English 8 students are working on improving their quote integration as they read selections from The Circuit. Today, I showed them how to embed their quotes more elegantly than simply saying, "the...
Archive
What our classroom did in previous days, weeks, months, even years…
Games and a New Unit
English 8 students began a new unit on informational texts. We'll be working on it through the end of the semester in three short weeks. English I students had the final game of Odyssey game...
Project and Prep
English 8 students went through a Gimkit practice session before tomorrow's test on text structures. English I students worked on their projects for the Odyssey. [gallery size="medium"...
Project Work, the TDA Example, and Text Structures
We're still working on text structures in English 8. We took the final formative assessment for the district-required goal-setting assignment, which I also tied into the district-required Common...
TDA 1
We had our first TDA practice test today. Since we were all writing ourselves silly (literally for hours) and only had 30 minutes of class, we sent our meager class time outside.
Text Structure Completion, TDA, and the Odyssey Project
English 8 students worked on the last text structure of our short unit, the spacial text structure. We practiced with an established text, determining some of the keywords and noting how some...
Questions to Discuss with Your Child
As we near the middle of the second quarter, here are some questions to help stimulate meaningful discussions with your child about his/her mid-quarter grade.
TDA Prep, Text Structures, and the Odyssey Game
English I and English 8 students went over the coming TDA, planning a bit how to attack Thursday's prompt. We, of course, did not go over the actual prompt but discussed how to attack a prompt in...
Compare and Heroes
English 8 students continued working on text structures focusing today on the compare/contrast structure. We'll be finishing up the short unit this week. English 8 students began working on their...
Library, Sequence, and Phrase Prep
All classes went to the library today for the second half of the Junior Book Awards presentations (or the first half, in the case of English I). English I students, after their library visit, took a...
Wrapped and Text Structures
English I students finished with The Police song "Wrapped Around Your Finger" as we covered allusions and introduced motifs. And that song is an excellent exemplar of them all. This quarter's major...
First Assessment and a Reward
English 8 students worked on their first assessment for the text structure lesson we've been working on. The results were fantastic -- a good start to the new unit. English I students were a little...