It's not actually ISTEP Eve for 8th graders though. Their testing starts Tuesday. And since Tuesday is only a math test, I don't know if I really even count that either.
By the way, I've said it before and I'll say it again--changing the schedules of your typical middle school student is like changing the feeding times for a monkey. They just go nuts. The two-hour delay turned your sons and daughters into lunatics. Lovable lunatics, sure, but nevertheless, still lunatics.
For what I think might be the last time, I talked about constructed responses. I used a couple analogies (dirty windows and toilet paper) to keep the important (but easy) things they need to remember about doing well on constructed responses in their heads. They had a chance to finish (or in some cases, rewrite) their "Ransom of Red Chief" constructed responses which I'll grade over the weekend before determining if they need any more last-minute practice before ISTEP.
We had our vocabulary quiz. It was only 25 questions. I've graded two classes, and I'm not too happy. I really thought this would be a lot easier and that there would be a lot more high scores. And I do have a ton of 92, 96, and 100 percents. Unfortunately, there are a lot in the 20-40 percent range, too. Very few students get C's on these tests. They're either working and paying attention and studying a little bit and getting A's or they're doing next-to-nothing and failing.
These next couple weeks, we're reviewing the word parts from lists 1-10. I didn't want to give them new word parts over ISTEP week because I want their focus to be on impressing the ISTEP people. They do have a sheet with all 250 (can you believe it's that many? wow!) word parts from this school year. Their job is to go through it and circle the ones they need help with.
Make sure they're reading this weekend! I have had a handful of students already finish their book. I gave them the option of reading something else or reading Hunger Games, a book that I've never read but want to find out more about. They're going to fill me in and let me know if I should teach this novel next year.
Have a great weekend!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Belated Thursday Post
Sorry about the lack of blogging yesterday even though I'm pretty sure I just apologized to 1 1/2 people. It slipped my mind. This week has been stuffed with meetings, talks with parents, ISTEP stuff...they had me in three places at one time yesterday.
We reviewed vocabulary some in preparation for our short test Friday.
We did a test prep activity where we broke down a writing prompt using the I-chart. We also looked at paragraph organization, and I stated the importance, once again, of writing at least 5 paragraphs on the ISTEP 6-point rubric prompt.
And we finished the O. Henry story, "The Ransom of Red Chief," after a quick review of the three types of irony. Next week, we'll look at another genre of short story (horror) to see how irony works when the author isn't trying to be funny. The students had three O. Henry constructed responses to do, but two of my classes might not have been able to finish.
Speaking of constructed responses, those are next week on ISTEP. And I'm still concerned that some of my students aren't using the text enough to get a 2 out of 2 on those bad boys. I want them to imagine themselves as cranes, lifting words from what they've read to plop down in their 6-line, 1-paragraph answers. If they do that, they should be successful.
We reviewed vocabulary some in preparation for our short test Friday.
We did a test prep activity where we broke down a writing prompt using the I-chart. We also looked at paragraph organization, and I stated the importance, once again, of writing at least 5 paragraphs on the ISTEP 6-point rubric prompt.
And we finished the O. Henry story, "The Ransom of Red Chief," after a quick review of the three types of irony. Next week, we'll look at another genre of short story (horror) to see how irony works when the author isn't trying to be funny. The students had three O. Henry constructed responses to do, but two of my classes might not have been able to finish.
Speaking of constructed responses, those are next week on ISTEP. And I'm still concerned that some of my students aren't using the text enough to get a 2 out of 2 on those bad boys. I want them to imagine themselves as cranes, lifting words from what they've read to plop down in their 6-line, 1-paragraph answers. If they do that, they should be successful.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Wednesday
The students have a vocabulary review sheet. There's an assignment for Friday (pictures or "invented" words or a combination for each of the 25 word parts), and a worksheet thing that we'll go over tomorrow.
The vocabulary quiz is Friday. This one is different because it's only going to have the 25 new word parts. That should make it easy for them to study and very easy for them to get a good grade on it.
Tonight's reading focus: style and voice--what kinds of things is the author doing to make the novel fun or interesting to read? We used O. Henry (see below) as an example.
Speaking of O. Henry, a pseudonym, we started a story called "The Ransom of Red Chief" about a 10-year-old boy who is kidnapped by some men wanting 2,000 dollars. It's a hilarious story! No, really. It is, mostly because of O. Henry's style. He uses a lot of irony in his work, so we took some notes on the three different types of irony--verbal, situational, and dramatic. As we read O. Henry's story, we'll look for all three examples.
