Middle School Team

TEAMWORK...Reach out and help your classmates

PLEASE CHECK EVERY DAY FOR ASSIGNMENTS

SCROLL DOWN FOR ASSIGNMENTS!

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Saturday, April 27, 2013

I COMMAND YOU WATCH ME !! SHSAT Sample Logical Reasoning #1

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SHSAT Reading Passage #1 WATCH ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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SHSAT Sample Scramble # 1 PLEASE WATCH ME!!!

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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Biography

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Monday, April 22, 2013

"The Highwayman" By Alfred Noyes

Please watch all three versions (videos) of 'The Highwayman". Which one did you like the most and why?
Compare how the videos were alike and how were the videos different than the written version of the poem. What was the center conflict in this poem?

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"The Highwayman" Animated version of Alfred Noyes Classic Poem

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"The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes

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Sunday, April 14, 2013

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - The Wreck Of The Hesperus

Why does the narrator use this type of tone to narrate the poem? What mood do you think best describes the poem? After reading and hearing the poem read to you how does the poem make you feel. What different things did you notice when the poem was read to you?

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Sunday, April 7, 2013

How did the short story "The Lady, or the Tiger?" affect your life? Did the ending make you feel happy or sad for the princess and her lover?

Why did the princess have difficulty deciding which door to indicate to her lover?

Posted by martha at 8:17 PM 6 comments:

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About Me

martha

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Recognize a preposition when you see one.

Prepositions are the words that indicate location. Usually, prepositions show this location in the physical world.

Because there are so many possible locations, there are quite a few prepositions. Below is the complete list.

about
above
according to
across
after
against
along
along with
among
apart from
around
as
as for
at
because of
before
behind
below
beneath
beside
between
beyond
but
by
by means of

concerning
despite
down
during
except
except for
excepting
for
from
in
in addition to
in back of
in case of
in front of
in place of
inside
in spite of
instead of
into
like
near
next
of
off
on

onto
on top of
out
out of
outside
over
past
regarding
round
since
through
throughout
till
to
toward
under
underneath
unlike
until
up
upon
up to
with
within
without

STRANGE INVENTION

The family bike

WRITING ASSIGNMENT!

ASSIGNMENT

Write 2-3 paragraphs on the following writing prompt:

Design some gadget, machine, building, or other creation that might enrich the future. What does it look like? What does it do? How does it function? In what ways might it benefit people?

You may email me your paper or bring to class on

Saturday May 4, 2013

Have fun with this paper!

Glossary of Poetic Terms

Literary/Poetic Terms

allegory: a narration or description usually restricted to a single meaning because its events, actions, characters, settings, and objects represent specific abstractions or ideas.

alliteration: the repetition of the same consonant sounds at the beginnings of nearby words.

allusion: a brief reference to a person, place, thing, event, or idea in history or literature.

ballad: a song transmitted orally from generation to generation, that tells a story and that eventually is written down. Typically, ballads are dramatic, condensed, and impersonalnarratives.

ballad stanza: a four-line stanza, known as a quatrain, consisting of alternating eight-and six-syllable lines. Usually only the second and fourth lines rhyme (an abcb pattern).

foot: the metrical unit by which a line of poetry is measured. A foot usually consists of one stressed and one or two unstressed syllables.

metaphor: like a simile, makes a comparison between two unlike things, but does so implicitly, without words such as like or as.

meter: the rhythmic pattern of stresses recurring in a poem.

narrative poem: a poem that tells a story; may be short or very long.

simile: makes an explicit comparison between two things by using words such as like, as, than, appears, or seems.

tone: the author’s attitude toward the subject; the mood created by all the elements in the poem.

14th-17th Century Renaissance Period

ASSIGNMENT!

ASSIGNMENT!!

Write a 2-3 paragraph essay on the following writing prompt;

Imagine yourself in a different century and describe an average day in your life.

You may email your essay or it may be neatly hand written or typed.

The essay is due

Saturday April 27, 2013.

"The Highwayman"

Highwayman & Bess

ASSIGNMENT: PLEASE READ THIS POEM

The Highwayman

By Alfred Noyes

PART ONE

I

THE wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding—
Riding—riding—
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

II

He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

III

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

IV

And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—

V

'One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way.'

VI

He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet, black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonliglt, and galloped away to the West.

PART TWO

I

He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon;
And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
A red-coat troop came marching—
Marching—marching—
King George's men came matching, up to the old inn-door.

II

They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;
Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side!
There was death at every window;
And hell at one dark window;
For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.

