Thursday, October 28, 2010

Hero Paragraphs

You will write 2 paragraphs for this assignment.

In the first paragraph, you will describe the prototypical hero at the beginning of Fantasy stories. Describe the traits and attributes commonly seen in Fantasy heroes. Describe the heroes’ physical attributes, personalities, home lives, interests, demeanors, and anything else that you think is important in relation to this topic. With this paragraph, you are creating a composite picture of a Fantasy hero. You are not describing any single character. Draw on your knowledge of Fantasy literature for this paragraph.

For the second paragraph, choose a hero character from a Fantasy book you have read (if it’s from a series, you must choose the first book), and explain whether or not you feel the character fits the hero prototype you outlined above. Use the specific criteria from your first paragraph in making your decision. In this second paragraph, describe specific examples from the book in explaining whether or not the hero fits the criteria.

Underline all book titles.

Paragraphs may be typed or hand-written (if typed, use size 14 font and 1.5-line spacing).
Due Tuesday, November 2. You will have class time on Monday, November 1 for writing, proofreading, revising.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Quiz Bowl Questions

4 Questions total.

May be typed or hand-written.

Questions should be somewhat challenging, but it should be possible to guess an answer. Questions about obscure facts will not get full credit.

Include answers. Answers may not be numbers or dates. They may not be multiple choice, true/false, or yes/no.

You must write one question for each of the following categories:
1. Geography
2. Science
3. Popular Culture
4. Pot Pourri

Questions must come from original research. You may not borrow a trivia question someone else has written and claim it as your own.

Due Wednesday, October 27, in Language Arts class.

Geo Quiz #12: Eastern U.S. States

Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia.

This quiz will be worth 15 points.

Geo Quiz #11: Eastern Europe

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Black Sea.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

New Library Shelf

I have created a new shelf in the Library called 'Adolescents.' This shelf will feature books about young people and various topics related to them. The shelf is intended for Nova parents and Nova faculty and staff. It is currently just a small shelf, but it will grow over time. Parents who would like to check out books from the shelf can either check out the books under their students' names or parents can e-mail me and I will enter their names into our library check-out database. Parents, please give the shelf a look during Conference Week. It is located next to the Chick Lit shelf and above the Shonen Jump magazines.

If you have a book that you think would be appropriate for the shelf and would like to donate it to our library, please don't hesitate to do so. I will also be creating a notebook for articles; if you have an article you think I should archive and keep in the notebook please send it my way. Thanks!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

LIbrary Wishlist Updated

Nova students read a lot of books. I am continually adding new books in all genres to our collection. We always appreciate donations of books to our library. I maintain a list of the books we would most like to add to our collection. Feel free to look over the list, and any books or groupings of books you might like to donate would most appreciated. You are also welcome to donate books from your personal library that you think might fit the needs of our library. If we don't actually need some of the books that you donate, we will either trade them in to Orca Books or Powell's in Portland or we will save them for the annual Nova Book Swap.

The updated wishlist is here.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Geo Quiz #10: Central U.S. Cities

Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Kansas City, St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Little Rock.

Photo of downtown Des Moines, Iowa, from Wikimedia Commons.

Geo Quiz #9: Southeastern Europe

Plates 23 & 24

Italy, Vatican City, San Marino, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia.

Photo of San Marino Castle from Wikimedia Commons.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

More Latitude and Longitude


We continued working on Latitude and Longitude in class today and started this handout. Remember Stump the Chump #2 is tomorrow!

Spelling Quiz #1

Quiz will cover spelling, definition, and part of speech.

The words: definitely, recommend, environment, exciting, weird, author, extremely, government, different, innocence, awkward, careful, sufficient, necessary, efficiency.

Thursday, October 14.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Latitude & Longitude

Today we had an introduction to Latitude and Longitude.

The Latitude handout is here.

The Longitude handout is here.

Latitude diagram from Wikimedia Commons.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Realistic Fiction Stories

You get to write a piece of Realistic Fiction. This assignment will be pretty open-ended. The most important thing is that your story feel realistic. You can base your story on an event which you experienced. You don’t have to base your story on actual events, however. Your story must include the following conventions which distinguish Realistic Fiction from other genres:

1. Plausible story.
2. Terrestrial setting
3. Clear protagonist
4. Protagonist must face hardship, challenge, or problem
5. Story must have a resolution
6. Protagonist must experience growth or learn a lesson
7. Protagonist must experience emotion

In addition, your story must contain the following elements:

1. At least one additional significant character.
2. Dialogue.
3. Protagonist must be middle school-aged.
4. Story must be set in the modern day.
5. Narration in the first person.
6. Tense must be past tense.
7. Description of the characters, setting, and events.
8. Topic must be different than in previous assignment.

Guidelines:

1. Typed or hand-written. Typed must be 1.5-line spaced, Calibri or Times New Roman, size 13 font.
2. Length 5-6 pages.
3. Include Title and Heading.

First 3 pages due Wednesday, October 13.
Completed story due Wednesday, October 20.

Geo Quiz #8: Central U.S.

Plates 9 & 10

Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas.

Photo of Kenosha, Wisconsin, barn from Wikimedia Commons.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Geo Quiz #7: Central Europe

Plate 22.

Countries: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Liechtenstein.
Capitals: Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Budapest, Warsaw, Bratislava, Bern.

Map of Central Europe.

Photo of Frauenkirche, Munich, Germany from Wikimedia Commons.