As with most of the classes this semester, we will cover a lot of material during the class time. As I pace the class, I'm doing my best to avoid an information overload and yet cover important details. For the first class of the day, the students have been attentive and engaged.
We started the day with a Quick Write ("Describe your dream job") and some Words of the Day (common usage errors found in student writing and that might appear in the ACT). I will do these most weeks unless we have too much material to cover. They are great warm-up activities, but some weeks we may need to jump right into the content of the test preparations.
Before we proceeded the bulk of our the content of the day, I walked the students through the My GradeBook site. Some of them had already signed in. If you or your student have not done that yet, go to this document, Instructions for My GradeBook, for instructions. As I told the students, they might never need to go to this site if they are keeping track of their homework. However, if they are absent for a number of weeks or have forgotten if they have handed something in or not, this is a good place to find that information. As parents, you can check it to see if work is getting in or to check on current grade status. It is by no means required of students or parents to regularly check this online gradebook.
As we progress through the book Cracking the ACT, I will introduce and discuss the information in the relevant chapters, and then the students will read those chapters, do the sample problems, and complete the drills. This week we worked through Chapters 5 & 6 that included strategies for taking the English portion of the test. We did a couple of the sample test questions in class, but students should be sure to read through them again as they read the chapter.
This week we had only a small portion of time to talk about the SAT Essay. Let me explain my reasoning for including this unit in this class. Most of the test-taking strategies that we learn are also applicable to the SAT, so if students choose to take that test in addition to or instead of the ACT, they will be prepared. The SAT Essay is markedly different from the ACT Essay, so I feel students will benefit from some time spent on that. Additionally, the SAT Essay requires students to analyze and evaluate a piece of writing, and these are important college-level skills for students to develop. This week I explained the structure of the test and gave them a sample test question that includes an article by Jimmy Carter. They are to actively read the article and mark the ways in which it is persuasive and effective. This will include specific data, logical reasoning, and persuasive stylistic elements.
Below are the Assignments and Links for this week. In the list of links I've also included some videos for the ACT English Test and the SAT Essay test. Although these videos are optional, they would be really helpful to increase the students' knowledge of test taking strategies.
Assignments for Next Week (Sept. 5)
-- Read Chapters 5 - 6 (Remember to be active readers)
-- Make notes about confusing or troublesome portions in the chapters
-- Take the English Drill 1 (p. 54)
-- Correct the English Drill 1 (p. 384)
-- Review Persuasive Writing handouts
-- Read Jimmy Carter article and make notes on detail, reasoning, and persuasive style.
Links for This Week
Class Notes
ACT Videos
SAT Essay Videos
Have a beautiful Labor Day Weekend!
Mrs. Prichard
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