Writing 2 -- Grades are Coming

Dear CHAT Writing 2 Students & Parents,

I've just finished calculating the grades for the Spring semester, and you will be finding them in your inbox by the end of the week.  As tutors, these are suggested grades for you as homeschooling families to consider.

For those who are new to my classes, let me share my thoughts on grades.  As I homeschooled, I didn't give my children grades.  I felt that grades were far too subjective.  I taught my own children for mastery.  We didn't proceed with a topic until they were ready no matter how long that took.  In a class setting, knowing where each student is with regards to his/her understanding of a topic is not possible, so any grade given is not a complete representation of what the student learned or accomplished this year.

Letter grades are a funny thing.  For some students, it becomes the only motivation for doing well.  For some, it becomes a measure of their worth as a person or as an academic learner.  I personally don't like these "side effects" of the grading system.  On the other hand, grades can be a valid reflection and reward for working hard, being diligent, and understanding the materials.

When teaching students to be good writers, I give a lot of consideration for growth and improvement. Each student has a starting place; over time I look for him or her to learn the mechanics of grammar, good writing techniques, and analytical thinking skills.

For this class, I gave points for attendance, participation, short assignments, literature assignments, grammar exercises, and longer essays. (I tend to be an "easy grader" and like to see my students encouraged to do their best.)  For these essay assignments, the final drafts were graded using a rubric that divided the papers into the following categories:  focus, content, organization, and mechanics.  The grades will be divided into the following categories:  Assignments (Quick Writes and in class activities), Literature, and Writing.  A student may have been strong in one area and not in another, and this will be reflected in these categories.  The categories are not evenly weighted; in other words, 100% in Assignments, which were almost all Quick Writes, does not have the same value as 100% in Grammar, which included lots of worksheets and new material to learn.

Each student (and parents) will receive an e-mail with percentages and suggested grades for this semester.  I’ve seen each student improve with each paper.  Good Work!

Blessings,

Tammy Prichard

Links:
Writing 2 -- Grades are coming!
Grades, Percentages, and Scores Clarification

Grades, Scores, and Percentages

Greetings!

In addition to my earlier comments about grades in general, I want to clarify how I have scored and graded my students this semester.  Firstly, I've divided the work done in the class into categories:  Assignments, Writing, Grammar, and Literature.  Each category is somewhat self-explanatory, except for perhaps the "Assignments" section.  This is where I put our Quick Writes, vocabulary work, and any other class participation scores.

For the past two years I've been using My GradeBook, an online grade book.  With this program, I can assign a category to each assignment, for example, Writing, Literature, Grammar, Assignments (in-class work.)  My GradeBook figures percentages for total scores and for scores within each of these categories. 

However, the four categories used for Writing 1 did not have the same number of assignments, so a straight averaging of the scores does not give an accurate total percentage/grade.  For example, the Assignments category had 16 scores, and 15 of them were small, 5-point Quick Writes.  Writing section had fewer assignments, but the scores were higher per assignment.

Though the categories are not exactly even, I feel that dividing the scores like this is helpful because it helps parent, students, and teacher have a better picture of the work done in the semester.  For example, if a student scores 100% on this Assignments section, I know that he showed up and participated well in class.  A low score in the Literature section is most likely a sign of a significant number of missing assignments.  Likewise, a low score in grammar could be because assignments were not handed in, or it could be a lack of knowledge in this area. As it is with all homework assignments for any subject area, the scores reflect a mix of quantity and quality. 

When you get the grades, you should see a small table like this:

Assignments		Grammar		Literature		Writing		Combined
Grade	%	Grade	%	Grade	%	Grade	%	Grade	%

I hope I haven't further confused the grading for this class.  Working with students to help them develop into first-rate thinkers and writers is my  primary goal.  Points, scores, percentages, and grades are only small parts in the learning process.

Blessings to all of you,
Tammy Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 15 (May 10)

Greetings!

Well, we've made it through another great year at CHAT.   I know that these great students learned a lot -- just compare their first essays with their final ones!

Even though I had a full day planned for the class, we didn't skip the Quick Write.  Students had two options:  they could write an end of the year thank you letter to their parents or they could brainstorm and list as much as they could remember about what they learned this year.  As we went around the room, they commented on both academic topics and every day life learning.  

We didn't do any Words of the Day this week.  I wanted to make sure we had time for the rest of our activities.

I handed back all the homework that I had graded, and students handed in their Reflection Papers along with any other homework that they had for me.  Today was the last day to hand in homework.  My hope is to get everything graded and have the grades sent out by the beginning of next week.

