September 12

IRT: ~20 minutes
WNB: Article of the Week - "In the 'land of the free,' are you free to sit out the national anthem?"

I reminded students that the article of the week is a place for more reflective annotations rather than academic or style-based annotations. Students who didn't finish the entry during class time will need to complete it before tomorrow.

We walked through the process of composing a short answer response and embedding quotes, and students took notes on certain features. The slides for these notes are available on Classroom.

Students finished up the THROWDOWN activity with the remaining class time. We will finish this in class tomorrow.

Important Dates

Friday, 9/16 - Timed Writing Revision Due
Sunday, 9/18 - Book Blog Due
Monday, 9/19 - Open House
Tuesday, 9/20 - Terms Test

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Important Dates

Week-at-a-Glance

September 9

I returned the summer reading essay. Students who scored below 90% may revise for up to 90%. Tutorials are highly encouraged! Revisions are due Friday, 9/16.

We listened to "Be Cool to the Pizza Dude," an essay from the "This I Believe" radio show that inspired yesterday's notebook entry. I wanted students to see what their thoughts could become!

I introduced the book blogging procedure that students will follow to write about their choice reading. Information is posted on Classroom. Students had time to work on their next blog entry, which is due by Sunday, 9/18. We will have class time on Thursday to work on this entry.

With the remaining class time, students worked in their groups on the THROWDOWN activity. We should wrap this up on Monday.

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Edit test...

September 8

IRT: ~20 minutes
WNB: "I Believe..." (in class)

After independent reading time, I talked with students about an old radio show called "This I Believe." I asked them to write 10 of their own belief statements. Then I shared Jacqueline Woodson's poem "What I Believe" from her book Brown Girl Dreaming. Students will have an opportunity to expand on one of their belief statements at a later date.

With the remaining class time, students resumed work on the Literary Element Tracking Throwdown activity. By this time, most groups have finished the first step of the assignment. We will continue working on this tomorrow.

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September 7

IRT: ~20 minutes
WNB: Outside of Class

We took notes over ladders of questioning and wrote questions for one of the trio of excerpts that we've been working with for the past few days. (Notes are available under the About section on Classroom.) This concludes our work with those pieces.

We began our Literary Element Tracking Throwdown (instructions on Classroom)! Students are working in groups to read four short stories and evaluate their effectiveness in using a particular literary element.

Intro blog entry is due tonight (11:59pm deadline)!

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September 6

IRT: ~20 minutes
WNB: Article of the Week - "Should We Abandon Louisiana?" Students read, annotated, and responded to the article. I will collect these and rate annotations tomorrow.

I hope everyone had a nice 3-day weekend! Today felt like a Monday...

After independent reading time and the notebook entry, students worked in groups to complete a TWIST (tone, word choice, imagery, style, theme) activity using one of the trio of excerpts from last week. We will wrap up this work tomorrow.

Don't forget: your intro blog entry is due Wednesday!

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September 2

IRT: ~20 minutes
WNB: Blogging!

After independent reading time, I talked to students about blogging, and we walked through the process of setting up our own blogs. Some students discovered blogs they had created when they were in middle school!

For their first blog entry, students will introduce themselves and set their reading goals. This entry is due by the end of the day Wednesday, September 7. Specific instructions and examples are posted on Classroom.

With the remaining class time, students chose to either work on their blogs or continue annotating the excerpts from yesterday. Annotations should be completed by Tuesday so we can proceed to the next step in that work.

Have a great three-day weekend! Be careful out there!

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September 1

IRT: ~20 minutes
WNB: in class - Mentor Sentence - Colon

After independent reading time, we looked at a sentence from Oscar Wilde that uses a colon in an interesting way. Students then created their own sentences using Wilde's as a model.

I read three short book excerpts aloud, and students marked interesting phrases as they listened. Then they worked in groups to label good examples of diction, figurative language, syntax, and tone and determined the theme of each piece. We will continue working with these tomorrow.

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