Finish discussion on The Red Convertible.
Look at worksheets on theme, narration, point of view, voice, style, figurative language.
apply the terms above to the Red Convertible.
Compare the red convertible ot The Man to Send Rainclouds. How are they similar? What are commmon themes and symbols? Bring in the native American creation stories we studied at the beginning of the year. Are there themes in the two short stories that are also found in the creation stories? Think about what you might like to write about. We will finalize a topic/ writing assignment together as a group on Friday.

We reviewed the characteristics of similar triangles--congruent angles, corresponding sides proportional--and went to a white board drill in which the student solved problems involving similar triangles.

Discuss story. Ask abuot setting and characters. Ask about plot. Ask what happens in the end. Not everybody got the end. I assured students that that's what makes the story a great story. discuss vietnam war. Discuss Chippewa Indians. Locate them on a map. Ask about the drive Henry and Lyman took. Trace it on a map (huge drive--they go all the way up to Alaska.)
Discuss various aspects at length. Ashley was "on fire" She did a fantastic, wonderful job at the discussion. She carried it for the other three. I got the impression that she was the only one who truly focussed on the reading and used an analytical mind to consider it.

Reviewed all the concepts we have covered since the beginning of the year and introduced the last topics to be addressed. I introduced nutrient cycling (C, N, and water). Our future emphasis will cover how these cycles have been effected by humans and the environmental rebound.

Each student paper is presented and students rank each other's papers.
. WWI: Review 20 terms/concepts:
. Russian Revolution: outcome
. Technological impact on war
. Alliances and causes of war
.US neutrality

Students finished the spanish version of their presentations. Printed out the spanish versions as well as the english versions to place in their portfolios. Worked on adding sound effects and a little bit of their verbal pronounciation.

We discussed the concepts of fractals--self-similarity, iterative, infinite and segued into students drawing a Koch snowflake on the white board. We discussed possible modeling applications and then constructed a dendritic fractal on the white board. We discussed the assignment.

To work on the "Art Fair Video" and try and finish up the script.

Devin played through the intro section of the drum chart we have written for Paralyzer. He played through it slowly and we broke down a few trouble spots and worked out some rhythm issues he was having. By the end of the session, he was able to play the intro along to the recorded track.

Students arrived and took an unannounced pop quiz on The Red Convertible. Ashley and Devin had not read the story so we were not able to hold class as planned. We did vocabulary unit 2 instead. We tested each other, taking turns as follows: I read three synonyms of a word, and the others have to guess which word I am talking about. The one who gets it right has to then take over, reading synonyms and having the others guess. Then we moved on to anytonyms. It was a good excercise, as the words are hard and we all (myself included) needed to practice them. Then we talked abuot the importance of having (and paying attention to) a daily planner. We wrote down the assignment for tomorrow.