Today we learned narrative vocabulary. We took notes about plot, setting, conflict, protagonist, and antagonist. We applied this new learning to our “Good Fit” books during Daily 5 time and then read our Article of the Week. We are continuing to discuss Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning as the year goes on with our articles, even though our argumentative unit is over.  All argumentative essays will be graded by Friday in time to go on their report cards!

End of marking period is this Friday! All missing work needs to be turned in by Thursday so I can have time to grade it!

Homework

• Read 20 minutes and respond on reading log (4 responses this week, due Friday)
• 10 more Read Theory quizzes by December 23rd!

Conjunction/Interjection Quiz Retakes – LAST CHANCE!

• Wednesday – before school (7:30 am) and after school
• Anyone can retake but I am now averaging the two scores together to encourage studying and best effort the first time!
• Must have a parent signature on the original quiz in order to retake!

EXTRA CREDIT

• Teachers are running low on supplies! Any student that donates a box of tissues or disinfecting wipes will get 1 point extra credit on their last quiz! Thank you in advance!

We are beginning our new unit about narratives. Today we investigated our new unit vocabulary words and presented our investigation to the class with our groups.

End of marking period is this Friday! All missing work needs to be turned in by Thursday so I can have time to grade it!

Homework

• Read 20 minutes and respond on reading log (4 responses this week due Friday)
• 10 more Read Theory quizzes by December 23rd!

Conjunction/Interjection Quiz Retakes

• Tuesday – before school (7:30 am) and after school
• Wednesday – before school (7:30 am) and after school
• Anyone can retake but I am now averaging the two scores together to encourage studying and best effort the first time!
• Must have a parent signature on the original quiz in order to retake!

Tomorrow is our last day to finalize our essays and turn them in to be graded. Students will revise their rough drafts tomorrow in class. This is not homework!

Students were sent home a worksheet to help them study for a brief interjection & conjunction quiz tomorrow (worth 10 points).  Their quiz will be similar to their worksheet so they should use that as a guide as well as the resources below:

Conjunction resource (click here)

Interjection resource (click here)

Homework

• 20 minutes of reading and response on reading log
  • Many students are losing points because they are not fully responding in 2 or more sentences. Please check your students reading log to make sure they FULLY responded or this will lose them points.
• Conjunction and Interjection worksheet (we will review answers before the quiz tomorrow)
• Review videos above for tomorrow’s quiz
• 10 Read Theory quizzes are due TOMORROW!

We are working on peer editing until Monday. Students were given a rubric to use to evaluate their partners essay and give positive, helpful feedback on how they can improve. Final copies will be finalized on Tuesday before we go on break so they can relax!  The reading log they will receive today is due November 28th due to next week being so short!

Homework

• Read for 20 minutes and respond on reading log (due November 28th)
• readtheory.com  10 quizzes due by Tuesday!!! (summative grade)

Reminder! Tomorrow is a late start day!!! School begins at 9:00 am!!!

Today we continued with our Argumentative essays and wrote our body paragraphs. They learned how to use their claim as a “road map” for their paper like a thesis statement. We also worked on explaining the evidence we provide which is something many were missing in their beginning of year essays. Many are working on making their writing stronger. Not everyone finished their body paragraphs in class and are going to finish at home or come in at 7:30 am tomorrow to continue their work. Our rough drafts should be done by tomorrow! We will work on the editing and revising stage next! These papers should be finalized by Tuesday November 22nd. Access to Google classroom can be found on my post from yesterday (November 14th post – I bolded the important log-in information!)

Homework

• Read 20 minutes and respond on reading log
• Finish body paragraphs if you didn’t in class!!
• 10 ReadTheory quizzes due by November 22nd

We had quite a busy day today! Today we learned different techniques on how to “hook” a reader. We typed up our Introduction paragraph on Google Classroom as well. Many students persevered with this new topic and I was very impressed with their hard work.  Not all students were able to finish their introduction in class and have a sentence or two to finish up before class tomorrow.  Please allow for them to sign into their Dearborn Google accounts (click here) and either open up their document at https://classroom.google.com OR go into their drive and open up their argumentative essay from there. It will be easier to find on our classroom though. Please be sure to sign into their Dearborn Google accounts (again, it can only be accessed from this website) BEFORE trying to go to our Google Classroom.

For interesting ways to hook a reader, visit this page:   https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ucnhefjqGrw/VpLPKrW04nI/AAAAAAAAMBk/mUCJ21otoJE/s400/hook%2Byour%2Breader%2Bdefinitions.png

Thesis = Claim (what is your opinion and what are your reasons for thinking this?)

Introduction paragraph format:

1. Hook your reader
2. Introduce your topic (background information, explain what your topic is)
3. End with your claim (I believe ______ because __(reason 1)__, __(reason 2)__, and __(reason 3)__.

The number of reasons they need is based on their color group. They were informed of this in class today.

They may also come in at 7:30 am tomorrow if they wanted to work on their introductions with me in class before school begins!

Homework

• Read 20 minutes and respond on reading log
• Finish Introduction paragraph if you didn’t in class!!

Happy Friday! We had a great time in Language Arts today! The students discussed their argumentative essay topics in small Socratic circles. They had meaningful conversations with each other and helped each other understand their topics better by teaching each other about it.  I took some photographs of my afternoon classes and will post on the blog this weekend (my iPad wouldn’t connect to Wifi today!).  At the end of class we wrote our final responses to the Article of the Week. Some students did not finish this in class and needed to take it home for homework. The response should answer the EQ at the top of their graphic organizer and be written in a Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning paragraph (CER). These sentence stems should help guide their thinking if they are stuck:

I strongly believe___.  In the article it says____and that makes me think_____.