III

They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
'Now, keep good watch!' and they kissed her.
She heard the dead man say—
Look for me by moonlight;
Watch for me by moonlight;
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!

IV

She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!

V

The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the rest!
Up, she stood up to attention, with the barrel beneath her breast,
She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain .

VI

Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clear;
Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The highwayman came riding,
Riding, riding!
The red-coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still!

VII

Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her death.

VIII

He turned; he spurred to the West; he did not know who stood
Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!
Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew grey to hear
How Bess, the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.

IX

Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.

X

And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
A highwayman comes riding—
Riding—riding—
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.

XI

Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard;
He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred;
He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

WILL HE MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE?

WHAT IS BEHIND THE DOORS?

ASSIGNMENT

ASSIGNMENT:

Write an ending to the story, “The Lady, or the Tiger?” You will write an alternate ending. The essay must be at least 2 paragraphs in length. Please either email me your paper or bring to class Saturday April 20, 2013

Have you ever thought that one day you will be faced with two doors and must choose one for your life?

You may start your essay using this topic sentence (hook), “Without the slightest hesitation, he went to the door on the right and opened it.” Or you may create your own.

ASSIGNMENT

ASSIGNMENT DUE SATURDAY

APRIL 20, 2013

In your own words, explain what happened in

"The Wreck of the Hesperus." Give examples

The Wreck of the Hesperus By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"The Wreck of the Hesperus"

It was the schooner Hesperus,

That sailed the wintry sea;

And the skipper had taken his little daughtèr,

To bear him company.

Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax,

Her cheeks like the dawn of day,

And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,

That ope in the month of May.

The skipper he stood beside the helm,

His pipe was in his mouth,

And he watched how the veering flaw did blow

The smoke now West, now South.

Then up and spake an old Sailòr,

Had sailed to the Spanish Main,

"I pray thee, put into yonder port,

For I fear a hurricane.

"Last night, the moon had a golden ring,

And to-night no moon we see!"

The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe,

And a scornful laugh laughed he.

Colder and louder blew the wind,

A gale from the Northeast,

The snow fell hissing in the brine,

And the billows frothed like yeast.

Down came the storm, and smote amain

The vessel in its strength;

She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,

Then leaped her cable's length.

"Come hither! come hither! my little daughtèr,

And do not tremble so;

For I can weather the roughest gale

That ever wind did blow."

He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat

Against the stinging blast;

He cut a rope from a broken spar,

And bound her to the mast.

"O father! I hear the church-bells ring,

Oh say, what may it be?"

"'T is a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!" —

And he steered for the open sea.

"O father! I hear the sound of guns,

Oh say, what may it be?"

"Some ship in distress, that cannot live

In such an angry sea!"

"O father! I see a gleaming light,

Oh say, what may it be?"

But the father answered never a word,

A frozen corpse was he.

Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,

With his face turned to the skies,

The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow

On his fixed and glassy eyes.

Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed

That savèd she might be;

And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave

On the Lake of Galilee.

And fast through the midnight dark and drear,

Through the whistling sleet and snow,

Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept

Tow'rds the reef of Norman's Woe.

And ever the fitful gusts between

A sound came from the land;

It was the sound of the trampling surf

On the rocks and the hard sea-sand.

The breakers were right beneath her bows,

She drifted a dreary wreck,

And a whooping billow swept the crew

Like icicles from her deck.

She struck where the white and fleecy waves

Looked soft as carded wool,

But the cruel rocks, they gored her side

Like the horns of an angry bull.

Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,

With the masts went by the board;

Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank,

Ho! ho! the breakers roared!

At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach,

A fisherman stood aghast,

To see the form of a maiden fair,

Lashed close to a drifting mast.

The salt sea was frozen on her breast,

The salt tears in her eyes;

And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed,

On the billows fall and rise.

Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,

In the midnight and the snow!

Christ save us all from a death like this,

On the reef of Norman's Woe!

HELFUL TIPS FOR THE ELA EXAM

Okay, but what does that mean??????

Well.......let's take a look at each word.

Constructed

Construction means to build something.......constructed means that something has been built.

Response

A response is an answer

Question

A question is an issue or inquiry that requires a response to it.

When you put them all together you get the idea that a CRQ is a type of question that you will have to build or create an answer for. We used to call this type of question a short answer question because you would need to write a short sentence or two in order to create the correct answer.

You will find that a CRQ will have some type of map, picture, graph, chart, diagram or other such visual that will require you to analyze information.

