Today was Day 2 of our mini-unit. It looked very similar to your lesson yesterday, but we had new stories. Both groups were able to do some voting about their preferred plays. 7A students chose between Frankenstein and The Monkey's Paw. 7B had the choice between The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Julius Caesar (complete with corny video - below). We will do a little work with the plays during testing days, but you will have that odd afternoon schedule. By Friday you will know your play, your role, and your stage crew job. Exciting!
Today we kicked off our mini-unit focusing on our play performances. As I mentioned in class, 7A and 7B will be doing different things for the first time this year. When all is said and done, the 7th graders will perform four different plays. Today Ms. Scott and I unveiled the first two choices. 7A learned about Frankenstein, while 7B learned about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Both of these plays are spooky. Tomorrow you will read the last two plays and make a very important decision about which one you like the most! Note: We have moved on from you This I Believe essays, but not forgotten about those of you who wanted to go to the next step. I will begin meeting with those going to Youth Voices tomorrow or Wednesday this week. Some of you wanted to record and submit to the This I Believe website. We will do this once our plays are complete. We have a busy couple of weeks!
These classes have really had two main goals. The first is to get into our free read books! I don't know about you, but I am in a place in my book that makes it hard to put down!
The second thing that we have focused on is our essay writing. Final drafts of This I Believe essays will likely be worked on AFTER break. I am going to focus on helping those people auditioning to edit their work before we leave. We will announce Youth Voices Speaker Series presenters by Friday at the latest! We started both Friday's and Monday's class by free reading. Everyone seems to be settled into a book. Let's keep this going! On Friday you continued outlining your work. We spent a little time talking about the Youth Voices Speaker Series. I put permission slips in your mailboxes. Remember, you need them in order to even audition. Auditions will begin on Tuesday. Ideally, presenters will be announced before we leave for Spring Break. Monday's class focused on outlining and then beginning first drafts. A teacher will jump onto your Google Doc in the coming days to offer feedback. The enthusiasm and ideas are excellent and we are all looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
We started today's class with some free reading and then focused our attention back to This I Believe essays. After some more browsing through examples and CNN 10, we did a little outlining. I showed you my example where I chose my belief statement and then added my personal life experience. You started thinking before the end of class. You will continue outlining and then begin writing on Friday!
Both groups had library during the first part of ELA. When you returned, we listened to yesterday's This I Believe essay again. This time I asked you to make note of specific parts of the essay, including the belief statement, the starting anecdote, the life experience that led to this belief, and the lasting impact of the belief statement. Then, since most people finished their belief statements, you had the chance to listen to a few different This I Believe essays (links below) and continue looking for those components. We will continue to talk more about this structure tomorrow.
Today you started by free reading again. We will continue this trend in the weeks ahead. I gave you some more time to work on belief statements. These are really impressive! After the news, you were able to listen to a real This I Believe essay written by a young woman named Brighton Early. I spoke a little about the opportunities you have for "publishing" your own This I Believe essay. You may 1) submit it just to me for review, 2) audition for a chance to present at the Youth Voice Speaker Series at Buffalo State College (more information to come), and/or 3) record your essay to submit to This I Believe for a chance to have it on their broadcasting.
We started our class today with a longer reading time. Get used to this! We will spend some time reading almost each day. I had you meet up with a partner after free reading to share book suggestions. It sounded like many people were into some great books! Then we focused our attention to BELIEFS! We listened to Tarak McClain's "Thirty Things I Believe." After the news I shared my own list of beliefs and then gave you some think time for your own belief list. So far, so good! People were focused and the lists I've already seen have been thoughtful. Nice job!
We had a fun, relaxed day in ELA. We spent some time at the beginning of class updating our book list and free reading. I love seeing all of the different titles you have selected! We did one of our favorite activities - inferencing videos! This is one of my favorites and everyone else seemed to enjoy it, too. After we finished that and watched the news, you spent a little time playing the Bills of Rights Game from your SS Google Classroom account. It seemed fun. We are going to start looking at TED Talks on Monday! |