Mr. Gallagher's Blog

Blog Entries

Monday 20 October

A Day

WORD OF THE WEEK:

Travail

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

8th Grade:

We finished the last quiz from the novel The Giver (17-23). After we finished the quiz we began talking about different types of response writing. We discussed the importance of having a clear direction, a focus. We talked about the important lessons that the 5-paragraph essay teaches, and we also spoke about its limitations. Beyond middle school the applications for the 5-paragraph essay become very specific; timed writing and testing being the most common.

Students were asked to think of a thematic topic for The Giver. Some of the topics we came up with in class were feelings, release, utopia, sacrifices, a belief in a better place (elsewhere).

Homework: create a full page web map to help you sort out your thoughts and find a focus for a response paper for The Giver.

Blog Entries

Wednesday 22 October

A Day

8th Grade:

Blog Entries

Thursday 16 October

A Day

8th Grade:

Class discussion of the final chapters of The Giver. Students directed the lesson based on their questions spurred on by the study guide questions and original questions. The quiz on the final chapters will be given on Monday 20 October.

Wednesday 15 October

B Day

7th Grade:

Students took a pretest in class. We corrected the pretest in class. The test on the parts of speech is scheduled for Friday 17 October. Students are to use the pretest as a guide to study for the test. The parts of speech projects will be returned next week.

Blog Entries

Tuesday 14 October

A Day

8th Grade:

WORD OF THE WEEK:

Hyperbole

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

"Always for give your enemies; nothing annoys them so much."--Oscar Wilde

Today students were given the study guide for chapter 17-23. Students were given class time to complete the questions. Any questions that were not completed in clas were to be completed for homework. We will be discussing the final chapters in class Thursday. The quiz will be taken in class on Monday 20 October.

Blog Entries

Thursday 9 October

B Day

7th Grade:

Today we finished up our discussion on conjunctions and covered prepositions. We have now finished all of the parts of speech. Homework: A project. Students are to create a "Grammar Handbook" for the parts of speech. The minimum length is 9 pages. 1 page=cover. 9 pages=parts of speech. 1 page=back cover. Students are to include the definition of each part of speech, example words, and the use of the part of speech in sentence examples. This is supposed to be a creative project. Students already have all of the information, so the majority of work required is the creation of the booklet to showcase the information. HAVE FUN WITH THIS!

Untitled Document

Wednesday 8 October

A Day

8th Grade:

Today we read chapters 13-16 (The Giver) in class. The focus was on finding the important details in the chapters. Sometimes it helps to read a chapter, or set of chapters, more than once. Comprehension is the goal the first time a chapter is read. When you read a chapter more than once you can focus on the deeper meaning of the scenes and words chosen by the author. The quiz on chapters 13-16 will be given in class on Friday. HOMEWORK: Reread the study guide questions. Add vocabulary and plot questions. Reevaluate the answers you have already written.

Untitled Document

Tuesday 7 October

B Day

WORD OF THE WEEK:

Ubiquitous

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"How old would you be if you did not know how old you are?"--Satchel Paige

7th Grade:

Parts of speech (continued)

Students continued work on the parts of speech. We have covered interjections, verbs, adjectives, nouns, adverbs, and pronouns. Students received a study sheet for pronouns. We bagan talking about pronouns. The homework: Write 10 sentences. Use as many parts of speech as possible in each sentence, labeling each part of speech.

Untitled Document

Wednesday 27 August

B Day

7th Grade:

We discussed the transition sentence. The transition sentence has two goals. Sum up the current paragraph, and lead into the next paragraph. Examples were written on the board based on student essays. The format for the second paragraph of the 5-paragraph essay was detailed on the board. The goal of the second paragraph is to thoroughly discuss the 1st important detail. The 1st sentence: Introduce the topic of the paragraph. 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sentences: create effective arguments and details that support the topic of the paragraph. The 5th sentence is the transition sentence.

HW--email Mr. Gallagher parent and student contact information. Write the transition sentence for the 1st paragraph. Write the 2nd paragraph following the format.

Untitled Document

RUN-ON SENTENCES

An an example of a very long sentence:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)

Read the book online HERE

4 August

Monday 4 August

A Day

Computer Lab:

While waiting for the new room to be completed classes will be held in the Computer Lab.

8th grade students began a Power Point project similar to an instruction manual.� The manual is a review of what we learned in 7th grade.� We also went over course syllabus and clarified changes made since 7th grade.� Students were taught the new log in procedures for the computer lab.