Now for the fun stuff ...

We finished our Poetry Jam.  Team 3 (David, Madi, Katelyn, and Timothy) and Team 4 (Carter, Julia, Alec, and Sofia) recited against each other, while the other 2 teams judged.  We had a great collection of poems, some memorized and some originals.  As far as I'm concerned everyone who participated was a winner!  We also heard poetry presentations from our "MVPs," the top scorers from each team.  We finished our poetry with the 5 teams doing a class reading of Dr. Seuss's "Oh the Places You will Go" with a rap background.

Remaining in our teams, the class then played a Jeopardy game with questions related to the grammar, writing, and literature that we've covered this year.  

Today was a bitter sweet day.  After eight great years at CHAT, I will miss engaging with young student writers.  I'm pretty proud of these kids.  They've written well, engaged well in class discussions, worked hard on homework, and been generally great all-around kids.  We had a marvelous year reading and writing! At the end of class, the students presented me with a sweet card, and a few tears were shed.  

Assignments for Next Week:

-- ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!

This week's links:

Class Notes 

Jeopardy Final Exam

Have a great summer!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 14 (May 3)

Greetings!

It's Spring, and before we know it Summer will be here, too.  While you may still have more school to do at home, I can tell that students are ready for a change and for the end of CHAT classes. We've had a great year and they've worked hard!

For our Quick Write today, I used the following prompts.  Students could write about one or more, and they always have the option to write about something else that is one their minds.  I know of at least one student who combined the prompts.  

#1 -- Describe your worst day ever.

#2 -- Describe your best day ever.

#3 -- "I couldn't believe my eyes . . . "

Our Words of the Day were all words of Latin roots:

incognito -- fr. Latin, in, "not" and cogito, "to know" -- when the true identity of a person is not known or is hidden

muscle -- fr. Latin mus, "mouse" -- Ancient Romans thought that the movement of muscles were somewhat mouse-like.

companion -- fr. Latin com, "with" and panis, "bread" -- The Old French version of this word meant someone with whom you would break bread.

Following our beginning of class activities, I checked in with their final essay assignment, which was the Essay Re-Write.  Some students had asked if they could really alter the essay, and I'll never say "no" to doing more writing.  I also mentioned that next week, May 10, will be their last chance to hand in any homework.  

Their very last assignment for the class is to write a Reflection Paper.  This doesn't need to be long, or perfectly written, but I want them to take some time and think about what and how they have learned this year.  (I wrote a blog post a few years ago, "The Value of Reflection Papers" that might be helpful to read.)  For these papers, students should include the following

Paragraph #1 -- Answer the question, "What have you learned this year?"  (They can do this with a mix of sentences and lists.)

Paragraph #2 -- Answer the question, "What have you learned about yourself as a student/writer this year?"

Paragraph #3 -- Answer the question, "What did you like or not like in the class?  What worked well for you and what didn't?"

Extra Credit -- Draw a picture of anything that will remind me of the class or of you!

We closed out the Grammar section with a "Final Exam."  We've done a lot of talking about sentence construction this semester, so most of the test was to see if they can build their own sentences from scratch.  If you were absent from class, I'm attaching the exam, and it can be done and brought to class. 

And then -- the Poetry Jam!  I look forward to this all year long.  Some students love poetry, some tolerate it, and a few really don't like it; I've found that even those who don't like poetry are great sports.  If you haven't heard about the logistics of the "jam," the students present their poems as teams with the other teams scoring them using a rubric.  I plug those  numbers into my spread sheet and average the scores. (The scores listed below are averaged from the scores of the judging teams and for the number of players in each team.)  Next week, the top two teams will compete, and I have something for the top scoring students, too.

The scores for the Poetry Jam were pretty close.  Teams 3 and 4 should come prepared for Round 2 of the Poetry Jam.

Team 1 -- 8.33

Team 2 -- 7.22

Team 3 -- 9.58

Team 4 -- 8.44

Our top scoring students were Caitlin, Noah, Madi, Katelyn, and Julia.  They should come prepared to recite something that I will give them.

Next Week:

Poetry Jam, Round 2

Final Exam (a.k.a. a Jeopardy game)

Reflection Papers

Note:  All homework should be handed in by May 10.

