I apologize it's been so long. 

When we came back from Spring Break we worked on poetry for a week. 

Then we did persuasive letters for two weeks.  From there we jumped into some SBA prep, and most of the month of May was pretty chopped up due to SBA testing, which we did all in the normal block class so that we didn't disrupt the rest of the day. 

Now that SBA is over except for make up testing, we are going to be working on literature circles from now until the end of the school year, as shown on my calendar.   Students had the choice of three different novels to read, and they were given a packet on Monday the 20th of May with both end of novel assignment like a summary and a persuasive letter as well as concurrent assignment to help them track their reading, like character charts, chapter summaries, and themes.

At the end of the unit students will also create presentations that build off the work in their packets.  All the work is group work.

Monday/Tuesday: President's Day, midwinter break

Wednesday: AofW: identify author's claim in Nike ad article; generate list of controversial topics for later use in debate

Thursday: Springboard: finish 3.2, academic vocab on argumentative unit, agree/disagree chart

Friday unit 11 quiz, 3.3 in springboard; check grades. 

I was out sick this week. 

Monday: unit 12 vocab list, AofW: choice of gym time in schools/ Fortnite copyright issue

Tuesday: Reading time, unit 12 vocab worksheets

Wednesday/Thursday: Springboard book, unit 3.4; claims and evidence about safety in sports

Friday: Unit 12 quiz, reading time

Monday: Unit 13 GLR words, AofW: vaping

Tuesday: Ethos, logos, pathos in arguments, identifying tone

Wednesday: Using commercials and advertising to identify claims/evidence

Thursday: 3.8 Springboard; organizing an argument; preparing for mini debates Friday. 

Friday: unit 13 quiz, mini debates: practicing sentence starters and debating skills

unit 13 quizlet

Monday: AofWeek on Recycling pros/cons, finish Mini-debates

Tuesday: Library 1st period, lesson on source credibility, reading time, chance to rewrite AofW

Wednesday/Thursday: Unit 14 words, Logical Fallacies

Friday: Topics handed out for speed debates; note taking. Debates Monday!

unit 14 quizlet

Have a great weekend!

Snow days M, T, W

Thursday: unit 11 review, analyze AofW writing, Springboard: Argumentative unit anticipation guide, 3.2

Friday: Academic vocab notes, Springboard 3.2, individual work time: AofW rewrite, SciFi genre project, study unit 11, read. 

SciFi genre projects due Friday Feb. 15.

Monday and Tuesday: No school, Snow days

Wednesday: Unit 11, words 1-5;  the rest of the time students were able to work on their EA.

Thursday: Unit 11, words 6-10; discuss autobiography, biography, memoir genre; students read an Article of the Week and answered independently, with choice of article on Nelson Mandela or Katherine Johnson.

Friday: Library for book checkout, new genre project of autobiography, biography, memoir; journal entry: a time you disagreed with someone; unit 3 pre-assessment on chromebooks. 

unit 11 quizlet here

No School Monday; end of semester teacher work day. 

The rest of the week was spent working on the EA, either short story or personal narrative the students worked on writing. They worked on prewriting and rough drafts, received peer edits, and typed a final draft on computers. Final drafts turned in on Google classroom. 

No School Monday; MLK day. Students took a quiz to analyze learning progress on literary vocabulary. We read the short stories "Thank you M'am" and "The Treasure of Lemon Brown" in Springboard.  We discussed the EA, Embedded Assessment, that will end the unit; students will write their own short stories OR personal narratives. Due February 11 (extended due to snow days).

We continued working on unit 1 this week; short stories and personal narratives. We read "11" and "My superpowers" in Springboard. We also completed journal prompts around the topic of those texts. We read and analyzed the "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King, Jr in honor of his holiday on 21st. We reviewed units 1-10; Kahoot in class Thursday, quiz Friday. 

We worked on Unit 1 in Springboard this week, focusing on short stories and personal narratives. Our article of the week was on migrant children to pair with the short story "The Circuit", and we also read "The Jacket". We did some work around grammar, specifically semi-colons, and analyzed peer writing. We also started unit 10 vocabulary this week. Unit 10 quizlet here.

