Wednesday

Hey All,

     If you earned a two or one on the first vocab quiz, or you did not take it Friday, you will take it Wednesday in class. You only get one retake, and the second grade stands. Study well for it.

     After that, you will continue working on your setting writing assignment — remember to include all five senses and your where, when, and what is there.

     Keep your focus!

Regards,
Mr. DeMaris

Week of Dec. 12 – Dec. 16

Good morning, everyone.

     Well, the snow has just begun to fall here, and the predictions are pretty nasty for the whole day, so we will reserve judgement on whether or not there will be a snow day today. If there is, stay safe and off the roads as best you can, and then enjoy yourself and admire the beautiful winter scene in comfort. We aren't in charge of the weather, so we might as well make the best of it!

     Regardless of the snow day, this week will be about reviewing vocabulary and developing setting and character. Last week, students took their first vocabulary and spelling quiz, to mixed results, and you will all get the chance to retake it if necessary early this week. However, there will also be a few new words to learn, and a new quiz this coming Friday. So, if you did poorly, this is your opportunity to fix that mistake and study earlier and more often for the next one. We will be making a habit of having vocab quizzes this trimester, so pay attention and learn your words.

     Monday (or Tuesday, depending on the weather and our district's call!) students will get their vocab quizzes back and will have the opportunity to review their work and a chance to retake the quiz the following day. There will be only one retake given per student; after that, your grade is set. The new batch of words will also be provided, so start studying that night to prepare for Friday's quiz. Students will also review how setting works, and will dig into descriptive language by writing about physical objects in detail.

     The middle of the week will be devoted to honing setting by improving the language of student descriptions. Everyone will share their writing with another person in the class, and there will be conferencing on how to improve, followed by revision. By the end of the week, each student will submit his or her descriptive writing to be considered and graded; all five senses must be applied in the work for full credit.

          Wednesday will be a reading or writing day in class; students will either work on their settings or read from their books. Thursday will be a strictly reading day, so students should make sure their settings are complete before then, or prepare to write furiously on Friday to finish.

     On Friday, students will take their vocab quiz, write a Week in Review, and make final edits to their settings as needed. Beyond that, it will be more time to read. After all, there will be less than a week remaining before vacation!

     After school this week, Yearbook Club meets Tuesday and Chess Club on Wednesday; to my knowledge, all eighth grade games are away.

     Stay safe, stay warm, and keep in touch with any questions! Report cards went out on Friday, so if there is any lingering confusion about grades, now is a good time to ask.

Regards,
Mr. DeMaris

Upcoming Absences and Assessments

Hello All,

     I will be out of the classroom tomorrow, Tuesday, May 3; rather than pay a garage hundreds of dollars to replace the exhaust system on my car, I am taking the day to do it myself. As a man who doesn't own a garage or a car port, or even a nice pop-up canopy, I need to take the only partly sunny day in this week of rain to accomplish that. I'm sorry I won't be around, but it has to be done.

     Next week, Thursday and Friday (May 12 – 13),* I will also be out of the classroom, attending a conference at King Middle School on classroom design, lesson design, and modern teaching practices. This is a great opportunity to learn more about my job and hopefully experience a few good things. Believe it or not, I do always want to be a better teacher, so I take these conferences seriously and get what I can from them. I hate to be out of the classroom, especially with the year winding down, but this should be worth it.

     Tomorrow (Tuesday) students take the Voice and Mood quiz; you all have the notes on Google Classroom. The quiz is entirely multiple-choice, and involves definitions and examples. Make sure you know the differences between active and passive voice, and ensure you can differentiate between indicative, imperative, interrogative, conditional, and subjunctive moods. Remember, subjunctive is NOT the same as conditional. Look it up.

     Thursday of next week students take the SRI (Standard Reading Inventory), the in-class assessment of reading level and ability they have taken twice already this year — once in October, and once in February. Please do your best on it, and take it seriously. I want to see growth on these, not dismal scores. Even if you aren't confident, you should at least do better than you have in the past. Remember, the goal is not always to outdo the other students, but to outdo yourself. Take the challenge, and succeed.

     As usual, if you have any questions, please email me. I won't necessarily be able to respond from under the car tomorrow, but I can certainly address any concerns before or after.

