Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Wear Green on Friday!!!

Help our team win the spirit challenge; wear GREEN on Friday in celebration of St. Patrick's Day and your Irish English teacher:)


Also.....

This video was filmed at the St. Patrick's Day Parade back in the 90's. Your favorite English teacher (then just a teenager) makes a cameo appearance in the video. Click the link and see if you can spot him.

House of Pain: "Jump Around"

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Reminder: Signed Tests are Due

If you received a grade lower than a 65 on last week's exam, you must have it signed by a parent and return it to me. Most of your tests were given back on Friday. Signed tests are overdue.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Extra Credit Opportunity


Create a 6-word memoir slide connected to "Death of an Innocent". Your words should be connected to a central idea or theme of the article. Choose an image that is connected to your words. You must print out your slide and hand it in to me by Friday. The grade you receive on this assignment will replace your lowest quiz grade for the 3rd marking period. It's an easy way to get your grade up. Take advantage of it. See me if you have additional questions. Here is an example:






Test Update

As a reminder, the test on "Death of an Innocent" will be given on Thursday (802,821) and Friday (831). The test will consist of 20 multiple choice questions and 2 constructed response questions. You WILL be provided with a copy of the article to use during the test.
The multiple choice questions will focus on your ability to infer the meanings of new words in context, to determine the chronological order of events, to recall details from the text, etc.

Sample Multiple Choice Questions:


“Then, without notifying any friends or family members, he loaded all his belongings into a decrepit yellow Datsun and headed west without itinerary…” (pg. 5)

Another word for itinerary is
a) money   b) plan  c) destination  d) worry


Which of the following events happened first?
a) Chris met Wayne Westerberg    b) Chris gets a ride from James Gallien  
c) Chris burns his remaining cash    d) Chris worked at an Arizona McDonald’s

Which of the following statements about Chris would the author most likely agree with?
a) he was insane   b) he was arrogant   c) he was brave   d) he was incompetent


Sample Constructed Response Question

Circle ONE of the adjectives below to describe Chris McCandless. Write a paragraph based on your choice. Be sure to begin with a topic sentence. Support your topic sentence with multiple details from the text.
(Sample topic sentence: “Chris McCandless was a very __________ person.”)

            resourceful                kind-hearted              determined
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Friday, March 1, 2013

Test Next Week

On Thursday (802, 821) and Friday (831) of next week, students will be taking an exam based on Jon Krakauer's "Death of an Innocent". You will be provided with a copy of the article during the test. The test will consist of multiple choice and constructed response questions. These questions will focus on the skills we have worked on while reading this article: determining the meanings of new words by using context clues, understanding sequence of events, supporting answers and/or opinions with details from the text, recalling details, making inferences, etc. More information will be given in class next week. If you are interested in reading the article again or downloading your own copy, go to the link below:

"Death of an Innocent"