We took the unit 10 quiz on Friday. We also checked essay grades, and students were given the deadline to rewrite and resubmit their essays, by January 18.

This week was all individual work time; students worked on Walk Two Moons essays and genre projects, as needed. Computers available starting Wednesday 12/19. Essays due 12/21 by midnight. Genre projects due by 12/21 at the end of the day. Have a great winter break!

We finished Walk Two Moons on Tuesday, and started working on outlines for essays. Wednesday we had the unit 9 vocab quiz. Essays and genre projects due Friday December 21.

This week we focused on finishing the novel Walk Two Moons and completing the work that goes with it, including character charts and a plot diagram. We also had time to read Fantasy genre books and work on those genre projects, and worked on unit 9 vocabulary.  Unit 9 quizlet here

This week we focused on reading Walk Two Moons and unit 8 vocabulary. We also started Literature Circles on Thursday. Unit 8 test Friday. 

Unit 8 Quizlet here

We read Walk Two Moons this week, and went to the library to learn about the genre of fantasy on Tuesday. Genre projects will be due December 21st.  On Wednesday, which was a half day due to Thanksgiving, we had the unit 7 vocab quiz. 

Monday: No school, Veterans Day.

Tuesday: Unit 7 vocab words; we created norms for class discussion, and students generated topics and questions they would like to discuss in their Socratic Seminar the next day. 

Wednesday/ Thursday: We did socratic seminar on these days; students were divided in half, with one inner circle and one outer circle. Ther inner circle students had a discussion about topics and questions from the novel Walk Two Moons. The outer circle students were tracking the comments and contributions of an assigned person on the inner circle. Students on Wednesday who were in the inner circle switched to the outer circle Thursday. The students did a great job respecting each other and having a calm, productive discourse about the novel. They asked great questions and made some great points and observations. I am really proud of them! We will be doing this again in the future, especially now that we understand how it should go. 

Friday students will be using Chromebooks to take the STAR test, which gives a measure of their lexile and reading level. This is a great source of data to compare to other points in the school year. After they finish they will have silent reading time. 

Unit 7 quizlet is here

Hello,

This week we had all half days. 

Monday we wrote down the unit 6 G/L root vocab words. 

Tuesday, students used Chromebooks to check their grades and then write a reflection letter to their parents that I can use for conferences, detailing what their grade is and why, and if they want to maintain or improve, and how they will meet that goal. 

Wednesday We did a worksheet on vocab to review the words, and then we read in W2M, chapters 7 and 8. 

Thursday we worked on chapter summaries for W2M and read chapters 9 and 10. 

Friday they took the unit 6 quiz. 

I have been adding to my calendar so that you can see due dates in the future. 

Happy 3 Day weekend!

This week we did unit 6 of our Greek and Latin root vocabulary. The link to the quizlet if students would like to use it for review is  here

This week we continued to work on reading the novel Walk Two Moons; by the end of the week we had gotten through Chapter 10. We are continuing to add to our character charts and plot diagrams and also doing chapter summaries and tracking theme. We had some work time on genre projects and a review packet for a test over Greek and Latin roots, units 1-5. Thursday they did an article of the week on the common cold and read Walk Two Moons with a sub, and Friday they took the unit 1-5 test with a sub.

Hello everyone,

To help students review the root words for units 1-5, I created some quizlets. These are also available on Google Classroom. Quizlet is a website where teachers can post study sets of material to review. Students can use it as they choose, by using flashcards, taking a quiz, matching, etc. 

Quizlet links:

Unit 1

Unit 2

Unti 3

unit 4

Unit 5

We also played a kahoot! today, an online quiz game. If students want to play again on their own time, here is the link:

unit 1-5 Review Kahoot

Have a great weekend!

This week was a bit of a weird week.

Monday, our 6th grade counselor Mrs. Eggers was here, doing a presentation and class activity on Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying (all 6th grade classes do this). 

