Today we started our final book of the year, The Hobbit! We started by asking some very thought-provoking questions that caused debates (which this class loves!). We will also be studying The Hero's Journey throughout the reading of the Hobbit.
Today we worked on our problem solving and inferencing skills by completing a room escape as a class. We also worked on understanding logical fallacies. For homework, students need to complete the Smash, Boom, Best argumentative assignments.
Today we completed a summary organizer for Terrible Typhoid Mary. Students had to list something that related to Mary for every letter of the alphabet. Next week, we will use this to complete an in-class writing assignment.
Today we worked with partners to review various figurative language. Then we used that figurative language to create literary Valentine's. This was a fun, creative project. This is the final week we will be working on writing, so please have your book next week. I'll do a little read aloud to kick off the new reading.
Today I polled the class to ask the the most challenging section of the at home work and they overwhelmingly agreed that it was the graphic organizer. So we workshopped that in class and I believe everyone was able to get that completed. We will begin reading our first book of the semester, Terrible Typhoid Mary by Susan Campbell Bartoletti on 2/17, so please make sure to get that if you have not already done so.
This unit will have us focusing on writing. We started with a passage from The Maze Runner. Students will be working on writing a personal narrative type extended paragraph and a fictional extended paragraph.
Today we did a variety of things! First we wrote notes of encouragement to take to the victims of Hurrican Helene. Then we designed an ugly sweater for one of the characters from A Christmas Carol. Students had to use symbolism and visual elements to create a Christmas sweater. Next week, we'll work on writing about our sweaters for a bit. We'll also watch The Christmas Carol movie!! We're also having pajama day, so feel free to come with your cozy jammies on to watch! If you do not participate in the STEAM class, but you would like to stay to watch the movie, you are welcome to do so. Class will be over at 3:30 instead of 2:30 if that is the case.
Today we listened to more of A Christmas Carol and focused on Scrooge's character. We also spent some time working on our packet for this week, so that we would not have quite as much at-home work this week of Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I'm so thankful for you.
We have two more weeks of class. We will have pajama day on 12/9, so wear your pjs to class. We will also be watching the animated version of A Christmas Carol, which is one hour and 45 minutes. You are welcome to stay into the last hour of the day to finish this with us!
Today, we debriefed about The Giver--everyone had some pretty strong emotions. This class does a great job of discussion, so this was a fun day. Some people really loved the book and others did not. That's perfectly ok! I always encourage students to be authentic in their response and recognize that it does not need to match anyone else's (including their teacher's) opinion. What I do expect is for students to justify their reasoning. So, if they don't like it, that's fine, but they must provide evidentiary support to their claim.
We also started A Christmas Carol, which is one of my most favorite books. The Victorian Language can be a bit of a barrier, so Dr. Rowe did a read aloud of this one and suggested everyone listen on audible (it's free) and follow along.
Today we had a silent "discussion," and we practiced a strategy called Affinity Mapping. We categorized responses to a question about The Giver and developed a thesis based on those responses. Then we wrote about those with a partner and practiced extended our sentences and paragraph complexity by using bbs, ASBA.
Today we worked on organizing statements about Thanksgiving and then extending those sentences to include bbs, ASBA. This is great practice for organizing our writing. We have one more week of The Giver and then we will begin A Christmas Carol, which is one of my most favorite books! Please make sure you have an unabridged copy of A Christmas Carol for our reading.
Today we reviewed how to construct a proper argument through a debate. This is a skill we will return to multiple times. We also reviewed how to do a mentor sentence and learned about gerunds and determiners in the process. This week we are starting The Giver. It has already lead to some interesting discussions, so I'm excited to see what this book brings!
Today we listened to an episode of Lore and took sketchnotes. It was perfect for the spooky season and gave us a heads up on the spookiness of the holiday season to come (ask your students about how they view Santa now). We praticed the new skill of sketchnotes and everyone did a really nice job of those. I was very impressed. In the end, we were even able to tie our podcast (and the creepiness of it) to The Giver. This week, read chapters 7-12 and work on the skills in the packet. We're specifically focusing on argumentative writing with this book, so a lot of the writings will be stating claims and providing evidence for those claims.
Today we listened to a podcast called Smash, Boom, Best, which is one of my favorite podcasts! It is basically a debate podcast that teaches students how to build good arguments. Rather than relying on faulty reasons (like simply saying, "because," this podcast shows students how to use experts and solid evidence to build their case. Today we listened to Vampires vs. Werewolves, which was fascinating (did you know Werewolf stories have been around since 1700 BCE?) Students could clearly hear who had a better debate on the podcast today. We worked on developing strong arguments and taking notes while listening. For homework this week, students need to select their own episode of Smash, Boom, Best to listen to. They will take notes in their packets and write a short paragraph to accompany their selections. They are free to choose any of the episodes except for Vampires vs. Werewolves, since we used that one in class.
October Calendar
Today we played passing stories, which is a super fun game to practice writing stamina, creative writing, and writing on demand. It is always a hit! We also had a really mini-lesson about answering our questions completely and in a sentence. We are finishing up The Superteacher Project this week and we will be completing a one-pager for this book. We will do this for each book we finish. I am expecting to see creativity, colorful images, creative writing, and neatness!
Today we worked on using our text evidence to support topics in the book. Then we used those topics and evidence to create a theme sentence based on what we think the author is trying to teach us about that topic. This is a tricky skill, but everyone did pretty well on it. We'll continue to work on this in the next few weeks, as we start our new book. Everyone will need to have a copy of The Giver when we return from fall break. I would also like students to have their books in class each week, as we reference them to complete activities!
This week, we practiced writing bbs, ASBA. We will be using this often as it really helps make our writing much more complex. As a reminder, bbs ASBA stands for because, but, so, Although, Since, Before, After. There is a reason to the capitalization--ask your student if they can tell you why some are capitalized and some are not! We're in week two of The SuperTeacher Project and a big secret about Mr. Aidact is about to be revealed!! Happy reading!
Our next book will The Giver by Lois Lowery. We will start that one after fall break, so make sure you have your copy ready to go!
Today we had some syllable and writing stations during class. Students had to divide and then pronounce 7 and 8 syllable words. It was a challenge! Then they had to reassemble the words from the syllables, and finally, they had to organize a brainstorming circle. We had a great day! We are starting Superteacher Project this week, so make sure to check your calendars for the assignments and make sure your work is complete!
Today I introduced students to syllable types. This is a huge skill and very helpful for understanding longer words such as triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13). My goal in teaching/reviewing syllable types in middle school is three-fold. Number one, the goal is to have students decode challenging multi-syllabic words. Number two is to improve spelling. And number three is to review or reintroduce some phonics that may have been missed or forgotten. We made a reference page today that we will use all year long, so please keep up with that! In addition, the at-home work has gotten a bit harder. It will increase in intensity each week---this is how we grow smarter! My expectation is that everyone will try his or her best!
Today we read a pattern-type book called The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown (you may know her from Goodnight Moon). This book follows a very specific pattern that the students were able to identify quickly. We used that pattern to practice some writing ourselves. We will also be using that pattern to practice writing about ourselves this week. If you need a refresher on the book, you can click here.
Another thing I introduced the students to this week is bbs, which stands for BECAUSE, BUT, SO. We will use bbs ALL YEAR LONG, so I thought it was important to introduce it from day one! When I write bbs, it will always be lower case because (for now) I want students to use those in the middle of their sentences. This will help to increase our blah sentences to brilliant sentences. Students will be practicing this for the next few weeks, but so far, everyone did a great job of practicing with bbs.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email!