Watch an old BBC television version of "The Landlady"

BEFORE YOU WATCH THIS . . . be aware that screenwriters who adapt stories to television always make changes in the story.  You will notice that the screenwriters of this 24-minute TV production of "The Landlady" are not content to let the story end the way Raoul Dahl ends it.  They choose to supply an ending that Dahl never wrote.

What we did on Tuesday, Dec. 9, and Wednesday, Dec. 10

If you weren't able to be with us on Tuesday, December 9, here's what we did:

TUESDAY
Listened to an actor read Raoul Dahl's short story "The Landlady" as we read along silently with our own copies.  Here's what you need to catch up.

A copy of the story which can be found by PRESSING HERE.

A recording of the actor reading the story, which can be found in four parts as follows:

• Part 1 - http://bit.ly/1ByjJek
• Part 2 - http://bit.ly/1AeRP30
• Part 3 - http://goo.gl/R5iI3B
• Part 4 - http://goo.gl/wrvh5C

WEDNESDAY

Worked in groups to analyze "The Landlady."  If you were not here, you are still responsible for doing the assignment, which can be found on Google Classroom: http://bit.ly/1GiYpaX

Hour of Code - Monday, Dec. 8

What is the Hour of Code? For all grade levels, no experience needed  It’s a one-hour intro to computer science for all ages– on a browser, smartphone, or even “unplugged”.

All of the tutorials require no prior code and programming experience.

When:  During Computer Science Week, December 8th-14th! Our focus will be on Monday for the big push.

Where: Anywhere...but more specifically… Bumpus is asking for one teacher on each team (teams choose) to shift their instruction plans for Monday, December 8th & facilitate the Hour of Code in their classes. Videos, resources, tools, and at least one student helper will be in every room to help assist teachers and students on their Hour of Code. All other classes on Monday will not be affected.

Elective teachers are asked to allow students one day of their choosing (Tuesday through Friday) during the week for students to work on the HoC so students will have it completed by the end of the week.

Why: To introduce students to coding . . . this is the future, basic Computational Thinking awareness.

The programming that students will engage in will meet technology objectives and literacy standards every subject has to cover. Of course this is a natural fit into STEM. More information is here if you are interested.

Handout from Code.org with much more information for your reading pleasure! Click Here

What: You will learn to code and possibly win a prize for participating!

How: Following the instructions below.

1. Choose at least one tutorial below. Tutorials are to follow from csedweek.org:

     Blockly or Drag & Drop Types of Tutorials:

If you have never done any coding start here Write Your First Computer Program from Code.org

Build Your Own Game In Tynker from Tynker.com - Choose your grade level - 5th-8th Grade

Create a Holiday Card with Scratch from Scratch.mit.edu

Make & Customize Your Own Flappy Bird game from Code.org

Program a Virtual Robot from RobomindAcademy.com

    2.  Writing Code Tutorials that Teach JavaScript for Web Design:

Introduction to JavaScript with Khan Academy

Introduction to Webpages in the Hour of Webpages with Khan Academy

Introduction to Game Development - with CodeAvengers.com

Learn JavaScript in this HTML 5 web game for complete beginners - with CodeCombat.com

Animate Your Name in JavaScript with Codecademy.com

Reviewing Literary Terms

You should have learned literary terms in the seventh grade. Today we will review these terms. Why? Because as we move toward reading and analyzing fiction in the eighth grade, these terms become increasingly important. We will review by use of Mr. Stephens's Quizlet site, which can be accessed by pressing the following:

QUIZLET LINK

After doing that, you will be expected to take a quiz by pressing the following: 

QUIZ

Good luck!

Using Brush Strokes in Response to Videos

You have an assignment over on Google Classroom, due on Wednesday, December 3.  It is titled "Writing Brush Strokes in Response to Videos."  

PRESS HERE

Assignment for Brush Stroke 4: Adjectives Out of Order

Today Mr. Stephens presents a slide show in which we review the previous three brush strokes we've learned and in which he introduces our fourth and newest brush stroke: ADJECTIVES OUT OF ORDER. The assignment is to go to the Google Form linked below and fill out the answer boxes as Mr. Stephens presents the slide show.  This is a 30-percent grade for 60 points. Now go to the Google Form by

PRESSING HERE

New IXL Assignment Due Tuesday, Dec. 2

At the end of school hours on Tuesday, December 2, you will need to have completed the following IXL assignments from the 7th Grade Level:

G.1, H.1, H.2, H.3, I.1, and J.1

On the IXL 7th-grade page the assignments look like this:

Lit Circle Essay Writing Begins

Today we begin to compose our Lit Circle Essays.  You'll recall that I gave you a 3-hole-punched pink sheet with the instructions. You also copied (typed) the instructions into a document that should be available on your Google Drive.

