On this Halloween week, we reviewed, researched, solved a crime, critiqued the writing of others, and tried to persuade friends to vote as we would. As the old saying goes, “variety is the spice of life!” The goal of this week was to prepare the students for creating more substantive long-form essays in the coming weeks.
Monday, October 29th, 2012
- The students participated in review activities to become re-acquainted with the grammar and writing concepts we have addressed to this point.
- 10-29-12 Grammar & Writing Check Up
Tuesday, October 3oth, 2012 (Library a.k.a. Media Center Day!)
- As a preview to online research, the students participated in a Web Quest where they followed specific instructions to learn more about things going on in the world.
- There were some broken links in the pre-made Web Quests presented so I compiled a a couple of articles to which the students were to respond with their thoughts.
- 10-30-12 Library Day!
Wednesday, October 31st, 2012 (HALLOWEEN)
- The students worked whole group to deduce who was guilty in “The Case of the Fallen Roses.” I enjoy the use of mysteries because it requires the students to use context clues, draw inferences, demonstrate their reading comprehension, in addition to using common sense to find the answer. The best part of it all is that it is fun, engaging, and does not feel like work either (oh, and I get to read in funny voices too).
- After the mystery was solved, the students worked on a differentiated assignment. They all had the same essay from which they were to pull out information (much like in the mystery) but the requirements varied based on whether they were Extremely Advanced, Advanced, On-Level, or Struggling Learners. In order to disguise this fact, I color-coded the requirements and assigned them to each student in that manner.
- 10-31-12 ELASI-ELA Scene Investigation
Thursday, November 1st, 2012
- The students worked with me to identify the strengths and weaknesses of up to three model papers. These model papers were ones written by actual Georgia 8th graders for the annual Writing Assessment. The scores of the papers we discussed were either a 1 (the lowest), a 2, or a 3. **A paper with a score of a 5 is the highest.
- 11-1-12 Upgrade It!
Friday, November 2nd, 2012
- The students completed a short quiz to review their understanding of the acronyms TAPP and DRAPES.
- The students then had to complete a timed writing of at least 3 paragraphs on the topic below:
- Election day is Tuesday. Which man do you think will be the best choice for President of the United States? You can choose from Pres. Barack Obama (Democrat), Gov. Mitt Romney (Republican), or Gov. Gary Johnson (Libertarian). Write a letter to your classmates to convince them to vote the same way you would.
- 11-2-12 Quiz & Timed Writing Day
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