Tuesday 5 August

B Day

7th grade students were in the computer lab.� Students received the course syllabus and each area on the syllabus was reviewed with the class.� Students began a Power Point project based on the KWL format.� KWL asks students to think about what they Know, what they Want to know/learn, and what they have Learned (done after the lesson).� The students created slides detailing what they know about language arts, what they want to learn this year, and later we will go back and ass what they have learned.

Wednesday 6 August

A Day

8th Grade:

The entire class period was dedicated to the Instruction Manual Power Point project in the computer lab.

Thursday 7 August

B Day

7th Grade:

The entire class period was dedicated to the KWL Power Point project in the computer lab.

Friday 8 August

A Day

8th Grade:

Distributed textbooks to all students.� Class materials were due (as outlined in the course syllabus).

Students read the story Retrieved Reformation by O. Henry.� Students needed to find 30 vocabulary words from the story.� The Critical Thinking Questions at the end of the story were assigned for homework.

Monday 11 August

Word of the Week:

Ostracize

Quote of the Week:

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

Shakespeare (Hamlet)

B Day

7th Grade:

Students were assigned textbooks.� Students read the story 7th Grade by Gary Soto.� Students were asked to find 30 vocabulary words in the story while reading the story.� Any work not completed in class was to be done for homework.

Tuesday 12 August

A Day

8th Grade:

Review and class discussion of Retrieved Reformation vocabulary and Critical Thinking Questions.� Students began a story based on the way O. Henry learned how to tell stories.� When O. Henry was a young boy his sister Evelina would start a story and he would have to come up with an ending.� Students are to write a story (300-500 words), only developing the first half of the story.� The typed version of this story is due at the beginning of the next class.

Wednesday 13 August

B Day

7th Grade:

Class discussion of 7th Grade.� Students asked questions about the story and the vocabulary using their homework as a basis for the questions.� Students were given time in class to begin the Critical Thinking Questions.� We spent some time talking about the proper way to answer a CT question:

1st sentence answers the question

2nd sentence provides specific details from the story to support the answer

3rd sentence provides specific details from the story to support the answer

All CT questions are to be answered in no fewer than three sentences.

Thursday 14 August

A Day

8th Grade:

The stories were turned in at the beginning of class. Then the second half of the assignment was explained.� The stories would be traded with another student.� Once the stories were traded, the students were to write the second half of the story in front of them.� They were challenged to make the second half of the story believable.� The second half should mesh with the first half.

Homework: typed version of the second half.� Copies of stories turned in on computer disk.

Friday 15 August

National Holiday

No School

Monday 18 August

B Day

7th Grade:

Word of the week:

Polyglot

Quote of the Week:

"Wise men think without speaking.

Fools speak without thinking."

Anonymous

Review of the Critical Thinking Questions from 7th Grade by Gary Soto.� Examples of good critical thinking answers using specific examples from the story we explained to the students.

Can you enunciate?

What is enunciation and how does it help speaking in class?

Homework:

5-paragraph essay: Open Topic (On what topic are you an expert?) All 5 paragraphs must focus on one topic.

The essay must be handwritten and is due in class on Wednesday.

Tuesday 19 August

A Day

8th Grade:

Students read The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Alan Poe. Students needed a minimum of 30 vocabulary words from the story and they need to complete the Critical Thinking Questions at the end of the story.� Whatever was not finished in class was to be completed for homework.

(ps--how red did Mr. Gallagher's face get in your class when he read this story aloud?)

Wednesday 20 August

B Day

7th Grade:

The beginning of GNK

Students were taught the basics of writing an essay in Mr. Gallagher's class. We discussed the 5-paragraph essay anthem, looks, and the format for the first paragraph.

Homework: Students were to rewrite the first paragraph of their essays to match the format discussed in class.

Thursday 21 August

A Day

8th Grade:

Multimedia presentations of The Tell-Tale Heart in video and audio tape.� How different are each from Mr. Gallagher's reading? How were they all different from your own interpretation of the story?

Listen to the voices in your head...

Friday 22 August

Community Service

No Classes

Monday 25 August

Word of the Week:

Skulk

Quote of the Week:

"Drawing is speaking to the eye; talking is painting to the ear."

Joseph Joubert

B Day

7th Grade:

Homework was checked against the GNK from the previous class.� The "happy highlighter" went around the room checking for mistakes.� Class discussion focused on correcting run-on sentences and writing a well formed first sentence.

