Week 20: January 5-9

Welcome back and Happy New Year!! 2015 will be a fabulous year and I'm excited to begin. My focus in January will be preparing students for the SAGE writing test in February. I have been very pleased as I graded the Superhero Argumentation Essays and I am seeing that students are understanding and mastering argumentation. During January, I will teach OREO and ACES paragraphs used in argumentation and explanatory writing. These paragraphs will add another layer of organization and practice as well as prepare students for middle school where these paragraphs are a part of their writing curriculum. Students will write 4 essays this month: 2 argumentative and 2 explanatory. I will be reinforcing organizational foldables which will be tools they can use in SAGE to help them write.

We will continue our daily 10 minutes of reading and students will finish books 6-10 by February. Each Friday will be reading day. Classes will vote on January 5th for a class novel to read. We will read this novel every Friday and practice reading strategies, reading comprehension and literature devices. I'm really looking forward to this more holistic way to teach reading and writing.

A note on FLEX time...I've been pulling students for FLEX for reading inventions. I'm putting this on hold temporarily. I'm noticing that many of these same students (and others) are struggling with specific components of essay writing. I'll focus my FLEX priority days through mid February on writing interventions.
I'll be doing a lot of formative assessments to pinpoint which students need which intervention, but please let me know if you think your students might benefit from these.

Thank you so much for the kind words, gifts and treats I received for Christmas. Your thoughtfulness meant the world to me. I so enjoy every day with these wonderful students--seriously--this is my favorite group of students in my career. They are the best!

Please email or call me with any questions/concerns: rachel.robins@washk12.org/(435) 652-4742. Thank you for your continued support!

Nation-in-the-News

present on Friday, January 9th

2nd period: Braden C., Baylee C., David C.

3rd period: Ellie F., Chanel H., Ryan H.

4th period: Joshua C., Baylee D., Brandon G.

5th period: Mckenna F., Laura G., Paola G.

6th period: Ryder D., Tanner D., John D.

Monday, January 5th

Book #6 Due this week

Christmas Reading Challenge Due

New Seating Chart

Essays Back (Pinpoint Strengths/Weaknesses)

Vote on Class Novel 

Tuesday, January 6th

Essay Reteaching (Line-ups, Red/Green/Yellow)

OREO Paragraph Notes 

Guided Practice

Wednesday, January 7th

Free Reading

Argumentative Essay Text Packets

Read and Organize Writing with Foldables

Thursday, January 8th

Free Reading 

Write Argumentative Essay (due today)

Friday, January 9th

Free Reading

Random Student

Nation-in-the-News

Class Novel