Sincerely,
Mr. DeMaris

* — That was an en dash inside those parentheses; see how it replaces "to" or "through" in the list?

Final Quiz

Hello,

     Here is the link to the final quiz for the week:  http://goo.gl/forms/faVykbYyAe.

Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris

Quiz Tomorrow!

Dear Students and Parents,

     Tomorrow, February 4, we have a quiz on Parts of Speech. These are all the different categories of words. You need to differentiate between each type to communicate clearly about more complex ideas than just simple sentences and basic thoughts. If you don't already have the notes, the terms are listed below with definitions.

1. Article - tells you which noun (thing) you are talking about
2. Noun - person, place, object, or idea (thing)
3. Pronoun - general word that replaces a noun
4. Adjective - describes a noun or pronoun (may be color, shape, size, age, origin, etc.)
5. Verb - action
6. Adverb - describes a verb; usually ends in -ly
7. Conjunction - connecting word
1. Coordinating Conjunction - connects equal ideas or clauses; FANBOYS
2. Correlative Conjunction - connects related ideas; works in pairs
3. Subordinating Conjunction - starts dependent clause; answers why, when, if, or opposition
8. Preposition - identifies time or location relative to another noun (thing)
9. Interjection - a word or phrase used to exclaim, protest, or command

     The first half of the quiz involves picking the proper definition out of multiple choices for each part of speech. The second half of the quiz involves reading a paragraph and correctly identifying at least one example of each part of speech from it. Today in class the students practiced this with one paragraph; we will use another for the quiz. Students will not be allowed to use notes for the quiz.

     For your convenience, I have included a list of examples for each category below.

Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris

1. Article - a, an, the
2. Noun - Mr. DeMaris, chairs, table, thought, dream, cat, dinner, steak
3. Pronoun - he, it, they, we, she, them, us, her
4. Adjective - red, blue, green, fuzzy, cold, ancient, new, frozen, American
5. Verb - run, jump, think, fall, cry, repair, stand
6. Adverb - quickly, clumsily, carefully, foolishly, noisily, successfully, abruptly
7. Conjunction
1. Coordinating Conjunction - for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
2. Correlative Conjunction - either, or; neither, nor; if, then; but, so
3. Subordinating Conjunction - because, after, when, if, rather than, though
8. Preposition - before, during, after, on, in, beside, for, from, to
9. Interjection - Breakfast time! Stop! No! Wait! Sit down! Well, Um,

This Week in Preview

Dear Students,

     This week, I will be attending the two home games on Monday and Tuesday, and I will also attend a meeting on Monday afternoon. However, since this is the start of the quarter, you won't need to stay after for any work, so I will be going home right after school on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. On a personal note, on Wednesday I get to see a friend I haven't seen since New Year's last year; he is coming north again for a couple days, so we are going to dinner in Portland that afternoon. It should be fun!

     This is the first week of Quarter Three, which means you all start with perfect grades! I expect all of you to try your hardest to keep them just that perfect. I will help with that as best as I can.

     On Monday, we will go over classroom rules and layout, including how I will structure the grading for this quarter. This will cover MobyMax, classwork, graded assignments, quizzes, projects, and bonus points. After that, we will talk about the District Writing Competition, and how to submit your entries. Then, we will dive into parts of speech.

     On Tuesday, we will continue covering parts of speech, including the best ways to organize them and which ones are most appropriate in context. If something is allowed, that doesn't mean you should do it. Think of parts of speech like things you can say (they are things you can say, come to think of it); just because you can say something doesn't mean you should.

     On Wednesday, we will review parts of speech, and we will discuss sentence structure. We went over this previously in the year, but it didn't stick. So, we will try again! I will remind you all that you will take a quiz on Friday. Wednesday's homework will involve writing a page about a topic we discuss in class. This formative assessment will be graded on your grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling (L.8.1 and L.8.2).

     On Thursday, we will discuss ways to improve our own writing. We will identify the parts of speech in passages from our own work, and determine if we used them correctly. Then, we will read a short passage from a story and identify parts of speech in it as well. Thursday's homework will be to study for the quiz on Friday.

     On Friday, you will take a quiz on parts of speech; you must identify the definition and use of each part of speech, and then you must identify parts of speech within a sample paragraph. This is your summative assessment on parts of speech. Once you finish the quiz, you will begin reading a short story. Provided class goes well, you will have no homework over the weekend.

