We're off to an exciting start. In spite of all the pretests and data gathering that have to be done, we've managed to cram in some learning. We've begun reading The Outsiders, which will be completed in mid-October. While reading it, I keep assignments to a minimum, so on Classroom they'll complete four one-page responses to the book. We've also been learning vocabulary daily since the first day with the focus this year of working it into our writing, and I am seeing that happen.
This year, Mrs. Brinkley and I will be having a cross-curricular assignment each month, the Article of the Month. Although they only annotate one and write one response, I am folding it into the approach I learned this summer through the Shenandoah Valley Writing Project of how to teach argument/persuasive writing. The instructor provides the materials rather than sending the student searching for them and teaches students to properly annotate the sources. Students are also taught how to formulate a claim and counterclaim. Our first assignment is on coal power and the position the presidential candidates have taken. The response for this assignment is to write a letter to the next president, which will be sent for possible posting on the Letters to the Next President website. We will also mail hard copies of the letter to each candidate. Mrs. Brinkley said she's already noticing that discussions in science class are richer and more based on knowledge than opinion than in the past.
Of course, for the students and me, the most exciting project this year is our year-long collaboration with students in Monroeville, Alabama, and Oregon City, Oregon. On Friday, the students saw a photograph of one of the classes with whom we'll be working. My students are polishing up drafts of letters to students which will be shared after revising and editing are finished. I'm sharing by using a Google folder shared with the other teachers. I drop in the documents with only the students' first names, so they aren't linked to student accounts. Students have already asked about connecting outside our classroom with Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, etc., and I said they are on their honor not to do that before December, or they won't be able to participate any longer in the project. I've never done a project like this before, and student safety is my paramount concern. I told them that in December the other teachers and I will evaluate whether we think they should connect outside of school, or not. I reminded them that at the end of this school year they definitely can keep their connections with their new friends, but our classroom project will be over, so it's no longer a school-directed issue. Parents and guardians, please contact me with any questions, concerns or suggestions.
They haven't yet completed any major writing assignments, but this year I'm using a site called kaizena.com to record comments into student writing. It's like having their own private conference on the writing. To make sure we all knew how it worked and that they liked it, I gave a response on a freewrite on failure which we discussed in class. It also allowed me to identify an aspect of their writing they can strengthen and teach them to write a reflection in their progress sheet. This is a good time to remind you that I only put interims and report card grades into PowerSchool. The rest of the time you can find detailed information about student progress in the progress sheet. If you are receiving this blog link, you shared an e-mail with me, and you should have received a link to your students' progress sheet. The sheet starts at the bottom for the first quarter because it fills up from the bottom so students won't have to scroll through past assignments as it fills. The detailed top squares are for interim and report card reports.
This week students will be screened in Aimsweb for reading, and on Tuesday they will write an essay as a pretest. All that will be left in English will be to take the STAR reading test, which takes 10-20 minutes to take. We will all be happy to leave the start of year testing behind.
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