You must begin your essay by using the blank document that I shared on Google Docs in the assignment "Lit Circle Essay."  It is not due until the end of the school day on Friday, November 21, and we will be working on it in class between now and then. When you are ready to turn it in, YOU MUST USE THE "TURN IN" BUTTON at the top right of the document.

In class today, I gave two general models of an opening paragraph. Here they are.

First, here's a starter of a standard opening paragraph:

And now, here's a starter of an alternative opening paragraph:

As always, if you have any questions, please get in touch with me, either in person or by email.

Work for Monday, November 10, 2014

[Please read entire blog entry before you begin work!]

Today you are to go to IXL and complete the following exercises at the SIXTH GRADE LEVEL:

K.1, K.2, and K.3

which help you with complete sentences and with knowing how to spot a sentence fragment or a run-on sentence.  After you complete those three exercises, you are to do (again at SIXTH GRADE):

L.1. and L.2

which help you to distinguish (which means "know the difference") between SIMPLE SENTENCES, COMPOUND SENTENCES, and COMPLEX SENTENCES.  Remember, you'll need to use all of these sentence types in your essay paper.  Finally, you are to complete (again at SIXTH GRADE):

M.1

which helps you to make sure that your pronouns are right.

To help you with L.1 and L.2, here's an overview of sentence types:

A SIMPLE SENTENCE is a complete through and usually has one subject and one predicate. Here's an example. "Larry has a dog."  "Larry" is the subject, and "has a dog." is the predicate.  But don't be fooled. Simple sentences aren't always short like that one. Here's another simple sentence, "Larry, one of my classmates at Bumpus, has a huge dog with a paws as big as my feet." That sentence has an appositive after "Larry," and then has a long prepositional phrase in the predicate. But it gives a complete thought and has just a subject and a predicate.

A COMPOUND SENTENCE is usually two simple sentences joined together by a conjunction (such as and, but, or, etc.). Here's an example. "Larry has a dog, but his mother does not like it." In that sentence are two simple sentences: 1) Larry has a dog; and 2) his mother does not like it. Both of those can stand alone as simple sentences, but in this case they are joined into one sentence by the conjunction but. That makes this a COMPOUND SENTENCE.

To understand A COMPLEX SENTENCE we must recall the difference between INDEPENDENT and DEPENDENT CLAUSES. An independent clause is called "independent" because it does not need anything else to help it stand alone as complete sentence.  If I walk into the room and say, "I ate breakfast this morning" and then sit down, you will understand that I have given you a complete thought.  That's an INDEPENDENT CLAUSE.  But if I walk into the room and say, "After I ate breakfast this morning" and then sit down, you will wonder where is the rest of my sentence.  So "After I ate breakfast this morning" is a DEPENDENT CLAUSE.  It depends on an INDEPENDENT CLAUSE in order to be a complete sentence.  Sentences that have both a DEPENDENT CLAUSE and an INDEPENDENT CLAUSE are known as COMPLEX SENTENCES.  "After I ate breakfast this morning, I threw up" is a COMPLEX SENTENCE because it has both a dependent clause and an independent clause.

So there is your overview of sentence types.  Good luck with your exercises on IXL.  Be sure to get at least to 90 percent on all six of them.  See you Wednesday.

New assignments on Google Classroom!

There are new assignments at https://classroom.google.com

Be sure to check in there and see what is due.

New IXL Assignment - Commas

By Monday, November 3, you must have done exercises A.1-A.5 in the SEVENTH GRADE level of IXL.  These exercises are designed to sharpen your skill for using commas.  In order to get any credit at all, you must score at least 90 percent.  If you do that, you will be given a score of 90.  However, if you score 100 percent, you will be given a score of 100 and will be eligible for bonus points at the end of the nine weeks.  BE SURE TO DO THE RIGHT EXERCISE (at the 7th grade level). It looks like this:

YOU MUST SIGN UP FOR "NEWSELA."