Links for This Week

Class Notes

The Value of Reflection Papers 

Final Grammar Exam

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Final Grammar Exam

Final Grammar Exam

1. Write a N-LV-N sentence.
2. Write a N-LV-Adj sentence.
3. Write a sentence with 3 prepositional phrases
4. Write a compound sentence.  Label the subjects and the verbs.  Circle the coordinating conjunction.
5. Write a complex sentence.  Label the subjects and verbs in the independent and dependent clauses. Circle the subordinating conjunction.
6. Write a sentence with exactly 5 errors.
7. Correct #6.

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 13 (April 26)

Greetings!

We might be winding down the semester, but we're still going strong and covered a lot of information today.

Our Quick Write prompt today was inspired by the fact that today was National Poem in your Pocket Day. I heard a few groans and grumblings, but they were good sports and wrote a bit of poetry.  I wrote a short diamante, which is a 7-line shape poem.  You can see some examples on this poetry site.  I look forward to reading their poems.

Our Words of the Day were connected to writing.  The following words of Greek origin are considered modes of persuasion and are also referred to as the three artistic proofs. (More explanations of these terms at this site.)

Ethos -- Greek, "nature, disposition" -- In terms of writing and logic, ethos refers to the credibility and authority of the person with the message, in other words, the ethical nature of a person. a person can express his ethos by choosing language and topics appropriate to the audience.  

Pathos -- Greek, "suffering, grief" -- In terms of writing and logic, pathos refers to an emotional appeal.  This can be done by using meaningful language emotional tone, and emotion-evolving examples.

Logos -- Greek, "word, reason" -- In terms of writing and logic, logos refers to an appeal to logic and reason.  This can be done by including facts, statistics, analogies, and citations by authorities and experts.

I did a quick check in about homework and encouraged students to check My GradeBook if they have questions about missing homework.  Here's a link for instructions for accessing the site.

Our final essay for the year is an Essay Re-Write.  This is a chance for students to rework one of their earlier essays.  I suggested to them that they choose an essay they 1) got a low grade on; 2) felt they could do better on or wanted to improve; or 3) that they enjoyed writing and want to add more.  As they are rewriting, they should look at their essays from a sentence and word choice level but also from a content consideration.  The Essay Re-Write is due next week, and students also need to hand in the original final draft of the essay they are rewriting.

For the Grammar part of our class, we had a quick quiz to check for understanding of simple, compound, and complex sentences.  We went through each sentence to identify the subjects, verbs, conjunctions, prepositional phrases, etc.  Using these sentences, I felt that some of the aspects of sentence construction and patterns were beginning to really click for most of the students.  

I handed out a sheet with some extra poetry.  For extra credit, students can write a short paragraph explaining what the poems means and why/how it means it (In other words, what does the poet do to get his meaning across?)

We start our Poetry Jam next week, so students should bring 2 poems that they are ready to recite in class.  A reminder:  students will get extra points for original poems and for poems that are memorized.  Next week we will divide into teams, and I will explain the  scoring.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Prepare 2 poems for the poetry jam 

-- Essay Re-Write 

-- Extra credit poetry analysis

-- Any old homework that is not overdue

Links for this week:

Class Notes 

National Poem in Your Pocket

Diamante Poetry

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

My GradeBook Directions

Sentences Quiz

Essay Re-Write

Extra Credit Poetry Assignment

Have a great weekend.  

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 12 (April 19)

Greetings!

Who thought we would have a blizzard in April?  The weather man says we should have bona fide spring weather this weekend.

We began the day with the Weekly Announcement from the CHAT directors.  They've felt that as the student body has grown, it was important to share updates, etc. with the students via notes to be read before the classes.  I understand that the notes are also sent to parents.  The notes today covered the new tardy policy and policies about being outside when the weather finally gets nice) and dress code.  The students should hear these announcements at the beginning of each class on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  

Note:  It was mentioned in class that sometimes it's hard to finish their lunches from the cafe.  I mentioned that this is a problem that they will have to solve because they need to be in class on time.  This might mean that they bring a sack lunch on Thursdays.

I offered 2 prompts for our Quick Write.  Firstly, today is the anniversary of the first battle of the Revolutionary War, the battle of Lexington and Concord, which was known for its "shot heard round the world."  For this prompt, students could write about what makes the United States special and unique. The second prompt was inspired by Barbara Bush who died on Tuesday, April 17.  I asked the students to write about a special older "grandma" type of woman in their lives.  I heard good thoughts from the students about each prompt.

