Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Monday, March 27, 2017

Student-led conferences are this Friday. Please stop by with your child at any time between 8 am and 4 pm. 

Projects: We started studying World War 2 today. Students will frontload vocabulary terms and learn the causes of WW2 this week.

7th Grade Reading: This week we will review figurative language terms with Flocabulary and IXL, read our independent reading books, write lengthy reading responses, annotate poetry, and read and summarize nonfiction text with "The Week in Rap."

8th Grade Reading: Students watched To Kill a Mockingbird  today, and will spend the next 5-6 reading blocks preparing their responses for our Paideia Seminar.

Writing: This week students will learn to evaluate and judge by reading reviews of some of their favorite movies, books, games, etc. Using the book Write Like This as a mentor text, we will rate products, then write formal reviews for them.


Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Monday, March 13, 2017

This is the final week that students can improve IXL scores for this quarter. Students need to let me know if they go in and improve their scores on graded IXL work. 

Projects: Websites on the Great Depression are due at the end of the projects block on Tuesday. We will present them Wednesday and Thursday of this week. The kids have work so hard on these and I'm seeing great work.

7th Grade Reading: This week we will focus on CAFE strategies and Daily 3 (read to self, work on writing through reading response, and word work). Students are begging for more time to read their books of choice, so I will be allowing a little more time for that this week. They did a great job on their Paideia Semina, which took a lot of preparation. I will enjoy giving them time to relax a bit with their books. I will use the time to conference with individual students and do fluency checks.

8th Grade Reading: We will finish To Kill a Mockingbird this week and move into Paideia Seminar preparation. Students will have more questions than last year to collect evidence on and will participate in the seminar the second week we return from spring break. We will watch the movie version on Monday, April 27th. If you don't want your child to see this film, please let me know asap and I will plan an alternative but equitable assignment for him or her.

Writing: Phew!!!! We have been working on collaborative argumentative essays. Students are getting in groups, writing introductions, coming together as a class to discuss/provide feedback, and then doing the same thing with their body paragraphs and conclusions. Tuesday and Wednesday students will write one on their own (unassisted). This piece of writing will be counted as a 4th quarter grade. I am so impressed with all of the progress these kids have made in writing this year.

Homework:
7th: Read for 20 minutes each night and complete reading log
8th: Read for 20 minutes (Mockingbird reading both Tuesday and Wednesday nights); complete reading log

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Monday, March 7, 2016

Projects: Students will continue building websites on the Great Depression using  videos and reading passages that we watch and read together.

7th Grade Reading: Wednesday is our Paideia Seminar, so students are working ro prepare comments and evidence in response to questions. This is a great exercise and I'm so excited to hear what students have to say.

8th Grade Reading: We will spend most of our week reading and discussing To Kill a Mockingbird. The plan is to finish the book before spring break and participate in Paideia Seminar when we return. We will also watch the movie starring Gregory Peck----he does a great job as Atticus Finch!

Writing: We are working through another collaborative writing assignment. This time is argumentative and students are writing their essays in groups of 5. I am loving this because the kids are really getting into discussing the resources they have to use and having conversations about what evidence to use, transitions, etc. Next week they will write an unassisted argumentative piece.

Homework:

7th Grade: Read for 20 minutes, fill out logs (working on Paideia is fine)
8th Grade: Read for 20 minutes; to chapter 24 by Tuesday and to chapter 26 by Wednesday. Stay tuned for Wednesday night reading (depends on how far we get Wednesday during our block)