We've been writing a lot lately and this week is no exception. We'll be reading an article from Newsweek about the new wave of books - digital books. Kids will read the article, summarize and look for key points. This will lead into a quick look a editorials.

Monday- Read "The Future of Reading". Summary and analytical questions.

Tuesday - Discuss "The Future of Reading" and how to write an editorial. Homework is to research for your editorial.

Wednesday - Journalism kids - this is our next major deadline for the yearbook. We have 32 pages today!

Thursday - Quickwrite an editorial about digital books and their viability.

Friday - Quiz over hyper/hypo words. Reading logs due (9) for periods 5 & 6. After the quiz, work on editorials, next week's vocab and reading.

WRITING - Analyze an article from Newsweek, research for an editorial, quick write on Thu ... Read More »

We've got a great week planned. Many kids are making plans and reservations for SATs, High School entrance exams and, of course, the state required CSAPs. To better understand how to write for standardized tests, we need to look at the types of questions that are asked, and how to approach a response. The good news is that these skills are the same skills used for answering essay questions on exams.

Monday - Revise the CDE writing rubric so that it makes sense to kids and is a useful teaching tool, not just a meaningless or mysterious score. Students typed up their own rubric over the weekend; today, they combine their efforts in small focus groups.

Tuesday - Writing on Demand to a narrative prompt. We will review the necessary elements for narrative responses and write one of our own. Reading log check (7 due). Verb practice - due Thursday.

Wednesday - Journalism kids will be re-working their yearbook pages and uploading/importing pictures ... Read More »

It was great to see so many parents last week. Thank you for your continued support.

This week we will be working on identifying types of writing prompts and how they are scored. Next week we will work on how to respond to the various prompts.

Monday- No School
Tuesday - hydro vocab due; hydro quiz; writing in journal about thoughts, experiences and questions related to standardized testing.

Wednesday - Community will be setting our calendar for our work with Children's Hospital; Workshop will be looking at various ways to tell stories; Journalism - we have some pages to finalize in the yearbook, then we need to assign stories for the newspaper.

Thursday - We will look at the rubric used to score the long essay on CSAP and figure out what it means in our own writing.

Friday - pyro vocab due; Pyro test; 7 reading logs due.

Writing: Figure out how standardized tes ... Read More »

It's hard to believe that conferences are so close. Students are making great progress in their writing and the reading skills. Last week, we articulated some specific strategies that will help increase comprehension. Although this is a short week for classes, we have a lot of work to do.

Monday - Read an article and practice some of the critical thinking necessary to improve comprehension. These skills can be used whenever we are reading.

Tuesday - Review writing assignments that were turned in before just before the Winter Break. Discuss specific strategies for improving both summaries and compare and contrast essays. Also, work on vocabulary.

Reading: Read the article about Sir Edmund Hillary and his work. Answer four questions for increasing comprehension.

Writing: Review individual writing assignments from this trimester. Discuss strategies for improving the effectiveness of our writing.

Gra ... Read More »

It's a busy week. For those who have been looking for PowerSchool updates, they should be coming soon. Last trimester I had a few students whose grades ended up in two different classes because of schedule changes. This caused a great deal of anxiety and confusion. To avoid the confusion, I am waiting until the PowerSchool rosters are up to date before entering grades. I expect they will be done today and I will enter grades over the next few days. Thank you for your understanding and your patience.

Writing: We are working on our "Rick Reilly Style" compare and contrast essay. Monday - students will be writing in class. Tuesday - Rough Draft 1 due. Workshop and Revise in class. Thursday - Rough Draft 2 due - Workshop and learn how to layout a magazine article. Friday - Final Compare and Contrast article due.

Reading - Last week, I attempted to talk to kids about their next independent reading assignment. Because we are pushing to get this writing assignm ... Read More »

These weeks of December can get crazy with all we have to do, but it also means that we have a great deal to write about and many things to share. This week Student Council is busy with Spirit Days and Assemblies, while the Yearbook kids are cranking toward their first deadline.

Writing: Students need to bring their writing journal every day. Monday we work with the revision that students typed over the weekend. Our focus is great verbs and adjectives. The third draft is due Tuesday, the final (which should be no less than one full page - minimum 350 words) - is due Thursday.

Reading: On Friday we will be talking about the next reading assignment and the requirements.

Grammar: The focus is on verbs this week. Students will be working on verbs in their writing.

Vocab: This week's root word is "terra" which is Latin meaning "land or earth". Words are posted on the board.


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This week we are focusing on writing. Last week we didn't get to adverbs (I realized that we still needed to do some work on verbs before we could talk about words that describe verbs). This week students need their writing journals every day. On Friday, we will take a short break to visit the book fair.

Writing: Daily writing beginning with Heart Maps. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday - memoir development. Daily revision homework is expected.

Reading: No reading assignment this week. Please return Civil War Novels if you haven't done so already.

Grammar: As we work on our writing we will be incorporating strong, powerful verbs and looking at examples of great writers who do the same.

Vocabulary: This week's root is helio which is Greek meaning sun.

Welcome back! It was great to have a few days without a schedule to follow, but I must admit, getting back to a routine has its benefits! I spent much of the holiday break grading the essays that students turned in prior to break. It was clear that there are some gaps in their writing skills. Hopefully some quick guiding lessons will do the trick.

Also, it has been crazy trying to get in all of the makeup quizzes and tests. For the rest of the school year, all Language Arts Makeups will be on Thursdays during lunch.

Writing: This week students need to bring their writing journals every day. We will be doing some quick lessons on summarizing and paragraph writing. This should help students to focus their writing and eliminate random sentences.

Literature: No Literature assignments this week. Next week, we will be starting an independent reading project. More info on book choices to come.

Vocabulary: This week's root ... Read More »

Zoiks! It's almost the end of the trimester! I spent much of the weekend getting caught up on grading. I will be updating Power School over the next day or so. Please look for those updates later this week. The last assignments for the trimester include a vocabulary test and homework due on the 16th, a vocabulary final on the 20th (syn, phobos, philia, tropos); two sets of discussion questions for our novels due the 8th and 15th, an analysis paper for the novel due on the 19th. There is no extra credit.

In class, students will have time to work on any of the above assignments depending on where they are in their novels. Laptops will be available Thursday and Friday in class.

We're getting close to the deadline. If you have not yet turned in your interviews/articles here's what's due (in both electronic and paper format).

DUE NOVEMBER 20th!!
- 2 articles from your interview with the teachers that you chose. 200-250 words
- article/articles that you chose that will be published in the paper. Articles should be a minimum of 250 words.
-photographs that go with your articles

Students must turn in all of the requirements in order to pass this class. Since this is the last day before the break and is the last day of the trimester, there can be no extensions on this deadline.