Weekly Objectives for 9/22/14 - 9/9/26/14

Overview - In Writing class this week, the students will be engaged in biographical portfolios focused around military veterans.  Students were asked to get permission from a veteran to complete an in-depth interview.  This week the students are to conduct their interviews during the evenings of the 22nd and 23rd.  They must be prepared for the interviews.  We have modeled how to ask interview questions and how to conduct oneself in front of a veteran.  We will take their information collected and slowly begin to build a template of their biographical piece.  Students will learn how to organize their information into thematic sections.  By the end of the week, we hope to have a rough sketch of their biographical pieces.

Monday - 9/22/14 -
       Students began to take notes on the interview process today.  We modeled many different aspects of the actual process: prep work, organization, questioning, listening, note taking....  Good luck to our young interviewers as they complete their work over the next two evenings. We will collect that information to be used at later in the week.

Tuesday - 9/23/14 - 
       Writing class was cut short today due to "On Demand Writing Prompts" and a bullying seminar in the auditorium.  We will be able to hold 20 minute classes to discuss the next step in the Veteran process.  Students will be exposed to examples of Veteran profiles from the past.  We will also discuss how to organize their information into sections that will later be turned into paragraphs.  We will lay out a template of what their drafted paper should look like.  Hopefully, after today, all students will have completed their interviews with their veterans.
                          Objectives: Students will be able to
                                                  - organize information using graphic organizers
                                                  - understand how a paper is formed from notes
                                                  - discuss how an effective paper is put together

Wednesday - 9/24/14 -
       Students were given a chance to discuss how the interviews went and share any warm stories they had.  We did this as an opener for class.  The purpose of today's lesson was to begin taking notes from a board. Students were given a modeled organizer that set up their profile paper. We discussed where to organize each question from their interview.  Students were able to share their thoughts and comments on the transition from the notes over to a paper.  They now will have a backbone of what their paper will look like and what each section will encompass.  We then numbered their questions and they were able to place each number under a certain section of the paper.  The kids were really excited once they realized how well it all fit together.
Objectives: Students will be able to:
                                                  - organize information using graphic organizers
                                                  - understand how a paper is formed from notes
                                                  - discuss how an effective paper is put together

Thursday - 9/25/14 -
        The same lesson was taught today.  Students were given an outline of the backbone for their Veteran profiles.  We focused on effective note taking skills and how to correlate information into organized segments.  Tomorrow, we will begin drafting our papers.
Objectives: Students will be able to:
                                                  - organize information using graphic organizers
                                                  - understand how a paper is formed from notes
                                                  - discuss how an effective paper is put together

Friday - 9/26/14 -
       Time is moving quickly in Writing as we begin to apply deadlines for completing our Veteran Profiles.  Today, we began drafting our first two paragraphs for the engaging beginning. Students used their note sheets along with an outline to begin the process. As always, I modeled how to draft effective paragraphs with the students.  My father is actually the Veteran that I chose to recognize and will be using to honor.  Just a heads up that our Veteran Presentation will be on November 7th, in the High School Cafeteria.