!!!!ALERT!!!

1. D.E.A.R./Journal  - Depending on the material we are dealing with, this may be replaced with something else. During this time slot, I will track how much you are reading on a daily and evening basis, and I will likely conference one-on-one with you.
   1. Also known as Reading Accountability – While reading you will focus on what we will work on today with an active reading task, OR
   2. You will read silently for 15-20 minutes and then journal on your reading using a preselected Journal Starter, OR
   3. You will work on Student-Driven Vocabulary.
2. Warm Up – There is always something to get your synapses flashing. This will generally be tied to our focus for the block. You will be given 5-15 minutes to write on some topic of my or a classmate’s choosing, and share with a neighbor . I may conference one-on-one with you during this time.
3. What should I be thinking about? - This is a daily reminder of what we have been doing in class, where our focus should be, and what we should be doing at home. I check your HW, and you check for any new HW. This is incorporated into the daily presentation.
4. Grammar Moment – We will take some time to work on a grammar topic that has been identified as a weak area for an individual or the entire class. This will generally be tied to our focus for the block when possible.
5. The following items will be used as needed based on our quarterly focus or what else comes down, say, from administration and/or the district.
   1. Planning to Write and/or Writing Plan – We devote this time to workshopping our writing. Everything is fair game along the entire writing process: Brainstorming, Planning, Rough Drafting, and Final Drafting. There will be many different things being done on many different types of writing all at the same time. I love this stuff, because it allows me to mix it up; it keeps class fresh for me.
   2. Student-Led Test Preparation – This is a student-led activity where a student facilitates a scripted administration and review of practice standardized test work. This usually becomes a major focus at some point in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Quarters.
6. Core Topic & Activity – This will vary on a day-to-day basis and will include all or combinations of explicit instruction, guided practice,  independent practice.
7. Wrap Up &/Or Exit Ticket – This will usually be what I use to gather authentic live data on where you are with what we covered during today.

Regular Assignments  in EVERY BLOCK . . .

1. Every Friday – Students are expected to visit the Article of the Week - Kelly Gallagher – Resources or view a Video of the Week (rare) posted to this website. You can keep up with these by checking the far right hand column in the section RIGHT NOW  or by subscribing to this site. These are due every Friday every week for the entire year. See how this is graded – Prompt-AND-Rubric – Article of the Week Assignment.
2. ALMOST Every two weeks – We work toward mastery of a vocabulary list that is either derived from your in-class novel when we are reading a common novel or from student’s own novels. You can keep up with these by checking the far right hand column in the section RIGHT NOW – or by subscribing to this site.
3. Every Friday – We complete a common assessment. These can be post or pre tests depending on what we have been covering, so they may (post) or may not (pre) count toward averages. By the middle of the 3rd Quarter, all common assessments count for gradebook grades as by that point we have covered every Common Core State Standard correlated to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study (they all correlate).
4. Monthly – Approach Papers, the book reports you will turn in for every book you read on your own, are due monthly. There is an official due date at the end of each month for book reports, HOWEVER your reading will be tracked and if you finish a book in the middle of a month, the book report for that book is due TWO DAYS after you complete the book. See the assignment sheet – Prompt – The Approach Paper Assignment. See how it is graded – RUBRIC – The Approach Paper Assignment.
5. Periodically – I will post discussions that you are required to participate in right here on this website. You can keep up with these by checking the far right hand column in the section RIGHT NOW  or by subscribing to this site.

 My hope is for you to be or become a successful learner and ally to other learners. If you are a current or prospective student of mine take a moment to get acquainted with this website and the resources and tools available through it. 

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Make sure you know something about these things when you come to class!

Structures of and for writing – Sentence Types

THE Parts of Speech

THE Traits of Writing – Here is my Google Search Result.

Genres of Fiction & 10 Non Fiction

Argumentative Research Project – This is a social studies assignment, but it used to come through Language Arts. I have a few resources on this site related to this assignment, but be advised that the resources I offer were designed years ago and have changed since the shift from LA to SS.

