Students who want to retake the “Rockin’ Vocab” test from last Friday, will need to complete the appropriate paperwork and plan to be in our classroom at 8:30 Wednesday, 5/5/10. This is the only time the retake will be offered. The retake will not be a multiple choice test and a word bank will not be provided. Remember, unless you have presented the required paper form for a retake by the end of the day on Tuesday, you will not be given a retest on Wednesday. The higher of your two test grades will be recorded in your gradebook.
For a copy of the required form, click here to download and complete—-LMS Academic Recovery Plan for Retest
MONDAY Students read and discussed some information about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and then read and summarized information from our Scholastic Scope magazines about the importance of the protection and conservation of the earth’s oceans. I was not in class today due to a meeting I had to attend. If you, too, were absent, see me upon returning to school. You have to have a copy of the magazine in order to complete today’s assignment.
Don’t forget, we’ll be completing our audio visual poetry project with the “Where I’m From” poem in class tomorrow and it will be due at the end of the class period. If you have pictures that need to be scanned at school for your project, you must bring them with you to class tomorrow.
TUESDAY Students completed the audio/visual poetry project today in order to publish the “Where I’m From” poems they wrote. These were due at the end of the class period and will be recorded as quiz grades by the end of the week.
WEDNESDAY We began working with George Orwell’s classic, Animal Farm, in class today. We started with an anticipation guide, discussion, and a short film to lay the back ground for the allegory that Orwell uses in the novel. After today, all students should be able to explain what the literary term ‘allegory’ means. 
If you were absent in class today, download the discussion items for the anticipation guide here —> Anticipation Guide Using their Writer’s Notebooks, students wrote whether they agreed or disagreed with each statement in the anticipation guide and then wrote a short 2 – 4 sentence defense of their viewpoint.
THURSDAY Students read along with a taped reading of Animal Farm in class today in class. Homework: Before class on Monday, every student needs to have blogged a response by going to the “Animal Farm” tab at the top of this page and posting his/her response.
FRIDAY We took a break from working today for a little end-of-the-year fun. After an exciting field trip to the new Lanier High School to take a look around, our students were treated to a fun-filled 8th grade day. Thank you to the LMS PTSA for providing this day for us!
Don’t forget your blog response for the first section of Animal Farm that is due before your classtime on Monday.