Our Words of the Day:

chagrin -- French, chagrin, "rough skin" -- the feeling of distress from being humiliated or embarrassed

chamois -- French, the chamois antelope -- a pliable leather-like cloth

Following our beginning of class activities, we discussed the Rough Drafts of the Evaluation Essay.  The class did a great job on these.  Students help develop the list of topics for us to discuss.  I asked them to look over their essays and find something from the corrections and my notes in the margins.  From the list that the students wrote, we discussed common errors found in the essays.  For next week, the Final Drafts are due. 

For our Poetry discussion, I divided the class into small groups and selected four of the poems for them to discuss as a group.  In their groups, they were to identify the story of/behind the poem, the message/meaning of the poem, and the mood of the poem.  I heard thoughtful and lively discussions.  

Assignments for Next Week

-- Finish the Final Draft of the Evaluation Essay

-- Fill out the rubric as a self-evaluation for the final draft

-- Read poems by the following authors:  Wilcox (p. 33), Thayer (p. 34),  Dunbar (p. 41 - 43), Frost (p. 44 - 50), Sandburg (p. 53 - 54), Williams (p. 60 - 61), Hughes (p. 75 - 78)

-- Fill out the Poetry Worksheet for one of the poems

-- No grammar

Links for this Week

Class Notes

Poetry Worksheet

Have a great weekend.  the weather should be pretty nice!  

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 11 (April 12)

Greetings!

We had a very good day in class.  I started the class time with a "public service announcement" about getting to class in time. For the most part, this has been a very punctual class, especially since then know that they will lose the Quick Write points if they are not in class on time.  However, in a conversation with the directors of CHAT, I heard that a number of other tutors have been having difficulties with high school and middle school students coming in up to 10 minutes late.  My appeal to this group of great students was to remind them how important it is to be on time and to encourage them to continue to be good role models.

We had three options for the Quick Write today.  Wednesday was National Siblings Day, so they could write about their siblings.  Another prompt was to write about what makes them or their families unique.  (A recent article that I read about appreciating diversity stated that understanding and enjoying your own personal uniqueness is a good step towards doing the same for others.)  And finally, students could try to write from an opposite perspective regarding something that they value or believe.  For example, if I were to be very "pro" some new legislation, I would try to write as if I were very "con."  The students did some great thinking and writing!

Our Words of the Day were "E" words:

El Dorado -- fr. Spanish, "the gilded place" -- a mythical city that is made of gold

ellipses -- fr. Greek elliepsis, "to leave out" -- the omission of words in a quote signified by three periods or asterisks with spaces in between

El Nino -- fr. Spanish, literally "the Christ child" -- a warm ocean current that develops in late December that can cause catastrophic weather conditions

The rough drafts of the Evaluation Essay were due this week.  This is the most complicated essay that the students will have written because it requires them to develop criteria and then to use that criteria to evaluate their subjects.  I will return the rough drafts next week, and the final drafts are due April 26.  This is their last original essay.  The final writing assignment is a rewrite of an earlier essay.

For the literature discussion, we focused on two of our stories:  Nella Larsen's "Sanctuary" and Sherwood Anderson's "The Egg."  Larsen's story about a woman hiding the man who had shot her son is a great story of forgiveness.  Anderson's story had mixed reactions from the students.  Some thought it quirky and funny, and others felt it was sad and discouraging.  We had a number of great comments from the students.

We are into our next unit -- POETRY!  April is National Poetry Month, so I save this part of our literature for this time of year.  They are to read all of the poems by the authors listed below.  

Because we took more time on the literature, we didn't have a long grammar discussion this week.  We're continuing to work on run-on and comma splice sentences.  They had time in class to get started on the assigned worksheets.

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read the poetry by the following authors:  Holmes (p. 21); Emerson (p. 4, 5); Longfellow (p. 6 – 10); Whitman (p. 22 – 26); Dickinson (p. 29 – 32)

-- Two Grammar Worksheets

 

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Sentence Fragments and Run Ons

Sentence Fragments and Run Ons Multiple Choice

Have a great weekend,

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 10 (April 5)

Greetings!

It might not feel like it as you look at the weather forecast for this weekend, but it is spring, and we are beginning the homestretch for the semester.  We are two-thirds of the way through!

For the Quick Write, I gave the students these options as prompts:  National Burrito Day, National Deep Dish Pizza Day, National Caramel Day or Prompt #14 from Toastmasters -- What is the difference between existing and living.  We had some great comments for all three prompts, and at the end of our discussion, I asked students to list three things in their lives that make life worth living.  I'm looking forward to reading what they wrote.