(remember - if you do not understand what the word in italics means - click on it and it will take you to the definition)

Let's look at how to answer a CRQ. You may notice that the first step is just like the first step for answering a multiple choice question - READ THE QUESTION CAREFULLY!! You may think it is silly to keep reminding you to do that - but, many mistakes are made NOT because you didn't know the information, but because you did not take the time to READ the question CAREFULLY and therefore made a silly mistake - but - it was still counted as a mistake!

ASSIGNMENT!

ASSIGNMENT!!

Please neatly write a 3 paragraph essay on loose leaf paper. Due Saturday April 13, 2013. Please bring to class with you.

“What would you do if 300 mice had just gotten out of their cages in a pet shop where you worked?”

ASSIGNMENT

Short Response Questions

ASSIGNMENT!

Please use the RACE method to answer the following questions.

Please write out the questions neatly on loose leaf paper.

Please bring to class Saturday April 13, 2013

1. Did the princess like the lady who had been chosen for her lover’s trial? Give reasons

2. How did the princess indicate to her lover the door of her choice?

3. What did the princess see in her dreams?

RACE

Writing a GREAT Short Answer Response Using Evidence

Why use this: Using the RACE Method will help you to focus your response in a clear and concise manner. It is not enough to simply answer the question.

Readers and graders are looking for:

o evidence that you understand

o analysis (thinking)

o support for your answer with

evidence from the readings

o clarity

Your space for answering is limited, so clear, concise answers with appropriate textual evidence will receive the best scores. Concise* does NOT just mean short.

According to dictionary.com

*Concise: adjective expressing or covering much in few words; brief in form but comprehensive in scope.

Reflect

By looking at the lady and the tigers eyes; what do you believe they are thinking?

Short Story

The Lady, or the Tiger?

Helpful Tools

Merriam-Webster Thesaurus
Oxford Dictionaries
Quizlet

My contact Information

Please reach out if you have any questions, concerns or comments.

Thanks Ms. West

Email: wm0766@gmail.com

Cell phone: 214-497-0378

Conjuctions

You can use a conjunction to link words, phrases, and clauses.

Understand how to form a prepositional phrase.

Prepositions generally introduce prepositional phrases.Prepositional phrases look like this:

preposition+ optionalmodifiers +noun, pronoun, or gerund

"The Wreck of the Hesperus"

Captain and his Daughter

"The Wreck of the Hesperus"

A few of the "actual stories" regarding the origin of this poem.

After the horrific wrecking of the schooner Hesperus on the reef of Norman's Woe, off Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1839, Longfellow was inspired to write one of his best-known poems. One of the bodies washed ashore was, in fact, lashed to a spar. This gave the poet his theme.

The real Hesperus was docked when it was hit by such strong winds that it sailed across the street into the third story of a building. Longfellow had read about the 20 odd shipwrecks from this storm but couldn't get the picture of a woman tied to a mast washed up on shore out of his head. This prompted him to write the poem although he changed the victim from a 45 year old woman to a young girl.

The actual Hesperus was a 3-mast coastal schooner docked at Boston's Long Wharf at the time of the hurricane. The wreck from which the morbid details were obtained was actually the brig Favorite, wrecked on the Norman's Woe rocks just outside of Gloucester Harbor, Massachusetts. The Favorite was indeed a total loss with all on board, including a female.

Apparently, there was a ship named "Herperus." But that's not the one that Longfellow immortalized. His poem is "The Wreck of the Hesperus" (note the "s" in the middle, not the "r").

The Great Blizzards of 1839 inspired the great American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to write The Wreck of the Hesperus

On December 17, 1839 a disastrous storm hit the Atlantic coast, from Boston to Gloucester harbor. Seventeen schooners were wrecked and 40 lives were lost. Unable to sleep after reading the news in the Boston Post, Longfellow sat up one night long after midnight and composed the poem effortlessly.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, based his ballad, "The Wreck of the Hesperus," on the destruction of the Helen Eliza, which crashed off Peaks Island's shore in 1869.

DID THE TIGER COME OUT OF THAT DOOR OR DID THE LADY?

THIS IS A MATTER OF THE HEART

QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD KNOW

1. If this court had a third door and the suspect opened it, the result would probably be ____________________ .
a: bad
b: good
c: neither good nor bad
d: result in the death of the suspect

2. The princess doesn't want the commoner to be eaten by the tiger, but she also hates the idea of ___________________________ .
a: the commoner marrying the lady
b: saving the commoner's life
c: pleasing her father, the king
d: giving up her jealous rage

3. In this kingdom, a commoner is ____________________________ .
a: a criminal
b: a person without royal blood
c: a person who works on a farm
d: a person who is not intelligent

4. The princess will be unhappy if the commoner chooses _____________ .
a: the right door
b: the left door
c: either door
d: the middle door

5. The princess is ____________________________ .
a: the lady's best friend
b: the same person as the lady
c: jealous of the lady
d: certain the tiger won't hurt the commoner

REFLECT

Now that you have looked at some types of questions that you may be asked as part of a CRQ, let's review what we have learned.

