Romano’s Recipe for Reading and Writing

Today students were assigned their anchor books for Unit 1.  Three books will be used to aid in the answering of the Essential Question for the unit which is, “Is the truth the same for everyone?”  Students will have assignments based on their particular book.  The three anchor books are:  The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton, Robot Dreams by Isaac Asimov, and To Be a Slave by Julius Lester.  Below you will find a list of vocabulary words for each of the books.  There will be a vocab test on Friday. 

Homework:

Make flash cards for vocabulary words – test Friday

1st Reader’s Journal Letter Due – Friday based on Anchor book assignment

Vocab Words:

The House of Dies Drear – desolation, nestled, eccentric, opaque, pathetic,

crestfallen, meander, menacing, cordial, agitated, ornate, frayed, malice, bemused, aloofness, stupendous, legacy, anguish, apparition, intricate.

Robot Dreams

perennial, cajolingly, injunction, diffidently, imperious, sloughed, vagabond, chronically, franchise, impunity, exuberant, asymmetric, surreptitiously, disheveled, insolence

To Be a Slave

compelled, ineffectual, pathetic, dexterity, maximum, unobtrusive, insurrection, impudent, transformed, reconcile, repressive, appropriate, inadequately, inevitable, alleviate

Today was the first quiz of the year!  Congratulations to those students who did so well.  Keep up the good work.  Others have to review the information over the weekend in order to retake the quiz on Tuesday.  Grades are posted on Pinnacle.   We also began working on our Students Times in class.  I conferenced with each student as he/she worked on various pieces of writing. 

Homework

• Read each night for at least 20 minutes. 

McClure Middle Cookbook Order Form

Today’s class focused on the different ways of figuring out the meaning of a word that you are unfamiliar with when you are reading independently.  As a result of this discussion, we focused on prefixes, suffixes and root words and how they are helpful in determining word meanings. 

Homework

• Complete prefixes and suffixes worksheet – double sided
• Bring notebook for reading journal

* Great job on Thursday!  All students had an independent reading book in class.

Today we went over technique to use when previewing informational texts.  Students were asked to preview a text paying particular attention to the title of the article, captions the article contained, and images associated with the article.  Students then made predictions, based on these three things,  about what they would learn from the article.  Today’s article was about the Vietnam Veteran War Memorial’s designer, Maya Ying Lin. 

Homework:

Bring in a newspaper/magazine article and complete the previewing chart presented in class.  This chart included predicting what the tile, caption and images in the article tell the reader prior to reading the article.

Class started with the presentation of students’ vocabulary posters which they were assigned to complete during last class.  We then did a warm up where students presented summaries of the books they are currently reading.  Using that information, we applied it to discussing and taking notes about the elements of plot.  Students were then given a spelling pretest. 

Homework

• Read for 20 minutes
• Make flash cards for the elements of plot. (Students should have notes to use for this. The words are: exposition, setting, characters, antagonist, protagonist, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.)

Today in class we continued comparing and contrasting fiction and non-fiction.  We came to the conclusion that although we often think of them as opposites, there really are several similarities between these two types of  writing.  In addition, students worked in pairs to discuss the importance of truth.  This stems from the fact that the “Big Question” of our unit is, “Is the truth the same for everyone?” 

Homework -

• Review Elements of plot
• Bring independent reading material to class
• bring back signed syllabus

Miss Alaneus

A Vocabulary Disaster

Today in class, students were asked to turn in their signed syllabus.  Several students did not have theirs.  Please ask your son or daughter to bring it back as soon as possible.  In addition, students should bring independent reading material to class everyday.  We will use this to gauge fluency on things they enjoy reading. 

Class today involved a read aloud of the book, Miss Alaneus, A Vocabulary Disasterby Debra Frasier.   Students enjoyed this story of Sage, who inadvertently misuses and misdefines one of her vocabulary words in school.  We went on to do a mini-lesson on proper nouns.  Afterwards, students had to choose three  words from the A section of the dictionary to use for their homework assignment.  They were given time in class to copy these unknown words into their notebooks for the purpose of increasing their vocabulary. 

Homework:

Read for 20 minutes. 

Write three sentences using your three ”A” vocabulary words. 

Choose one of the above chosen words to define and illustrate.  (This was explained in class.  Students were also given paper on which to complete this assignment.) 

Welcome students and parents!  I am so excited to start my second year here at McClure Middle School.  We will be working diligently this year to improve students’ literacy skills.  In order to do so, we must work together to develop habits which will lead us in our journey for success.  Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns about what is occurring in the classroom or what is required at home.  I am open to any feedback you may have to offer.   

Below you will find copies of both my language arts as well as reading syllabus.  As I am teaching both subject areas, please be sure to check assignments for the correct class. 

We started the year off with, “Mrs. Romano’s Wheel of Literacy.”  Guest presenter “Vanna White” had students spin the wheel, solve puzzles and choose prizes. 

Chrissy Wheel of Literacywheel

Reading syllabus0910RomanoLanguage Arts Syllabus McClure (Romano)