Joan Cere
Updated 9.1.10: September begins and the work load increases. Or workload. I think I like the single word version of workload better. German must be a very difficult language. Anyway...we have our formal proposals of Independent Study today. Lots of famous folks from throughout history and an important issue or two.
Last year's (2009-2010) webpage for those interested in such things...
Upcoming Due Dates: See. We told you this would be here. Right now there are no out-of-class assignments...yet. Soon, very soon.
Wednesday, September 1: Issues/persons/Famous Dead Persons due. Type up a one-page proposal outlining six things you know about the issue or person, and six things you seek to know more about that issue/person.
This Week in Humanities
Week Three: August 30 - September 3
Monday, August 30:
Introduction to Seminar, including a short description of how our seminar discussions work, an outline of our assignment (1st/6th Period here, 2nd Period here, 3rd/4th Period here), and a brainstorm of possible topics for this year's seminars.
Tuesday, August 31:
Working in groups, we put together ads for showing later this week.
Wednesday, September 1:
A break from Seminar for Independent Study. Today's deadline is to create a typed one-pager outlining a proposed FDP/creative person/issue, six facts you know about the person or issue and six questions you have about said person/issue. Here is an example proposal memo.
Thursday, September 2:
Final preparation and presentation of our ads for Seminar.
Friday, September 3:
Small group discussion for Periods 1, 3, 4, & 6, while 2nd Period completes showing their ads as the "culmunating activity" for Seminar.
Important Documents
The Weekly Focus
Weekly Focus #1 (Celebrating Eccentricity)
Book Report Stuff
Book Project/Review Information (includes 7th/8th Grade examples of quality Book Reviews)
Required 8th Grade "A-List" List for Book Reports
Independent Study Project Descriptions
7th Grade Independent Study Issue Research Paper
7th Grade Independent Study Creative Person
8th Grade Independent Study Position Paper
8th Grade "Famous Dead People" Paper
Evaluation Forms
7th Grade Issue Paper/Presentation
7th Grade Creative Script/Presentation
8th Grade Position Paper/Presentation
8th Grade "Famous Dead People" Evaluation Forms
Research/Bibliographic Information
How to properly fill out "Fact Cards"
And here's the new (for us) place to get your source citation act together (courtesy Calvin College)
Previously on Judd/Key/Riley...
Week Two: August 23 - 27
Monday, August 23:
6th Grade: English grammar skills test assessment
7th Grade: We read Thief of Always
8th Grade: We listen to a story/essay by Sherman Alexie, after hearing first about our first Weekly Focus (celebrating eccentricity) and go over how WFs are graded.
Tuesday, August 24:
6th Grade: Intro to Homer’s Odyssey which we will be reading as The Adventures of Ulysses Some discussion of heroes, mythology and all things ancient Greek.
7th Grade: More Thief of Always
8th Grade: An introduction to Book Reports, 8th Grade Room 114 version, along with an introduction to our first book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.
Wednesday, August 25:
6th Grade: Intro to Independent Study of a Visual Artist. Rubric, due dates and guide lines distributed.
7th Grade: Introduction to our 7th Grade Independent Study Projects, both "creative person" and "issue paper".
8th Grade: An introduction to our 8th Grade Independent Study Project known as "Famous Dead People". The we read some more Alexie.
Thursday, August 26:
6th Grade: reading Adventures of Ulysses
7th Grade: We get to some literary vocabulary terms in a "pretest"
8th Grade: Edit Day for our first Weekly Focus. Final papers due by the end of class.
Friday, August 27:
6th Grade: more Ulysses
7th Grade: We start our first book of the year: Clive Barker's Thief of Always
8th Grade: First, it's GAC #2, a look at U.S. immigration patterns throughout the 20th Century, followed by our quarterly day o' Independent Reading for this nine weeks. These don't happen often, so bring a book in to read, or grab one from our class library.
Week One, The Unreal One: August 18 - 20
Wednesday, August 18:
6th Grade: Introductions, welcome, get to know you activities, probably silly ones. Begin work on “all about me collages” kids are welcome to bring photos or artifacts from home to include in their pieces
7th Grade: We start things off with a "mini-dossier" to sponge information off students and see how well they can type, think and avoid sleeping on the first day of school.
8th Grade: We start things off with a "dossier" to find out more on who's in the class. Then devolve into a discussion on books and how students can access them this year.
Thursday, August 19:
6th Grade: Finish collages and prepare to present them to the class.
7th Grade: A reading of class "Commandments".
8th Grade: A reading of class "Commandments" and a strange little essay about an old guy playing video games.
Friday, August 20:
6th Grade: Presentations of collages to the class, with an _in depth_ discussion of why they chose the images they chose.
7th Grade: We start our first book of the year: Clive Barker's Thief of Always
8th Grade: We take on our first "GAC" (Grammar and Charts) for the year with a bit of review and a look at unemployment figures county-by-county in the United States.
Would you like to see around 100 photos from our 2009-2010 Mock Trial Experience (MTE)? Well, here they are...
And how about an example of an "opening statement"? Here's one from the defense in a trial that was one of the best we've had in years.
Here's a few photos from our "To Kill A Mockingbird Playhouse" presentations from Wednesday, April 28th, 2010.
A few photos from our March 2010 Independent Study Presentations (can you guess who is being protrayed in each photo?) And here are more pictures from the mayhem...
Here are a few photos from our In-Class Mock Trial Shindig early in 2010:
Miscellany....
Link to last year's webpage for 2009-2010
Link to class webpage for school year 2008-2009
Link to our webpage for school year 2007-2008
And finally, School Year 2004-2005
and here is this weird HTML that just won't go away (the link goes to a page about the author of "Flowers For Algernon"...
creepy...it just won't delete for anything...