Monday, March 10, 2014

Weekly Objectives for 3/10/14 - 3/14/14

Overview - Our Writing class will continue to focus our  efforts on "Paired Passages."  This week we will be reading "Training an Anthill" and "The Means of Survival."  Our group will break down the two passages and dissect each section in order to formulate strong arguments.  The students will be expected to take notes that elaborate on: character traits, motives, themes, author's purpose, similarities and strong vocabulary.  From these notes, we will construct an extended response that demonstrates a deeper knowledge of each text.  In short, students are learning how to think critically, as they read, and make strong judgments that are supported with textual evidence and clear reasoning.
          Monday 3/10/14 - The passages will be passed out to the students and they will be given time to "Deep Read."  They are expected to begin the note taking process on each passage.  We will revisit the readings on Tuesday and address the multiple choice questions.
          Tuesday 3/11/14 - We continued to take notes on the two reading passages: "Training on an Anthill" and "The Means of Survival."  The classed discussed how we "Deep Read" effectively, and the thoughts that should be going through our minds.  Students must be able to take notes on the following: character traits, vocabulary meanings, the "gist" or summary, author's purpose, theme and similarities.  We use this process to display a breakdown of the overall piece.  It also allows us to effectively construct an extended response essay by having the stories organized into key words and details.  The students also reviewed the strategies for multiple choice questions: cover up the answers, read questions, formulate an answer, verify the answer with support from the text, look at answers, cross out incorrect answers and finally find the correct response.
          Wednesday 3/12/14 - We will be leaving early today due to the inclement weather.  Students were able to focus on answering short response questions.  They were expected to utilize their notes, background knowledge and research skills to effectively answer each question.
          Thursday 3/13/14 - Today we shift our focus to the extended response.  Students must utilize their notes and formulate claims that are supported with evidence from the text.  They are required to construct two paragraphs that are a minimum of six sentences.  The first paragraph relies on their use of creativity, and the ability to mesh that with evidence from the text.  In the second paragraph, they must discuss three similarities between the two passages and support the claims with warranted evidence.

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