Fran Christie’s blog

As we begin the last term of the school year it is important for my evening language arts class to focus on attendance.  Students who miss a class must make up the time by coming in early the next Thursday.  Make up will occur from 4:30- 5:45 most Thursdays.  All students must complete the mid term and final projects to earn credit in the class.  This term our theme will be short stories.  The first three weeks we will be studying Gothic Horror, students will be reading 5 different short stories and watching a Gothic Horror film.  There will be a short paper or project at the end of the unit.  Our second unit will focus on Memorial Day and short stories from different wars.

  The final project has been handed out and will be due Thursday June 5th at the final class.  Thursday May 29th, we will continue watching “We Were Soldiers” and students will be choosing a character from the film and writing a letter either home from the battlefield from the character’s perspective or to a soldier from a family member.  Student’s will have time to begin the letter in class but the letter will be due on June 5th our last class.  Also the final project will need to be completed and presented on the 5th.  Again all students must complete and present the final project to earn credit in the class.

Week 7 finds us reviewing week 3’s vocabulary and studying inference as a tool for improved reading comprehension. 
We will continue listening to our oral story (Stoneheart) and student’s will continue with independent reading.

This term attendance and assignment completion becomes imperative.  As we near the end of the school year seniors develop senioritis which can get in the way of both being able to walk at the graduation ceremony and earning their high school diploma.  A great mantra for passing English is “I will attend every day!”

This week we have begun our film unit.  Student’s watched the film version of Ricochet River and wrote a short evaluation comparing the film with the book.  All students must complete and hand in the take home test on Chapters 12-25 which was due on Tuesday the 27th but will be accepted through this Friday.  Again this test must be completed and handed in for students to recieve a passing grade in the class.  Beginning Thursday we will see several different films, students will be asked to do critiques and write film reviews on the movies.  For this unit a large part of the grade will be participation based, with discussion and short journal writing as demonstration of learning.