"Too much work!"

I tried a warm-up exercise with the 9th graders today: combining two small sentences into one. I used an overhead, read the directions with samples, and did the first one with them. I reviewed the literary terms and added 5 more. I gave them a parts of speech handout called, "Mister E an Miss Steaks." It is a paragraph of words that a "pea see" would "knot" correct if they used a spell "chequer." Some found it fun while others thought it was hard. We started reading "A Christmas Memory" aloud and I had them write about their most vivid Christmas memory they could remember.

I reviewed again, the elements of a story with "Broken Chain" with the 8th grade class. We discussed the events in the story that led up to the climax. I had them answer two of the discussion questions at the end of the story. Using the Holt grammar textbook, we discussed compound nouns. I was told by one of the students that she didn't know what a noun or verb was. So I went through a quick lesson on the two terms and will create a plan for them tomorrow, adding prepositions too. I had them create 5 sentences using the vocabulary from "Broken Chain," and then had them write a letter as if they were the main character, Alfonso, asking for advice to deal with his situations.