What's up next...

With our second unit, you (the student) will develop and apply skills and strategies to the reading process especially while reading nonfiction texts. Mastery of these skills and strategies is of the utmost importance as you continue through school. Nonfiction reading is found in every subject at every level of education and is the majority of the reading you will do as you start working and move up in your career.

This unit contains four major goals:

1. Develop and apply skills and strategies to comprehend, analyze and evaluate nonfiction from a variety of cultures and times.

2. Apply pre-reading strategies to aid comprehension in nonfiction.

3. Apply during reading strategies to aid comprehension in nonfiction.

4. Apply post-reading strategies to aid comprehension in nonfiction.

[Goal 1] You will need to be able to identify the form of nonfiction you are reading based on the features of the text and the author’s purpose for writing the piece. You will be expected to know the following forms of nonfiction (refer to the text book on pages 82-86 or class notes for study):

                      *Autobiography       *Biography      *Essay       *Informative       *Article Interview

[Goal 2] You will also have to demonstrate consistent use of the following pre-reading strategies to aid the comprehension of non-fiction:

      • previewing the text by looking at sidebars, graphs, charts, headings, subheading, section headings, captions, 

        photos, bolded text, pulled quotes, and footnotes.

      • predicting what the text would be about using information from text features

      • accessing your prior knowledge of the topic by determining what you already know/believe about this subject.

      • set a purpose and rate for reading by deciding how much time is needed and what you are supposed to learn while

        reading the passage.

[Goal 3] During reading, you will be asked to use strategies to self-monitor your comprehension. This means making sure you understand what you are reading. You will:

     • question the text when needed

     • make inferences to deepen understanding

     • visualize what you are reading

     • paraphrase and summarize the key points into your own words as you go along.

[Goal 4] After reading, you will demonstrate your comprehension of [a non-fiction] text by:

     • answering basic comprehension questions

     • identifying and explaining the relationship between the main idea and supporting details

     • clarifying any questions asked during reading

     • reflecting on what you learned from the text

     • drawing conclusions about the topic or author, and

     • analyzing the effectiveness or relevance of the text.

Practicing at home by reading lots and lots of nonfiction of your choice and using these skills and strategies will help you meet your goals for this unit. As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns.

Final Time

Students have worked hard to learn how to organize, focus and express their voice in their writing.  Commas have become a goal that will last through out the year.  Armed with all of their new knowledge, and feedback from peers and Mrs. Benson, they are left on their own to write their final copies.

Please encourage and support your student as they finish up these final copies tonight.  They are due tomorrow, September 8th, 2011.

If there are any questions, I can be reached at cbenson@hazelwoodschools.org  My e-mail goes straight to my phone, so I will be vigilant about responding.

I can't wait to read about the amazing adventures you all have had in your lives.

Have a Good Weekend

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

We have had a very busy week.  Students spent time practicing their writing organization skills, focusing their writing to build strong, controlling ideas and revising their writing to add voice.  So far, students should have turned in a rough draft and a second draft with a reflection sheet.  I am spending the weekend reading these and providing the kids with feedback to help them grow in the areas they indicated they wanted help.  From what I have seen so far, I have hard working, talented students with a thirst for learning.  I can't wait to see what their finished products look like.  Final copies are due on Thursday, September 8th.

Today was TWLOHA Day.  This day is a day of awareness presented by the organization To Write Love on Her Arms.

To Write Love on Her Arms is a nonprofit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.
For more information about the organization you can visit TWLOHA at http://www.twloha.com/. 

I tell you this, because today I participated in their awareness movement by writing "LOVE" on my arms.  Of course, the students were interested in why I had done this.  Once I explained this, many of them asked if they could write "LOVE" on their arms as well.  I told the students that I did not recommend they do so if their parents would object to it.  I also told them that if they wrote it, they needed to be able to explain why. 

If you have further questions about our week, please send me an e-mail at cbenson@hazelwoodschools.org

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Benson