It has been way too long! My sincerest apologies. I hope everyone is doing well. The 3rd quarter is almost at a close. Only one more quarter left. I am will not get sad about that now. I will save it for June. Time is going by so fast. Please email me with any comments, questions, concerns, or praises. I am enjoying it and hope everyone else is as well. Enjoy your spring break with friends and family and happy, safe travels.
ALL
Students need to read every day for a minimum of 30 minutes including the weekends. They should be logging their minutes at Reading Rewards. In order to become better readers, they need to read often.
Valiant Ventures (20% Time) project is going well. I am constantly amazed at the ideas and adventures students are attempting to accomplish. It is mind boggling what they can do when they set their mind to it. We spent some time discussing what it means to passionate about something. It was determined that it is more than just liking something. There is perseverance involved and willingness to keep at it even when it is difficult.
7th
Over the past quarter, students completed the unit on short students. In that unit, students read several different short stories. They focused on how the author uses relationships to convey the theme of the story. They also kept a journal from the perspective of one of the characters. The unit they are currently working on is a poetry unit. They completed a scavenger hunt to find different poetic devices in poems. They have wrote poems attempting to incorporate poetic devices. As a class we have worked on a poem about ours fears and a concept poem. Next week, we will finalize this unit.
8th
Throughout this quarter, students finished their unit on bias. They became experts at picking out different bias throughout the news. I hope that this skill will allow them to analyze information in the future to determine what is factual and what is bias. The unit they will be finishing up next week is about performance. Students completed a skit, a monologue, and are in the process of writing a slam poem. Students will have their last class performance next week.
I am curious about Reading Rewards. It looks like a very good program. Have you been using it long? Are other teachers using it too?
It is good and has great potential! I know of a few other teachers. Another in middle school and at least one in elementary. I like the way the rating is set up as well as the ability to give a review.