READ the question carefully.
Ask yourself - is the answer right there in the reading passage?
Ask yourself - do I need to put the clues together to make an inference about something that I read?
Remember, many times you will be asked to connect things that you already know to the material that is contained in the CRQ.
Most important - keep in mind that a CRQ is not out to trick you - but it does expect you to READ carefully, think about what the question is asking you to find out and then find your answer!

WORK-WORK-WORK!

1. READ the question carefully! Many students rush through this part and end up not understanding what the question is really asking you to do.

READ! READ! READ! READ!

Even though this is a timed test - you will waste more time by not READING the question carefully. This is VERY IMPORTANT!

Look at the question below. Read it carefully. What is it asking you to do? What are the most important parts of this question?

Base your answers to questions 1-3 on the words of the song below and on your knowledge of social studies.

The Star Spangled Banner

Oh, say can you see,
by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed
at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars,
through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched,
were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare,
the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night
that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free
and the home of the brave?

by Francis Scott Key
September 20, 1814

1. According to this song, what is being talked about?
________________________________________

2. What was going on during the night?
________________________________________

3. Why was it important that the flag was still there?
________________________________________

If you noticed, each question was a little more difficult to answer. Let's find out more about them!

Question number 1's answer could be found directly in the passage. All you needed to do was read carefully.

Gave proof through the night
that our flag was still there.

This type of questions is called a literal question because the answer is right there in the passage. All you need to do is read carefully to find it.

RACE

RACE

Writing a GREAT Short Answer Response!

1.Restate the question asked

2. Answer (main idea)

3. Cite evidence from the text

4. Explain and Elaborate on your answer and the evidence

Cite evidence from the text means to return to the reading and find at least one quote, direct or indirect, which supports your answer. Direct quotes are often better and having both is best!

Direct Quote- A direct quote is a quote in which you copy an author's words directly - word for word. Direct quotes will be surrounded by quotation marks.

Example: "I couldn't laugh; I couldn't applaud; it filled me with bitterness to have others do it and to have people make a hero of Hicks and the people around him" (659).

Indirect Quote - An indirect quote is a quote in which you paraphrase - put into your own words - what the author is saying.

Example: Twain was unable to laugh or applaud, because he was so angry that Hicks could be mesmerized and he could not (659).

A good response will carefully analyze the text, offer textual evidence from the piece or pieces that will directly support your answer and will explain how this evidence supports your answer.

Explain and Elaborate -- Do not just say something is true, prove it. Show how the evidence supports the answer; supply reasons your answer is correct. In many cases, the difference between an A and a B as a grade is due to the effective use of supporting evidence.

ASSIGNMENT

Short Response Questions

ASSIGNMENT!

Please use the RACE method to answer the following questions.

Please write out the questions neatly on loose leaf paper.

Please bring to class Saturday April 13, 2013

1. What type of man was the King?

2. What was the arena used for?

3. How would you describe the arena?

ASSIGNMENT

TEST ON SATURDAY

APRIL 13, 2013

ASSIGNMENT!!

Please study Vocabulary SET 2 words and means from the short story

"The Lady, or the Tiger?"

All words and their meanings are on the Quizlet website.

www.quizlet.com

user name: sisaturday

password: happyland

The Lady, or the Tiger?

Who will it be?

Word of the Day

SuperKids Vocabulary Builder - 6th to 9th Grade

News and Online Newspapers

Here There Everwhere
Science News for Kids
CNN
New York Times

A LIST OF CONJUNCTIONS

Coordinating Conjunctions:

And Or But Nor So For Yet

Subordinating Conjunctions:

after
although
as
as if
as long as
as though
because
before
even if
even though

if
if only
in order that
now that
once
rather than
since
so that
than
that

though
till
unless
until
when
whenever
where
whereas
wherever
while

Prepositional phrase examples

After the killer calculus test

After = preposition; the, killer, calculus = modifiers; test = noun.

As a good parent

As = preposition; a, good = modifiers; parent = noun.

Before dinner

Before = preposition; dinner = noun.

Since the breakup

Since = preposition; the = modifier; breakup = noun.

Until midnight

Until = preposition; midnight = noun.

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