I’m sure that everyone knows this, but the Alabama Direct Assessment of Writing test (ADAW) is going to take place at our school on Wednesday morning, February 25. We will have homeroom first thing in the morning, and then students will remain in the homeroom classes to take the writing test. Students have one hour total to complete the assessment. Only what is written in the test booklet is turned in to the state. Students will have some blank paper to plan and use for writing, but the actual writing to be graded must be in the test booklet on the lines they provide. I do not know which of the four kinds of prompts your child will have to respond to, and I do not know what the prompts say. We should have results before the close of school this year. If you have any questions about the test, please contact me.

Have you noticed that the days are a bit longer? It was still light at five Sunday afternoon! We are inching towards spring. That means the Alabama Direct Assessment of Writing is right around the corner. The test will be February 25 following homeroom. All seventh grade students will remain in their homerooms to take the assessment that morning. They will have an hour to complete their writing in the test booklet. Any prewriting or rough draft writing is shredded before it leaves the building. I do not see the prompts, and students are assigned prompts randomly. We have been practicing in class and through journal assignments. Your student should be able to complete the writing in the time allotted by this time of the year. Some students are slow to start writing or they want to ask for help still, but the test is just around the corner, and hopefully, your child is feeling confident and independent about writing on a given prompt by now.

My regular English classes are working on a class novel, The Watsons Go to Birmingham. They are reading along with a CD (version read by Levar Burton) and completing a written log. I am keeping the folders in the room. If your child wants to take the folder home, that is his or her choice, but then the responsibility is theirs for keeping up with the folder. I only have a class set of the books, so books will not be sent home. Of course, we are still working on daily grammar sentences too. I returned a notebook test last week. The questions are taken directly from the sentences and note the students should have at their fingertips.

My Advanced English classes are working on independent reading logs of a historical fiction novel of their choice. Quite a few students have told me that they are really enoying the novel they have chosen to read. In addition, they are working on a children’s historical fiction book that they are going to write and illustrate. We spend several days doing research in the library last week. They have had class time to read and work on their logs as well. The assignment page lists due dates for the various activities in progress.

The library construction is complete, and Mrs. Rutland has begun to move all of the books back in. The computers are all connected, and the fiction books have been moved back from our temporary mini-library.  Actually, everything has been moved except the rest of the books. I know it will take hard work to return the 13,000 books to the shelves.

My classes will visit on Thursday (except that we are also doing Thinklink testing and a couple of classes will not meet with me that day). Mrs. Rutland will talk to students briefly about new procedures, and then students will be able to check out AR books and have some time to read. We are all so excited and proud of the new space!

Last week was a gloomy, rainy start to the new year, but I think that all classes were off to a good start. We had a few schedule changes, and we have welcomed a new student to our seventh grade. All classes have worked on daily grammar, and it seems that most students are starting to remember some of the rules and terms we have been studying all year. Our daily sentences drill students on basic capitalization, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, and vocabulary. These skills are specifically tested on the SAT in April.

We are also kicking into high gear to prepare for the ADAW (Alabama Direct Assessment of Writing) which will take place the last week in February. Each week between now and then, students will have an in-class practice test. The real test is one clock hour long. We are practicing doing the prewriting (plan) and a quick rough draft of what they want to put into the test booklet. Writing with a time restriction can be stressful, but with practice, most students find that they can produce more than they thought in a short period of time. Last week, they tried a narrative prompt, and this week, they will try an expository prompt.

Meanwhile, we have also managed to spend some time reading selections from the textbook. My regular students read an old Twilight Zone story, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street.” I think they did a good job of reading the teleplay aloud. After we finish the accompanying written work, we will watch the TV episode. My advanced class read several versions of Cinderella and will be working on a comparison/contrast essay this week in class. Adanced classes are going to begin a semester project of writing a children’s historical fiction book. They will begin be doing a book report on a story book from their own childhood. That is always a fun activity.

Let me know if you have any special concerns about your child’s progress as we move along second semester. Grades went home last Friday, of course, and sometimes that can be stressful. Thanks to all of our parents for supporting what we do at Mountain Gap!

First semester is just about complete. Student grades are not finalized yet, but I will be mostly finished before I leave school on Friday. I am finishing grading papers turned in to me in the last day or two, especially the mystery stories by my Advanced English class. I enjoy reading them, and I especially enjoy reading each student’s self-evaluation of what makes them most proud or what they feel they learned from the project. I have read everything from feeling more confident about writing to having an understanding of the writing process. Several said they now know that published authors don’t just write something and call it finished — that writing takes time and work. Some said they had fun thinking up the story, and a couple said they were surprised at themselves because of the piece of writing they ended up producing. I will most likely have my regular ed students work on a similar project second semester.

All of my classes have been working on short stories the last couple of weeks. My Advanced English classes worked with Mrs. Hill last week on a short story, and then the Gifted coordinator from Merts came and conducted a discussion with them on Friday. All students read a story by Truman Capote, “A Christmas Memory,” and today all of my classes were in the computer lab writing a story on the topic “Delivery for You.”

In other school news, the new library is just about complete, and when school opens, Mrs. Rutland will be moving in to the expanded area. Because of that, students will not be able to check out books right away in January, but I know that she will be working hard to get ready to open. Students can borrow books from me, read books that they own, or, of course, borrow books from the public library. Our school AR list is posted on our school web site. Click faculty and then library, and then you will see the link to the list.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday. My daughter’s family will be coming on Christmas night to spend some days with us, and both my husband and I are excited to see our two grandsons. I am also happy that I will be able to spend extra time with my daughter and son-in-law who live here. We will all be watching the Sugar Bowl on January 2.

