In early May, we finished up through chapter six in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The reason we do not finish this book is that the 7th grade ELA teachers think the most important lessons have been shared. We do encourage your child to finish reading this beautifully-written narrative, as it is such a great challenging mentor text. Our focus when writing responses was the lead into their evidence. We're practicing some sophisticated writing that eighth grade teachers will be helping them develop next year. We also gave and received feedback on our grammar (as always).
We're getting hyped up for summer reading! The list of books from which to choose has been shared, and we also got a preview of the books - picnic style - in the courtyard! We are encouraging students to read with one or more friends so they can discuss the book before school even starts next year. If your child has already read one or more on the list, please encourage him or her to read more. The more they read, the more choices they have when we get back to school and start discussing books in groups. Teachers next year will focus many lessons around the "What's Your Story?" theme.
We're finalizing our presentations for Genius Hour, and will share an invitation with you shortly. Our speaking goals are on this rubric, and we hope to share the learning process more than the products themselves. We hope your child has learned a little bit about HOW to learn, and can reflect on this experience when they share what they've done this past quarter.
After we got back from our trip to Lorado Taft (where we had a blast!) this week, we started our last unit as a class - reading The Outsiders. Students will be mostly on their own for the next two weeks, with me checking in with them each day to see what they understand and what they have questions about. All of our information (schedule and work) is on this page of the website. We'll be having student-led fishbowl discussions about the tough questions students bring up when reading. We'll be writing about characters and connections while reading, so we will not have a required final prompt for this last story. If students would like to write and submit one, we'll have prompt questions available to them, or they can write about the questions we discuss during the fishbowl discussions.
We're getting hyped up for summer reading! The list of books from which to choose has been shared, and we also got a preview of the books - picnic style - in the courtyard! We are encouraging students to read with one or more friends so they can discuss the book before school even starts next year. If your child has already read one or more on the list, please encourage him or her to read more. The more they read, the more choices they have when we get back to school and start discussing books in groups. Teachers next year will focus many lessons around the "What's Your Story?" theme.
We're finalizing our presentations for Genius Hour, and will share an invitation with you shortly. Our speaking goals are on this rubric, and we hope to share the learning process more than the products themselves. We hope your child has learned a little bit about HOW to learn, and can reflect on this experience when they share what they've done this past quarter.
After we got back from our trip to Lorado Taft (where we had a blast!) this week, we started our last unit as a class - reading The Outsiders. Students will be mostly on their own for the next two weeks, with me checking in with them each day to see what they understand and what they have questions about. All of our information (schedule and work) is on this page of the website. We'll be having student-led fishbowl discussions about the tough questions students bring up when reading. We'll be writing about characters and connections while reading, so we will not have a required final prompt for this last story. If students would like to write and submit one, we'll have prompt questions available to them, or they can write about the questions we discuss during the fishbowl discussions.