Yesterday we started a new novel, Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. Students always love this book.
We will be working in literature circles and each student will have a different role to fulfill. Our focus is on great reading comprehension, increase our identification to writing techniques and devices, writing well, and being able to discuss what we understand.
We read chapter 1 in class and students have been assigned chapter 2 to read and work on their literary group roles.
We have also been preparing of the OAA. Our reading test is on Tuesday. We have prepared a lot and I know the students are ready. Good luck.
Students have also finished their Catching Fire Video projects. You can watch them on Edmodo. I saw some very creative ideas expressed.
We are finishing up the novel Catching Fire in class. What a great book! Students are working on two video projects for the book. These will be creative and shared on their Edmodo site so everyone can comment. Students are currently writing the scripts for these videos now, and the scripts must be finished before they can record. Yes, they will need props.
Students are finishing up a Sesame-Styled video project on past tense verbs. Students worked on the videos a little today. They will teach about past tense verbs and record a reading where they wrote in the past tense.
Today students took a quiz over chapter 22 of the novel Catching Fire. We read a little of chapter 23 in class, and I have asked them to finish 23 for homework. No study guide or questions, but be prepared to lead a great discussion.
We invited Mrs. Triana’s class over and watched an author video for next week’s book fair. We are encouraging live-long readers.
Students studied for tomorrow’s OAA term quiz #2 using their flash cards. The Google Apps OAA stack is due today, but I am allowing those who need it to finish this evening.
A great way to prepare for April 23rd’s OAA test is to read at least 23 minutes every night, write some sentences using transitions, and study those flashcards.
Catching Fire
We have started a new novel! We are reading the second book in the Hunger Games series, Catching Fire. Students read the first book on their own and took a comprehension test. We are now well into Catching Fire, and we hope students choose to read the last in the series, Mockingjay, on their own.
Today we finished chapter 9. Great book. We are planning some fun activities too.
Writing Academy Awards
Students are writing paragraphs focusing on the past and past participle tense. They must use 25 of the verbs listed in four categories of their packet over the 15 short award entires they will be writing. Nine of the 15 paragraphs are due this Friday.
OAA
We have been preparing for the Ohio Achievement Assessment all year, but now we are focusing a little more on it as the test is on April 23. I encourage all of my students to read 20 minutes each day at home on their own. This is the BEST way to prepare. We are also working in an OAA workbook, and we are creating a set of OAA flashcards. Students will take a practice test and we will be reviewing how to best prepare. I am confident my students will do well. Good luck to all.
Students are reading the novel The Hunger Games on their own. It is due one week from today. There will be a test over the novel next Tuesday. Everyone that passes with an A, B, or C will be rewarded and those that do not will do some remedial work on the novel.
We will be starting the second in the series, Catching Fire, next week. The students are excited. Great job.
Almost everyone has uploaded their poems and poetry videos to Edmodo for everyone to read, watch, and comment. Please take a few minutes with your son or daughter and watch some of the dramatic reading videos or read some of the poems. Lots of creative ideas being shared.
We have bee reviewing every day for the Ohio Achievement Assessment using our Best Practices and Coach books. Students will finish the chapter 1 review test for Friday. One of the best ways to review is reading every night for twenty minutes.
We just finished the novel The True Confession of Charlotte Doyle. Everyone had fun with this book.
Ask your son or daughter to give you examples of direct objects, indirect objects, predicate nouns, and predicate adjectives. They can do it.
Today students had some fun on the SmartBoard with Transitive and Intransitive Verbs. We also introduced Indirect Objects todays.
Students read chapter 17 of The True Confession of Charlotte Doyle and were asked to give it a creative title, as well as summarize it, underline the most important sentence, and draw a scene from it. All on the front of one piece of paper. Be creative.
This was a very cold and short week, but we accomplished much! Parent/Teacher Conferences were this past week.
Students are continuing the adventure of our novel, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. Many students have told me during and after class how exciting the book is becoming! Charlotte has now joined the crew and there are many changes going on with many characters. We just started chapter 13 today. Charlotte climbs to the top of the main mast!
Today we read chapter nine of our novel, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle! Wow! This novel is now getting interesting. What will happen next. Please complete the study guide for tonight. TCOCD-chapter-8-12-Study-Guide-Word.doc
Students should be finishing up their poetry collections. Students are writing nine poems following the directions in their guides. They should also be memorizing their poem and brining in props for their iMovie dramatization of the poem out of the book. This will be fun. Sort of like a music video.
We started working with transitive and intransitive verbs today and direct and indirect objects.
Study your notes for tomorrow’s poetry quiz.
Hope all my absent students get well soon.
Here is a copy of the study guide questions for chapters 7-12: Click here to download: TCOCD chapter 8-12 Study Guide Word.doc
You can also view the questions by clicking read more below.
I hope this helps a few people out as we have many out with illnesses.
We have started reading a new novel titled The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by AVI. It is an adventure story set in the 1830′s aboard a ship. We will be applying our literature terms and discussing social classes and liberties. There are many valuable themes in this novel and it is quite enjoyable as well. AVI is a popular writer and I recommend his other books too.
Today we worked on our Resolution essays. These are due by the end of the week. We are working on these in our Google Apps. Students have chosen some interesting resolutions for the new year.
We are starting a poetry unit today. Students will be studying poetry. We will learn both how to enjoy it and write it. Today we discussed quite a few terms that we will be identifying and employing.
Vocabulary Lesson #11 was assigned today.
Students were able to work on the MacBooks quite a bit today.
