Weekly Blog 9/7 – 9/11

I apologize for the lateness of this post! Please stay tuned for next week’s blog, arriving Monday.

This Week in Reading

We have been studying narrative terms, concepts, and “lingo” this week. We’ve read a short story titled “Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes, and analyzed the story for those narrative elements. Students constructed a “Bloom’s Ball” featuring question and illustration panels they created using evidence from the text to once again connect to our narrative terms of the week.

Graded Class Assignments this week: this round of weekly bell ringers (daily grade) and the “Thank You Ma’am” Bloom’s ball (quiz grade)

Homework: Reading logs were assigned last week. Students should be reading independently on a regular basis outside of class. For this unit, they should be reading challenging/interesting fiction novels that have ‘layers like onions’ (ask your student about this, or e-mail me with questions). They need 120 minutes of reading per week; this can include assigned academic reading for all classes. Ideally, the more they are reading, the better for them!

Heads-up: Our first major grade cometh this Wednesday, 9/16 and will be an in-class book report over students’ independent fiction reading thus far. They will need to bring their completed fiction book with them to class. If they don’t bring it, it will be extremely difficult for them to do their assignment.

This Week in ELA

We have been studying personal narrative elements and structure from a writer’s point of view in class this week. We’ve generated lists of “memoir-worthy experiences” which the students will use for the rest of the year. We’ve practiced using narrative elements in our writing.

Graded Assignments This Week: this round of weekly bell ringers, “Memoir Worthy Experiences” topic list of 20+, topic list from our Springboard text pg. 14 of significant life choices, due FRIDAY!

Homework:

Wednesday – Springboard page 13, complete if not finished in class – due Thursday

Thursday – Springboard page 14, complete if not finished in class – due Friday

Heads-up: Next week we begin preparing for our first major writing piece through a number of focused mini-lessons. The week after we will work on our first Springboard Embedded Assessment, which will be writing and revising a personal narrative/memoir about a significant life choice.