Wednesday

7th grade classes--Today students participated in an interesting exercise. They worked in small groups, each group viewing an enlarged print of a random scene. Together students worked to create sentences with their vocabulary words (unit 3) that fit into their scenes. Some were funny; some were creative; some were just downright silly :c) I think we all enjoyed the activity, though, and we worked with our current word list in an unique way. It is something we will definitely do again.

After this we had our writing mini-lesson on elaboration strategies. Students learned seven strategies to use as they beef up their writing both through first drafts and through revision. If you were absent, I have a copy of my notes for you, and I will probably need to touch base with you about this lesson. Some explanation is needed.

Students were then challenged to find two ways they could elaborate a current work in their LA binders.

8th grade classes--Today was our short class period, but we managed to complete a vocabulary exercise (synonyms and antonyms, pg. 39 in out textbook B) and a mini-lesson on organizing our comparison piece. Students received a set of notes on this, and I gave everyone a copy of "Big John" by Jimmy Dean. You will need this to include text evidence in your comparison piece. Again, if you were absent today, I'll have copies of these notes for you.

All classes--7th and 8th--your next spelling and vocabulary test will be Monday, November 3 before Reader's Workshop. This test will cover unit 3.

2 RRJ entries due Friday, October 30. Students may choose two different types of entries to write: visualizing, questioning, questioning important ideas.

Enjoy your evening.

Fondly,
Mrs. V~