Staff Meeting #2 -- August 13th

I've been derelict in my blogging duty, and have yet to update the minutes from last week. So, here's a recap of what we did last week.

Roll Call:
* Murray, Jermaine, Britt
* Lesley, Joel, Mia, Marty

Final Exams
We decided that we are going to institute final exams for 9th and 10th grade. These exams will constitute 20-25% of the fourth quarter average (instead of a 5th "quarterly" grade).

English I - Listening (Task I) and Critical Lens (Task IV)
English II - Factual Reading (Task II) and Controlling Idea (Task III)

We'll have to modify the exam for Language!, and that's something we can talk about during the year.

More importantly, we reviewed the 9th grade NYS ELA performance indicators to determine which pieces 9th grade students will work on for their portfolios.

Here we go:

• Process Essay Analysis
• Research Paper - Factual research paper related to another subject area...possibly related to historical period.
• Controlling Idea Essay - There are PI's related to the controlling idea, but we will probably push this into the 10th grade year.
• Personal Response Paper - Students will write a personal narrative or memoir related to a novel. In other words, they will identify a situation or theme or setting related to the novel and compose their own original work.
• Compare and Contrast Film to Play - You get it.
• Critical Lens Essay
  

So, there is a working draft. We need to talk about poetic forms and also get input from the rest of the department.