Another piece of evidence from the text is_____this means_______.

Furthermore, if we_____ then _____.

There are also sentence frames on their graphic organizer to help them out. Basically they state their claim (opinion) on the topic first. Explain why they think this with evidence from the text (at least two pieces of evidence). Then end with their reasoning for why this makes sense. (How does the evidence support their claim?)

Homework:

• Read for 20 minutes and respond on reading log!
• Finish Article of the Week CER response if you didn’t turn it in Friday (Due Monday!)

Today the students finished their argumentative essay research and picked a side they were leaning towards right now for their argument. Tomorrow, we will discuss our topics in small Socratic Circles before making a final opinion on the topic and begin writing about it. We will begin our rough drafts on Monday and peer edit by the end of the week. They will have Thanksgiving break to finish their final copy (if it isn’t already done and turned in by then) and turn in by the Monday we return. I will update you more as we get closer to these dates.

Homework:

• Read for 20 minutes and respond on reading log!

We are researching for our argumentative essays right now. Students read both sides of their argument and tomorrow will finish their research. We will discuss our topics in small Socratic Circles later this week before making a final opinion on the topic and write about it.

Homework:

• Read for 20 minutes and respond on reading log!

Today we began picking our topics to write about for our argumentative essays. Students will research their topics and prepare their argument this week, and begin their essays starting Monday! We also went to the library today due to the fact that the library will be closed most of the day Wednesday. Students that were not prepared will be given passes to make up their library time on Thursday or Friday.

Homework:

• Read for 20 minutes and respond on reading log!

Reminders:

• No School (students only) tomorrow!

Today, we had a debate on whether we think video games have a positive or negative impact on today’s youth. I was extremely impressed with the points the students were making and the high respect they had for each other’s thoughts and ideas! Plus, it was fun! During our second round of Daily 5, students wrote out the Article of the Week’s claim, evidence, and reasoning response. Some students did not finish and had to take home. The sentence stems I provided them were:

The author believes _____________________________. (claim)  In the text they state _____________________________. (evidence #1, use quotations if you directly quote the article) They also say _____________________________.  (evidence #2, use quotations if you directly quote the article)   Simon believes that this is important because _____________________________. (reasoning, how does this evidence tie to their claim, what’s the relationship?)

They may use these or their own complete sentences to finish their response. I will collect on Monday for a formative grade.

Homework

• Read for 20 minutes and respond on reading log!
• Have a great weekend!

Reminder:   NO SCHOOL TUESDAY (Students ONLY) – Election Day

Today we prepared our ideas for a Video Game debate we will be having tomorrow! This will be a summative assessment as they have prepared all week for this project. To earn full points they will have to come prepared to the debate with one original idea to share, listen to each other & respond respectfully, take turns talking (no interruptions!), act respectfully, and stay on topic.

Last day to make up the vocabulary quiz is tomorrow!!

• Before school at 7:30am, in class at the end, or after school at 3:00pm
  • Students will need to get their planner signed by a parent in order to retake the quiz – no parent signature no quiz retake
    • A parent signature indicates:
      • The parent saw their quiz score on Parent Connect (vocabulary quiz from 10/28) – https://zangleweb.resa.net/Dearborn/ParentConnect/
      • The parent witnessed their student study on Quizlet or with flashcards for at least 30 minutes (outside of school)
        • Quizlet can still be accessed! https://mail.google.com/a/dearbornschools.org    THEN go to classroom.google.com after you sign into Google!
          • I urge the students to do the practice quiz!! The games are fun but the quiz will give them testing practice!
        • If your student wants to review what they missed on iLearn they can go here:  https://moodle.dearbornschools.org/course/view.php?id=2054

Homework

• Read 20 minutes and respond on Reading Log (Due Tomorrow!)

We looked at the negative sides of video games today and analyzed the text for main idea and supporting details. We also identified the author’s claim in the article of the week. Tomorrow, we are going to prepare for a debate. They will answer questions that compare and contrasts the two texts and the do a strategy called Philosophical Chairs, which is a more structured type of debate. After the debate, they will make a final claim as to whether video games have a positive or negative impact on young people and provide evidence for their opinion.

Quiz make-ups will be Thursday and Friday

• Thursday – before school at 7:30am, after school at 3:00pm
• Friday – before school at 7:30am, in class at the end, or after school at 3:00pm
  • Students will need to get their planner signed by a parent in order to retake the quiz – no parent signature no quiz retake
    • A parent signature indicates:
      • The parent saw their quiz score on Parent Connect (vocabulary quiz from 10/28) – https://zangleweb.resa.net/Dearborn/ParentConnect/
      • The parent witnessed their student study on Quizlet or with flashcards for at least 30 minutes (outside of school)
        • Quizlet can still be accessed! https://mail.google.com/a/dearbornschools.org    then go to classroom.google.com after you sign in
          • I urge the students to do the practice quiz!!
        • If your student wants to review what they missed on iLearn they can go here:  https://moodle.dearbornschools.org/course/view.php?id=2054

Homework

• Read 20 minutes and respond on Reading Log

We are beinning to look at two sides of an argument and analyze them for the most important details (main claim and strongest supporting evidence). We read “What Video Games Can Teach Us” and wrote down our analysis notes on a graphic organizer. We will look at the “con” side of this debate today and have a Socratic Seminar about the topic on Friday.

Quiz Retakes: Quiz retakes will be before school (7:30 am) and after school (3:00 pm) Thursday and Friday. My week has been filled with meetings so I apologize for not beginning them today. Students need to go on Quizlet and study for at least 30 minutes (outside of school!) prior to showing up to retake the quiz.

Homework

Read 20 minutes and respond on Reading log (2-3 sentences!!)