A great cover of a great James Taylor song...

Scrooge Tweets!

What would Scrooge have to say if he had a Twitter account?

At the end of every Stave, I want you to send me a tweet:

@rslackey

#BahHumbugYMLA

In the tweet, you are to…
·       Speak in the 1^st person as if you ARE Scrooge.
·       Write only what you think Scrooge would be thinking at that point in the book. The tweet should be meaningful for that particular time in his journey. The purpose (objective) of the tweets is to show how he grows/changes.

Also, if I cannot tell who is sending that tweet, include your (name) in the tweet.

So… 5 Staves, 5 tweets. I’ll post the best tweets in the hallway.

Oh, and if you don't have a Twitter account, get one. And if you can't get one, BE A PROBLEM SOLVER and discover a new way to accomplish the objective.

Principal Parts of Irregular Verbs

Frequently Used Interrupting Adverbs

sometimes
never
not
always
usually
often
certainly
evidently
hardly
scarcely
seldom
frequently

These words are NOT verbs.

Linking Verbs

is
am
are
was
were
be
been
being
*appear, appears, appeared, appearing
*become, becomes, became, becoming
*feel, feels, felt, feeling
*grow, grows, grew, growing
*look, looks, looked, looking
*remain, remains, remained, remaining
*seem, seems, seemed, seeming
*smell, smells, smelled, smelling
*sound, sounds, sounded, sounding
*stay, stays, stayed, staying
*taste, tastes, tasting, tasting
*turn, turns, turned, turning

The BE Verbs: is, am, are, was, were, be, been, being - can also be helping verbs. Check to see if there is another verb after it. If there is, the BE verb is a helping verb. If there is not (if it's the last verb), it is linking.

The linking verbs with the * can also be action verbs. Use the Substitution Test to determine which it is.

The Substitution Test - Replace the entire verb phrase (and any interrupting adverbs) and replace it with either WAS or WERE. If one of these words makes sense, the * verb was linking. If it doesn't make sense, the * verb is action.

Common Helping Verbs

is
am
are
was
were
be
been
being
do
does
did
has
have
had
can
may
will
shall
could
would
should
might
must


The BE Verbs: is, am, are, was, were, be, been, being - can be helping OR linking. See if there is another verb after it. If there is, the BE verb is helping. If there is not (if it's the last verb), the BE verb is linking.

Has Have Had can also be action verbs.

Prepositions

Commonly Used Prepositions

aboard
about
above
across
after
against
along
amid
among
around
as
at
before
behind
below
beneath
beside
besides
between
beyond
but (meaning except)
by
concerning
despite
down
during
except
for
from
in
inside
into
like
near
of
off
on
onto
out
outside
over
past
since
through
throughout
to
toward
under
underneath
until
unto
up
upon
with
within
without

Compound Prepositions

according to
across from
ahead of
aside from
because of
by means of
by way of
in addition to
in case of
in front of
in place of
in regard to
in spite of
instead of
on account of
out of
prior to

Benefits of Reading

A Gold Miner's Tale

Does Just Believing Have Benefits?

I love the ending of this poem. The man tries more than once to "get rich quick" by going out and panning for gold. He believes that he will be a wealthy young man because he is certain he will strike it rich. He even dreams about finding gold.

But he is fooled by the false promise of riches. The old adage, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me" is very true in this instance. And after failing for a second time to find gold (and giving up his job to do so!), he learns his lesson. He realizes that he can make money off of the other prospectors by selling them long underwear to fight the cold. Brilliant!

I know I told you that I would put the answers on here... and I did! You just have to look closely. And if you can't figure it out, you'll just have to go about finding the answers the traditional way: READ THE POEM!

For 5 additional points, please add a comment at the bottom (where it says COMMENTS). Your comment may not show up right away, but be patient and it will (if it's appropriate). Be sure to include your name.

Personal Narratives and Poetry

I loved the poems you guys wrote. I'll be sharing some of them with you in class this week.

The narratives are in the process of being revised. They should be completed by Wednesday. See me if you need more time. Remember to aim for engaging stories by using plenty of detail to make your stories come alive. And most importantly, tell what insights you gained from the experience. We will learn some other strategies later for better opening lines for our narratives.

