As with every week, we had a full class time. In fact, I do my best to fill every minute with good learning opportunities.
This week's prompt for the Quick Write asked the students to write convincing arguments why they should be admitted to the exclusive "Awesome Problem Solving Club" and include specific contributions that they might make. Their responses showed a wonderful blend of the practical skills, interpersonal abilities, and creativity that are in this group of students.
Our Words of the Day were contributed by students. These words came from their My Antonia reading.
oracular -- adj, fr. Latin, oraculum "speaking" -- of or relating to being a person giving wise or authoritative answers; a prophet or seer
vermilion -- noun, fr. Latin vermiculus, "bright red color" -- a vivid reddish orange
impetuously -- adv., fr. Latin impetus, "drive by force" -- marked by impulsive or vehement action
Students should be writing these words down because we will have an end of the semester test.
Before we proceeded the bulk of our the content of the day, I walked the students through the My GradeBook site. Some of them had already signed in. If you or your student have not done that yet, go to this document, Instructions for My GradeBook, for instructions. As I told the students, they might never need to go to this site if they are keeping track of their homework. However, if they are absent for a number of weeks or have forgotten if they have handed something in or not, this is a good place to find that information. As parents, you can check it to see if work is getting in or to check on current grade status. It is by no means required of students or parents to regularly check this online grade book.
Students were to hand in their rough drafts of their Personal Commentary Essays. For those who want to hand in digital copies, they can choose any of the following options: email a Word attachment, send a PDF of the paper, share a Google Doc, or share a OneDrive doc. This week I will go over their essays and hand them back next week. They will then make corrections and revise their rough drafts into final drafts.
Students were assigned to read pages 1 - 23 of My Antonia, and I had them divide into small groups to discuss their impressions thus far about the time period, geography, characters, and themes of the book. For those who are interested, I've included links to audio versions of the book with the links at the end of these emails. For next week, the students will be with the same students in Literature Circles. In these small groups, students are assigned specific roles for discussing the assigned reading for next week. Those roles -- discussion leader, illustrator, luminary, word nerd, connector, summarizer -- have been assigned and students should prep for the circles by doing the following:
- Discussion leader -- be ready to lead the discussion by reading the assigned portion; be thinking about the major events and themes of that portion;
- Illustrator -- draw a picture of one of the scenes or an interpretation of one of the themes
- Luminary -- find quotes that seem to sum up the main points of the section; choose quotes that seem particularly thoughtful, funny, or serious
- Word Nerd -- select words that are especially unusual and look up their roots
- Connector -- be ready to connect events, themes, character types, etc. with real world examples
- Summarizer -- at the end of the discussion, summarize and connect the comments that everyone has made
The Discussion Leaders for next week are Laura M, Aaron H, Elliana S,and Annika C. In a separate email, I will send the students contact information for one another in case they need to make contact. (Note: Students will be graded on participation.)
We rushed through our Grammar portion of the class, but the material I handed out will probably be review for most of the students. They were give 2 sets of worksheets, one for Nouns & Pronouns and one for Adjectives and Adverbs. These are to be done for next week.
Assignments for Next Week (Sept. 5)
-- Read p. 24 - 47 of My Antonia
-- No Reader Responses
-- Prepare for Literature Circle roles
-- 5 Vocabulary Words
-- Nouns/Pronouns Worksheet
-- Adjectives/Adverbs Worksheet
Links for This Week
Class Notes
Have a beautiful Labor Day Weekend!
Mrs. Prichard
No comments:
Post a Comment