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.