The vocabulary quiz is Friday. This one is different because it's only going to have the 25 new word parts. That should make it easy for them to study and very easy for them to get a good grade on it.
Tonight's reading focus: style and voice--what kinds of things is the author doing to make the novel fun or interesting to read? We used O. Henry (see below) as an example.
Speaking of O. Henry, a pseudonym, we started a story called "The Ransom of Red Chief" about a 10-year-old boy who is kidnapped by some men wanting 2,000 dollars. It's a hilarious story! No, really. It is, mostly because of O. Henry's style. He uses a lot of irony in his work, so we took some notes on the three different types of irony--verbal, situational, and dramatic. As we read O. Henry's story, we'll look for all three examples.
Tuesday
We had Acuity testing today with the laptops. It took a lot of the students almost the entire time, so I just had them read their novels (which some of the students failed to bring with them) after they were finished Acuitying.
Today's novel focus: conflict
--What is conflict?
--What conflicts do you see in the story you're reading?
--Predict: What conflicts do you think will pop up later?
--Predict: How do you think the conflicts of your novel will be resolved later?
Today's novel focus: conflict
--What is conflict?
--What conflicts do you see in the story you're reading?
--Predict: What conflicts do you think will pop up later?
--Predict: How do you think the conflicts of your novel will be resolved later?
Friday, February 18, 2011
Friday Haiku Entry
Word within a word--
The building blocks of our words.
List ten is complete.
Iso means "equal"
In math, there's isosceles
with two equal sides.
Convert and revert
both contain the word part vert
and that one means "turn"
-ate is a suffix
that makes "cause" verbs like create,
dominate, placate
when you encourage,
you strengthen somebody's heart,
and that's what cor means.
What's the difference
between a prince and princess?
The -ess is female!
What is a mutant?
It's something that means "change."
Hey, muta means change!
Finally, there's fug,
like fugitive or refugee--
A word part that flees.
ISTEP is coming,
But we'll be ready to go
thanks to our practice.
Extended response--
The students wrote an essay
all about reading.
Block 3 did C.R.'s
about Howard Hughes today.
1 and 2 did not.
They looked at sources--
How does a researcher know
If a source is good?
Classes on Tuesday
Are Acuity testing
with trusty laptops.
I hope students read
for at least ninety minutes
this three-day weekend.
The building blocks of our words.
List ten is complete.
Iso means "equal"
In math, there's isosceles
with two equal sides.
Convert and revert
both contain the word part vert
and that one means "turn"
-ate is a suffix
that makes "cause" verbs like create,
dominate, placate
when you encourage,
you strengthen somebody's heart,
and that's what cor means.
What's the difference
between a prince and princess?
The -ess is female!
What is a mutant?
It's something that means "change."
Hey, muta means change!
Finally, there's fug,
like fugitive or refugee--
A word part that flees.
ISTEP is coming,
But we'll be ready to go
thanks to our practice.
Extended response--
The students wrote an essay
all about reading.
Block 3 did C.R.'s
about Howard Hughes today.
1 and 2 did not.
They looked at sources--
How does a researcher know
If a source is good?
Classes on Tuesday
Are Acuity testing
with trusty laptops.
I hope students read
for at least ninety minutes
this three-day weekend.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Wednesday and Thursday 2/16 and 2/17
Yestersday's word parts:
luqu means "talk" like loquacious ("full of talking") and eloquent and soliquy
sacro means "holy" (just like sanct) like in sacrosanct (holy holy?), sacred, and sacrifice
uni means "one" like the words uniform, unicycle, united, unique, and unibrow
-ness is a suffix that means "quality of" so that happiness is the "quality of being happy" and laziness is why this blog entry wasn't typed up yesterday
alt means "high" (just like acro) like with altitude and alto
-ics is a suffix that means "art" like in the words calisthenics and acrobatics and politics
We'll go over the rest of the words tomorrow.
The students spent Wednesday doing some research on the Chicago fire of 1871 using four sources that I gave them. It's kind of like a quiz. I'm looking at their ability to write down the source information like we've discussed and taking note cards using their paraphrasing skills.
I also introduced twelve books to them. Details about them are below. On Thursday, we made our trip to the library and each student checked out one of those twelve books. They'll do some in-class reading (so bring your book every day!) but I do expect them to spend 20-30 minutes a night reading at home. I gave the students a reading log thing (that's what I named it--Reading Log Thing) where I'm having them focus on one thing each reading day. They need to reflect on the day's focus and answer some questions.