Newsela is a news reading service that Mr. Stephens will assign in order to increase your reading skills. Also, by requiring you to write about the news you've read, Newsela will help you shape better writing skills. We will occasionally discuss and debate these news articles before we write about them.  Therefore, you must sign up.  Look at the following image for instructions.  (Mr. Stephens will give you a 20/20 points for signing up!)  Start by going to the following website and following the directions below--https://newsela.com/ :

THE VIDEO FOR THE BRUSH STROKES 2 LESSON

If you are having trouble viewing the video for Brushstrokes 2 on the classroom.google.com site, try using this link:
BRUSH STROKES 2 VIDEO

Information Form

Please go to the following Google Form and fill out the info:
http://bit.ly/1pAEkVM

IXL Helps Me with Pronouns!

Pronouns are very important in speaking and writing English.  I could bet you a million dollars that every day on which you have spoken at least one word, you have used pronouns.  And I would win that bet!!!

What are pronouns? They're words that stand in for nouns. Here are some: I, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, him, her, us, them, my, your, his, her, its, our, their.

We use these every single day of our lives. On some days we use them a hundred times or more.

But here's the thing.  We don't always use them properly.  Remember when you were just a baby and said things like, "Me wanna cookie!"  You don't remember that?  Well, your parents do.

Remember last weekend when you said, "Mom, me and Caitlyn wanna go to the mall"?  In both of those cases, you were not using pronouns properly.

Here's another example: "Mr. Stephens gave a bad grade to Justin and I."  (Would you say, "Mr. Stephens gave a bad grade to I"?)  And here's one more that I hear a lot, "I'm not telling. That's between she and I."  (Properly, it should be "That's between her and me," which doesn't sound proper. But it is.)

Here's another thing.  Sometimes we don't use pronouns when we should, and as a result our writing (or speaking) sounds boring. Look at the sentences on the left in which there are no pronouns. They sound ridiculous, don't they?  Now see how much better the sentences on the right sound when we replace the maddening repetition of "Mr. Stephens" with pronouns.

So today, we will begin work on pronouns using IXL. Here's what you need to do. As usual, go to Hoover Schools sign-on link for IXL. (Remember to write click on the link and use the "OPEN LINK IN NEW TAB" option so that you can easily go back and forth between the blog and IXL):

https://www.ixl.com/signin/hoovercs

Once you're signed in. GO TO FIFTH GRADE.  I'm going to repeat that because last time a few of you went to the wrong grade and did the WRONG assignments.  GO TO FIFTH GRADE FIFTH GRADE FIFTH GRADE FIFTH GRADE FIFTH GRADE FIFTH GRADE FIFTH GRADE FIFTH GRADE!!!!!!

Once you're in fifth grade, start work on

O.1, O.2, O.3, O.4, O.5 

It looks like this:

You are going to have questions.  And that's what your teacher is here for.  When/if you get answers wrong, FIRST, read the explanation that IXL provides stating why you got it wrong;  SECOND, if you don't understand the explanation, call me to you--or, if you're working at home, e-mail me--and I'll explain.

Remember, you are to get at least 90 percent, but the goal is to master the skill, which means 100 percent.

And, yes, this is a graded assignment.

Good luck.

Going Further with Brush Strokes - Participial Phrases

We have learned about and have written some sentences using (present) participles.  Remember these are --ing words formed from verbs but they are not part of the verb in a sentence.  Here are some examples (participles are in italics):

Slipping and sliding, the kitten scooted across the ice.

Under his boot he felt a snake, twisting and slithering. 

Dancing and singing, Cadence rushed onto the stage.

Today we're going to take participles a little further.  We're going to write some participial phrases. This means we're going to put some words after the participles to form phrases.  Here's an example:

Singing a new song, Cadence rushed onto the stage.

Do you see how this can tighten up your writing?  For example, let's imagine you have two things you want to say:

Cadence rushed onto the stage.  They were singing a new song.

Saying it in those two sentences, not only takes more words, but it sounds boring. However, with a participial phrase, you can state the same ideas in just one sentence and with fewer words. Plus, you also sound better!

Singing a new song, Cadence rushed onto the stage.

So you begin to see how using this brush stroke (the participial phrase)--not all the time, but from time to time--can help your writing.

Okay. Now let's go to a Google Form and Mr. Stephens will lead you through three fairly quick exercises to help you write with participial phrases.  Go to this link:

http://bit.ly/1nlkF0g

Working with Verbs on IXL - Assignment

YOUR WORK FOR TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2014

Welcome back.  I hope you had an enjoyable three-day weekend. Today I want you to work on your mastery of verbs by using IXL.  Pay close attention so that you do the correct assignment.

