Wednesday, December 18th

We had an exciting day with our cultural celebration and Inventor Projects.  Tomorrow I'll be giving a short grammar quiz and the second half of the Social Studies assessment.

Tuesday, December 17th

Today both classes visited the library and they continued to work on their presentations. Students who finished their presentations worked on their study guides and reading responses.

Monday, December 16th

Today we continued to read Gathering Blue and students worked with their discussion partner to understand certain characters and plot points.  We also reviewed for the upcoming verbs/grammar assessment by going over changes in verb tense and introductory elements.  Students concluded ELA/SS time by working on their group reports.  

For homework students should continue reading for 30 minutes and they should complete an review their Turn of the Century study guide.  Lastly, please review the assessment schedule below and let me know if you will be leaving for the break early.  

Assessment Schedule

Wednesday -- Inventor Group Presentations
Thursday -- Social Studies Assessment (part 2), Grammar/Verbs quiz
Friday -- Reading Response #8 due

Friday, December 13th

Thursday, December 12th

Today we read a few pages in Gathering Blue and students used the text to find evidence about the main character, Kira.  Each side came up with their own arguments and presented the strongest four.  Then they wrote an individual response about their own opinion.

After students wrote their responses, they continued working on their individual reports and group projects.

Midweek Update

Students have continued to work on their Inventor research reports and several have started their group projects.  Today I reminded students to thoroughly answer the research questions within their report.  Several were content with writing things like "Thomas Edison was an important part of American history" without having the evidence to explain why.  Consequently, some students had to go back to the research phase to find more facts.  Today they also took the first part of this term's social studies assessment.  The second part will be given next Thursday.  

Next Friday we are going on an all day field trip to the High Museum and I need one chaperone for my homeroom.   Please contact me if you would like to go.  

Monday, December 9th

ELA -- We began class with our daily grammar work and students worked on expanding sentences with introductory phrases and clauses.

Social Studies -- Students continued to work on their Inventor project.

General Announcements

--The Tybee and HIgh Museum field trip forms and fees are due this Friday (12/13).
--The lost and found items will be taken to the Salvation Army on Monday, December 16th.  

Midweek Update

Today we took the Reading MAP test and on Thursday, we will take the Language Arts MAP test.  During ELA we concluded our Expanding, Combining, and Reducing Sentences lesson and practice.  In the morning class we began working on an emotional timeline for The Giver and we briefly discussed the possibilities for what "Elsewhere" really is.  We concluded ELA by comparing and contrasting The Giver with the opening scene in Gathering Blue.  Both of the classes made interesting observations about the vast differences between these two settings.

In Social Studies I passed out the guidelines for the inventor project and the study guide for the upcoming Turn of the Century assessment.  If you click on the links you can get the documents.  We have specific rules about the types of sources students can use while researching in school; however, if a student finds an appropriate site at home that they want to share, I can add it to the approved list.

The lost and found has grown obscenely large.  Feel free to stop by to check if you feel that something is missing.

"King George" stopped by to harass the morning class pontificate about "his" greatness

Approved project sources/search engines during school hours

The Giver emotional timeline 

The Giver vs. Gathering Blue Setting and Mood (To Be Continued)

MAP testing

Monday, December 2nd

ELA - We reread the last chapter of The Giver and discussed whether Jonas and Gabe lived or died based on evidence from the text.  Since Lois Lowry did not explicitly state what happened to the two characters, we had a lively debate about what we think actually happened.  Students also received their vocabulary words for the week.  They must complete their sentences and pictures for homework and the assessment is on Friday.  The words are also on the quizlet site; click on the link to the right to find the notecards.

Social Studies - We read the textbook entry about the Battle of Little Bighorn and the Wounded Knee Massacre and identified the main events leading up to and surrounding these two parts of American history.  Then students read two additional articles and constructed an emotional timeline that compared/contrasted the viewpoints of the U.S. government and the Sioux Indians.

 To practice the emotional timeline we analyzed some Civil War Events

We will have MAP testing at 12:25pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week.

Wednesday & Thursday

Today students had a timed activity where they had to research and write a response about William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.  It was also a lesson in using time wisely and following directions.  When we finish the activity tomorrow we are going to start with a brief discussion regarding how to produce quality work quickly and continue with research when problems occur.

After that we did a close read of a section of The Giver.  We reread the scene where he gains the memory of war and we did an activity that helped us explore how that changed him.

We concluded by finishing our Trail of Tears maps and I continued to read The Giver.  Hopefully we will be able to finish the book tomorrow.  If we are able to do that, we'll be able to start reading Gathering Blue when we return from the break.

Literary Cafe was a success!  Thank you to all of the parents who helped with the wonderful snacks and decorations.  

The workshop I attended today was excellent and I'm looking forward to implementing what I learned within the classroom.  

Literary Cafe is tomorrow (11/20) and the program begins at 6:00pm in the multi-purpose room.  Students who are representing their classes will need to arrive at F.AVE no later than 5:45pm.  Following the multi-purpose room presentations, parents and students will move to the homerooms to hear the individual compositions.  The book fair will also be open in the media center 30 minutes before and 30 minutes following Literary Cafe.

