferential, and evaluative questions on the graphic.

We have been working on our first persuasive writing piece this year.  In response to the mentor text, "Turn Off the Phone (and the Tension)", students are asked to consider the following question: Do you feel that the amount of time you spend using electronic devices is an effective way to spend your time.  Why or why not? The students will be responding to this question in a five paragraph essay.  We are currently in the prewriting stage of the writing process.  Students used t-charts to assess both sides of the issue and are now using a position/support web to map out their essays. Homework: Finish your position/support webs for Monday.

Today, we discussed the part that social networking plays in our lives.  We read an argument mentor text called "Turn off the Phone (and the Tension)" from the New York Times.  It lead to some interesting class discussion about electronic devices and the mini-society that exists online.  For homework (due tomorrow), students are to track the amount of time that they spend on electronic devices and we will be discussing tomorrow. Periods 1 and 3 began the inference questions on the worksheet and these will be continued tomorrow. The chart must be completed tomorrow.  Periods 4 will start the sheet tomorrow.  The chart must be completed for tomorrow. Period 6 - the inference questions are due tomorrow.

The energy drink label project is due tomorrow.  Don't forget to bring in the "Take Your Kids to Work" forms.  Remember that "Take Your Kids to Work" day is on Wednesday.  If you do not hand in the form, and you do not attend school on Wednesday, you will be marked absent.