Sophomore English

Exam time:Monday June 16th 10:15-12:00

6/9 Finished watching To Kill a Mockingbird.

5/30 We are on the last chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird, we will watch the film and compare it to the novel.

5/15 We are learning about positive, comparative and superlative adjectives.

5/5 We keep learning the vocabulary to help us understand To Kill a Mockingbird. 

4/21 We are learning the forms of adjectives (positive, comparative and superlative).  We started learning the vocabulary to go with our next novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.

3/27 We finished reading chapter 12 of A Day No Pigs Would Die. 

3/25 We are identifying the different parts of speech within our reading, there will be a quiz next class. 

3/7 We are halfway through our novel.  Students will be expected to compare themselves to the main character next class.

2/25 We read Chapter 5 in Pigs, and continued practicing using the right word with our Writers Inc. text.

2/20 We read chapter four in Pigs, and answered opinion questions on the issues in it.  We are continuing to learn how to "Use the Right Word" with Skillsbook page 60.

2/14 We are learning the meanings of homonyms and practicing when to use them.  We are several chapters in to A Day No Pigs Would Die, and writing beautiful essay answers to questions about it.

2/1 We have finished our persuasive essays.  We will start a new novel next class.

1/28 Mid terms were graded and given in class today.  We also fine tuned our persuasive essays.  We will type them on Wednesday.

1/11 We finished reading Our Town in class today, and watched a portion of it.  Next class we will review for the mid-term exam which will be given on Friday January 18 from 7:45-9:45.

1/9 We are reading the last act of Our Town, preparing for the mid-term and continuing reading strategies. 

1/3 We introduced a new reaading strategy; "Stop and say something" we will practice this for several classes, and see if reading comprehension improves.  We are still reading Our Town, and discussing the similarities and differences to Watertown. 

12/19 We are fine tuning our persuasive essays and almost ready to type them and get them into our writing folders.  We have started reading the play, Our Town.

12/6 We made study guides for our test on The Contender, which we will take on Monday, December 10th.  We continued writing our persuasive essays.

11/28 The introductory paragraphs to our persuasive essays are completed.  We will finish The Contender this week, and be writing a book review on it.

11/14  We are still reading The Contender, and answering open-ended questions most days we meet.  We have chosen topics for our persuasive essays, and will be working on them in class. 

10/19    We are about halfway through the novel The Contender, and have watched a movie also about boxing Cinderella Man.  We will now use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the two.  An essay will be due in late November (once we have read more). 

9/20 We worked on more vocabulary from our novel, and read and discussed Alfred's experiences from The Contender

9/12 Read chapter 2 in The Contender and answered essay question.  We reviewed punctuation rules, and will have a vocabulary quiz on Friday the 14th.

9/6 We discussed and practiced writing in 'perfect paragraph' format.  We defined vocabulary for the novel and began reading chapter 1.  We took notes on the characters we were introduced to.

We will begin the year by reading The Contender, and discussing the issues in the novel, such as peer pressure and racism.  We will also be studying grammar rules each class, to improve written language skills.

9/4 We went over school and class rules, and learned some background information on Harlem in the 1950's to prepare for our reading of The Contender.