Good morning! Here are a few ELA updates for this week:

1. We began to read the short story “All Summer in a Day” yesterday and will finish it this week. This text is a great example of science fiction, and it is full of excellent examples of figurative language. If you have lost your copy, here is a link to the text: http://staff.esuhsd.org/danielle/english%20department%20lvillage/rt/short%20stories/all%20summer%20in%20a%20day.pdf
2. We will be using this story to practice several skills, including summarizing, predicting, inferring, analyzing figurative language, analyzing characterization, and analyzing parts of plot!
3. 5 ReadTheory quizzes (passed with 75% or higher) are due on Friday.

Have a great day!

Hello all! We have had a wonderful and busy week in ELA. Today we reviewed similes and metaphors, and then challenged ourselves with analyzing a few more difficult examples of simile and metaphor. Make sure you have your simile and metaphor notes and that you reach out if you are confused about figurative language.

Figurative Language Notes: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11bV9nPHzeyTwNLlLGUuEQv8HNQvEsaltG99mNuRPl78/edit#slide=id.p

Simile/Metaphor Analysis: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f76ek4-1WPucVZIQU4ZfpAZoTY1AC5CxC33wVrE5WC4/edit

We also continued to look over our 8 vocabulary words, and worked on creating some awesome extension projects. If you have not already turned it in- the Vocabulary Tracker and Extension project (options are listed on the bottom of the assignment) are due tomorrow.

Vocabulary Tracker:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PNV9UMyQofa8lxfxg1yonKAYAINHjrnry5Zat-C7OAg/edit

5 ReadTheory quizzes (you must pass at least 5) are also due tomorrow! Have a great night!

Hello all! Today we worked on our personal narratives and began to learn some new vocabulary words. Below are links to the new vocabulary words and vocabulary assignment.

Vocabulary words- https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nzd08oZ0BKZ_kiMLPEC3KstA144VFONvpG06BCg6uaY/edit#slide=id.p

Vocabulary Assignment- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PNV9UMyQofa8lxfxg1yonKAYAINHjrnry5Zat-C7OAg/edit

Due Dates for this week:
Final Personal Narrative on Google Classroom: Wednesday, October 16 (rubric for narrative: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lnk_1IfeJ84NCA0euWeoaEwRycVst_4ZBtDGemea3Rk/edit#heading=h.gjdgxs)
Pass 5 ReadTheory Quizzes: Friday, October 18

Remember to turn in your Plot Quiz (Black Beauty) corrections if you have not already done so!!

Hello all!

Today we learned about direct and indirect characterization. Students analyze several passages in order to determine which form of characterization was being used. Students also continued to sharpen their skills at selecting evidence to support an inference when making inferences about character traits within the passage. If you were absent today, please review the notes and complete the below activity! Passages used for the activity are at the bottom of the second document.

Homework and Upcoming Dates:

1. Students need to have passed 5 ReadTheory quizzes this week
2. FINAL drafts of your personal narrative will be due next Wednesday, October 16th.
3. Plot Quiz Corrections can be turned in any time in order to improve your score on last Friday’s plot quiz. You need to turn in your quiz with a completed Learning Target Correction form. Additional copies of these are always in the folder by the Turn In Bins.
4. Tomorrow is a half day for all students! Dismissal is at 11:05.

Good morning all!

Yesterday we learned some rules for including dialogue in our personal narratives. Students were all given time to go back into their personal narratives and add examples of correctly formatted dialogue. Attached below are the notes we went over in class. Students will be expected to have at least 2 examples of dialogue in their narratives.

Today we will continue to work on revising our personal narratives by adding descriptive detail and character thoughts. Complete rough drafts need to be finished by Friday, and your final story will be due next week. Ask a family member to read over your story and make suggestions

Yesterday we also spent 20 minutes working on our weekly ReadTheory assignment. Students must pass 5 more quizzes by Friday. We will not spend any more class time on this- it is homework! If you have any concerns about accessing a computer after school, please contact me. You may come in to work on your ReadTheory at lunch or after school.

Have a great day!

Today we continued to review the elements of plot. We analyzed two stories (Lost in Time and the Pocket Watch) and practiced breaking down multi-step questions with these stories.

Important Reminders:
1. Our first Elements of Plot Quiz is tomorrow. Be prepared to analyze a short text, locate elements of plot within the text, and respond to a multi-step question.

2. Your ReadTheory homework is due tomorrow. You need to pass 5 quizzes with an 80% or higher.

3. We have not read every day this week, so you are not expected to have 4 boxes filled out on your 4Square tomorrow! We will keep this 4Square and continue filling it out next week as we practice finding elements of plot within our choice books

4. If you have not brought in a 3 pronged folder or 25 cents- this FRIDAY is your last day to make sure you’ve turned one in to me! We are going to start creating our portfolio folders tomorrow after the quiz- so please make sure you have given me a folder

Have a great day!

Happy October!!

Today we worked in stations! One station practiced analyzing the elements of plot in our workbooks, and the other station practiced our nonfiction text skills with ReadTheory. All students made a ReadTheory account today.

Homework: Students must pass 5 quizzes with an 80% or higher by this Friday. Remember, you must be logged in to your ReadTheory account (using your Dearborn schools Google account) in order for me to see your progress.

This Friday, October 4th is our plot quiz. Make sure that you are confident with our plot vocabulary (exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution).

Please have your parents sign your progress report and return it ASAP! Have a great afternoon!

Happy Friday!!

Today we continued to work on our learning target of describing plot. Students can refer to the following slides to make sure they have definitions for all of the plot words:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12e7bjE8-tutWST2D8C31OR9kL1pRWDsI-SaaabY1qJ4/edit#slide=id.g4107e2ddb7_1_24

ALL students that did not get 100% on their Inferences Quiz should have completed quiz corrections and turned them in. Below is the Learning Target Correction form.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jqguKFZmjlEkAVcctVilQf9byZ7DzN9kSfSiBWG567E/edit

Homework for the weekend:
Core 1 and Core 2: The Dove and Ant plot practice
Core 3: The Phone Call plot pyramid

If you finished these in class, you have no homework. Progress reports will be coming home next week. I suggest you all look on Student Connect and check your grades to ensure that any missing assignments are turned in

Have a wonderful and safe weekend! See you Monday!

Our current learning target is describing plot. We took notes on elements of plot today. Students learned the terms exposition and resolution, and continued to review the vocabulary we learned yesterday: plot, setting, conflict/complications, protagonist, and antagonist.

Homework tonight: Students must locate and label the exposition, conflict, and resolution in the short story The Lion and the Boar. Here is a link to the story (you must be logged in with your Dearborn Schools email to see the link):

The Lion and the Boar: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19xQAICCZM_7ULQKSyylm-kZE8PJT8Yq_hNAj7PuWi90/edit

Students are also expected to write 3 full sentence responses about the plot elements of the story using the following sentence stems:

In the exposition, I learn…
The main conflict of the story is…
In the resolution, the conflict is resolved when…

Be sure that you are becoming comfortable and confident with this new vocabulary! As we move on to reading more complex stories and work on writing our own narratives, it will become very important to have a good understanding of these terms and how to locate the elements of plot in a short story.

Tomorrow is a late start! Remember to be at school by 8:50. Have a great night!!

Hello all!

Tomorrow is our first quiz on inferring and using text evidence. Students have been practicing these skills throughout the week with many different texts. I am confident that you are all ready! Make sure to get a good night of sleep and come ready to show what you know.

Tomorrow is also a half day. Dismissal will be at 11:05.

Have a great afternoon!