Cimarron Middle School

I do have one other piece of information to share. On Tuesday, March 2, I will be having major foot surgery and will not be back in the classroom until after Spring Break. I have a long-term substitute filling in for me, a man many of the students already know, Mr. Johnson. There should be no break in the continuity of material covered and students will have the same expectations from the substitute as they do from me.

Week of February 22 - 26

This week, students read two selections from their literature books.

The selections were a short story entitle "The Treasure of Lemon Brown" and a series of three short articles called "Blues: A National Treasure."

On Friday, students took an open book quiz over the two selections.

Week of February 15 - 19

This week, all English classes wrote an expository essay. Students were given a choice of 4 topics from which to choose. Criteria and requirements for the essays were given to each student to use as a guide. A short quiz was given to be sure the essay had all required elements: figurative language like similes and metaphors; verbals like infinitives and gerunds; sentence variety; and sentences beginning with prepositional phrases. Students are also accountable for including good transitions from one idea to another.

5th, 6th & 7th hours will turn their essays in today, Friday.

3rd & 4th hours will turn their essays in on Monday.

Next week, we will focus on select short stories in the literature book.

On Monday, we will do a book check for all students so be sure your student has all textbooks checked out to him/her at school on Monday.

Week of February 8 - 12

Monday - Review of bibliographies and works cited pages in a research report.

Tuesday - Benchmark Test - Essay -

Wednesday - Test Review

Thursday - Benchmark Test - multiple choice test

Friday - continue work on essays

Week of February 1 - 5

Since we were not even in school Monday and Tuesday, we did not do our usual daily warm-ups.

Students turned in the rough draft of their Expository Essays. There are many different kinds of expository essays: character analysis, compare and contrast, explanatory, informative. Students wrote a character analysis essay over the character of Harriet Tubman. Before writing the essay, students read a selection in the literature book about Tubman then responded to the literature with an essay.

We also discussed a compare and contrast essay and the use of a Venn diagram to organize and plan that type of writing.

Week of Jan. 19 - 22

Warm-Ups - warm-ups this week were composed of 2 sentences that were to be combined into one longer sentence using prescribed methods. Students had to combine the sentences using dependent clauses, semicolons and conjunctive adverbs, participial phrases, and interrupters.

All students read an excerpt from President Barack Obama's book, Dreams From My Father which was in our literature book.

Thursday, we began discussing Expository Essays and their types and components.

Friday, after taking our regular Friday quiz, students read "Harriet Tubman," a short story on page 260 in the literature book. Next week, we will be writing a character analysis expository essay over the character Harriet Tubman.

Pre-AP students must finish reading Once and Future King over the weekend because it is due back in the media center on Monday.

Have a great weekend.

English - Jan. 11 - 15

Warm-Ups this week will focus on Sentence Composing. Every day students will be given a sentence to analyze. They are to label each word in the sentence. Once they have established the sentence pattern, they are to compose a sentence of their own which uses the exact same pattern.

Ex. When you are in the country, you can see the stars more clearly.

The sentence pattern is:

Subordinate Conj.>subj>verb>prepositional phrase>subject>verb>direct object>adverb>adverb.

Now that you know this sentence pattern, the student must compose his/her own sentence using the exact same pattern, not the same words, the same pattern.

Pre-AP students MUST continue reading in their novel Once and Future King. Many students seem to be falling behind, and the book must be completed by Monday, January 25. All students should be on at least page 400 at this point. By the end of the week, they should be on 470.

Also this week, all students will be reading the short story "The Lady and the Tiger" in the student literature book. After reading the story, the students will prepare a writing assignment.

Friday Quiz this week will focus on VERBALS - gerunds, participles and infinitives. Information about these can be found in the Write Source book on pages 730 - 731. It is essential that students know the 5 ways a noun can be used in a sentence because both gerunds and infinitives can function as nouns. The 5 ways nouns are used in a sentence are: subject, direct object, predicate noun, indirect object, and object of preposition. Information on these topics can be found in the Write Sourcwe book on pages 692, 704, and 742 as well as on the hot pink handout sheet entitled "Edmond Grammar Guide."

Our team is following a new time schedule as of today. We do not go to lunch until 12:38 so a good breakfast is in order. Our 6th period class is now a split period.

