Day 3 - List 3 of vocabulary/spelling

List three is half as long as list #2 (my Thanksgiving present to you). Unfortunately the quiz will be the day after Thanksgiving... but you have two weekends before then.

ingenious, jaded, manipulate, pensive, practically, reiterate, renowned, tyrannize, vapid, venerate

HOMEWORK:
1. Highlight any errors you made in the pretest. Write the word correctly. Write its word shape. Write it with the difficult part exaggerated.

2. Using a dictionary, or an online dictionary - Write a definition AND a sentence for EVERY word.

Need a challenge?? – Instead of writing a definition, write the word origin (Ex.: Instead of using one word per sentence use several words in a sentence or paragraph.

Too much time checking incomplete homework

For today, students were supposed to have completed their definitions and sentences (because it's DAY 2) and a reflection about the article about Multiple Intelligences. There were too many incompletes for my liking. As a class we discussed whether giving several days to get homework done is making it harder for people to remember to finish things. The general consensus was that I (Ms. Gesner a.k.a. Emily) need to review due dates at the end of every class. I'll try to do that, provided that you (students) actually follow them.

HOMEWORK for TOMORROW (Thursday, DAY 3): Spelling and Vocabulary Quiz of List #2 words (*and* finish anything overdue)

Silent Reading - We're almost there.

Today's class was a silent reading period. We're almost at the point where *everyone* is reading, the whole time. Remember, if you're not enjoying reading something, read something else. But read, read, read. And no, I'm not going to be less strict about this in the future.

8-7 Discusses Multiple Intelligences

I arrived in class today with a recent online article about Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. It turns out that 8-7 already had some strong opinions on the topic.

So we began our first formal discussion - Does the theory hold water?

Apparently a project involving making a box had left a negative flavour in some students' mouthes. Once those feeling had been vented we started discussing the theory itself.
- Can a person evaluate his/her own intelligence?
- Are the categories used by Gardner too narrow? Too broad?
- Is this a useful tool to "Know Thyself"? (more of this below)
- Increase or decrease self-esteem?

Students have been asked to write a personal response to the article. Due next Day 2 (in the Composition notebook, please & thank you).

... "Know Thyself" goes back to Ancient Greece (γνῶθι σεαυτόν) and is said to have been inscribed above the Temple of Delphi (where Ancient Greeks went to hear prophesies (predictions about the future) uttered by the Oracle (a priestess) - The quote makes an appearance in The Matrix in a Latin translation temet nosce .

Sept 22 - To the Computer Lab we go

Today we visited the computer lab. Students should have:
1) Visited the 1420-PickUp folder to find today's assigned work
2) Created an "English" folder in their H: drive
3) Tidied up their H: drive (made a Grade 7 folder)
4) Used AskOxford.com search function to begin definitions for this week's Spelling/Vocab

... Ms Gesner sadly mourns the fact that dictionary.com has decided to clutter their site with advertising. www.wordreference.com has an interesting format for its English dictionary. Check it out and see what you prefer.

HOMEWORK for TODAY - I've returned your spelling & vocabulary assessments and Quiz 1 - Get them signed for tomorrow and you'll feel like a Smartie

8-7 Burns Brighter than Kerosene & Homework for Sept 21st

BLOG BOO BOO - I just noticed that I forget to correct one of my errors in the sample photo above. First person to tell me they found the error (and what the error is) will get a sweet treat!

Ms. Gesner has corrected the year's first spelling test. On the whole they were very well done! The four absent students will need to make arrangements to write it next Day 1 at 11:51am.

After the quiz we did Spelling/Vocab Pretest #2. The words are: yield, conceive, obviously, noticeable, glimpse, evident, deceive, perceive, cursory, obscure, existence, judgment, substantial, enable, relieveADVANCED: impede, thwart, inaugurate, authenticate, quandary

Homework for Tuesday Sept 22 - Highlight all of the words you spelled incorrectly. Write the each word correctly. Write the word shape (see handout). Write the word with incorrect letters exaggerated.
N.B., (nota bene - latin for 'note well' or 'pay attention to this') YOU NEED TO DO THE FOUR STEPS ABOVE FOR THE WORDS YOU SPELLED INCORRECTLY ONLY. If you've spelled it correctly, there's no need to worry too much about them (unless you think it was a lucky guess... If so I suggest doing the word shape and exaggerated spelling as above).

Spelling and Vocab homework

Monday Sept 21st we will have our first Spelling/Vocabulary Quiz.

8-7 Students - Make sure you've written a sentence or definition for the following words in your Spelling/Vocab notebook (This is Homework!)
absence, majority, unfortunate, session, discussion, experience, proceed, practical, preliminary, receipt, possess, restaurant, parallel, physician, kerosene, pneumonia

The quiz will involve a dictation of all of these words, followed by four short vocabulary questions where a) you will be given a definition and asked to find the word from the list b) write a sentence with two words.

BLOG HINT: The words you will have to write sentences with on Spelling Quiz #1 will both start with the letter P.