On a final note, when I returned to F.AVE in the afternoon to pick up my son, I discovered that my homeroom students left the class a complete mess.  Students know my expectations about how they are to care for, and respect, our learning space.  There will be a consequence for them upon arrival tomorrow.  

Monday, November 18th

Students did peer reviews today and worked on revising/editing their memoirs.  Then, they worked on their Discovery education assignments about the building of the Panama Canal and the changes that occurred because of the results of the Spanish American War.

Tomorrow I will be attending a Common Core Literacy workshop. In my absence students will create their final drafts and those who are participating in Literary Cafe will write their memoirs on index cards.  Following that, students will read and take notes on the section in the Social Studies textbook about migration to and within America.  Lastly, they will work on a verb review packet.

Thursday, November 14th

ELA/SS - Today I combined the two subjects.  Students used a variety of sources to take notes on Native American Migration/Removal.  First we watched a video I got from the New Echota National Park and I modeled how they should take notes.  We then reviewed the difference between primary and secondary sources and we quickly discussed the importance of using a variety of documents.  Then students rotated to tables to take notes from the Social Studies textbook, an excerpt from  Rev. Daniel Butrick's Cherokee Removal journal, a Trail of Tears timeline, a Trail of Tears summary from our 3D maps book, and a Immigration and Migration booklet.  Tomorrow they will take an open-note assessment where they will arrange their notes onto a graphic organizer and answer the following question:

What type of migration was the Trail of Tears?  Use at least four pieces of evidence from different sources in your notes and number them.  For a "4" you must address the geographical and economic factors of this migration.

After tomorrow's assessment students will complete the Trail of Tears 3D map.

Wednesday, November 13th

I taught a brief lesson about dialogue and how it should be used within a story.  Afterwards, I wrote a sentence from my story that TELLS and then modeled how to SHOW the same information.

Tell:  We were eating dinner and then we noticed that Tiger was missing.

Show: "Have you guys seen Tiger?" I mentioned in between mouthfuls of food, "he's never missing at mealtime."
"Yeah," Gabby said while glaring at Isaiah, "he's usually next to THAT one waiting for food to drop."
Isaiah exclaimed, "Hey! That's not nice Gabby."

We continued working on our memoirs and students were able to practice a few lines during the Literary Cafe practice this afternoon.   The memoirs are due on Tuesday, November 19th and Literary Cafe is on Wednesday, November 20th.  With the remaining time we read more of the The Giver and students finished their Cattle Trails maps.

Tomorrow students will begin studying the Trail of Tears.  They will analyze and take notes on a variety of sources.  They will then use the notes to write a short essay response and they will work on a 3D Trail of Tears map.

Monday, November 11th -- Happy Veteran's Day!

ELA -- We continued working on the memoirs and students focused on including character details and dialogue within their stories.  

Social Studies --  We took notes from the textbook about life on the Great Plains after the passing of the Homestead Act of 1962.  We will finish the notes tomorrow.

Happy Veteran's Day to all of those who have served and dedicated their lives to protecting our nation.

Mid-Week Update

This week we have been focusing on verbs during grammar time.  Students are working on identifying and understanding how to use action, linking, and helping verbs.  They are still having some difficulty determining the difference between helping and linking verbs; however, we are going to continue practicing.  The vocabulary test is tomorrow and students spent some time today during silent reading time to study with QUIZLET.

We completed our analysis of the setting in The Giver and we are starting to gather evidence about whether the community is a utopia or dystopia.  Lastly, students continued working on their narratives.  Yesterday we discussed "atmosphere" and students  sketched the important plot points in their personal narratives.

Graded work was sent home yesterday and today.  I threw some ELA and Social Studies work in with Ms. McFaddin's Math and Science work so please look for the packet.  For your reference, the Civil War assessment still has the original grades on them but I did change them in my grade book.

Monday, November 4th

The morning class began the pre-writing phase for their memoirs.  The personal narratives are due on Monday, November 18th and we will begin writing this week.  The afternoon class finished up their Cattle Trails notes and they examined why people moved to work on the trails and in midwestern railroad towns from an economic perspective.  Lastly, both classes received their vocabulary words for the week.  They'll need to know the meaning and the spelling for the assessment on Friday (11/8).  Students  can use their vocabulary work sheet and study the words on Quizlet. 

Wednesday, October 30th

Students had their weekly in-class Compass time today.  They worked on reinforcing their understanding of verbs and some students finished writing their reading responses.   We began our close readings of The Giver with an analysis of the setting.  We started discussing the characteristics of and differences between utopias and dystopias.  Each class came up with slightly different definitions and used  from the book so tomorrow, I'll share the notes from each group.  

Morning Notes

Afternoon Notes

Tuesday, October 29th

The morning class had Music, PE, Library time, and Spanish today so with the remaining time we did our second inquiry for this term.  Students analyzed various photographs and made inferences about what type of migration was taking place.  With the morning class, we looked at several Irish Potato Famine paintings and in the afternoon class, they thoughtfully analyzed a picture of people getting onto a cargo train.  After we discussed one picture together, each student group analyzed two pictures and wrote their inferences on an index card.  

In the afternoon class we reviewed various genres and we discussed the features of narrative writing.  Students will begin the first stage of writing personal memoirs this Friday.  The morning class will take the notes and have the discussion tomorrow.