Tuesday I had a tech training; the students worked on An Article of the Week which was an interview with Sharon Creech, the novel of Walk Two Moons that we started reading this week. Students read the interview and responded with a paragraph. They also were given several sheets to help them review their Greek/Latin root words. We will be taking a test on units 1-5 on Friday, 11/2.

Wednesday we had  more worktime for root review, did some preview activities for Walk Two Moons, and read chapters 1-3.

Thursday we had more review worktime. We put character charts and plot diagrams into our composition notebooks and started completing them. We wrote down themes for the novel, and read chapter 4. 

Friday we did chapter summaries for chapters 1-3 in our notebooks and we did a kahoot, which is an online quiz game, to review our root words.

Genre Projects will be due Friday Nov. 2.

Root review test 1-5 will be Friday Nov. 2.

Thank you!

This week we got everyone into Google classroom, using a Chromebook cart. The classroom code is 3hmy87y; students should be able to access this at home. They need to go to the Eisenhower website, sign in and log in through the EPS google apps. Then they go to classroom and find my class. 

We took notes on theme, plot, and characterization, that we will use with our upcoming novel.

We had lots of essay worktime in class this week.

The essay is due Thursday 10/18, to be submitted through Google Classroom. 

No School Friday 10/19, Teacher Work Day.

Hello, 

This week we studied unit 5 of Greek and Latin roots. We finished watching the Temple Grandin movie and taking notes on how animals improved her life and helped her conquer challenges. Then we started writing an outline for our upcoming essay. We then took the outline and created a rough draft. We will start typing next week; essays are due next Thursday. 

We also had our biweekly visit to the library on Tuesday the 8th. We discussed the genre of Realistic fiction with Mrs. Papenhausen, and learned about Genre projects. Students will be required to complete a genre project by November 2 on a realistic fiction book of their choice. 

Genre project document attached. Realistic Fiction Genre Project

Hey everyone,

I apologize for the delay in postings. 

This week we studied unit 4 of our Greek and Latin roots. We read our Article of the Week on service dogs, continuing with our theme of how animals can improve human lives.  We also read short autobiographical stories by Temple Grandin, and then to continue the Springboard unit, watched the movie about Temple Grandin.  On Friday we took our unit 4 Greek/Latin root quiz.

This week we learned the root words from unit 3; we also read an AofW about biomimicry, and how human designs can improve when they are modeled after designs found in nature. 

We read a short excerpt from a memoir in Springboard called "Saying Farewell to a Faithful Pal" and answered questions, specifically discussing how animals can improve our lives.

We spent time reading and reviewing our root words, and they took a quiz on Friday over unit 3 words. 

I was gone Thursday and Friday.

The article and the root words are in my files. 

This week we continued with new routines for this class.

Our AofW was "Shedding Light on the Dinosaur-Bird Connection". We read and diffused (Close reading strategies; notetaking, identifying unknown words) the article in class and wrote a paragraph response to practice academic reading and writing. 

We also practiced writing Introductory Paragraphs using 2.14 in Springboard books. 

We learned the words from the Roots unit 2 and took that quiz on Friday.  We also learned analogies and practiced them using our root words. 

We had a library day; students are now expected to bring library books to class. We had some independent reading time this week. 

There was no assigned homework; the article is in my files. 

Hello Everyone!

This week was the first full week of school. We did a lot of procedural work, getting into the routine of class. 

Monday: We discussed Greek and Latin roots and why we are learning them. We also discussed Growth Mindset and how that can be useful for school.

Tuesday: We reviewed our Unit 1 Greek and Latin roots and students wrote a letter to themselves that they will read at the end of the year, discussing goals for this year and growth mindset for this school year. 

Wednesday: We read our first Article of the week: "You Can Grow Your Intelligence" and unpacked the Embedded Assessment rubric in Springboard for our first essay. 

Thursday: We practiced our first paragraph response to Articles of the Week and finished unpacking the EA. 

Friday: We took our first G/L Root quiz.

There was no homework. The article is in my folders.