I hope everyone is enjoying their time off! Located in this post are links to the story “All Summer in a Day” and the movie version of it. Please make sure if your student missed out on the last two days of school (Thurs/Fri) that they read and watch the movie to prepare them for an assignment when we return on the 9th!

Reading:   https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwisyLjRwJrRAhUl94MKHQsbCjEQFghDMAc&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fviewer%3Fa%3Dv%26pid%3Dsites%26srcid%3Dd2VzdHNhY3ByZXAub3JnfG1pZGRsZS1zY2hvb2wtZW5nbGlzaHxneDpjZGYxOTJiMDc5MmNhZmI&usg=AFQjCNFwlEkjhBCm85TfbW-LcrZgbVtXig&sig2=OE7PXhZtx8jFjpmTyRmItQ

Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz05RhA9Cyw

Homework over break:

• 1 reading log with 5 responses due January 9th
• Read “All Summer in a Day” and watch the movie if you missed it!

Enjoy and have a safe break!

We learned about Mood and Tone today and compared the Frozen trailer to the Frozen Horror trailer. It really helped show how if the tone changes then context changes! We then read “All Summer in a Day” which was a story about students that live on Venus and only get summer one day every 7 years!

Tomorrow, students may bring a snack in tomorrow when we watch the “All Summer in a Day” video. Please, no pop!

If they are retaking their test in class tomorrow they will miss the movie and have to watch it over break. I will post the link tomorrow!

Homework

• Read 20 minutes and respond on reading log (due tomorrow!)

Students took the Story Elements Test today and I am happy to report that the average test score was a 89% overall, which is awesome!  All scores are posted on Student Connect and the retake will be tomorrow after school starting at 3pm. Since it is a test it will take them about 30-40 minutes to retake the exam after school is the best option. I, unfortunately, cannot do before school this week because I am monitoring before school breakfast time. If any student cannot make the retake after school tomorrow they need to come talk to me by tomorrow afternoon. Please sign your students planner to let me know you saw their original score!   They may review their answers and my comments on their written responses on iLearn located on the district’s website.

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

Homework

• Read 20 minutes and respond on reading log
• 10 Read Theory quizzes are due by Friday! Www.readtheory.com

Today we learned a new reading comprehension strategy: using prior knowledge to make connections with a text. The students applied this to their “good fit” books and their Article of the Week. We then played a vocabulary review game to help us study for our Story Test tomorrow. This will cover the vocabulary on the study guide that was given to each student as well as comprehension questions for “The School Play” and “Tuesday of the Other June”.  They may use their literature books for the story questions but may not use their study guide or Reading ISN so be sure to review the vocabulary with them tonight! All answers can be found in their Reading ISN.

Homework

• Read 20 minutes and respond on reading log (due tomorrow!!!)
• 10 more Read Theory quizzes by FRIDAY!  https://Www.readtheory.com
• Study for Story Test

We presented our Story Elements posters in class today. I have to admit, many of the students blew me away with how creative they can be! I will be putting these posters up in the hallway next week and they will take their One-Pagers home.

We do have a full week of school next week. Please let us know if your student will be missing any days as we have a full week of learning planned. In my class specifically we are reading a really interesting story on Thursday, comparing it to the short film version on Friday, and writing about it when we return from break. If your student is going to miss Thursday or Friday they need to see me immediately so I can give them instructions on how to catch up on what they miss.

Students have a test on Tuesday. They were sent home with a study guide on terms and concepts they will be tested on. All answers can be found in their Reading ISN. We will review on Monday.

Homework

• Read 20 minutes and respond on reading log (due tomorrow!!!)
• 10 more Read Theory quizzes by NEXT FRIDAY!  https://Www.readtheory.com
• Study for Story Elements Test

Students worked diligently on their Literary Element posters today. They were given the entire class to work on it with their groups, if they did not finish it is homework due tomorrow. They will be presenting their posters to the class tomorrow and then we will review for a language arts test they will have Tuesday December 20th. I will send home a study guide for them to complete over the weekend in class tomorrow. This test will cover the stories ¨The School Play¨, ¨Tuesday of the Other June¨, story vocabulary, conflict (categories and types of), and Pyramid of Action.  All answers can be found in their Reading ISN or in their Literature books. They may check out a Literature book from me to take home if needed.

Homework

• Read 20 minutes and respond on reading log (due tomorrow!!!)
• 10 more Read Theory quizzes by December 23rd! (we will have computers in class tomorrow and next week to help students complete this requirement, please encourage your student to continue with this program once they complete their required 10 though!)

