Monday, September 25, is the due date for our first formal writing assignment, a descriptive paragraph about autumn. This assignment's purpose is to review and practice the steps of the writing process, with emphasis on the power of revising! The evaluation rubric is attached. We will type the final draft in class on Friday, September 22. However, students will need to print the final draft at home. If this isn't possible, they may print it from one of my classroom computers on Friday or from the library computers before school on Monday. Students must submit all parts of the writing process with the final draft. They will share their writing in class!

In the first unit, students will explore the skills and features of storytelling in narratives focusing on a change. The unit assessments include writing a personal narrative and a short story. 

Throughout the unit, students engage in activities in which they use strategies such as QHT, close reading, marking the text, and adding to practice the important skills of close reading, analyzing narrative elements, and writing real or imagined narratives. Students analyze and discuss a variety of texts such as “Pandora and the Whispering Box,” a myth from Ancient Greece, as well as Langston Hughes’s short story “Thank You, M’am.” Throughout the unit, discussion, brainstorming, and drafting are promoted as ways to develop ideas about and for narratives.  

Students’ vocabulary study concentrates on academic vocabulary such as sequence, cause-effect, and transitions, and vocabulary specific to literary study such as simile, denotation, and point of view. 

Students were introduced to Wordly Wise, a vocabulary building program. Lesson 1 will be completed in class this week.

Wordly Wise incorporate the use of context clues, word study (Greek and Latin roots, prefixes and suffixes, and synonyms and antonyms), reading comprehension, and writing. 

Wordly Wise words  expand critical grade-level vocabulary and improve reading comprehension.  The words are mainly Tier 2 words—high-utility, academic vocabulary—with a healthy smattering of Tier 3 words—domain-specific academic vocabulary. 

Students will complete lesson 1 in class this week. Future lessons will be completed outside of class and will be due every other Monday, beginning with lesson 2, which is due October 16.

Students have read and analyzed several personal narratives in their Springboard books.  They are now ready to write their own personal narratives. This will be our focus for the remainder of trimester 1. 

Students have selected a novel, for their final trimester 1 independent reading requirement, to read and discuss with a group of their peers. Discussions are held on Mondays. Reading response journals are also due on Mondays. This is a great opportunity for student book talk, and they seem to love it!

Students can access an e-copy of the Springboard book from the HP Student Home Page.

Select: Clever

Login: Student ID # & Password