Our Words of the Day were contributed by Carter

cuesta-- fr. Latin, costa, "rib" -- a long, low ridge with a relatively steep face on one side

quodlibet-- fr. Latin quod libet, "as you please" -- a subtle or elaborate argument or point of debate, usually on a theological or scholastic subject; a humorous musical composition

shampoo-- fr. Hindu campne, "to press" -- a cleaning preparation to clean hair, carpets, etc.

I handed back homework, and we had a brief discussion about the e-mails that I sent out this week.  If students have any homework that has been graded but they see that it is not on the online grade book, they should hand it in again.  I had a student in Writing 1 who had done two assignments on one piece of paper, but I hadn't seen the second assignment on the back.  If a student is ever absent, all of the homework can be found in these places: attachments in the weekly class notes, copies on the class blog, and with a link to the document on Google drive.  

We had a brief discussion about the next writing assignment:  an Evaluation Essay.  We brainstormed using my can of La Croix mineral water how the students were to develop criteria for the topic that they choose to evaluate.  Within this criteria, they need to establish "what good looks like."  The rough draft is due next week.

We are almost at the end of our short stories unit, and this week we discussed two stories by European authors.  Neither or them were as dark as others that we have read, but they both had a sad element.  Our final short stories will be read for next week and then we will head into our poetry unit  There will be a quiz next week, so read the stories!

For the grammar section of our class, we are working on revising sentences, especially comma splice and run-on sentences.  We took the final minutes of class to work on the worksheets.  

Finally, I've been asked to send out again the directions for accessing the student accounts on My GradeBook.  (Due to concerns for privacy, this information will not be on the class blog.)

My GradeBook:  This is my online grade book for the class.  I keep it fairly up to date, but occasionally fall behind when my weeks get too busy.  Some parents check it regularly, and some don't feel that it is needed for their students.  Below are instructions for signing up for this semester's class:

Directions for Signing Up:

1.  Go to www.mygradebook.com

2.  In the username box, give the class code:  

          writing2spring2018

3.  Your password is the student's first name and the first letter of the last name, all lower case.  For example,  Bobby Smith's password would be "bobbys."

4.  Click on "My Account," and on that page click on Create Primary Login.

5.  Set the Primary Login (username) and Primary Login Password that you want to use for this class.  (Note:  This username and password will be the same for the student's account, so parents and students should communicate the choices with one another.)

6.  If any of the e-mail information needs updating, click on "update email."

7.  When all information is updated, click on "save."

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read the short stories of the following authors:  Larsen (p. 110), Anderson (p. 1), and Hardy (p. 56)

-- Choose 1 story and write 3 discussion questions for it.  (Good discussion questions are "Why" questions.)

-- Evaluation Essay Rough Draft

-- 2 Grammar Worksheets

Links for this week

Class Notes

Sentences -- Revising Run-ons

Sentence Combining worksheet

Evaluation Essay handout

Spring Technology Reminder

Have a great weekend!  Build one last snowman!!

Mrs. Prichard

Sentence Combining Worksheet

Name:  ____________________________

Sentence Combining Worksheet

Combining into Compound Sentences

Directions

Combine the following sentences with a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).

1)  She went to daycare.  She did not want to go.

2) The toddler could not decide which jacket to wear. She cried instead.

3) The teacher said she must wear her jacket. She must stay inside.

4)  Helping parents is hard. No one said helping parents with their children would be easy.

5)   The toddler would not give up the toy. He would not come inside.

6)  He loves to play outside during the day.  I will let him play after lunch.

7)  The girl was hungry.  She had not eaten since breakfast.

8)  The girls couldn’t think of anything better to do.  They decided to play in the art room.

9)  A book can be a lot of fun to read.  A book can be boring.

10)  Toddlers love to use their power. They use it whenever they can.

Sentence Combining Using Subordinating Conjunctions

Directions

Combine the following sentences with a subordinating conjunction (after all, although, while, because, before, however, therefore).  This may require a semicolon!

11)  They made plans to go to the school meeting.  They ended up not being able to make it.

12)  Professionals can view toilet training from an independence point of view. Parents can view it as a struggle.

13)  Babies like to put things in their mouths. Learning about objects in this way is how they use all of their senses.

14)  Parents often want to shower children with toys. Children learn from simple exploration of natural things, like sand and water.

15) One aspect of a child’s developing mind is using her imagination. They can use their imagination to make connections between perceptions and assumptions.

16)  Don’t give her a hard time.  She is just trying to be friends with you.

