Wrapping it up

Students should be finished with the research portion of their nine paragraph essays and move on to typing.  All essays are due by midnight Friday the 17th of December.  Students should be posting them on their blogs no later than then.  If your student does not have access to the internet, then the paper is due by the end of school on the 17th.  Students were also told that they can hand write the paper neatly if they do not have access to a computer this week.  There should be no reason for excuses. 

I want them posted on the blogs so the students can get feedback before winter break is over.  I don't know about you, but I hate turning in something that I worked so hard on and then having to wait forever to find out how I did.  I won't post their grade on the blog, but I can give them feedback that will give them some idea of how they did, and give them the chance to edit their post and fix things if they so choose before grades are finalized upon our return.  Typically, I do not lose things, but collecting such a large assignment right before break makes me nervous.  A lot of things get moved around my house over the holidays as I catch up on cleaning and then reorganize for the new stuff my kids get.  I expect this to be even greater this year since I have been in school nonstop for the past year and a half.  I would like to have as many assignments posted on the blogs so I can't lose them (and don't have to carry them around with me). 

Make sure student continue reading over break.  So many of them have made such wonderful progress towards their goals, that I hate to see them fall behind.  There are a couple of announcements that I have about books and our classroom:

1)  Every year, I offer candy for books.  This is a chance for students to dig around the house and find any of my books that have been hanging around for a while.  I then offer one piece of candy for the return of the book.  We are very blessed to have so many books to choose from in our school and I firmly believe in spreading the gift of literacy.  Therefore the other aspect of "Candy for Books" is donation.  Students can donate new or gently used books of any grade level in exchange for a piece of candy.  Any books that are not used in the teacher classroom libraries, go to children's homes.  In the past we have donated them to Marygrove.  If any parents have another children's charity that would appreciate the books, I would gladly divide them up.  This is a good chance to clean off those bookshelves and make room for new literary adventures.

2)  The other thing I do every year is keep my own reading log along with the kids.  I track my pages just like they do.  This year they have a head start on me because of school.  At the end of the year, any student who has met or beaten my number of pages read is invited to a pizza party after school--my treat.  So far I am at 1,100 or so pages (most of which I read this weekend because I have missed reading for fun so much).  Encourage your students to keep reading!

Have a wonderful holiday season.  I wish you all well.  When we return, we will begin looking at the elements of literature and literary analysis.  Your students will feel like they are in a college literature class (I hope).  I love this unit because the kids really grow so much and begin to look at literature in a different way.  They will also help me revise the book I am writing as they learn plot structure, theme and point of view.  then apply it on their own as we get into descriptive writing.  I can't wait!

Book Talk

Monster by Walter Dean Myers.  This is a really good book. Check it out.

Let the Production Begin

Okay, I know it has been awhile, but there has been little of interest to report as we have been going through the nitty gritty of organizing expository writing. Now that the students understand how to write a topic sentence, support it with a supporting detail or fact and then tie it together with an example, they can repeat this pattern for the entire paragraph until they are ready to conclude it. We learned that our paragraphs will be well structured and organized as long as we sandwich the supporting details and examples with a topic sentence and conclusion. Learning this structure has been challenging, so watch for struggling as your child writes this week. It is one thing to write a structured paragraph about your day or something you know a lot about, but it is another to write about a civilization you have never heard of until this assignment.

Just to make sure you have the answers if your student happens to forget what this assignment is, let me explain. Students selected a group of ancient peoples. They then have been asked to research this group, looking for information on the seven characteristics of civilization, and prove whether or not the group they chose is a civilization. This is somewhat similiar to the paper they did in Social Studies earlier this year. The exceptions are: this one is longer (9 paragraphs), this one is researched and very organized, and this one will also be graded based on the student's use of revision techniques.  One last bit of information you may need is the seven characteristics of a civilization. They are as follows: government, food supply, art, religion, technology, social structure and writing. Students should write a paragraph describing how their people displayed evidence of each one.

To prepare students for this essay, we have done many things. Students have learned paragraph structure and research plans. On Friday, Mrs. Ruebusch, our librarian, presented information on how to use databases and the district's online library resources. She also told us how to determine if we are looking at a reliable source online. Now that students have all of the background, they are researching and writing.

The essay is due (final copy) on the 17th of December.  I have asked students to write at least one paragraph each night this week, leaving them halfway done and the other half to be done over the weekend. However, I did suggest that they would be in better shape if they did two each night. Everyday this week, we will be reading and giving feedback in partners. Students will then use this feedback to revise and write the final draft next week.  To see the scoring guide, click on the title of this post--it is a hot link.