ENGLISH 2014
SEPTEMBER 16, 2014
Introduction sheet & email contact info
Literature Trivia Tidbit – How LARGE was William Shakespeare’s
VOCABULARY?
(these may be extra credit)
SAFETY/RULES
• House is under construction. There are materials everywhere! Please excuse
the mess!
• Do not go past the Tahoe toward the house – there is a black lab who is tied,
it takes him awhile to get used to strangers!
• There are chickens & ducks – one duck limps (was injured and is getting
better) please do not chase them. They are friendly.
• All of the cats are friendly
• We have a very large, old brown lab. Her name is Shadow. She is friendly
but looks kind of scary because she is so big. I will keep her in the kennel with
the Yorkies (who do bite) until she is used to you.
• Do not go up the road past the chicken house (we have had bears here
during the day)
OTHER STUFF
• This room is also used as an office – please do not touch the filing cabinets or the
items on the table on the back wall. Thank you.
• There are 5 lockers on the wall. Pick a locker buddy. You may store your stuff in
here. Feel free to decorate them etc. Please do not put locks on them.
• You may use the refrigerator, toaster oven or microwave for your lunch.
• Picnic tables are outside for your use or you can eat in the building
• If you sit at the brown wooden table, please use a placemat (for writing to protect
the table) If you have a drink, please put it on the coaster.
• Wifi password is on the board. We have satellite internet. Please do not stream
video or audio (including Pandora) without permission. I am not sure how the wifi
will handle this many users – we may have to stagger usage…we will experiment
with it.
CLASS STRUCTURE (AFTER TODAY)
• All students in School House building for English beginning at 10:30. We will
have short break during this session. Between 12:00-12:15 we will break for
lunch (which will be for 30 minutes)
• After lunch girls to with Miss Anicsia to the upstairs family room for World
History and the boys with me for History 1900-45 (WWI &WWII) There may be
a brief break during this session.
• Classes will be over at 2:30
INTRODUCTION
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All Documents for this class will be on the quia.com website.
You will be required to do a “CURRENT EVENT” post every week
There will be a quiz every week
There will be a test 2-3 times per 9 week term
You will need a section in your notebook for GRAMMAR
You will need a section in your notebook for LITERATURE
You will need a section in your notebook labeled JOURNAL
You will need a section in your notebook labeled VOCAB
You will need a section in your notebook labeled QUIZZES/TESTS
You will have a large project for each term –
• THERE WILL BE SOME CHOICE IN THE SPECIFIC THEME.
• DETAILED DIRECTIONS AND A RUBRIC WILL BE GIVEN FOR EACH PROJECT.
• SOME CLASS TIME WILL BE GIVEN TO WORK ON THE PROJECT.
Class website instructions
each student will get a print out with their login codes
(do not share or misplace this – keep it in your notebook)
If you get locked out or misplace your login – email me at:
school@mckinneyservicesllc.com
1 PRESIDENT & 2 STATES A WEEK!
• George Washington (video) if time permits – at end of class
• State Fact Sheets:
• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Info Hand-outs/Maps
www.quia.com
CLASS WEBSITE
CONTENTS
Announcements, Website Links, Games and
Activities, Copies of Documents from Class,
Quizzes & Tests
TAKE A BREAK AND SET UP YOUR
NOTEBOOKS! 
One at a time we will test everyone’s login to the
class websites!
WEEKLY CURRENT EVENT INSTRUCTIONS
Current Event Posts are due EVERY WEEK.
YOUR ORIGINAL POST (to class blogsite) IS DUE BY THURSDAY
at MIDNIGHT
A response post to at least one of your classmates is due by
MONDAY at MIDNIGHT
Current Event/Interest Articles Guidelines
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Current Events/Interest Articles assignments will be due each week on Thursday. (unless otherwise assigned in class)
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The article must be from a PRINTED SOURCE – not from TV or video streaming.
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The article cannot be more than 3 years old
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You may select any age appropriate topic of interest or current event (news) article for your assignment.
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By Monday, you need to respond to at least one classmate’s submission in at least one sentence. Can be a comment or question.
You will need to include the following information in the order given below:
Title of Article: ______________
Source: ____________________ (name of newspaper, magazine or online source – if online source include the complete web address of the article – if printed attach copy)
Date of Article: ______________________ (if online, it can usually be found at the bottom of the page)
Author of Article: ________________
Topic or Theme: _______________________ (in a few words)
Summary of the Article: ____________________________ (you should first read the article all the way through and then without looking at the article write a summary of what you read) –
minimum of 1 paragraph
Identify the Audience: ________________(to whom is this article directed – teenagers, retirees, children, parents, single adults etc)
Purpose of the Article:
Is the article trying to:
Educate the reader
Persuade the reader
Entertain the reader
OTHER – explain______________
WHAT IS A RUBRIC?