Be sure to log on to IXL through the HOOVER portal. You may wish to right-click the following link and press "OPEN LINK IN NEW TABL" so you can keep the blog open at the same time you're working on IXL. Here's the link to IXL (right-click it) PRESSING HERE.

THIS WILL BE A GRADED ASSIGNMENT
A 30 PERCENT GRADE

GO TO FIFTH GRADE.  I'm going to repeat that because last time a few of you went to the wrong grade and did the WRONG assignments.  GO TO FIFTH GRADE FIFTH GRADE FIFTH GRADE FIFTH GRADE FIFTH GRADE FIFTH GRADE FIFTH GRADE FIFTH GRADE!!!!!!

Once you're on the FIFTH GRADE page, choose the following options, and get at least to 90 percent on each of the exercises. (Getting to 100 percent gives you mastery, and at the end of the 9-weeks, I will give bonus points for mastery; but today you need only get to 90 percent in order to make your required work that I will enter in the grade books as your first grade for the second 9-weeks grading period.)

So that's H.1, H.2, I.1, I.2, I.3, I.4, and J.1

Good luck!

PLEASE FINISH THE VIDEO AND THE GOOGLE FORM

Today (Tuesday, Oct. 7) we got started on the Brush Strokes lesson and the Google Form that goes along with it.  For POINTS that will help your grade, you need to complete the Google Form that is based on the video we watched today.  You can find the Video by PRESSING HERE.  And you can find the Google Form by PRESSING HERE.  If you have any questions, email me at gstephens@hoover.k12.al.us

INTRODUCTION TO WRITING BRUSH STROKES

Mr. Stephens is going to show you a video starring himself explaining brush strokes.  When he tells you to, go to the Google Form by PRESSING HERE.  And follow the instructions as Mr. Stephens tells you.

Yet another IXL assignment. (Yay!!)

Hello, 8-4, as you know, I'm out today, and you have a substitute teacher. Treat her with respect and courtesy, please.  Now . . . here's your assignment:

Open your Chromebooks . . . oh, wait! I guess they're already open . . . and log on to IXL through the Hoover portal:

https://www.ixl.com/signin/hoovercs

You remember the log-on routine, using your regular username (the ol 19 . . .  number) and your regular password.

Once inside IXL, go to SEVENTH GRADE.   Do those first five exercises on commas
A1, A2, A3, A4, and A5.

If you finish with that, then go to C1, apostrophes.

Remember you are working at SEVENTH GRADE level.  Don't make the error of doing exercises on the wrong level.

Good luck.   See you Monday!

NEW IXL ASSIGNMENT!

When you finish the assignment given in the previous blog post (the one about the seven books, the videos, and the Google Forms), you must next return to IXL.  Sign in at https://www.ixl.com/signin/hsoovercs.  GO TO FOURTH (4th) GRADE and complete exercises S.1, S.2, S.3, and S.4, which deal with pronouns.  Here is a chart with the pronouns:

Getting Ready for Literary Circles Project

Our next project involves nonfiction books.  Each student will CHOOSE AND READ A NONFICTION BOOK in which the author details a major event (or several major events), usually from his or her life. Such books are called "memoirs." Often the events they describe are so significant that they make news around the world. For example, after the September 11, 2001, attacks, many of the people who were directly affected wrote memoirs of their experiences in that difficult moment.

In our class, you will choose one from a list of seven books. Each of these books deals in some way with social injustice. Social injustice occurs when a society has laws or customs that prevent people from reaching their positive potential. In each of the seven books described below somebody had to fight against a system that was threatening him/her or holding him/her back.

These books have varying levels of reading difficulty. Some are easier to read than others. Mr. Stephens will be sure that the book you choose is right for you.  IMPORTANT: Don't choose a book simply because your friends have chosen that book. Choose a book based on your interests and on your reading ability.

Now, in order to introduce you to these books, I will link below some videos that describe them. You are to watch the videos and then complete a brief Google Form on each of the books.  So here we go!