We will be starting Step 2: The Verb this week. The verb is the most important part of the sentence, and being able to recognize verb tense and making your verbs agree with your subjects is an important aspect of writing.

Coming soon... Assignments that REQUIRE you to read this blog. Stay tuned!

Meet the Teacher Night

Meet the Teacher night is Thursday night from 6:00 to 7:30. Please stop by so I can meet you and say wonderful things about your son.

I hope to see you then!

Also, please join PTA! The cost is $7 a person.

Labor Day Weekend

I hope you're enjoying your 3-day weekend. I went to the movies yesterday (A Walk in the Woods), but then spent the rest of the day sneezing - not fun. I'm still not feeling well, but at least the Aggies, the Irish, and the Texas Rangers all won yesterday.

In our first two weeks together, we have focused on ways of analyzing text, focusing on The Giver and our 2nd book of choice from the Summer Reading Assignment. We specifically practiced ways of responding to important passages from the text:

• Put the passage in context (tell what's going on when this passage occurs)
• Explain the passage (paraphrase it into other words)
• Show the significance of the passage (what makes it important)
• Connect the passage to a similar experience from another work of literature (what does it remind us of)

We also talked about ways to select which passages to analyze, based on importance. The passage should be something surprising... something unexpected... something plot-changing... an "aha" moment.

In addition to responding to literature, we wrote our first personal narrative of the year, a prelude to next week's 3 Week Assessment, which will also be a personal narrative.

In the area of grammar, we are learning to identify prepositions and the prepositional phrases they start. We have done many practice sentences together, as well as a Group Practice (with corrections) and an Individual Practice (with corrections). Next week we will review prepositions and then take a test over them. The test will be formatted just like the Group and Individual Practices.

Next week also will include our introduction to poetry.

So rest up. Have fun. READ something!

See you Tuesday.

The First Week

We had an interesting first week getting to know each other. Be sure to come to Meet the Teacher Night and see the great Flair Projects in the hall. They look great!

This coming week we will work on annotating skills, using both The Giver and the book you chose from the list. Be sure to bring both books every day (and yes, you will get your Giver book back on Monday).

We will begin working on personal narratives and continue learning to recognize prepositional phrases.

By the end of this weekend, there should be 4 grades in the Skyward gradebook:

1. Annotations of The Giver (major grade)
2. The Giver Quiz and Quick Writes
3. Flair Project
4. Group Practice over Step 1 (Prepositional Phrases)

Oh, and about that second book...

We have almost made it through the first week of school. One more day! We can do it!

By the end of the weekend, I should have 4 grades posted for you on Skyward:
1. Giver Annotations
2. Giver Quiz and Quick Writes
3. Flair Project
4. Group Practice over Step 1 (We're doing this tomorrow.)

It's important, of course, to get off to a good start, but if you don't, there's still time to bring it up. But you are going to have to really work hard.

Please remember that you were supposed to read a 2nd book in addition to The Giver. There was a long list of books from which to choose. You didn't have to annotate it, but you DID have to read it. We will be working a little with those books next week. BRING THAT BOOK TO CLASS EVERY DAY NEXT WEEK!

The Flair Project

The assignment today is called Flair. Flair is just a way to show things that symbolize you. First, pick out 15 things that represent you. Examples: a soccer ball, a picture of you and your grandfather, a chocolate donut, the McDonalds arches, your favorite book, your favorite movie, your favorite video game, your favorite shoes, etc. Once you've come up with 15 (or more), make a flair page. You can cut the images out of a magazine (get permission), or you can cut and paste images from the internet. You can even get crayons or map pencils and draw your images.

Remember, your name should be on the Flair page, too. It should nice and big and bold so it stands out (like Adrian Beltre did on his!).

Make your whole Flair page colorful and bold. Nice and neat. It should be done on copy paper or construction paper. NO NOTEBOOK PAPER!

These will be posted in the hallway outside my room. Meet the teacher night is coming, so EVERYONE will see your Flair. Do your best. They are due at the start of class on Friday.

"Invictus"

What I Promised...

TEST ANSWERS


(See? I told you I would post test answers.Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha)

Christmas Eve Eve

Hello everybody. Resting up? Staying up late and sleeping in? Yes, you know you are.