Thursday's reading focus: They're looking at the novel's point of view and the tone of the story. I know--that's two things.
Friday/Weekend's focus (for those who like to think ahead): The protagonist and his/her traits as well as what the protagonist is going to want in the story. All protagonists want things. Conflicts in our novels occur when something is keeping the protagonist from getting what he or she wants.
Here are the novels they picked from:
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan, a story of a girl whose life is turned upside down when she immigrates to California and has to start working hard instead of living the rich life on a Mexican ranch
The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis--a story about a family in 1963 that moves from Flint, Michigan to the segregated South
Bud, Not Buddy, also by Curtis--a 10-year old orphan goes on a journey to look for his father
Tangerine by Edward Bloor, a guy with a terrible last name--this is all about Paul, a kid who just wants to play soccer, and the problems when his family moves to Tangerine County in Florida. There's lots of soccer in this one. In case you don't know, soccer is kind of like a sport.
The Young Landlords by Walter Dean Myers--some kids don't like their neighborhood because of an ugly apartment building that makes their street look like a "ghetto dump"; they decide to ask the landlord about fixing up the place and he sells it to them for a dollar. So they're suddenly young landlords which I guess is why the book is called what it is.
I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier--this ones a psychological story that a lot of the students would probably find boring. It's a real thinking book. A kid is riding his bicycle to find his dad. Juxtaposed with those chapters are chapters where he is being interviewed by a psychologist. It's deep stuff.
The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci--Torey, the main character, has his life turned upside down when the geeky guy who's always picked on turns up missing. Note: This book does contain some bad language.
Romiette and Julio by Sharon Draper--it's like Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare except it takes place in modern times and is about a young black girl and a Mexican boy who people don't want to be together
Heat by Mike Lupica--it's a baseball book; Michael is a Cuban immigrant in New York City who has all kinds of problems trying to survive with his older brother. All he wants to do is play ball, but things are getting in the way.
The Giver by Lois Lowry--it's a science fiction novel, a lot like Uglies. It's about a futuristic society that has tried to eliminate emotions in order to have a "Sameness"
The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill is the humorous account of a war between fruit and flower vendors in New York City and truck drivers
And The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is about a guy named Ponyboy. A lot of students have told me that they've already read this one. S.E. Hinton, by the way, wrote this book when she was only 15.
In other news, I think I was bitten by a brown recluse spider last night, and I'm afraid my leg is going to rot off. Stay tuned for further details.
luqu means "talk" like loquacious ("full of talking") and eloquent and soliquy
sacro means "holy" (just like sanct) like in sacrosanct (holy holy?), sacred, and sacrifice
uni means "one" like the words uniform, unicycle, united, unique, and unibrow
-ness is a suffix that means "quality of" so that happiness is the "quality of being happy" and laziness is why this blog entry wasn't typed up yesterday
alt means "high" (just like acro) like with altitude and alto
-ics is a suffix that means "art" like in the words calisthenics and acrobatics and politics
We'll go over the rest of the words tomorrow.
The students spent Wednesday doing some research on the Chicago fire of 1871 using four sources that I gave them. It's kind of like a quiz. I'm looking at their ability to write down the source information like we've discussed and taking note cards using their paraphrasing skills.
I also introduced twelve books to them. Details about them are below. On Thursday, we made our trip to the library and each student checked out one of those twelve books. They'll do some in-class reading (so bring your book every day!) but I do expect them to spend 20-30 minutes a night reading at home. I gave the students a reading log thing (that's what I named it--Reading Log Thing) where I'm having them focus on one thing each reading day. They need to reflect on the day's focus and answer some questions.
Thursday's reading focus: They're looking at the novel's point of view and the tone of the story. I know--that's two things.
Friday/Weekend's focus (for those who like to think ahead): The protagonist and his/her traits as well as what the protagonist is going to want in the story. All protagonists want things. Conflicts in our novels occur when something is keeping the protagonist from getting what he or she wants.
Here are the novels they picked from:
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan, a story of a girl whose life is turned upside down when she immigrates to California and has to start working hard instead of living the rich life on a Mexican ranch
The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis--a story about a family in 1963 that moves from Flint, Michigan to the segregated South
Bud, Not Buddy, also by Curtis--a 10-year old orphan goes on a journey to look for his father
Tangerine by Edward Bloor, a guy with a terrible last name--this is all about Paul, a kid who just wants to play soccer, and the problems when his family moves to Tangerine County in Florida. There's lots of soccer in this one. In case you don't know, soccer is kind of like a sport.
