week of 10/29
This week: Monday/Tuesday: Lesson 5 in Word Explorer vocabulary book is due for 6th and 7th grade.
We will be reviewing the Vocabulary 3 words this week. Students will be bringing home 2 practice sheets for these words – a crossword and word-search. These will be due next Monday/Tuesday and will be used to review for the Vocabulary 3 Quiz next Wednesday/Thursday. Students should be reviewing these words with you nightly.
Students should also be reviewing the prefixes we have discussed and learned in class. We will be adding to these prefixes next week – adding suffixes and root words. Please review these nightly as well. They will have a quiz over these in a couple of weeks.
Students will be bringing home a short TAKS practice passage: Earth – Blue Planet. Students should take notes following the procedure discussed in class (read 3 paragraphs and check in with yourself – take notes), and then answer the questions for Non-Fiction on the TAKS notetaking sheet (blue – glued in spiral) given them. This will be due on Thursday/Friday.
Thursday and Friday students will be working on a Current Events magazine assignment during class, and then will have 2 short TAKS practices to do as homework – following the same procedure described above. The 2 practices are: “Volcanoes” and “Tornadoes”. These will be due next Monday/Tuesday.
Reading logs are due Friday as usual. Please be sure your child is reading at least 10 pages per night and giving you a verbal summary of what he/she read before you sign.
Next week: Lesson 6 in Word Explorer will be due on Monday/Tuesday for 6th and 7th grade. We will review for the Vocabulary 3 Quiz – quiz set for Wednesday/Thursday. Students will be receiving the set of Vocabulary 4 words after the quiz, so expect these to come home.
In class: we will be reviewing and checking the TAKS practices and working on Stanford skills and practices in class. The homework will be to review their notes and words, and work on the vocabulary lesson.
Have a good week!
week of 10/22
This week students will be taking notes over common roots, prefixes, and suffixes. They should make flash cards for each and be reviewing them every night. Students will have a test over this material towards the end of next week.
For 6th and 7th grade, Word Explorer lesson 4 is due today or tomorrow. Lesson 5 will be due next Monday/Tuesday.
Wednesday/Thursday, students will have the Vocabulary 3 words to work on, which will be due next week Tuesday, and they will also be working on a TAKS practice passage. Students MUST highlight the passage and take notes using the strategies taught. We will go over the text and answers in class on Friday.
On Friday, students will be working on a Stanford practice passage in class, as well as a newspaper assignment. In addition, as always, Reading Logs are due – 100 pages total.
Next week, students will continue working on TAKS passages and will begin reviewing the Vocabulary 3 words. Students will also be working with and reviewing the Roots, prefixes, and suffixes notes. Please work with your child every night reviewing these notes and vocabulary words.
Students will also be receiving the rubric next week for their next project – a research project over a chosen individual. Please make sure your child begins working on this project and closely follows the rubric. Parents – please be sure your child does not plagiarize information from research sources. All information on the project should be written entirely in their own words, other than required quotes.
Have a good week!
week of 10/15
This week the Comic Book project is due on either Tuesday or Wednesday. During class, we will be discussing the recent Reading Benchmark results and beginning practicing strategies. Students should be bringing home their test and going over passages again using the strategies discussed, and will be changing their answers if necessary. Don’t forget that Reading logs are due on Friday.
Parents – Reading logs are a vital component to your child’s improvement in reading. Studies have shown that the more a child reads, the more advancements are made in vocabulary knowledge and overall comprehension skills. Please take the time to be sure your child is reading at least 10 pages per day and giving you a verbal summary of those pages before you sign off. Students should be averaging at least 50 pages per week. Thank you for your help in improving your child’s reading.
Next week, we will begin work on the Vocabulary 3 words, as well as continuing our TAKS strategies practices. Students will be bringing home a TAKS practice passage, and will need to follow the strategies taught in class for note-taking and answering the questions. For 6th and 7th grade, Lesson 4 in the Word Explorer book will be due on Monday or Tuesday. Students will also be taking notes on Prefixes, Suffixes, and Root words during class time, and will need to be reviewing these every night until they are fully committed to memory. There will be a test over these the following week.
week of 10/8
This week students will be taking their Vocabulary 2 test on Wednesday and Thursday. Students will be applying their knowledge of these terms to answer questions related to the stories we have read in class.
We will be beginning our discussion of non-fiction. Students will be bringing home a reading passage: 6th & 7th: Black Holes 8th: Plate Techtonics. They are to read the passage and respond in their journals according to the handout I gave them. This will be due either Friday or Monday (blue/gray). For 6th and 7th grade classes, next Monday and Tuesday, Lesson 3 in their Word Explorer workbook will be due. Reading Logs will also be due this Friday.
Please remember that their major project, the Comic Book, is due next Tuesday/Wednesday, and no late projects will be accepted.
Have a good week!