     Let me know if you have any questions, and have a great week! Start Quarter Three out right!

Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris

Quiz Tomorrow!

Hello Students,

     As we have explained since last week, we have a quiz tomorrow on the following terms. You may bring one single-sided page of notes with you. The quiz will be entirely multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank. On the latter half, spelling will count. As you will be allowed notes, that should not be a problem for you.

     Here are the terms on which you will be quizzed.

Places (8)	People (20)	Creatures (9)	Things (2)
Asgard	Aesir	Authumla	Draughts
Bifrost	Vanir	Bygul and Trjegul	Mjolnir
Midgard	Baldur	Fenrir
Muspell	Buri	Jormungand
Niflheim	Frey	Managarm
Urth’s Well	Freyja	Nidhogg
Valhalla	Frigg	Ratatosk
Vanaheim	Heimdall	Sleipnir
	Hel	Teeth Gnasher and Teeth Grinder
	Idun
	Loki
	Mimir
	Nari
	Njorth
	Odin
	Sol
	Surt
	Thor
	Tyr
	Ymir

This looks like a long list, but you have had three days with the words on the board and knowledge that you may take a page of notes on them to the quiz. Quiz questions will be arranged as follows. For the multiple choice questions, it will ask something like:

Odin is
a) Loki's wolf son.
b) the first giant.
c) king of the gods.
d) a gossiping squirrel.

For the fill-in-the-blank questions, it will ask something like:

What is the name of the moon wolf who chases the sun and the moon across the sky?
_________________________

All your answers can be found in the packets you worked on for the last four days in class. You may find PDFs of them at the following links.

Packet One - The Creation of the World

Packet Two - The First War and the Norse Gods

Study well, and do well.

Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris

Quiz on Sentence Completion and Style

Hello Everyone!

     Today you take your sentence completion and style quiz.  Click this link to take the quiz online; it is entirely multiple choice, and you have thirty minutes to complete it.

Yours Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris

You have one more quiz for this unit!

Hello Everyone!

     On Tuesday, October 14, you will have your last quiz of the unit.  This quiz will be entirely multiple choice, and is designed to see if you can identify the difference between fragment, complete, and run-on sentences, as well as the difference between simple, complex, compound, and compound-complex sentences.  You will have the option to take it on the computer or on paper.

     Also, don't forget that Monday is Columbus Day, and you have no school.  Enjoy your three-day weekend, and be sure to study for the quiz!  If you can't remember the terms or the differences between them, look up assignment 02-12 or this handy review sheet.  Click this link for a completed review sheet for the quiz.

Yours Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris

Figurative Language Quiz

Hello Everyone,

     Click on this text to start today's quiz.  You can take as much time as you reasonably need to complete it, which means you have all class.  When you finish, though, you should go back to your personal narrative and add figurative language to it.  When you finish doing that, you may Review and Improve some of your work for this class.

Yours Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris

Quiz on Tuesday!

Hello Everyone!

     On Tuesday, October 7, you will take a quiz on figurative language.  This will be designed in a similar manner to the quiz you took this Tuesday (and likely retook today!), and will cover all nine figurative language terms we have been discussing in class for the last few days.  If you cannot remember all of them, they are:

• Simile
• Metaphor
• Oxymoron
• Onomatopoeia
• Hyperbole
• Alliteration
• Idiom
• Personification
• Pun

You must know how to define each term, be able to identify them in use, and spell them correctly.  If you have any questions, look up assignment 02-06 on Google Classroom or Infinite Campus and review the list.

Yours Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris

Take a Quiz!

Hello Students!

     Click on this link to take your 02-08 Narrative Vocabulary Quiz.  Yes, all this text is one giant link to one decently-sized quiz.  Remember that you need to be logged in to your Bonny Eagle email account for this to work.

Yours Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris

Quiz Tomorrow!

Hello Everyone!

     Please remember to study for the quiz tomorrow on the Narrative vocabulary terms from assignment 02-04:  Vocabulary of a Narrative.  You can find the list in that assignment.  The quiz will have two parts; the first part will require you to pick the best definition from a list of options for each word, and the second part will require you to write out the best word for each definition listed.

     This quiz will be worth twenty points.  Study for it.

Yours Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris