Romano’s Recipe for Reading and Writing

McClure’s Mouthwatering Munchies Cookbooks are on sale in the front office for $12.00. Great Holiday Gift!After the quiz on the anchor novels, students were then asked to refer back to the Essential Question of the Unit, “Can all conflicts be resolved?” Many of the conflicts that the characters in our novel have been faced with are serious issues that may in fact be unresolvable.  Students continued to read silently.  We then discussed word origins.  We reviewed prefixes, suffixes, and root words.  Students pointed out that much of the English language is derived from Greek or Latin words. 

In class we completed pages, 116 and 117 in The Reader’s Journey.

Homework:

None!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Today’s class continued to focus on writing persuasive and expository essays.  We reviewed the State rubric that will be used in scoring their writing assignments on the 8th grade writing assessment, and I showed them how I graded their persuasive writing prompts using this rubric.  We then discussed the necessity of having a clear thesis statement in the beginning of their essays.  Students wrote examples on the board, and these examples were discussed.

We then read and discussed Chapter 13 in The House of Dies Drear.

Homework:

Students should do the back of the Thesis Statement Worksheet.  Choose one topic from that page and write three supporting details.     

Home

Today in class students completed their Anchor novel group projects.  Students were asked to identify and make a graphic organizer for five vocabulary words in chapters 1-6, write a five sentence summary about the novel, write five questions (with answers), and identify five literature terms that have been discussed in class and find examples of each in the novel.  Grades are posted on Pinnacle. 

The first reader response letter for Unit 2 was due today.  Many students did not have theirs.  Please make note that students will have a letter due once a week in response to their reading. 

At this point, all students should have read through chapter 9 in their anchor novels.  The only exception to this is for students reading Annie John.  These students should have completed through chapter 6. 

Homework – Quiz on chapters 1-9 on Wednesday.

Today students were given a mock writing test in preparation for the 8th Grade Writing Assessment.  For this writing test, students were asked to write a persuasive essay about why homework should or should not be given to students.  They were required to use a graphic organizer for their prewriting, write a rough draft, revise their rough draft, and then write their final draft in ink.  A few students will need additional time to complete their final draft.  Overall, I was very impressed with the effort displayed in class today.  The students seemed to take the assignment seriously and to do their best.  Grades will be posted on Pinnacle over the next few days. 

Homework:

None

In preparation for the 8th Grade Writing Assessment on January 20, 2010, we began our introduction of expository and peruasive writing.  On Monday, we looked at the GA standards for both of these types of writing.  Students took notes about what these genres of writing are, and how they can become successful writers of the two genres. 

Homework:

Give three reasons to support why homework is or is not valuable.

Study the difference between persuasive and expository writing using the notes taken in class.

Last week, students were introduced to the Unit 2 Anchor novels.  As a class, we previewed them in an attempt to have students choose books with which they could make connections.  The anchor novels for Unit 2 are:

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman

Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac

Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid

In class we have discussed the overall conflict in each of these novels, and students are getting into the plot development.  At this time, students should have read chapters 1-5 in their books.  They will keep a running log of vocabulary words for which they do not know the meaning. 

Homework:

Reader Response Letter Due Monday – Chapters 1-8 (except Annie John, 1-6)

Class began today with our grammar blocks sentences.  Students were asked to   identify the parts of speech of each word in a sentence using their grammar blocks “Cheat Sheet.”  These were collected and will be graded.  We then went over these sentences, and we had a mini-lesson on compound sentences.  Compound sentences are when you have two independent clauses joined together by either a semi colon(;) or a comma and a conjunction (for, and, nor, but, and, yet, so). 

Then students were given five new vocabulary words from The House of Dies Drear.  There will be a quiz on these words on Thursday, November 5th. 

We completed the reading of Chapter 10 in The House of Dies Drear and discussed this chapter. 

Finally, we went over “Occupation Conductorette” in The Reader’s Journey books.  Students had been asked to finish reading the story and answer the questions at the end. 

Homework – Make flashcards for the five new vocabulary words.

cordial – friendly

agitated – disturbed or upset

ornate – heavily adorned; showy

frayed – strained; weakened

malice – desire to do another harm; ill will