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.