Fresh English

Friday, December 2, 2011

Catching up- Opening Adjectives

If you missed class today then you missed out. We had to catch up on a grammar lesson about opening adjectives and it was a lot of fun. (Yes, I just said grammar and fun in the same sentence.) Review the slides below and check notes with a classmate.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

You Won!

Congratulations to everyone! Awesome job and a whole lot of fun.

Do Now: Go to your writer's notebook in docs.
Spend a few minutes writing your thoughts about the NaNoWriMo experience. What did you like or not like? What did you learn about writing, about novels, about yourself?

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

LAST DAY of NANOWRIMO!

Well here we are. It's the end of November. Today is the last day to finish your novel. We have many winners already and many more to come through out the day! Congratulations everyone for your amazing noveling stamina.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Friday, November 18, 2011

Day 18: NaNoWriMo

Good morning,

Happy Friday. By today you should be at 60% of your novel. Remember your last day to change your word count goal is next Wednesday, but the important part is to keep writing every day over break. You'll have lots of extra time right? Also keep updating your reading progress in GoodReads!

I'm so impressed by your stamina and determination to write these books. You are all amazing. As you read this I am in Chicago telling hundreds of other English teachers how awesome my students are and picking up some great new books to share with you after break. Now get to work and write a novel.

Gradebook Explained

My grade book is on Power School for you to view. There are some things you need to know.

If you have a blank score or missing score that is not bad. Often scores are left blank when I do not grade an assignment right away. Sometimes blanks mean a student was absent for an in class experience. The point is do not panic about blank or missing scores.

Zeros however, are a real problem. Students get zeros when they do not turn in an assignment that they should have done. Zeros usually appear after I have asked the student several times to get the work finished. Students can sometimes undo a zero by turning in the work late. Some assignments can be regraded. See the button at the top of the blog to request a re-grade.

Often I do not enter many assignments until the end of the grading period when projects we have been working on for a few weeks become due. I try to enter progress grades every few weeks into the "progress category." Note that the progress category is only 10% of the total grade. Low scores on progress grades indicates that a student needs to improve their work before the final project is due.

Grade categories are weighted as follows:

50% Writing & Speaking (Essays, some in class assessments, and speaking assignments.)

40% Reading & Listening (Book reviews and reading progress and some listening assessments.)

10% Progress (writing draft grades, turning in required paperwork, some formative assessments)

Student grades are based on meeting grade level standard proficiencies. This is not a points or numbers game. There is no extra credit, but there may be additional opportunities to show proficiency.

I hope this will resolve some confusion. Of course if you have questions about grades please e-mail me.

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