17)  We don’t believe children should be spanked.  Hitting teaches hitting.

18)  It’s going to rain today. You need to bring your raincoat to daycare.

19)  The two weren’t always this close.  When his sister went to kindergarten, he missed her.

20)  The boy refused to admit he took it.  He put the lunch box back on the shelf.

Sentence Combining with Subjects and Verbs

Directions

The following sentences share either the same subject or the same verb.  Combine the sentences into one sentence.

21)  Tommy and his mother walked to the store.  The store is two blocks away.

22)  The child is thirsty.  The child is not getting enough water.

23)  My mug was in the cupboard.  My mug is no longer in the cupboard.

24)  Drew’s dog jumped into the air.  Janine’s dog jumped into the air as well.

25)  The book fell to the floor.  It opened to a page I had never read before.

26)  Your face has freckles on it.  Your face looks friendly.

27)  The boy painted at the easel. The boy painted a rainbow. The rainbow arched colorfully.

28)  Everyone is being mean to me!  Everyone is tyring to keep me from joining in the game.

29)  Stop dancing like that.  No dancing in the classroom. Sit back down in your chair.

30)  The children sat in a circle. The children were quiet. The children waited for the teacher.

Sentence Combining in Paragraphs

Directions

Combine as many sentences as you can in the following paragraph, using the above examples to guide you.

The Sunshine Day Care Center is has sixteen children. To be eligible for Sunshine Day Care Center children have to be potty trained. Rudy’s mom is worried. Rudy needs daycare so her mom can take the full time job she is trying to get. Rudy is not potty trained yet. Rudy is three years old and insists on wearing diapers. The teacher at Sunshine Day Care Center told Rudy’s mom not to worry. She believed that once Rudy started at the center, she would see the other children using the toilet. Rudy would want to be a big girl. She would want to learn how to use the toilet, too. She would no longer be interested and diapers. The teacher encouraged Rudy’s mom to take Rudy shopping for big girl underwear. Rudy’s mom took Rudy shopping. Rudy picked out purple underwear with flowers on them. When they got home, Rudy’s mom said it was time to say goodbye to the diapers. Rudy was excited. She looked forward to being a big girl. She looked forward to going to Sunshine Day Care Center and using the big girl toilet, too.  Rudy’s mom looked forward to being able to take the full time job. She is proud of Rudy. She is glad Rudy is transitioning to child care so well.

Sentences -- Revising Run-ons

DIRECTIONS

Decide which of the following groups of words are run-on sentences.

_ If the group of words is a correct sentence, write S; if it is a run-on, write R-O.

_ Revise each run-on sentence by (1) making it two separate sentences; (2) inserting a semicolon,  or (3) using a comma and a coordinating conjunction.

______ 1. Brown bears include the grizzly and the kodiak, the largest brown bear is the kodiak.

______ 2. Kodiak bears weigh as much as 1,700 pounds, they grow to a height of ten feet.

______ 3. Bears can live more than 30 years in the wild.

______ 4. Bears’ sense of smell is more developed than their hearing or sight.

______ 5. Females give birth to as many as four cubs, the cubs stay with their mother two

or three years.

______ 6. Many people are afraid of bears, encounters with bears are actually infrequent.

______ 7. Grizzly bears are solitary animals, they do not want to interact with people.

______ 8. Generally, bears attack only when they are surprised, or when they are protecting

their young.

______ 9. People should always store food and garbage properly, bears could be attracted by

the smell.

______ 10. Never try to outrun a bear, it can run more than 30 miles per hour.

______ 11. School in Munich was too rigid and boring for young Einstein he did not do well.

______ 12. However, young Einstein showed a talent for mathematics, at the age of 12,

he taught himself Euclidean geometry.

______ 13. After finishing secondary school, he entered the Federal Polytechnic Academy

in Switzerland, he did not like the teaching methods there.

______ 14. The academy frustrated him he could learn in a way that interested him.

______ 15. Einstein chose to educate himself, he missed classes often and spent the time studying physics on his own.

______ 16. His professors had low opinions of him, he graduated anyway in 1900.

______ 17. In 1905, he published a paper on physics the University of Zürich awarded him a Ph.D. for this work.

______ 18. In the same year, he published four more papers that presented new thoughts on the

nature of light and other important concepts.

______ 19. Physicists resisted his ideas at first, eventually his general theory of relativity was

confirmed through observation.

______ 20. Einstein achieved international recognition, in 1921 he received the Nobel Prize

in physics.