Today was mostly an independent work day. You have several things that are due in the coming days, so I let you spend time finishing those. Remember your due dates! Your I Am Malala final project is due on Monday and your extended response essay is due on Tuesday.
Next week will be a little strange because we have NYS testing on Wednesday and Thursday. We will do a little more review on Monday and Tuesday, but I know everyone is ready! Wednesday's plan changed a bit because Ms. Veach wasn't available for library. This gave you lots of time to work on your I Am Malala reflections and projects, which is what we focused on for the entire class (and Enrichment).
We went back to our essay writing on Thursday. You took notes on writing introductory paragraphs and concluding paragraphs. Remember, an introduction has a hook, a response to the prompt, and a big idea. A conclusion starts with a (reworded) big idea, discusses the texts, and ends with a clincher. HPBBTC! Harry Potter's Butter Beer Tastes Crunchy! Weird? Yes. Will you remember it? Also, yes! Both groups did a nice job with notes and had time to get started. This work will continue on Friday. You should have plenty of time to finish all of your tasks. We spent much of our day reading two related texts about the Holocaust. These texts, an interview and an article, focus on children living in Germany during the Nazi takeover. After going through both the interview and the article as a class, we took brief notes on how to analyze an essay prompt. This work is in preparation for a piece you will write in the coming days. Make sure you write a great essay now (with help and teacher support)!
I had jury duty on Thursday and Friday, but I was confident you were left in the capable hands of Miss Scott, Mr. M, and Ms. MC. We had three literature circle days in a row. We had our final discussion on Monday. I've included a short video of Miss Scott leading my 7A group through this conversation. Check it out! We moved through I Am Malala quickly, but, as I confidently mentioned at the beginning of this unit, I knew you could handle the pressure. These conversations have been interesting, thoughtful, and in-depth. Nice job! Projects will be done during Enrichment and will be due on Monday. You had library class today, so we really only had about 40 minutes to work. This was spent peer editing and writing final drafts. You will continue working on these drafts during Enrichment. Looking ahead, your final drafts must be posted to Google Classroom by Monday! We have meeting 6 for I Am Malala tomorrow, so come ready to talk!
Miss Scott started today's class by discussing the Haka, a traditional dance from New Zealand. She showed a few versions of the dance and we discussed why it was done to honor the victim's of last week's shooting. The information is below if you want to take a second look. Then we jumped into peer editing. You took some notes about the expectations of this and then reviewed your narrative writing. You looked at strengths and key points during meeting 1 with your Writing Partner. Then you took your partner's Chromebook and did some editing. We will continue this tomorrow!
Thursday was a normal literature circle day. You started by discussing chapters 11 through 15 of I Am Malala. Miss Scott led my group today. We were both impressed what we saw. You spent some time reading for Meeting 5 afterwards.
Friday is a half day. It is an ELA working day. You will be able to complete your work for Meeting 5 and/or finish your argumentative writing on Google Classroom. First, I just want to say how impressed I am with the homework that I received from everyone today. Even though it was short notice, almost every person submitted completed, interesting work. Nice job! We continued talking about author's argument today. You finished reading about the "worst call in baseball" and we reviewed all of the work that you did yesterday. Then I assigned you one of two articles, either about naps at school or trash-free cafeterias. You had a checklist to work through and formulated your own article about the issue that you were assigned. This is a Google Classroom assignment. You will have time to finish this on Friday if you did not get there today. BOTH classes accomplished a lot today! 80 minutes well spent in ELA. Excellent work!
Today was a lesson day focusing on author's argument. We began as a whole group with some notes. We talked about making claims, supporting those with evidence, and deciding if an author is reliable. We revisited the Do Now you completed in which you read about perfect games in baseball. Then you watch the video below that clearly shows a bad call made on the last pitch of what would have been a perfect game. Most of you were outraged and thought it was obviously a bad call. Many sportswriters thought the same. We read two articles focusing on these ideas. We completed one and will finish the second tomorrow.
I am a bit behind here, so let me catch everyone up! I was not in the building on Wednesday and Thursday of last week. You finished your central idea work in my absence. It is an important skill that we will review again in Enrichment. Friday and Monday were normal literature circle days. We had meetings 2 and 3. Then you were able work for your next meetings.
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