Just a reminder about the Extra Credit Assignment. Here it is...

Extra Credit Assignment

Mr. Lackey’s classes

December 2014

1. Watch the movie It’s a Wonderful Life (1947) starring James Stewart and Donna Reed. Bonus points if your parent(s) watch it with you. Watch it all the way thru. No cheating. Even more bonus points if it’s in black and white.

2. Have your parent sign a paper saying you watched it. They can add whether or not they watched it with you and whether or not it was in black and white.

3. Do any ONE of the following:

A)    Write a paper comparing and contrasting this movie with the movie The Family Man starring Nicolas Cage. (The Family Man is rated PG-13.) The paper must be hand-written and must be one to two pages long.

B)    Make a Christmas card with a drawing of Bedford Falls or some other image from the movie. Have a message/greeting on the front and on the inside. I will not accept one done on notebook paper. Put some effort into it and make it look like a real Christmas card.

C)    Write another chapter for the movie. What happens next? Your chapter can focus on any of the main characters (including Clarence). It can be humorous or serious, but must be well-written. The paper must be hand-written and must be one to two pages long.

D)    Write a composition about the costs and rewards of sacrifice. Include personal examples of times you made a sacrifice. The paper must be hand-written and must be one to two pages long.

Due date: No later than Tuesday, January 6, 2015. Partial credit will NOT be given. You must watch the movie, bring the parent signature STATING that you watched the movie, and do ONE of the choices above.

 

A word of warning: Cheating, including forging your parent’s signature, will do more than deny you the extra credit. There will be other consequences as well.

Stave One

We will have a quiz over Stave 1 tomorrow (Tuesday). Be sure you have read and understood what happens. As a reward for checking this blog, here are 3 questions you will find on the quiz. Please don't share the questions with others who have not read the blog. Don't reward them for YOUR effort.

What month and year was this book first published?

Two portly gentlemen come to Scrooge and Marley's after the nephew leaves. What do they want?

What does it mean to be "fettered"?

Marley was dead: to begin with.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you ate well today. Despite all the good food, I have one word for you... pie. Mmmm... pie.

Have you done anything constructive this week? I finished reading The Maze Runner, and then I read its sequel: The Scorch Trials. The dystopian novels (The Giver, Hunger Games, Divergent, etc) are all the rage lately, and the Maze Runner series is that same genre, but I am really enjoying the story. It hasn't turned into a "love story" just yet. I'll start book 3 (The Death Cure) tomorrow. I need to finish it before Monday. I don't like juggling two books at once.

I also went to see the Maze Runner movie yesterday. It was good - just not as good as the book (of course). The girl taking tickets was a former student of mine. It's always fun to run into old students. Most of the time, it's hard for me to remember names - after all, this is my 30th year to teach - but I didn't have that problem with this particular student. Some of you are hard to forget. lol. A word of advice, though: when you run into your old teachers years later, offer your hand in greeting while reminding the teacher of your name. Don't put them on the spot by saying things like, "Do you remember me?"

Bad day on the gridiron with both the Cowboys and Aggies getting whupped. Oh well, I'm not going to let that bother me. At least the Aggies made it close. And the Cowboys have been bad at home all year. Maybe the next couple of weeks on the road will help (but I won't be holding my breath).

We start the Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol on Monday. Have your books! You'll be learning about one of the most iconic characters in literature: Ebenezer Scrooge. I love Dickens. He's one of my favorite writers. Did you know he used to do public readings of A Christmas Carol? People would show up to listen to him read the book aloud. That would have been an amazing event.

By the way, the title of this post is the first line of A Christmas Carol. What standard sentence structure rule did Dickens ignore when constructing this opening line?

We're also going to revise and re-write our expository essays. In addition, we will continue examining the parts of the sentence. We're almost through with Step 4: Complements, but having all the DOs/IOs (w/ action verbs) and PNs/PAs (w/ linking verbs) mixed together will be challenging. The more you understand how a sentence works, the better your own writing will be.

Next up after that will be Step 5: Modifiers (adjectives and adverbs). In the not too distant future, we will be learning all about the AAAWWUBBIS and complex sentences.

So gear up and get ready for a fun three weeks leading into the Winter Break.

More soon. Continue to enjoy your break. Read something!