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.