Team 7B--Language Arts (Period 5) Assignments

Three teenbiz activities each week by Friday. By March 2, you should have 27. Remember your first-try score only counts. Do not rush; it's better to get a little behind and have high scores, than to do plenty and get low scores. However, very few activities could mean an F. If you are at a high reading level, or if you get moved up a reading level, it will help your score.

Quiz on Freak the Mighty, chp 7-11. No make-ups--read by Monday.

Essay revision (compare/contrast--see prior homework for details) required for students who scored less than a B; optional for students who scored 8/10 or better on first try.
-Staple new version on top of old version.
-Follow the suggestions I wrote on your first version.
-If you did not do this assignment, it is even more important that you turn in a comparison/contrast essay this quarter, since it will be worth 40 points, not ten.

Every week, students should complete the multiple choice "activity" for any three news articles on teenbiz3000.com. Make sure you log in under Schnittger Pd. ___ (choose the period you have English). By December ninth, all students must have 40 activities completed counting from August through December. This number of 40 includes the teenbiz assignments from their other teachers.

Comparison/contrast essay: Describes and explains the similarities and differences between two things the students knows enough about to write a whole essay. Although there are two possible formats, most seventh graders will choose the four-paragraph essay format:
I. Intro with a hook, general information, thesis sentence
II. Similarities
III. Differences
IV. Conclusion

I always recomend papers be typed, 12 point font, double-spaced, and saved to a drive or computer, but I will accept hand-written papers, which are better than nothing.

See attachments for more details.

Double-bubble map: your topic idea for comparison/contrast essay.

Final draft: personal narrative.

I have given a lesson to show the kind of focus I want in this personal experience paper. I do not want a paper about a whole vacation or even a whole weekend. The paper should build slowly to a climax about a single event, like catching a football, catching a wave, playing a part in a concert, running into a tree, or some other memorable moment. That climactic moment should slow down time and describe MANY details, as if to "explode the moment" in time.

Please disregard any instructions about the minimum number of words. A good paper could be as short as just over one page, 12 point font, double-spaced.

First draft: personal narrative paper. *If student wants thorough, written feedback on rough draft, turn it in one day early, on Friday, the 23rd. Otherwise, I will go over the rough drafts in class on Monday.

This true story should focus in on a single event and describe it in an interesting way with great detail. In fact, students may add details to make it more interesting; not to change the story entirely, or make it nonfiction, but just details they might not remember or that would make the scene come to life. Some examples might be adding "sweaty hands," or "a bright red hibiscus in her hair," or "a dark cloud passed over."

Students have a rubric and directions, but I have attached a document with basic instructions if it helps.

Study prefixes, roots, and suffixes, #1-30 (anti-vis) for a test this week.
anti, aqua, astro, audi, auto, contra, dict, extra, geo, graph, hyper, logy, magni, man, meter, multi, ped, phone, post, pre, re, scope, scrip, spec, sub, super, tele, terra, un, vis

Study vocab. affixes 11-20 for next test.

hyper, logy, magni, man, meter, multi, ped, phone, post, pre

Finish "Block Period" paragraphing assignment. Transcribe all sentences, fixing fragments and run-ons from worksheet onto another paper. Separate subtopics into 4-5 paragrpahs.

One paragraph: What did you learn from the article "You Can Grow Your Intelligence"? Use quotes from the article in your answer.