All of my regular English classes completed their projects today on Freak the Mighty. I have started grading them, and so far, I have been pleased with a majority of the work I am seeing. Some students went above and beyond, and their folders are exceptional! By using class time wisely and focusing on the work, most students had ample time to finish the work. A few students have turned in incomplete work which will be reflected in the folder grade. I should have all of the folder grades posted before the Thanksgiving break. In addition, every student in my regular classes took the AR test on Freak the Mighty, and every student earned a passing grade.

My advanced classes will have their literature circle projects finished by the end of class on Tuesday. I have been happy to observe that the students are all working together pleasantly in each group. They have not bickered or complained about partners at all, which is really quite an achievement. On occasion, a few groups have not used their time as well as they might, but their cooperative spirit has been wonderful. Advanced classes are also working on their mystery stories, and I have posted the dates for the remainder of the mystery writing project on the assignment page. Most students in my advanced classes have earned all of the required AR points for this nine weeks — and then some!

Next week, we will just have a two day week, and there will not be a journal due for any students. I hope all of our Mountain Gap families enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday! I will be spending time with my family, my pug, and my quilting. I know everyone is looking forward to a break.

Progress reports go home to all students on Friday. Today, I added AR points as a grade. If your child has no AR points or only a few points, the overall grade for English will look quite a bit lower. Please keep in mind that this is a progress report only, and that AR points are not really due until December 15. Students may take a test on the book that they are reading in class, but we will not finish the book this week. All students should be able to take a test on the class book before Thanksgiving. As students turn in TOPS reports that print when they pass a test, I will change the AR grade on STI up until the deadline day.  Students need to earn twenty-five points each nine weeks. I have a link for frequently asked questions on my web page.

http://www.jeanetheridge.com/info/AR.htm

My classes are all busy, and there never seems to be enough time! My regular classes took a break from my teaching yesterday. I have had an education student from UAH observing each week, and she had a requirement as part of her class to prepare and teach a lesson to my students. She showed a brief video from pbskids.com on bullying, and she had students answer some questions about reading a graph with information about bullying. Then she read a childrens’ book about bullying. The topic ties in to the novel we are reading, Freak the Mighty, in which the two characters stand up to the neighborhood bully. We are now about halfway through the novel, by the way.

My regular classes also took a notebook test this week, and scores have been recorded for that. Many students had better grades on this notebook check. All of the answers for the test should be things that they have written during class instruction — no memory work should be involved.

My advanced students are working on their literature circle novel. I am happy that I could order enough books so that I could check a book out to each student yesterday. Most groups are nearly finished with their first group meeting and are ready to start the next section of reading. Tomorrow, I will be assigning a date for the second group meeting. Meanwhile, they turned in wonderful collages today to go along with the mystery story they will be writing. I was impressed with the creativity and variety of posters they completed. Almost all of the students reported that the collage helped them picture the characters, the setting, and what will happen in their story.

Tomorrow is Halloween, of course, and I hope that all of my students have a safe and happy evening!

I thought it was time to write an update. We are now well into the second nine weeks, and all of my classes have started on the novel study. My regular classes have read chapters one through eight of Freak the Mighty, and students should be working on their folders during class time. It is hard to convince some that when they do have time to work on the folder, they should use the time wisely. I think that most students are enjoying the reading and following along on the CD in class. We are also working on grammar sentences several days a week, and students will continue to have journals due each Friday. I have many students who have one or two missing journals. I have been emphasizing the need to do pre-writing. It is the planning stage for the journal. I have told them that sports coaches, band directors, and choir directors all insist that they warm up first. Pre-writing is their road map or their shopping list. It improves writing and actually saves time in the long run. The journals and AR reading are homework assignments, of course.

My advanced classes are also working on their literature circle novels. I ordered more copies of each book yesterday in the hopes that I can assign a book to each student. That way, they can read at home as well as in class. Students have also completed the skeleton plan for the mystery story they are writing. When I return that in the next day or two, I will assign the next part of the project. We are also working on grammar sentences, and journals are due each week on Friday. I have been emphasizing the need to put effort into the writing rather than hurrying through late on Thursday night. I can really see a difference in the quality of the writing when students complete pre-writing and then try to do their best or when they just write anything — and then don’t even read what they have written.

I know the first nine week grades went home last Friday. If you have any questions regarding the grades, please contact me.

I hope that everyone has a safe, relaxing holiday next week. I am certainly looking forward to spending time with my family. When students return to school after fall break, we will begin some new activities while continuing with daily grammar and journal assignments.

In my regular English classes, we will be working on a novel study together. Each student will maintain a folder of classroom work, and I will keep those folders in class. The novel we will be reading is Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick. I have a class set of these novels, and we will be following along with a CD. The unit includes studying character development, plot development, theme, selecting key passages from the text, and vocabulary. It is not necessary at all, but if you would like to purchase this book for your child, I am sure you can do that through Barnes and Noble, Amazon, or any major bookseller. However, I would encourage not to have your child read ahead of the class. That makes it difficult for them to participate in class discussions and to stay focused during daily reading and assignments.

In my advanced classes, students will be working on writing a mystery and working through all steps in the writing process. They will be also be working in groups studying a novel. I have several choices available for the groups, but they will not be assigned a particular book until after fall break. These groups are called literature circles. Students will work both independently and together collaboratively to complete a variety of assignments. Students will maintain a folder of work in class, and they will have specified days for group meetings to share their work.  This is usually a project that students enjoy, even though it entails a good bit of work. I will explain this assignment more fully as we progress.