Looking Forward to the Second Nine Weeks

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.

A quick update

Last week on Thursday and again on this Monday, our students have been taking diagnostic tests geared toward the ARMT and SAT tests which will be given, as you know, in April. These diagnostic tests have been used by many other schools in the district, but this is our first year to use them. We can get specific data about your child’s strengths and weaknesses, and then we can practice those particular skills. The tests are through Discovery.com.

I have been reminding students that AR points are due October 1 which is next week. The school year seems to move along very quickly! I have many students with all of their points. Mrs. Rutland, the librarian, has been working with some students who find it stressful to take the ten question multiple choice quizzes, but she seems to have success in helping them. She and I are certainly able to give students some ideas of books they may enjoy.

This week in journal writing, students will be trying their hand at persuasive writing. I will spend the better part of a class period today instructing and modeling the prewriting process. It is so important that students do the prewriting. I tell them that it is the hardest part of the assignment because this is where they develop the ideas for their paper. Then, when they actually go to write, they have plenty to say, and their ideas are organized logically.

New Technology in Room 101

I have some exciting news about the computers in my classroom. As of today, I have five student computer stations. Our computer tech, Mrs. Bailey, added three new monitors and keyboards using Xtenda’s desktop expansion kit. As I understand it, four keyboards and monitors all work off of one CPU. We have Xtendas in the keyboarding room upstairs, and now a set in my room. Students have always had access to computers in my room, but now it will be easier to accomdate everyone in our short class periods.

Last week, we used another kind of technology. Mrs. Rutland, our librarian, is housed in room 215 which is a regular classroom. My whole class cannot visit at one time, so we hooked up Skype. She has a camera on her computer which allowed her to talk to my students in my classroom. She will be using Skype to teach lessons to my students until we can move into our renovated library sometime next semester. I think it is wonderful to be able to learn how to use new technology.

Yes, I do accept late work

AR and Progress Reports

This is just another reminder that progress reports will go home tomorrow. They will be printed today sometime, I imagine. Yesterday before I left school, I printed the most recent list of AR points earned and updated STI. I also caculated current AR averages (based on points earned out of 25), and I posted those grades.  Remember, the students have until October 1 to earn all of their 25 points, and I will change grades as they turn in test results to me. In addition, there will be other grades added which will lessen the impact of AR grades as the quarter progresses. Please encourage your child to read at least a while every day. I have had many students tell me that they can finish books quickly, but they just haven’t started yet.

In class this week, we are working on our daily grammar and a literature selection. You can see the assignments under English page or Advanced English page on my web site. The journal topic is narrative this week, and I expect students to include some dialogue using quotation marks and correct indentation. We have practiced writing conversation in the computer lab, and it has been incorporated in our daily sentences.