Book Groups!

Today, I introduced our Second Quarter Reading Unit to the students.  Students told me that they enjoyed Esperanza more when they sat down and read it in large chunks rather than spreading it across an entire quarter, so this quarter, we will plan to spend no more than three weeks on one text. For second quarter, students will be reading a book and discussing the books in book groups.  Then, students will choose one to two additional texts from a text set to read individually and make text-to-text connections.

Today in class, I introduced and talked about the books.  Then, students ranked their book preferences in order. Take a look at the initial information regarding the project.  Students will receive their book groups and their books on Friday, and I'll be sure to update with more information soon!

Central and South America Project

This week, students began their Central/South America Project.  The Project goals include:

• Students will select one country and research the connections to the five themes of geography, internal and external forces, landforms and the weather and climate of the country they've selected.  
• Students will create a Slideshow Presentation to organize and share their information.
• Students will understand how to use citations tools to give credit to the places they found their information.

This week, students were assigned their partners and received the rubric to guide the project.  For specific information about the project requirements, please see the rubric.   I've included a sample slide show, created by Alan Northouse, that can serve as a mentor presentation to the students:

Reading Goals

Today we set our reading goals for the year.  There are three types of reading goals students will have this year:

1. Monthly Goals:  These goals will help students monitor their own growth over the course of the month.  Students will set one goal relating to quantity and two goals relating to reading quality (using reading strategies, having high level partner discussions, etc.).  These goals will not be formally graded.  They will serve as a guideline and basis for check-in during reading conferences over the course of the month.
2. Quarterly Goals:  Each quarter, students will set a page goal using a page goal form.  Today, students set their page goals based on a number that they felt would be challenging, but not overwhelming. In addition to the personal goal, students have the option of going for the sixth grade challenge goal, which for first quarter, is 1,000 pages. These goals will be graded.  If students reach their personal goal they will earn an A in independent reading, and if students reach the challenge goal they will receive an A+.  During class, I checked in with each student individually to discuss and sign off on goals.
3. Year-Long Goal:  Today, I introduced the 40-Book Challenge, inspired by Donalyn Miller.  This challenge is entirely optional and purely for fun.  I challenged any students who wished to participate to reach forty books over the course of the year, and as a double-challenge, I challenged them to do it faster than me.  Regardless of whether or not students participate in the challenge, all students will be keeping track of the books they are reading.  My goal with this is to help promote a culture of reading and generate excitement around books and book discussions.

We also brainstormed our Classroom Reading Rights.  I've included some of the ideas the class brainstormed below:

In our classroom, we have the right to

• read!
• choose our own books
• choose where we read
• choose how much we read (as long as we are reading!)
• abandon boring books
• dislike some books
• give and receive book recommendations

I was so proud of how deeply the students were thinking while we were generating this list.  I'm excited for all of the book recommendations and book discussions to come!

Timber-Lee Brochure

The first project you will have in Language Arts is to create a Timber-lee Brochure.  Your job is to choose three aspects of Timber-lee to write about.  You may choose to write about the sessions, the dorms, the campfire, walking around the grounds, or bonding with friends.  You may choose any three topics you want, as long as they relate to Timber-lee.

I want to invite you to be creative in the way you write.  You may write informative paragraphs, poems, narratives, or tell a story from a new point of view (perhaps talk about the art piece from the perspective of a flower you plucked from the ground and then assembled in your art piece).  I will provide examples of brochures from the past to show you.

Guidelines:

-You must write about a minimum of three topics that relate to Timber-lee
-For one of the topics, you must write a standard paragraph including a topic sentence
-For the other two topics, you may choose the format with which you write (poem, song lyric, narrative, etc.)
-You may hand write/hand-draw the project or create it on a computer (we will not be able to access computers in class for this project...sorry!)
-You may include pictures, but this is not required

The final project will be due Tuesday, September 23rd.  We will work on the topic pieces one by one.  The first topic piece will be due Thursday, Sept 18th, the second, Friday, Sept 19th and the third Monday, Sept 22nd in order to help keep you on track!