Homework: Rewrite the first paragraph. Write 5 run-on sentences with a sentence demonstrating how to correct the run-on. (total of 10 sentences: 5 run-ons and 5 corrections)

Tuesday 26 August

A Day

8th Grade:

Study guides for Retrieved Reformation and Tell-Tale Heart.� The test will be on September 1st.

Wednesday 27 August

B Day

7th Grade:

Thursday 28 August

A Day

8th Grade:

Friday 29 August

B Day

7th Grade:

WOW! The New York Times has a great article about teen writing today:

A Young Writer's Round Table, Via the Web

Here is one of the sites mentioned in the article:

Creative Writing for Teens

Enjoy the links!!

Below you will find the fabled 5-paragraph Essay Format. Copy and paste it into your own word file at home so you can keep it near and dear to your heart =) mr gallagher

The 5-Paragraph Essay Format

Mr. Gallagher

ASA

5-Paragraph Essay "Anthem":

The 5-paragraph essay has 5 paragraphs. Each paragraph has 5-7 sentences. Each sentence is a complete sentence because it has a subject and a predicate. The subject tells us who or what and the predicate gives us an action.

Looks:

1. Name, Date, and Class

2. Blue or black ink-pen or pencil

3. 5 indented paragraphs

4. Neat handwriting and presentation

Essay Format:

1st Paragraph (aka INTRODUCTION)

GOALS: Introduce the topic of the essay and present the three supporting details.

1st sentence: 1. State the topic. 2. List three important details.

2nd sentence: Brief statement about the 1st important detail

3rd sentence: Brief statement about the 2nd important detail

4th sentence: Brief statement about the 3rd important detail

5th sentence: Transition sentence: 1. Sum up the current paragraph. 2. Lead into the next paragraph.

2nd Paragraph (aka BODY 1)

GOALS: Discuss the 1st important detail

1st sentence: Introduce the topic of the paragraph.

2nd, 3rd, 4th sentences: Create effective arguments and details to support the topic of the paragraph.

5th sentence: Transition sentence: 1. Sum up the current paragraph. 2. Lead into the next paragraph.

3rd Paragraph (aka BODY 2)

GOALS: Discuss the 2nd important detail

1st sentence: Introduce the topic of the paragraph.

2nd, 3rd, 4th sentences: Create effective arguments and details to support the topic of the paragraph.

5th sentence: Transition sentence: 1. Sum up the current paragraph. 2. Lead into the next paragraph.

4th Paragraph (aka BODY 3)

GOALS: Discuss the 3rd important detail

1st sentence: Introduce the topic of the paragraph.

2nd, 3rd, 4th sentences: Create effective arguments and details to support the topic of the paragraph.

5th sentence: Sum up the current paragraph.

5th Paragraph (aka CONCLUSION)

GOALS: Sum up the entire essay without repeating yourself. Create a finale.

1st sentence: Summary statement for the topic of the essay.

(**Must begin with "In conclusion,"**)

2nd sentence: Summary statement for the 1st important detail.

3rd sentence: Summary statement for the 2nd important detail.

4th sentence: Summary statement for the 3rd important detail.

5th sentence: Summary statement for the entire essay, which is worthy of an exclamation point!

A great page with information about typing a paper using the MLA format from Perdue University.

MLA Format

Guide to Grammar and Writing

This site expalins many areas of grammar with examples and detailed explanations. The site also has quizzes to check your ability level.

ON-ON Grammarian Hordes!

Here is good site that explains run-on sentences and even has some quizzes at the end.

Here is the site:Run-On Sentences, Comma Splices

Here is a great linki to obscure English words and word of the day sites courtesy of my friend, Barrett Smith. Enjoy! Luciferous Logolepsy Dragging obscure words into the light of day

For extra credit, print out the "Fumblerules of Grammar" page (FUMBLERULES) and correct the mistakes in each line. Good luck!

Here is another link with resources for all areas of writing well. **The Write Stuff These links all come from Collin County Community College, Joyce Marie Miller, Editor.

Here is a link to a great explanation of why writing well is important: To the Student Enjoy it!

Here are some links to pages to help you with that pesky punctaution mark, the comma.

Tip Sheet-Commas Comma Usage A Brief, No-Nonsense Guide to Comma Usage Happy reading!

This blog (short for web log) will act as a forum for me to summarize class discussions and to add resources for students to expand on classroom learning.

For example, this link sent to me by my friend Molly: Grumpy Martha's Guide to Grammar and Usage

Keep checking back here often to find out what has been happening in class!