Students began their Literary Elements poster today.  They are in groups of 3 and worked really hard their first day! They will get all class tomorrow to finish and they will present their posters on Friday! If they do not finish tomorrow they will take it home for homework.

Homework

• Read 20 minutes and respond on reading log
• 10 more Read Theory quizzes by December 23rd! (we will have computers in class Friday to help students complete this requirement, please encourage your student to continue with this program once they complete their required 10 though!)

Today we continued with types of conflict and began work with genre. Tomorrow, we will begin a literary elements poster project with small groups. They will pick one story we have read in class and analyze it for it’s literary elements (pyramid of action, conflict, protagonist, antagonist, etc.). This will be due on Friday for a summative grade and they will present their posters to the class.

Homework

• Read 20 minutes and respond on reading log (reading logs are still homework due Friday even though they had a snow day yesterday!)
• Read Theory quizzes…10 due by next Friday!

Today we learned the 4 types of conflict (man vs. self, man vs. man, man vs. nature, and man vs. society). Tomorrow, we will read a story and apply this concept with a partner.

Homework

• Read 20 minutes and respond on reading log (we are back to 5 responses this week!!!)
• 10 more Read Theory quizzes by December 23rd! (we will have computers in class periodically to help students complete this requirement, please encourage your student to continue with this program once they complete their required 10 though!)

This week we have been working on the Pyramid of Action (plot diagram) and understanding the different components of a story.  Today we got out marking period 2 grades. Many students grades have gone up, but some have dropped due to lack of turning in homework or retaking assessments. Grades for marking period 2 are posted and we are now in marking period 3.  We took a closer look at the student’s Argumentative writing scores and I helped them to better understand. Since writing rubric are performance based, I do not look at their scores from an A, B, C, D, E point of view.  When looking at their performance on a writing assignment, they lie in 4 different categories:  Advanced, Proficient, Partially Proficient, and Unsatisfactory. Advanced (100%-94%) means they went above and beyond what was asked and are writing above a 6th grade level. Proficient (93%-70%) means they met all of the requirements of the essay. Partially Proficient (69%-50%) means they may have missed a certain part (or two) of the requirements. Unsatisfactory (49%-0%) means they missed a lot of requirements for the essay or did not turn in a complete essay. Please note students were given two weeks to complete this assignment, as well as the option to work on it over Thanksgiving Break. Students will be conferring with me in the coming weeks to look at their graded rubric and better understand what their score means and set goals for future writing assignments.  Due to the fact that the district rubric is performance based, I opted to weigh the assignment in the grade book to be more fair and it didn’t impact their grades as much as a quiz or test would have.

Homework

• LIBRARY TOMORROW!!! Please bring all library books, they will be late if you don’t!
• Read 20 minutes and respond on reading log (we are back to 5 responses this week!!!)
• 10 more Read Theory quizzes by December 23rd! (we will have computers in class periodically to help students complete this requirement, please encourage your student to continue with this program once they complete their required 10 though!)

Happy Friday! Today we learned about the pyramid of action (exposition, rising actions, climax, falling actions, resolution) and applied that to “Little Red Riding Hood” and then our “good fit” books during Daily 5 time. We wrote our Article of the Week C.E.R. responses with our opinions. The article can be found here (https://newsela.com/articles/moana-disney-diversity/id/21081/ ) and due to the fact that many did not finish this assignment because they were working so hard on it, I am posting the Essential Question and sentence starters below so they can finish over the weekend.

All missing assignments should now be turned in. Today was their last chance to turn in anything that’s been missing during the marking period. Grades will be updated by Sunday night.

Homework

• Read 20 minutes and respond on reading log (4 responses this week, due Friday)
• 10 more Read Theory quizzes by December 23rd!
• Article of the Week response, if not turned in at the end of class.
  • EQ:   Do you think movies should cast actors that match the culture of the character they are playing?
    • (indent) I think movies should/shouldn’t have to cast actors that match the culture of the character they are playing. I think this because in the Newsela article it says, _______. This makes me think __________. Another example from the article is when they said that ____________.  This means_________.  In conclusion____________________.
      • Response outline should follow this format:  1. Make your claim 2. Support with evidence from article 3. Reasoning (explain how your evidence supports your claim) 4.  Support with another piece of evidence from article 5. Reasoning (explain how your evidence supports your claim) 6. Wrap up your final thoughts on the topic in a conclusion sentence. (If, then statement would work too)