We Changed Directions

Technology is a wonderful thing when it works, but when it doesn't, well you have to do your best.  We were going to go on to non-fiction summarization and post reading strategies, but our Promethean board has decided to take a mini-vacation, so we are changing plans slightly until it can be repaired.

I moved up our personal narrative/writing process unit so we could move forward.  We will come back around to the summarization lessons once we can use the Promethean and all of the activities I had already planned that utilize the technology available to us.  (In other words, I worked hard on the lessons we were going to do and I am excited to see how the kids like them and the technology played a big role in those lessons.)  So, that means that students should be talking about their past experiences with reading and writing instead of summarizing things they have read. 

They may appreciate a few reminders of what they were like as beginning readers, so they have more material to work with.  Tomorrow I will be checking to see if they have made some progress on their rough draft as Mrs. Holland, the counselor is in doing her lesson.  I will also make sure that everyone is caught up with everything.  Later this week students may ask to interview you about their progress as a reader and writer has been from a parent's perspective.  This will help them add more specific details to their writing.  for a good example of what students will be writing, please check out the amazing short selection written by Alexis on her blog, Alexis soccer girl 15.  Her piece is titled, "The First Time I Wrote my Name".

Homework:

Read 30 minutes and work on the literary history rough draft.

Parents:

Don't forget to sign up for parent/teacher conferences October 13th-15th.  Call Mrs. Kroll in the 7th grade office at 953-7532 to schedule.