Wednesday

1. We continued reviewing nouns and verbs today by using a "noun test" to help determine if a word is a noun. We asked three questions: 1) is it a person, place, or thing? 2) can you put the word "the" in front of it? 3) can you own it?

2. We reviewed primary sources (a first hand account created during the time of an event) and discussed secondary sources (sources that aren't first hand or from the time of the event).

3. We reviewed how to annotate nonfiction text: 1) read small chunks at a time 2) highlight important names, dates, settings, events 3) make connections to other texts/events we know about 4) identify any unknown words or phrases and use either context clues or a reference (dictionary or internet) to define them 5) in only a few words, very briefly summarize the big ideas of each section.

4. We began annotating a history article by Howard Zinn titled "Tyranny is Tyranny" about the beginnings of the Revolutionary War. We worked with partners. Most of us did not finish the article in class, so the assignment is to continue working on the article independently. Tomorrow, we will take time to review our annotations and make sure we all grasped the big ideas of the article.

5. Things to look for as you annotate: 1) three things that you found shocking or interesting 2) two text connections to our novel, Chains 3) two examples of primary sources that Zinn references in his chapter.

6. click here for today's notes