The Young Landlords by Walter Dean Myers--some kids don't like their neighborhood because of an ugly apartment building that makes their street look like a "ghetto dump"; they decide to ask the landlord about fixing up the place and he sells it to them for a dollar. So they're suddenly young landlords which I guess is why the book is called what it is.
I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier--this ones a psychological story that a lot of the students would probably find boring. It's a real thinking book. A kid is riding his bicycle to find his dad. Juxtaposed with those chapters are chapters where he is being interviewed by a psychologist. It's deep stuff.
The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci--Torey, the main character, has his life turned upside down when the geeky guy who's always picked on turns up missing. Note: This book does contain some bad language.
Romiette and Julio by Sharon Draper--it's like Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare except it takes place in modern times and is about a young black girl and a Mexican boy who people don't want to be together
Heat by Mike Lupica--it's a baseball book; Michael is a Cuban immigrant in New York City who has all kinds of problems trying to survive with his older brother. All he wants to do is play ball, but things are getting in the way.
The Giver by Lois Lowry--it's a science fiction novel, a lot like Uglies. It's about a futuristic society that has tried to eliminate emotions in order to have a "Sameness"
The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill is the humorous account of a war between fruit and flower vendors in New York City and truck drivers
And The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is about a guy named Ponyboy. A lot of students have told me that they've already read this one. S.E. Hinton, by the way, wrote this book when she was only 15.
In other news, I think I was bitten by a brown recluse spider last night, and I'm afraid my leg is going to rot off. Stay tuned for further details.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Tuesday, 2/15
Today's word parts:
nat means "born" like in nationality, natural, and native
paleo means "old" like paleontology or paleolithic, a word to describe the oldest people to start using rocks as tools
curs, just like curr from a couple months ago, means "run" like with cursive writing and discursive words
crypt means "hidden" like an encryption or cryptic language
cad means "fall" like a cascade or, more depressingly, a cadaver
capit means "head" like with decapitate (ouch!) or captain (Spanish: capitan)
The students started the day reviewing the ISTEP 6-point rubric and using that to reflect on their own writing. Then, they got the 20-25 minutes (depending on which class) to finish their ISTEP writing from yesterday. After that, they graded a peer's writing with the ISTEP rubric and then graded their own. We talked about the difference between objective and subjective grading. For example, if a student writes in their essay that Lynhurst students should have three hours of language arts a day, a grader shouldn't lower their grade because they disagree. Hopefully, the ISTEP people grade our work objectively.
We scratched the surface of some research review stuff we're going to be doing for the next couple days. The students are using four sources (encyclopedia, website, book, and magazine article) to practice taking notes. The subject is the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, a fire which destroyed 17,450 buildings and cost over 200 million dollars in damage. That's 200 million 1871 dollars! Only (only?) 300 people were killed though.
The students will work with the sources tomorrow and will be graded on taking notes on the note cards properly and keeping track of their source information.
nat means "born" like in nationality, natural, and native
paleo means "old" like paleontology or paleolithic, a word to describe the oldest people to start using rocks as tools
curs, just like curr from a couple months ago, means "run" like with cursive writing and discursive words
crypt means "hidden" like an encryption or cryptic language
cad means "fall" like a cascade or, more depressingly, a cadaver
capit means "head" like with decapitate (ouch!) or captain (Spanish: capitan)
The students started the day reviewing the ISTEP 6-point rubric and using that to reflect on their own writing. Then, they got the 20-25 minutes (depending on which class) to finish their ISTEP writing from yesterday. After that, they graded a peer's writing with the ISTEP rubric and then graded their own. We talked about the difference between objective and subjective grading. For example, if a student writes in their essay that Lynhurst students should have three hours of language arts a day, a grader shouldn't lower their grade because they disagree. Hopefully, the ISTEP people grade our work objectively.
We scratched the surface of some research review stuff we're going to be doing for the next couple days. The students are using four sources (encyclopedia, website, book, and magazine article) to practice taking notes. The subject is the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, a fire which destroyed 17,450 buildings and cost over 200 million dollars in damage. That's 200 million 1871 dollars! Only (only?) 300 people were killed though.