January 4 - 8

Warm-Ups this week cover VERBALS: Gerunds, Infinitives and Participles. It is essential for students to understand how verbals are formed and how they are used in sentences. For a review of verbals, read page730 and 731 in the English text Write Source. There is also information on page 485 or that same book, and on the hot pink sheet of paper given to each student entitle "Edmond Grammar Guide." Students must be able to identify the 5 uses of a noun in a sentence: subject, direct object, predicate noun, object of preposition, and indirect object.

Pre-AP Classes - Continue reading in the novel Once and Future King. Your student should be at least to page 400 if he/she is to finish by Monday, January 25.

Regular Classes - Continue working with VERBALS.

Week of December 7 - 11

This week, students learned the format for writing a formal persuasive essay which was followed by actually writing a persuasive essay. Students were assigned topics ranging from "The school day should be lengthened by one hour" to "We should have year round school" and "The age to get a driver's license should be raised to 21." These essays were due on Friday, December 11.

Friday, Regular English classes read the play "The Hitchhiker" on page 88 in the literature book.

On Monday, December 7, Pre-AP students checked out the novel Once and Future King. It is a long novel, and it is imperative for the students to keep up with their reading. It is very easy to get behind on this novel. Reading about 13 pages a day will complete the book by its due date of January 25. Most reading is to be done outside of class. By Monday, December 14, students should have read AT LEAST the first one hundred pages.

Next week, we will have the English semester test on Thursday. It will be an essay, and it will be in persuasive format. Each student has a copy of the requirements for this essay.

Week of November 30 - December 1

Monday - Wednesday we spent reviewing pronoun usage, semicolons without conjunctive adverbs and semicolons with conjunctive adverbs, subject / verb agreement, and parallelisms in preparation for Benchmark II on Thursday.

We have also been reading a magazine article entitled "The Story of an Eye Witness" on page 398 of the student literature book. It is an eye witness account of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco and is written by Jack London. Following the reading of that eye witness article, we will read "Leaving Desire" on page 405 about the evacuation of New Orleans before and during Hurricane Katrina. We will do follow- up comparisons of the two writers' style of writing and eye witness accounts.

Week of November November 9 - 13

In our Daily Warm-Ups this week, we are working on Pronouns. Students will need to memorize the Objective and Nominative Case Pronouns for their Friday quiz. On the quiz, they will need to correct pronouns that are used incorrectly in sentences as well as choose the correct pronoun from choices given. Students need to know how the pronoun is used in the sentence ( subject, direct object, indirect object, predicate pronoun, or object of preposition ) as well as the case (nominative, objective, or possessive ). This information can be found on pages 706 - 717 in the Write Source textbook checked out to your student.

We finish the short story "Flowers for Algernon" on Tuesday and take the test over it on Wednesday.

Thursday and Friday will be spent studying poetry and the TPCASTT method of poetry analysis.

We will be using the poems "Identity" by Julio Noboa on page 601 and "One More Round" by Maya Angelou on page 626 in the student literature book. Both poems are strong in imagery and word choice.

Week of November2-6.

In our Daily Warm-Ups this week, we will be working on identifying prepositional phrases and determining whether or not they are used as adjectives or adverbs.

There will be NO Friday Quiz this week because we will not be in school on Friday.

During the rest of class, we will be reading the short story "Flowers forAlgernon" by Daniel Keyes.

This story is found in the student literature book. There will be accompanying written assignments for the story.

Highest Degree:

Bachelor's/OSU

Job Experiences/Career History:

28 years teaching 5th grade at Edmond's Elementary School "Will Rogers"

9 years teaching 8th grade English at Cimarron Middle School

About Me:

I have been married for 36 years to the same wonderful man, a biology teacher at Edmond Memorial, and we have a 25 year old daughter who is also a teacher. She was married December 27, 2008, to, guess what, another teacher!!!!!

One of the great loves of my life is my sweet little horse Blue. Fifty plus years of riding horses has left me with two bad knees and two surgeries, so I do not ride as much as I used to, but it is still my great joy in life.

Hobbies/Interests:

Sports, Reading, Horses, riding my horse Blue, reading

Favorite Quote:

While I breathe, I hope

Favorite Music:

Country - anything by the king - George Strait

email:

Chris.Graham@edmondschools.net

phone: 715-6304

Non-Discrimination I Login