Author Study Project

Approach Paper: Non-Fiction & Fiction

Visitors are WELCOME, but please mind the students. This is a live classroom. All comments are moderated for safety and security.

• Study Hall – Use it to focus, give assistance and get help!!!!

I think and believe that through true companionship born of compassion and an active courageous intent to grow each individual can change the world one person, one day, one community at a time.

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Home Page Essentials

From here on down (on this page), anything a student enrolled

in one of my classes must know about will be italicized and in blue.

The RIGHT Side Bar

Right Now: Practically every assigned task will be posted as new posts in the section entitled ‘Right Now’. Classes will occasionally have similar assignments.

 Spoken Recently: When a contributor posts a comment to a discussion, a note about that fact will be listed in this section.

Posts By The Day: In the upper right hand corner, the month’s calendar will be available for you to see what has been assigned on any given day. Depending on the theme, dates on which assignments have been assigned will appear off-color, bolded, or italicized.

That was Then: The section called ‘That was Then’ is where you can find an extensive archive of the things I’ve done with this site, and what students have worked out with it. If you’d like an idea of how things work, check out the archives. This is also where you can find out what work you’ve been missing, and need to make up.

 Resources: This section, called ‘Pages to Turn’ , is where you will find an extensive tree of pages I’ve created over the years to help me help you better. Be sure to make Essential Resources a favorite of yours. You will need some of these pages in order to get through the year. Go through them in your spare (as frequently as possible, that is) time so you know where to find what you need when the time comes. Main page categories can be found at the top of the home page.

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Other Possible Side Bar Items

The Known Audience: This is a small map of the world that illustrates where visitors have come from.

Translations Anyone

• This feature will translate the page you are on into the language you require.
• Esta característicasetraducirá la páginaseencuentra en en elidiomaquenecesite.
• 此功能將翻譯的頁面.
• 你就到您需要的語言.
• תכונה זו לתרגם את הדף שאתה נמצא לשפה שאתה צריך.
• Αυτό το χαρακτηριστικό θα μεταφράσει τη σελίδα που βρίσκονται στη γλώσσα που επιθυμείτε

Avatar: An image will appear occasionally in the upper right corner of the page called the ‘avatar’. It is likely to change periodically. Many bloggers offer an image visitors can associate with the blog owner.

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RULES & GRADING

Classroom Rules

In order to see how I determine the Classroom Rules, you’ll have to take a good look at my Classroom Rules Project. I designed this project while working in Florida, so I may have to alter it a bit to get it just right for Charlotte-Mecklenberg Schools.

Grading Procedures

Grading is aligned with the school/district adopted grading procedures. More on this will be revealed in the coming weeks or months (or so).

The Grading Scale

• A -  94 – 100
• B -  85 – 93
• C - 77 – 84
• D – 70 – 76
• F – 0 – 69

Assigned Task Weights and Percentages: details on assigned tasks you will be responsible to complete are below.

• Formal – 45% of your grade: Tasks that fall under this heading would likely be . . . Tests, Exams, 
• Informal – 45% of your grade: Tasks that fall under this heading would likely be . . . Projects, 
• Homework – 10% of your grade: Tasks that fall under this heading would likely be . . . really? . . . tasks assigned specifically to be completed AS homework. This  will not include tasks begun in class.
• Students have five days from the actual due date to submit assignments for possible full credit. After the fifth day, assignments loose 10 points a day until it reaches a 50%. Anything submitted after the tenth day can earn no more than a 50%. Students who do not submit anything for an assignment will receive a “0″ for that assignment.

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ASSIGNED TASKS

Whether you have to complete classwork or homework, any given assignment will fit into one of the categories below. While classroom rules govern how students behave in general, assigned task procedures govern or guide how students deal with individual assignments. Procedures vary for each assignment relative to what the assignment requires. Tasks could be completed as individuals, pairs, small groups, large groups, and whole class activities depending on my (and sometimes the class’) determination.

