Learning Community: Speaking and Listening Skills

Hello Sophomores:
One of the most important skills you will learn and practice in high school is communication through speaking in front of and listening to your peers.  In order to practice this in class, we must agree upon some norms:

NORMS for Participation in the Classroom

Here are my suggestions, originated from my observation of classrooms that have modeled this skill at a high level.

When someone else is speaking (front of the classroom/acknowledged at desk), the rest of us will:

• LISTEN - note how LISTEN has the same letters as SILENT
• L - LOOK at speaker - LOOK interested
• I - INVOLVE self by getting INFORMED
• S - SIT UP - STAY FOCUSED - offer SAFE environment
• T - TEST understanding - jot questions
• E - EVALUTE message - jot summaries
• N - NOD - please refrain from cheers,  jeers, claps, snaps, taps - other noise makers
• PARTICIPATION POINTS - 5 per discussion
• Speaking 2
• Listening 2 and Respect 1
• ACADEMIC CONVERSATION Guidelines to be discussed and practiced soon, i.e., How do we respectfully AGREE-DISAGREE-ADD-CLARIFY-QUESTION-SUMMARIZE ?                                                                                 

August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains

Revision and Editing Checklist for Your Writing Pleasure

Revision and Editing Checklist

First Six Weeks Completed

Hello Students,
I hope you enjoyed your long weekend and that you are ready to dig in to our next unit, a short story unit. We will be reading several stories in your Blue Lit Book.  To begin we will listen to a thriller by Edgar Allen Poe - The Pit and the Pendulum.  You will want to share this story with your families, a tale that is certainly appropriate for this time of year with Halloween and The Day of the Dead approaching.

Be sure to use this BLOG to review lessons, to access make up work and journal entries if you miss  (see right hand side bar) and to find extension activities, GOOGLE CLASSROOM codes and other year long documents (left hand side bar). 

Congratulations on a successful first six weeks.

Mrs. Rands

Journal Entries 6-10

Hello Sophomores,
I have been enjoying my conferences with you although the not so quiet/silent reading of your peers has been an obstacle to my efficiency.  Please remember to be considerate,and to respect and honor the time of your classmates.  If you are all done with your work and don't have an outside book to read, please find a different academic endeavor that doesn't involve verbal exchanges with your friends.

If you missed the quiz on Monday, make it up by writing me a one paragraph summary of chapter 8.  It should be 5-7 sentences in length. Use your best penmanship, please.

These are the journal entries you should have for #6-#10.  If you are missing something, see the journal entries listed and itemized on the right hand lower side bar.

#6 - dialectical journal for chapter 4
#7 - nine questions to answer for chapter 5
#8 - three questions that you create for your peers from chapter 6 - have someone answer them for you as well.
#9 - summarize chapter 7 in one paragraph to equal 6-7 sentences
#10 - find evidence of events that lead to a death on the island.  Include at least one example for each of the following characters - what they do, say, or think.  Maybe how they look as well.
Simon
Ralph
Piggy
Jack
Note the weather.  How does it foreshadow the major event at the end of the chapter?