Week 6: September 15-19

We finished up our Basic Skills unit with sentence types (simple, compound, complex) and paragraphs.  As a LA 7 team, we will be looking at students who scored low and doing a reteaching session.  I was pleased with how hard students worked and how they mastered the Whole Brain teaching gestures. The next unit is Argumentation 101 where students will be introduced to argumentative writing and gain a foundation so we can take it to the next level later in the year.

Please make sure your student is reading at home, 30 mins. at least 5 days a week.  I'm excited to see the great progress students are making with reading and trying different genres of books.  I've been evaluating test score and will begin some reading intensives during FLEX time.  I'll be emailing you if your student will be invited to join for some extra help.  Here's an interesting survey of middle school students worth looking at.  Start a dialogue about reading in your family!

As always, please email or call with any questions or concerns.  Remember to keep an eye on PowerSchool as midterm is rapidly approaching.  Students are required to have 5 books read by midterm.  If you miss a day of school, remember to check the whiteboard, blog, your student buddy and missing work crate, to see what you missed--then come talk to me!  I'm also totally willing for students to re-do any assignment for more points.

I'm looking forward to a fun week of learning with my amazing students!  

Nation-in-the-News

to present Friday, September 20th

2nd Period:  Baylee*, Ellie Stark, Ellie Sandstrom, Alaina, Katie

3rd Period:  Kyla, Kaden, Jose

4th Period:  Luis, Mady S., Ty

5th: Tony, Kenneth, Abby   

6th:  Treson, Angela, Camden

Monday, September 15

Short PLC Day, school out at 11:45am

10 mins. independent reading
Career Connection: Why LA Matters

Tuesday, September 16

*10 minutes independent reading
Genre-of-the-Week: Science Fiction
Argumentation Pre-Test
Introduction to Argumentation 101
Read Scope Magazine Soda Debate

Wednesday, September 17

 *10 minutes independent reading
Argumentation Vocabulary & Structure
Begin Scope Magazine Soda Debate Activity

Thursday, September 18
 *10 minutes independent reading
Finish Soda Debate Activity

2nd period Honors: Article Identification Activity
Newspaper Work Day

Friday, September 19

Random Student
Nation-in-the-News
Argumentation Essay Identification Activity
Midterm