The students will work with the sources tomorrow and will be graded on taking notes on the note cards properly and keeping track of their source information.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Monday
I promised a student I'd type this first: There is no homework for tomorrow.
We went over six of our word parts:
ped is a weird one because it means two things--"foot" or "child"--Think centipede or pediatrician.
mort is a depressing one because it means "death" like the words mortal and immortal or mortician. Or rigor mortis.
carn is kind of gross because it means "flesh," meaning that if you're a carnivore, you're an eater of flesh. And that makes you kind of creepy.
psyche means "soul" or "mind"; a psychologist examines your mind and a psychic can read it.
ethno means "culture" or "race" like ethnicity.
And gen means "origin" like genesis, ingenuous, and genetics.
The students got their ISTEP work back from last Thursday. A lot of students did very very well, but I know we can do better. Because I'm a big nerd, I did some stat figurin':
82% got a 2 on the first question. 15% got a 1 and 3% got a 0. That's really good. I wish all the questions were answered that well!
Question two was the toughest--Only 33% got a 2 with 63% getting a 1. 4% got a 0.
Question three was kind of in between. There were about the same amount of 2's and 1's with 3% getting a 0.
Students need to work on quoting specific text to back up their ideas. Most of them read and understood; it's just a question of being more clear and specific with our answers.
We looked at the example answers the ISTEP people send us. My students, as always, are harsher graders than they are.
They also got their extended responses back. Those are graded with a 4-point rubric. 21% of my students scored a 4, 49% scored a 3, 25% scored a 2, and 5% got a 1. As I told the students, I'm a tougher grader than ISTEP with extended response.
I gave them another ISTEP writing--a 6-point rubric prompt about school changes. They had some time to work on it today, but they'll have to finish tomorrow.
One last note: I've got the Fever 1793 book reports in, and they really helped out some of the grades. I have some grades to put in the computer tonight, and then the grades should be accurate. As always, let me know if you have questions.
We went over six of our word parts:
ped is a weird one because it means two things--"foot" or "child"--Think centipede or pediatrician.
mort is a depressing one because it means "death" like the words mortal and immortal or mortician. Or rigor mortis.
carn is kind of gross because it means "flesh," meaning that if you're a carnivore, you're an eater of flesh. And that makes you kind of creepy.
psyche means "soul" or "mind"; a psychologist examines your mind and a psychic can read it.
ethno means "culture" or "race" like ethnicity.
And gen means "origin" like genesis, ingenuous, and genetics.
The students got their ISTEP work back from last Thursday. A lot of students did very very well, but I know we can do better. Because I'm a big nerd, I did some stat figurin':
82% got a 2 on the first question. 15% got a 1 and 3% got a 0. That's really good. I wish all the questions were answered that well!
Question two was the toughest--Only 33% got a 2 with 63% getting a 1. 4% got a 0.
Question three was kind of in between. There were about the same amount of 2's and 1's with 3% getting a 0.
Students need to work on quoting specific text to back up their ideas. Most of them read and understood; it's just a question of being more clear and specific with our answers.
We looked at the example answers the ISTEP people send us. My students, as always, are harsher graders than they are.
They also got their extended responses back. Those are graded with a 4-point rubric. 21% of my students scored a 4, 49% scored a 3, 25% scored a 2, and 5% got a 1. As I told the students, I'm a tougher grader than ISTEP with extended response.
I gave them another ISTEP writing--a 6-point rubric prompt about school changes. They had some time to work on it today, but they'll have to finish tomorrow.
One last note: I've got the Fever 1793 book reports in, and they really helped out some of the grades. I have some grades to put in the computer tonight, and then the grades should be accurate. As always, let me know if you have questions.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Friday's Class (An All-Haiku Entry)
Vocabulary--
We reviewed and then turned in
Yesterday's worksheet.
Easy, easy grade!
All they had to do was sit
And fill in answers.
Then it was test time.
Students who studied did well.
The others? Not good!
List ten word parts notes--
I think it's an easy list.
But what do I know?
Started a short story--
"The Lady or the Tiger?"
We'll finish Monday.
The weekend is here,
And I'm going to grade stuff
And sleep a whole bunch.
We reviewed and then turned in
Yesterday's worksheet.
Easy, easy grade!
All they had to do was sit
And fill in answers.
Then it was test time.
Students who studied did well.
The others? Not good!
List ten word parts notes--
I think it's an easy list.
But what do I know?