A sheet that explains an assignments expectations and assigns possible
points for each part – see the next page
Description
5 points
4 points
3 points
1-2 points
Time submitted
On Thursday
On Friday
On Saturday
On Sunday or later
Source information completed
All Source Information
included
Source information is missing or incorrect
Article or link attached
Link/article attached
Link or article not attached
Summary length
Meets guidelines
Does not meet guidelines
Summary Content
Clearly summarizes the
original article
Summarizes but not clearly
or adds to much opinion
and not a restatement of
events
Summary not clear
Grammar/Mechanics of Summary
No serious errors
1-2 spelling, grammar or
capitalization errors
3
spelling, grammar or
capitalization errors
Responses to classmates
Replied at least one
classmate
Grade
35 Total Possible Points
_____/35
Original Post
0 points
No Post
No Post
No Summary
4
spelling, grammar or
capitalization errors
5 or more errors
No Responses
________%
JOURNAL ENTRIES
At the beginning of each class there will be a quick writing assignment that
you will put in the JOURNAL section of your notebook.
Sometimes these will be completely random and maybe even silly other
times they will be designed to get you in the proper mind set for our
reading assignment.
These will be shared in class – you will get credit (graded for completion)
TODAY’S JOURNAL QUESTION
• If I could travel anywhere in the world I would go
to……
• Answer the question and tell why (entry should be about 1 paragraph)
GRAMMAR LESSON
• Basic Parts of Speech (hand-out with definitions & practice sheet)
• Identify Subject & Predicate in a sentence
• There are practice games & activities on quia.com
• Homework sheet – Parts of Speech identification & Subj/Pred ID
• There will be a short quiz next week
GO TO PARTS OF SPEECH
POWER POINT!
There is a handout for your notebook and homework
SUBJECTS & VERBS!
Every complete sentence has a subject and a predicate.
The subject is that part of a
sentence which names a person, thing, or idea
• Subject –
• Predicate -- The predicate is that part of a sentence
which tells something about the subject. (contains
the verb!)
Subject & Predicate
John runs track.
Subject
Predicate
JOHN is the “WHO” in the sentence
RUNS TRACK is “WHAT” the subject does
Subject & Predicate
S
P
Mary and Thomas climbed Mount Everest.
IDENTIFY THE SUBJECT AND PREDICATE
All of the yellow cars were in the parking garage.
SUBJECT & PREDICATE
•Practice Sheet for homework
•Games on Quia
LITERATURE/VOCAB
• Elements of Literature handout (review terms)
• Games and activities on quia.com
• Numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 11, 12 will be on the quiz next class period
• Homework – using the short story _________ identify (highlight and label) at least
5 elements of literature defined on the sheet.
ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE
LESSON 1
Genre: A genre is a type. The basic types of literature are fiction, non-fiction, poetry
and drama. But within those there are sub-types:
Fiction: novel, short story (fake/or make up)
Non fiction: essay, editorial, news story, feature story (real)
Poetry: verse, narrative poetry, epic poetry, free verse, and many more
Drama: classical, tragedy, comedy
Plot: the events of a story or narrative with a variety of sequencing patterns. The plot is
what happens in the story.
Setting: Time and place where a story occurs (Washington, VA 1940)
Conflict: the struggle between two forces, one generally being the protagonist of the
story. The antagonist can be the self, another person, animal, nature,
technology/machine, society, or the supernatural
Character: the people/animals etc in the story
Protagonist: the main character of the story
SHORT STORIES -- READ TOGETHER
PDF COPIES ON WEBSITE AND ON DISK
•Raymond’s Run
•Mrs. Flowers
•Broken Chain
•Treasure of Lemon Brown
RE-CAP FOR NEXT WEEK!
• Current Event Due by Thursday on Blog-site, responses by Monday
• Study Parts of Speech Definitions (practice sheet due Tuesday*)
• Review Subject/Predicate (practice sheet due Tuesday*)
• Study 10 Elements of Literature
• Finish Reading Short Stories not finished in class:__________________________
_________________________________________________________________________ and complete
question sheets and Story Maps – due Tuesday
• practice games & activities on quia.com for Sub/Pred, Parts of Speech & Elements of Lit.
• Homework sheet – Parts of Speech identification & Subj/Pred ID*
• There will be a short quiz next week
Quizzes on: Grammar (parts of speech and Sub/Predicate); Short Stories (content of stories
& elements of Literature definitions)
PREPARING TO BEGIN HISTORY
CLASS NEXT WEEK
• MS - World History Class – It is July and you are in the Shenandoah National Park
with no other human beings around. You must survive for two weeks without
anything but the clothes you are wearing and the things that nature provides. You
cannot use knives, guns or any other modern convenience.
You need to make a plan: what will you eat, how will you get the food, will it be
cooked? How? Where you will you sleep? How will you stay warm at night and cool
in the day? How will you keep dry if it rains? Will you bathe if so, where?
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• HS - WWI-WWII: Research Queen Victoria of England’s descendants. Make a
“genealogy” chart beginning with Queen Victoria and go to her GreatGrandchildren. Be sure to indicate if they married royalty and if so what was their
title and what country were they in.