• Writing Tasks: Writing activities take students through the entire writing process and include both fiction and nonfiction forms. Students write - narratives, essays, and some forms of poetry - a minimum of one unique piece each week. Their writing will serve many functions: exposition, persuasion, self-expression, self-reflection, and to prove synthesis and evaluative ability with new material and concepts.
• Reading Tasks: Reading Activities will require students to employ precise reading comprehension strategies. We read both fiction and non-fiction. In all of the reading we do, students work hard toward mastery of all literary, persuasive, and poetic techniques.
  • Students will be expected to read multiple books over the course of the school year, and book reports – what we call Approach Papers – will be expected for each book:
    • Honors -> around 6/Qtr,
    • Standard & Standard+ -> around 4/Qtr.
• Grammar Tasks: Students may work on grammar through the use of a proven and thorough grammar improvement tool called Giggles in the Middle: Cught Ya’! Grammar with a Giggle for Middle School. They may go through a series of grammar editing exercises as well.
• Word Skill Tasks: Mastery of advanced language skills will be developed using the Student-Driven Vocabulary model that I developed over the years. No matter what method is chosen, students are required to know each term’s part of speech, denotative definition, common connotations, proper pronunciation; as well as be able to use it in a sentence on demand.
  • Word skill activities will require mastery of new terminology. Many methods and tools are used to work on new word skills such as: Flash Cards (another link), Concept Maps, Vocabulary Improvement Strategy, and more. Students must work to master state and district adopted terminology, but mustn’t stop there.
  • Each student must also keep a personal Vocabulary Improvement Log where they progressively learn and master terminology of their own choosing (guided by me, of course).
• Online Tasks: This is the most comprehensive of the task categories as it will incorporate all of the above responsibilities. Just remember that when you post to any discussion, you should only post your first name and last initial. Never put your full name out there on the net without full precautions.
• Standardized Test Preparation Tasks: I’m not sure how to put this . . . These tasks will be standardized across the curriculum and will be reading, writing, speaking and listening related. There you go then.
• Presentation Tasks: Presentations will combine two or more of the tasks above.
• Project Tasks: Projects can combine two or more of the tasks above.

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Bloom’s Hierarchy of Cognitive Domains

Blooms Hierarchy will be referred to frequently. Look into how Bloom’s Taxonomy  works. We will primarily be concerned with levels 4, 5, and 6 of the hierarchy.

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy

Bloom created a learning taxonomy in 1956. During the 1990′s, a former student of Bloom’s, Lorin Anderson, updated the taxonomy, hoping to add relevance for 21st century students and teachers. This new expanded taxonomy can help instructional designers and teachers to write and revise learning outcomes.

Bloom’s six major categories were changed from noun to verb forms.

The new terms are defined as:

Because the purpose of writing learning outcomes is to define what the instructor wants the student to do with the content, using learning outcomes will help students to better understand the purpose of each activity by clarifying the student’s activity. Verbs such as “know”, “appreciate”, “internalizing”, and “valuing” do not define an explicit performance to be carried out by the learner. (Mager, 1997)

References

Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of educational outcomes: Complete edition, New York : Longman.

Cruz, E. (2003). Bloom’s revised taxonomy. In  B. Hoffman (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Technology. Retrieved August 22, 2007, from http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/bloomrev/start.htm

Forehand, M. (2005). Bloom’s taxonomy: Original and revised.. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved August 22, 2007, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

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In addition to local school district standards of education, units and lessons found here meet global education standards as well. Check out how Mr Moshé’s projects measure up. This is under construction. In fact, I haven’t had a minute to work on this, but it’s a great idea. I definitely align with many NETS/ISTE standards. Since the last update of this page, I have been working on aligning with the Common Core State Standards currently adopted in North Carolina.

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This website is ever evolving to serve students in any way necessary. Please leave comments and criticisms in the Study Hall (students & young adults), or submit something to me on the Contact Page (Parents, Guardians  & other adults). Just be kind and gentle – as only you can be.