Mr. Hall's English Class - Announcements

Week 26 (Mar. 1–5)

3/1/2021

I'm assigning 200 points this week.
By the end of this week, you need a total of 3,750 points.

Week 25 (Feb. 22–26)

2/22/2021

I'm assigning 200 points this week.
By the end of this week, you need a total of 3,550 points.
This is the last week of the grading period!

New!

The final three grammar units are now available. (Levels 10, 11, and 12)

Week 24 (Feb. 16–19)

2/16/2021

I'm assigning 100 points this week.
By the end of this week, you need a total of 3,350 points.
If you haven't yet taken the Reading Inventory test, take it today!
There are only two week left to the 2nd trimester!

Week 23 (Feb. 8–11)

2/8/2021

I'm assigning 100 points this week.
By the end of this week, you need a total of 3,250 points.
If you haven't yet taken the Reading Inventory test, take it today!
There are only three week left to the 2nd trimester!

Week 22 (Feb. 1–5)

2/1/2021

Thursday Update!

Do you know how to submit your portfolio? (If you're not sure, ask me!)
If you haven't yet taken the RI test, please take the test today! (Stay in the meeting until you have finished taking the test.)
If you have taken the test, and you want me to send you your lexile score, please send me an email:

Hi Mr. Hall,

Could you please send me my lexile score?

I am in your 2nd period class.

Thank you.

Your Name

Grades Update

For students who have websites (Weeblies):

I discovered a glitch in the program that I was using to count words on your website. (I was using Weglot, but I don't like Weglot anymore).
I'm now using a different program to count the words on your website.
I regraded everyone's website.
For most students, this did not affect your portfolio grade significantly.
For a few students, your portfolio grade may have gone up or down a few hundred points.
If you have a question about your grade, please stay in the meeting and talk to me.

This Week

I'm assigning 100 points this week.
By the end of this week, you need a total of 3,150 points.
The reason that I'm only assigning 100 points is this week is that you need to take the Reading Inventory test today!
You can find the link to the Reading Inventory in the bottom-right corner of the splash page. If you have trouble finding the test, let me know!
Does anyone want an appointment for Wednesday morning of this week?

Week 21 (Jan. 25–29)

1/25/2021

I'm assigning 200 points this week.
By the end of this week, you need a total of 3,050 points.
Check your email. (I sent an email to some of you over the weekend).
Your goal for this week: Clean up your email inbox!
If you're getting too many unwanted emails, turn off some of the notifications in Google Classroom.
Don't forget: I'm available nearly every day at 2:30 (teacher office hours). Send me an email if you'd like to drop by.

Week 20 (Jan. 19–22)

1/16/2021

I'm assigning only 100 points this week.
By the end of this week, you need a total of 2,850 points.
Please note the following schedule for this week:

Week 19 (Dec. 11–15)

1/8/2021

This Week

I'm assigning only 100 points this week.
The reason I'm only assigning 100 points is because I'm going to spend today talking.
By the end of this week, you need a total of 2,750 points.

New Expectations Regarding Writing Portfolios!

First, I'm changing the way I use certain terms:
When I say "Writing Portfolio", I'm referring to the one place where you're going to keep all your written work.
Every student should have a writing portfolio. It can either be a Weebly, or it can be a Google Doc.
If you currently have a Google-Doc Portfolio, and you want to change it to a Weebly Portfolio, let me know.
If I use the term "blog" or "blog post", I'm referring to a short piece of personal writing, typically about two paragraphs long. And we're going to call it a blog post, regardless of whether you post it on your Weebly or you put it into your Google-Doc Portfolio.

Tweaks to the System

Before, all the units could be found on the Belt Levels page.
Now, I have separated out the "Writing Units" from the other units, and I have put the "Writing Units" on a separate page called Writing Portfolios. (By "Writing Units", I mean units which culminate in a writing assignment).
To be clear: From now on, some units (Grammar, Reading, Writing Skills, Vocabulary, etc.) will still be found on the Belt Levels page, but other units (Blog, Short Story, Essay Writing, etc.) can now be found on the Writing Portfolios page.
The units on the Belt Levels page should be done in order.
The units on the Writing Levels page can be done in any order.
To "graduate" from one belt level to another, you need to meet the writing requirements. In other words, your Writing Portfolio should have the required number of words.
This means that some of you may have to spend more time on your Writing Portfolio. For example, if you're working on purple lessons, but your Writing Portfolio has only 100 words in it, then obviously, you're not getting a good "balance" of skills. To fix this problem—to get back in balance—you should spend some time beefing up your Writing Portfolio, before you continue with the sequence of purple level lessons.

Think about Your Goals for This Year

In an ideal world, you would get to June 2nd, and you would have:

Black Belt in English
A Writing Portfolio with at least 3,000 Words
Your Writing Portfolio would have at least "one of everything."

In a "pretty darn good" world, you will get to the end of the year and you will have:

A Black Belt in English.
A Writing Portfolio with at least 3,000 words—of something (anything) that you're proud of.

In a "good enough" world, you will get to the end of the year, and

You won't have a Black Belt.
Your portfolio will have less than 3,000 words.
But you will be a darn good typist.

In a horrible world, you'll get to the end of the year, and

You will still be typing with just a few fingers, looking down at the keyboard while you type, with all your same old bad habits.
That would be a tragedy!

My Role

My goal is to help you stay on track.
When I meet with you, I'll be asking you these questions:

How is your typing going? Can you type basic sentences without looking at the keyboard?
What's your grade? Are you keeping up with your points?
Let's look at your Writing Portfolio. I want to help you clean it up.

If you're not keeping up with your points, or if you want extra help—it's your job to contact me. Send me an email.
If I don't hear from you, I'm going to assume that you're meeting your goals for this year.
If you're at the "end of the alphabet", remember that you can jump the line by coming to office hours.
Please let me know if you find any broken links!

Week 18 (Jan. 5–8)

1/5/2021

Welcome back!
Happy New Year!
Here is our schedule for this week:

Grades

I updated grades this last Saturday.
Don't forget to check your Quia homepage.

Check for teacher comments.
See where you left off.

This Week

I'm assigning 150 points this week.
By the end of this week, you need a total of 2,650 points.
I will not be using the "Help List" any more. Instead, I'll be calling students in alphabetical order (by first name).
My goal is to talk to each of you for 10–15 minutes.
I should be able to meet with about five students per class period.
If you want extra help, please drop by my Zoom meeting room during office hours, or send me an email so that we can arrange a time.

Other Stuff

I did add a few more units during the break:

Advanced Writing Skills (Gray Level)
Essay Writing
Grammar 9: Phrases
Advanced Storytelling (Optional)

Let's take a moment to experiment with Zoom breakout rooms.