First video.  About the life of Malala Youfsazai, author of the book I Am Malala: http://bit.ly/1ubGrph
Now, fill out the Google Form to respond to the video:
http://bit.ly/1ql54Z5

Second Video. About the book All But My Life by Gerda Weissman Klein:
http://bit.ly/Z663aD
Now fill out the Google Form to respond to the video:
http://bit.ly/XUff0n

Third Videos. About the book Imperfect: An Improbable Life  by Jim Abbott:
http://bit.ly/1mooYHA  (and here's one more you'll need to watch)
http://bit.ly/1p8MWlX
Now fill out the Google Form to respond to the two videos:
http://bit.ly/1uVLrwi

Fourth Videos.  About the book Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals. 
http://bit.ly/1sSovKH (and here's one more you'll need to watch)
http://bit.ly/1uQ7qWq
Now fill out the Google Form to respond to the videos:
http://bit.ly/1uQ88Tt

Fifth Videos. About the book The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson.
http://bit.ly/1B01Gcv (and here's one more you'll need to watch)
http://bit.ly/1rf3TzC
Now fill out the Google Form to respond to the videos:
http://bit.ly/1rqX6n0

Sixth Videos. About the book Getting Away with Murder by Chris Crowe.
http://bit.ly/ZA27Pe  (and here's one more you'll need to watch)
http://bit.ly/1jv6Inv
Now fill out the Google Form to respond to the videos:
http://bit.ly/XHNIiu

Seventh Video. About the book Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore.
http://bit.ly/XUkHjL (and here's one more you'll need to watch)
http://bit.ly/1C1tlMB
Now fill out the Google Form to respond to the videos:
http://bit.ly/1uVUXQ7

Please Help Language Arts Teachers Evaluate the Field Trip

Please go to this link http://tinyurl.com/on4s2zn and answer the four questions in order to evaluate your field trip experience.  This will help us in planning next year's field trip.  Thank you very much.

Getting Ready to Take Photographs and Interpret Them

A required element of work that you will do next week after the field trip is to choose a photograph that you will have taken on the trip.  It needs to be a photograph of historical significance (not a selfie of you and your peeps!). To model this for you, and to get you ready for this, I, Mr. Stephens, walked last Sunday from my place to where we will be (only about two blocks) and took ten photos.  You are going to look at them, choose four, and write a response to each.  You will do this on a Google Form which you can reach by CLICKING HERE.  Good luck.

Being 13 years old in 1963

Today, you will go to the following Google form and explore some of the popular culture that surrounded the events of 1963 that we're studying. Follow the instructions in the Google form. Then, after you've finished, use your Chromebook's Google search to find a fact about 1963 that is not covered by anything you've looked at so far.  PRESS HERE to go to the Google form.

Preparation for Field Trip - Pt. 3

Watch the video here. And then access the Google Form that goes with it by PRESSING HERE!. Answer the questions in the form.

Preparation for Field Trip - Pt. 2

Today, we'll read the news article (nonfiction) from the New York Times about the Sixteenth Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, which happened on September 15, 1963. Afterward, we'll have a discussion. Finally, every student will complete THIS GOOGLE FORM (press here).  Any time you have left in the period should be spent reading your independent reading book.

Summer Reading Assessment

Hey 8-4! Click RIGHT HERE to be led to your summer reading assessment Google form.  NOTE: PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY. Pay attention to:

• Spelling
• Capitalization
• Sentence Structure

GOOD LUCK!

Work for Wednesday, August 20 - Field Trip Prep - Pt. 1

Hi 8-4, below is the link you'll need after the reading assignments I'll give in class on Wednesday, August 20.
https://docs.google.com/a/hcs-students.net/forms/d/11OJ6rTcOWyHfj8CqhBGUQMZPpBrAFP5Uheq0RuEDIBA/viewform?c=0&w=1&usp=mail_form_link

I HATE READING!

“You don’t get it,” he says with angry eyes. “I HATE reading!”

          Not a good thing, because this is Language Arts where we read and write, and not just a little but a lot. And this student is telling me he can’t stand it.

As his teacher, I guess I’ve got a couple of choices:

1.   I can write him off, say, “Okay, dude, just don’t cause trouble, do a little work, and maybe I can get you a ‘D’ and you’ll pass the year.”

2.   I can try to convince him that reading (and writing) don’t have to feel like having your front teeth pulled by a madman with rusty pliers.

I choose number 2.

Why?

Because the kid’s not stupid.  He may not think he’s not smart, but he is. In fact, the kid reminds me of . . . me . . . in the 8^th grade.

Back then, I didn’t like reading either. I didn’t even like school! 

Back then, I was just trying to get from one grade to the next without flunking.