Started a short story--
"The Lady or the Tiger?"
We'll finish Monday.
The weekend is here,
And I'm going to grade stuff
And sleep a whole bunch.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Thursday
I gave the students one more vocabulary review sheet. We did part of it together, but they'll need to finish it at home. If they use that and the worksheet from earlier, it will help them on the test. They will need to bring the worksheet to class tomorrow. We'll go over it together, and then they'll turn it in. If they can't get an A+ on that, I don't know what else I can do for them.
Sixty minutes of today's class was for ISTEP practice. They read about a border collie named Rico and answered three constructed response questions. Then, they read three quotes about dreams from Eleanor Roosevelt, Walt Disney, and the poet William Yeats; chose the quote that is most meaningful to them, and wrote an essay. I'll use the 4-point ISTEP extended response rubric to grade that one.
If they didn't like the nonfiction text about border collies or the essay, they can blame the ISTEP people. This was exactly what the test looked like last year, and they had the same amount of time to finish it up. Some of them learned that they need to pace themselves a little better because they were not able to get done.
I will be grading those this weekend so that we can learn from them early next week.
Reminder: The vocabulary test is tomorrow! I've already got it printed out and everything.
Sixty minutes of today's class was for ISTEP practice. They read about a border collie named Rico and answered three constructed response questions. Then, they read three quotes about dreams from Eleanor Roosevelt, Walt Disney, and the poet William Yeats; chose the quote that is most meaningful to them, and wrote an essay. I'll use the 4-point ISTEP extended response rubric to grade that one.
If they didn't like the nonfiction text about border collies or the essay, they can blame the ISTEP people. This was exactly what the test looked like last year, and they had the same amount of time to finish it up. Some of them learned that they need to pace themselves a little better because they were not able to get done.
I will be grading those this weekend so that we can learn from them early next week.
Reminder: The vocabulary test is tomorrow! I've already got it printed out and everything.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Wednesday
The more I think about it, the more I wish I would have just done my own research paper instead of working with what they were working on in Mr. Day's class. As we started some book research today, I noticed that a lot of students have no idea what their topic for their group even is. A lot of them have topics (sagging pants) that, even though it might seem like an important issue to them, is not going to be easy to research. I was very disappointed in what a lot of students were able to accomplish today because they were struggling with poorly-chosen topics. I may need to reevaluate the final project (the book, brochure, or poster) for my class. I think the experience, at the very least, is a good lesson in the importance of organizing information and starting with a narrow topic. Racism, the topic a lot of them picked in Mr. Day's class, is too big for one research topic. Narrowing it down to current immigration issues and the discrimination of Hispanics is much better.
So to be completely honest with you guys, I'm a little depressed about the research project.
Nevertheless, we did learn some stuff today. We reviewed note cards, and I emphasized the important of those topic categories--those research questions that will help give shape to their overall topics. We visited our favorite media specialist Mrs. East (she's our only one, but she's still our favorite), and she taught us about the book resources that are available. The students started taking some notes and using their bibliography sheets to keep track of their sources.
In the next few weeks, we've really got to dig in and look at ISTEP writing. Did you know that the writing portion of ISTEP is less than three weeks away?
Reminder: Vocabulary quiz is on Friday.
So to be completely honest with you guys, I'm a little depressed about the research project.
Nevertheless, we did learn some stuff today. We reviewed note cards, and I emphasized the important of those topic categories--those research questions that will help give shape to their overall topics. We visited our favorite media specialist Mrs. East (she's our only one, but she's still our favorite), and she taught us about the book resources that are available. The students started taking some notes and using their bibliography sheets to keep track of their sources.
In the next few weeks, we've really got to dig in and look at ISTEP writing. Did you know that the writing portion of ISTEP is less than three weeks away?
Reminder: Vocabulary quiz is on Friday.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Tuesday
We completed the 2nd half of the vocabulary review sheet. Again, those words are on the test, so it would benefit the students to use that as a tool as they prepare for Friday's test.
We looked at more research stuff. We started by looking at the process, especially the planning part of any research project. I compared it to a vacation because the first steps are to figure out who's going with you on vacation and what purpose the vacation should serve. Will kids be going or is it just a couple married people? Will it be romantic, adventurous, relaxing, or just really far away from your mother-in-law?
Research is the same way. You can't really start without knowing what you want. We looked at narrowing their topic (something they should have already done with Mr. Day) and coming up with topic categories or research questions. This will help them have some focus to their research and hopefully not be overwhelmed with all the information that is out there.
