End of October Update

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!

Mid-October Update

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.