I made a lot of C’s. Doing just enough to get by. My parents would go nuts, screaming and shouting about how smart I was, and how there was no excuse for the grades I was making.  My teachers would pile on, too.

They were like an army of smelly old people always in my face!

So I got really angry . . . and even angrier—at my parents, my teachers, my books, the whole school. Sometimes, when no one was looking, I would even punch the water fountains!

Still, somehow, I made it into college—just barely. At the end of my freshman year in college, I brought home big bag of Cs and one D. My overall average was 72.3. Hey, big deal, I thought. At least I passed!

My parents didn’t see it that way. 

So my dad got me a job at the steel factory where he worked--one of those loud, stinking, dirty places where they pour flaming, hot melted metal from huge buckets. And the gooey metal is so on-fire, so bright, it’s like the sun, and you have to wear those tinted goggles—like ugly sunglasses—to keep you from going blind.  They also make you wear a dumb-looking hard-hat helmet so flying metal won't split your head open. And they expect you, an 18-year-old boy, to use ten-foot poles to guide those buckets of hell from one place to the next.

On some days, when it was 98-degrees outside, it was about 130 inside

the factory. Rivers of sweat oozed out of me, I watched the hairs on my arm singed off by the raging heat. The place was what I imagined hell to be like.

And I thought I would die there.  Especially after I saw another guy

almost die there.

Mutt was about 45 years old—to me, really old.  But he was okay because, unlike all the other jerks in the factory who treated me like crap [“Hey, punk! Go get me a Coke!” they’d shout], Mutt was always nice.

One day, above all the roaring noise of the factory, I heard above me a weird screaming/crunching noise like a car crash, then a loud, ear-splitting crack. I looked up and saw it coming—a pole the size of a big street-light pole. It was supposed to be fixed onto the large crane. But the chain that held it had snapped, and the pole was falling, coming fast from behind Mutt who couldn’t see it. But I saw it almost like it was in slow motion. I opened my mouth to scream, but before I could, the monstrous gray pole slammed across Mutt’s shoulder and slammed him violently to the ground. Several of us scrambled to roll the thing off him. Then I saw he was bleeding from his mouth and nose, as if something had been smashed bloody inside him. His eyes were wide and frightened. He was trying to talk, but he just gurgled. Somebody turned him face down so he wouldn’t drown on his own blood.

The ambulance came quickly and took him away. And about ten of us workers were left to just stand there, looking at where Mutt had been lying--his blood still pooling and flowing slowly across the dirt floor.

I started to cry, though I was trying not to. I had taken off my goggles. Quickly I put them back on, hoping to hide my tears. Then I felt an arm come around my shoulder. It was Marvin, a tall dude with a very angry face, who, until that moment, had treated me meaner than anyone in the factory.

“It’s okay,” he said. “We’re all crying.” I took of my goggles, looked up, and saw him wipe tears from his face.  He and I and the others stood there silently for a few more moments. Then, suddenly, Marvin spun me around to face him. He leaned over me, pointed to the blood on the floor, and said this.

“All of that is why you should stay in school.  Use your damn head, boy! Do all that readin’ and writin’ they tell ya. Do it and you won’t have to work in a hell-hole like this. I ain’t lyin’ to you, boy! Keep your butt in school. It’ll take you places we can’t go,” he said pointing to other guys there.

Then he pushed me forward, like he was pushing me into the future.

Four weeks later I went back to college. From then on, I kept an “A” average because—finally—I started taking reading and writing seriously.

Marvin was right, by the way.  Becoming a good student enabled me to do all kinds of things that don’t come easily to those who don’t read or write much.

So . . . that true story flashes through my head when I hear a student tell me that he (or she) hates reading.

I don’t get mad at that student.  Because I was once like him.  I know how it feels to hate reading.

But I want you to trust me. It’s not as bad as you think. In fact, when you find a book or an article that’s about something you really like, reading can be fun. And writing about stuff that interests you can be fun, too. [I had fun writing this!]

          Finally, reading can keep you out of trouble and danger and give you some great opportunities.  Please trust me. I know.

Hello, 8-4!  When you have chosen your independent reading book, please press on the following link and fill out the form that will be sent to Mr. Stephens.

https://docs.google.com/a/hcs-students.net/forms/d/1n-NrZJxtLhnCR6B2OJ0F0fRmlGCj6gJoHOacO_wSk2s/viewform?c=0&w=1&usp=mail_form_link