We also looked at how to take notes on note cards. Each note card has three pieces of information: 1) the topic category the note goes with at the top; 2) the note (summarized/paraphrased/appropriately quoted); 3) the source and page number if available
The students had some time with an encyclopedia (I can thank Jiminy Cricket for knowing how to spell that word! Anybody know what I'm talking about here? "Ennnnnn-cyclopedia. E-N-C-Y-C-L-O-P-E-D-I-A.") article about the Declaration of Independence to practice taking notes with topic categories.
Tomorrow, we'll make a trip to the library to do some book research.
Here's a link to the youtube video if you want to hear Jiminy Cricket sing about where to go when you're curious: Encyclopedia song
We looked at more research stuff. We started by looking at the process, especially the planning part of any research project. I compared it to a vacation because the first steps are to figure out who's going with you on vacation and what purpose the vacation should serve. Will kids be going or is it just a couple married people? Will it be romantic, adventurous, relaxing, or just really far away from your mother-in-law?
Research is the same way. You can't really start without knowing what you want. We looked at narrowing their topic (something they should have already done with Mr. Day) and coming up with topic categories or research questions. This will help them have some focus to their research and hopefully not be overwhelmed with all the information that is out there.
We also looked at how to take notes on note cards. Each note card has three pieces of information: 1) the topic category the note goes with at the top; 2) the note (summarized/paraphrased/appropriately quoted); 3) the source and page number if available
The students had some time with an encyclopedia (I can thank Jiminy Cricket for knowing how to spell that word! Anybody know what I'm talking about here? "Ennnnnn-cyclopedia. E-N-C-Y-C-L-O-P-E-D-I-A.") article about the Declaration of Independence to practice taking notes with topic categories.
Tomorrow, we'll make a trip to the library to do some book research.
Here's a link to the youtube video if you want to hear Jiminy Cricket sing about where to go when you're curious: Encyclopedia song
Monday, February 7, 2011
Second Monday in a Row
Two Mondays in a row. That doesn't happen a lot.
The catICEtrophe (I'm so proud of that one) messed everything up, so here's an updated list of due dates, etc.:
1) The next vocabulary quiz will be this coming Friday.
2) The Fever 1793 book report needs to be turned in some time this week. I've gotten a few; I'd like a lot more.
3) We'll be researching in the library on Wednesday. I don't have a due date for the language arts part (children's book, poster, brochure) of the research project yet.
Today, we did half of a vocabulary review sheet. The words I included on the review sheet are the ones on the test, so this can be a valuable tool for the students as they study this week. We'll do the second half tomorrow and some other activities later in the week to hopefully get those vocabulary scores up.
We spent some time reviewing and practicing our sentence combining. I think the students are finding complex sentences easier than compound sentences. You'd think they would be more...well, complex.
Finally, we took a little quiz with the orange dinkers on paraphrasing. I know it's been a week, but this was a painfully easy quiz. We reviewed paraphrasing, talked about the difference between paraphrasing and summarizing, and looked at a few examples. Tomorrow, the students will practice a little on their own before we get into the heavy duty research stuff.
I finished my progress reports about thirty minutes ago. Sadly, the grades aren't very good at all. If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email.
The catICEtrophe (I'm so proud of that one) messed everything up, so here's an updated list of due dates, etc.:
1) The next vocabulary quiz will be this coming Friday.
2) The Fever 1793 book report needs to be turned in some time this week. I've gotten a few; I'd like a lot more.
3) We'll be researching in the library on Wednesday. I don't have a due date for the language arts part (children's book, poster, brochure) of the research project yet.
Today, we did half of a vocabulary review sheet. The words I included on the review sheet are the ones on the test, so this can be a valuable tool for the students as they study this week. We'll do the second half tomorrow and some other activities later in the week to hopefully get those vocabulary scores up.
We spent some time reviewing and practicing our sentence combining. I think the students are finding complex sentences easier than compound sentences. You'd think they would be more...well, complex.
Finally, we took a little quiz with the orange dinkers on paraphrasing. I know it's been a week, but this was a painfully easy quiz. We reviewed paraphrasing, talked about the difference between paraphrasing and summarizing, and looked at a few examples. Tomorrow, the students will practice a little on their own before we get into the heavy duty research stuff.
I finished my progress reports about thirty minutes ago. Sadly, the grades aren't very good at all. If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email.
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