AC Language Arts

Click HERE to read about LITERACY NIGHT at McClure!

Click HERE to read all about McClure’s first-ever BOOK SWAP!

We are full swing into our technical writing project:  a “survival manual” for rising sixth grade students.  Student teams are working together to create the pages for the manual, with topics such as:  All About Lockers; How to Study; What is Pinnacle?; Breakfast at McClure; and much, much more!  In order to facilitate collaboration across classes on this huge project, students are using Google Docs and Google Groups to share and respond to one another’s work. To take a tour of Google Docs, click HERE!  To check out what you can do with Google Groups, click HERE!

We have been in the PC lab each day this week.  Next week, we will be in the Mac lab on Monday and Tuesday, and our final lab day will be in the PC lab on Wednesday.  After that point, any work not completed will have to be finished at home.  All work on the sixth grade survival manual is due FRIDAY, MARCH 5.

Reminder:  Evidence of independent reading can be submitted through Monday, March 8!

If you were absent on Thursday 2/18, you need to see Ms. Smith to borrow a “how-to” book and complete the following assignment:

First, read 15 pages from your how-to book. (They should be pages with some text, not all pictures/diagrams.)

Then, respond to the following:
1. Write the title (underlined) & author of your book.
2. Describe the ORGANIZATION of this book. (How is it organized?)
3. Describe the author’s STYLE (word choice, tone, voice, sentence structure).
4. Would you consider this book “middle school appropriate?” (In other words– does it belong in our media center?) Why or why not?
5. If this was a subject/topic that interested you, would you find this book helpful? Why or why not?

Today we visited with our old friends Nick and Julie, our FAVORITE video hosts, as they explored writing for formal and informal purposes. If you were absent today, you should download and print the video notes (click HERE), read them, and store them in the “writing” section of your binder.

The “trust” piece is due tomorrow! Remember:
~The maximum length is 1,000 words.
~It should be typed OR neatly written in blue or black ink.
~You should turn in your rough draft, PQS sheets, revised draft, and final draft.
~If you don’t have your paper tomorrow and wait until next Tuesday to turn it in, you will lose 30 points (for 3 days X 10 points per day)!!! BE PREPARED!

Our DGP sentence this week is:

When all else fails, read the instructions.

We’ve had great grammar discussions using this sentence (What part of speech IS the word else? What is the subject for the verb read in this sentence?)

We’ve also used this sentence as a springboard to discuss technical writing. Today in periods 3/4, 5, and 6, we examined several examples of technical texts (instructional manuals) and analyzed them for common features. We will do this activity in period 7/8 tomorrow.

We also finished peer revising our “trust” pieces today. Reminder: Final draft of “trust” piece due Friday!

Please forgive me for the lapse in blog updates! On February 3, I was attending a collaborative meeting with McClure’s 7th grade language arts team. On February 4 and 5, I was out of school with a terrible sinus infection. (I started on antibiotics on Friday, so I’m hoping I avoided passing any infectious germs to my students!)

Students were given part of the class period on Monday (2/1) and Tuesday (2/2) and the ENTIRE class period on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (if needed) to draft and revise the “trust” piece. On Thursday, students were asked to have at least the rough draft completed for Friday. Since I ended up having to be absent on Friday, however, completed drafts were not checked until today.

*Click here to download the REVISING CHECKLIST for “trust” piece.

*The FINAL DRAFT of this piece is DUE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12. Remember, the maximum length for this piece is 1000 words.

Today we continued working on a written response to this prompt:

Write about an occasion in which you needed to put your “trust” in something or someone.

For this piece, students will be assessed on IDEAS and STYLE only. In class today, we discussed how to write with VOICE (which is a huge part of STYLE):

♥Write honestly and from the heart;
♥Share personal feelings about the topic;
♥Speak directly to the reader;
♥Use language that can bring the topic to life for the reader;
♥Care about what is written;
♥Write to be read;
♥Use more expression than that found in an encyclopedia article;
♥Give the reader a sense of the person behind the words;
♥Connect with the reader.

Remember: Your VOICE is the HEART of the piece!

This week’s DGP sentence is a quote from Frank Crane:

“You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough.”

In addition to labelling the parts of speech in this sentence, we also discussed what we thought Crane meant by this statement.  We explored the concept of trust using the definition and images in this PowerPoint presentation.

In our journals, students created two lists answering these two questions:  WHO do you trust? and WHAT do you trust?

After sharing from our lists, students began drafting a response to the following prompt:

Write about an occasion in which you needed to put your “trust” in something or someone. Tell the whole story.

Through this piece of writing, we will be focusing on the domains of IDEAS and STYLE.  In addition, some of the pieces may be selected for entry into the Leslie Walker Writers of Promise contest sponsored by the Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project.  (Ms. Smith is a 1997 fellow of the KMWP.)