Week of 10/1
This week students took the 1st Reading Benchmark assessment. Once the scores have been tabulated, I will be sending home a report of your child’s results. In class, we will be reviewing and discussing the Vocabulary 2 words in preparation for the quiz next Wednesday and Thursday, October 10/11. The quiz will be related to the stories we have discussed in class, and will be based on applying knowledge, not definition recognition. Students need to review the following stories in relation to our Vocabulary terms: 6th: Lob’s Girl; 7th: The War of the Wall; 8th: The Lottery.
This week students received the rubric for their next major project: creating a comic book over a story we have read in class. The rubric is available on my web-site under classwork. Projects are due October 16/17, and please note that due to grading deadlines, NO late projects will be accepted. This project counts as a major grade and is worth 30 points.
Please remind your child that their Reading Log is due on Friday. Parents, before you sign the reading log, please be sure your child is verbally summarizing what they have read to you. This is an important aspect of the home reading, so please be sure they can tell you about what they read before you sign off.
Next week,
For 6th and 7th grade, Lesson 2 in the Word Explorer Vocabulary workbook will be due in class next Monday/Tuesday. We will begin reading and discussing non-fiction, and will also begin some TAKS review passages, strategies, and objectives. Students will be bringing home TAKS passages do, and will be also working on the Vocabulary 3 words. We will be taking notes over more roots and affixes, and students will soon be having a quiz over their notes the following week.
Week of 9/24
This week students will be taking the major quiz over the Vocabulary 1 words. We will begin discussing genres and base words with affixes (prefixes and suffixes) and will be taking notes over these. Students will be receiving the Vocabulary 2 words to begin working on, and they will be due at the end of the week.
We will begin reading new stories this week, and we will be using this story to discuss and apply the Vocabulary 1 and 2 words. The stories the students will be reading are:
6th grade: “Lob’s Girl”; 7th grade: “The War of the Wall”; 8th grade: “The Lottery” (please note this story is not in the textbook – students will be receiving a paper copy).
In addition, students will have homework in their Word Explorer vocabulary books. They will be working on Lesson 1 – Using a Dictionary and Thesaurus. We will discuss the lesson and begin working on it in class, and it will be due the end of the week.
Don’t forget that this week’s reading logs are also due on Friday – 100 pages read total.
Week of 9/10
This week we are working on the Vocabulary 1 words available on my website (Elements of Fiction). Students will be discussing and reviewing the terms in class, and should be studying them at home. I have required them to make flash cards for each term, and I have also told them to “teach” parents the words in order to help them understand and remember them. We will have a test over these words towards the end of next week, after we have discussed them in relation to the stories we will be reading. I will post the dates when I know the students are ready.
Students have also begun this week reading in their Interactive Reader (IR): 6th “Eleven”; 7th “Thank You, M’am”; 8th “A Mother in Mannville”. They are to read these stories at home and come ready to discuss them. 8th grade students should be reading and marking the story using their text codes learned in English class. I am prone to give pop quizzes, so they should read for understanding and be prepared. We will be working on doing pages in the IR together in class, but they may need to finish some at home: 6th pages 10-11; 7th pages 23-25; 8th pages 34-35.
This week we are working on getting lexile levels for your child, and they will be bringing home printouts with their lexile score and suggested book titles for reading on their level. I encourage you to contact me regarding any questions you may have. We will be re-evaluating their lexiles every 6 weeks or so, and we will be looking for the scores to go steadily up. I will be contacting you for a conference to discuss intervention options if your child’s level is of concern, or if your child doesn’t make improvement and progress.
The cinquain projects look fabulous and I encourage you to come to Open House to check them out. I know your child will be anxious for you to see it hanging up. The projects hanging outside the classroom in the cluster are the “Wall of Fame” projects – they are especially creative and well-done.
Don’t forget that Reading logs are due every Friday, so students will be asking you to sign them. They should have read at least 100 pages by this Friday (10 pages per night for 2 weeks).
Next week: IR pages, story discussions, and Elements Test.
Week of 9/4
Welcome to the second week of school! Parents, students should have already turned in the signed class syllabus and the Reading Inventory. These were the first 2 grades, so please be sure they have been turned in. This week, students will begin working on a cinquain poster project. Please see my website for instructions on writing a cinquain. The project will require students to cut pictures from magazines, so please have them ready. We will also be taking notes over the genres of writing, and students will need to review the notes with you and “teach” you the information.
On Thursday, students will get their first list of vocabulary words. We will work on these in class, and they will have a quiz over these words towards the end of next week.
Recap: Grades due this week: Participation for notes and poster/cinquain work; reading log due Friday; poster due Monday/Tuesday.
Thanks!
My First Posting
Welcome to my new blog. I hope you will come back often to check class assignments and other interesting tidbits.
This week students are to sign and return their syllabus (parents: please sign them as well!) and reading inventories.
