Overview - In writing class, the focus shifts toward "paired-passages." Students will become engaged in group activities focused around non-fiction and fictional articles. The articles will have the same thematic concept, but be told through different sets of eyes. The groups will be expected to make connections through the breakdown of the literature, as well as find how they are different from each other. They will be expected to synthesize ideas from each passage into an extended response piece. We will also focus our efforts on how to draft short responses that contain vital information, yet get the point across in a meaningful way with a lot less words. The groups will be using note taking skills such as: highlighting, tabbing, post-its, numbering, graphing, etc... This unit will prepare them for the short and long response questions facing them in the near future.
Monday - 2/24/14 - Students worked on turning their science reports in for an overall grade. We helped Mrs. Santamore finish the travel brochures in social studies. The students also began working on their Khan Academy math assignments. We will begin to delve into paired passages tomorrow.
Tuesday - 2/25/14 - Mrs. Chapman applied for school donations through a webpage called "Donors Choose" in order to purchase the necessary materials to complete our science experiments. A very special person chose our school and donated enough money for us to purchase our science poster boards, construction paper, and glue. In return, the students are writing a personal letter thanking that person for their random act of kindness. In the letter, the students will explain how they utilized the donated materials in their project. They must also explain their science experiment and what results were yielded form their research. Finally, they are expected to explain their future plan in life, as in college, career fields and how they will impact their community in a positive way.
Wednesday - 2/26/14 - Students began deep reading paired passages. The two articles were "To the Egress" and "To the Cyclops." One being non-fiction and the other a fictional piece. Of course, they were similar in nature as the students must be able to synthesize elements from each piece. Today, we focused on the task of finding the meaning, character traits and key details that shape each story. Students were also shown how to take effective notes that can be used later to answer questions. We then reviewed the strategies for tackling multiple choice questions. Students practiced the deep reading strategy and were proficient in the note taking process. We were able to partially finish the multiple choice section.
Thursday - 2/27/14 - Today, we focused on filling out graphic organizers and charts. We modeled how to pull key language from a passage and to get rid of the nonsense words that hold no meaning. Students had to break a sentence down into a few key pieces. This is a very difficult task for most adults, but they seem to be mastering the skill. Once again we reviewed deep reading and how it applies to getting the overall picture of the story. We were then able to move onto the short response section. Here we discussed multiple ways to answer a question effectively. Complete thoughts, capitalization, punctuation and spelling were reviewed with the students. I explained how to make a claim and then support it with evidence from each passage.
Friday - 2/28/14 - The focus of today's lesson was writing the extended response. Here, students must answer multiple questions and figure out how to organize the ideas into an essay format. They must be able to make claims and support with evidence and warrants. Students must have a strong grasp of character traits, author's purpose, themes, and underlying messages. They must also learn how to fuse multiple passages together into clear, coherent thoughts. Much is to be worked over the next few weeks to build upon these required writing skills.
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