November 30- December 4

Welcome back, artists and scholars,

I hope everyone is relaxed and refreshed from our November break. I also hope you took my suggestion and kept up reading at least part of the time we were away. We have big books to be done with before our December break. We also have a service project we'll be planning and implementing over our December break (and hopefully beyond!). Let's get right to our tasks this week as we move swiftly along through our last month of 2015!

Tuesday: Students will read their book club book in a small group or alone. After time for reading has concluded, they will be switching homework with a book club partner and writing whether or not they agree with the partner's analysis on their book and current events and why or why not.

Wednesday: Students read more of the book club book and create a vocabulary word wall to play bingo on Friday.

Thursday: Students write a brief summary of their book and how it relates to our theme of Teens Changing the World. Individuals will then brainstorm how they might impact their community by performing community service. (Students who have not finished this will be assigned as homework). Students will spend the rest of the period reading their book club book.

Friday: Students will read their book club book and then play vocabulary bingo for fun and prizes.

We hope to have all 300-400 pages of these books read by December 17:
I Am Malala
To Kill A Mockingbird
Diary Of A Young Girl: The Story of Anne Frank
I Have Lived A Thousand Years

Although it is not mandatory, I highly recommend finding a copy of these books to read on weekends and evenings. These are big undertakings and will take longer than our 60 minutes a day in class. I will also start a lending library for those students who would like to take them home to read over the weekend. Since these are my only copies, I will be very vehement about these books being returned on Tuesday morning.

Thanks for being Teens That Change The World. I'm so looking forward to hearing about everyone's plans for impacting their communities.

Mrs. K

Studio Day Work for November 30

On Friday, November 20, we are watching this documentary about the Japanese Internment Camps as part of our Teens Change the World literature unit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmQoOcamxJw

After watching the complete film, please write a page paper discussing how this connects to the book in class students are reading and the current world affairs. Since there is a week break, I expect a few thoughtful paragraphs which provide many details and examples of both book connections and probable family discussions about both topics.

Since I did not collect this week's vocabulary work, this assignment will count as double for studio day work.

As a final jumping-off point to our thinking about how to change the world, check out what kid president says and bring some ideas for a service project to school on December 1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z7gDsSKUmU

I also recommend getting a copy of your in-class book club book at the library or bookstore and reading while on break. Our books are 300 pages long and need to be finished before Winter break!

See you in December! I miss you already! Mrs. K

Week of November 17-20

Ack! Sorry for the late post! The teachers have been working on a big project and our deadline was Tuesday evening.

Well, we started Tuesday out really well. I am thinking the rest of the week will be more of the same! Our Teens Change the World unit begins today with our reading about teens, both realistic fiction and biography, who have changed the world. After the tragic events in Paris, Beruit, and Africa this weekend, we are beginning to discuss how now, more than ever, we need to do something to bring kindness, peace, and love to our world.

Tuesday: Begin book club book and practice the comprehension strategy of connections, asking questions, making prediction, and/or looking for new vocabulary.

Wednesday: continue reading book club book and write a paragraph summarizing the setting and characters.

Thursday: continue reading book and use vocabulary book to make a class vocabulary word wall.

Friday: continue reading book club book and begin a tableau to share with the rest of the class of the most memorable scene.

Studio Day Assignment 11/16/2015

For the studio day assignment, students will need three pieces of paper and an online or print dictionary to make a vocabulary book with these terms:

holocaust
diaspora
racism
power
propaganda
militant
condemn
reign
embody
inquisitive

Each page of the vocabulary book will need:


                      definition                                                                     part of speech

                                                         vocabulary word

             sentence with the word                                                            drawing of the word
             (using context)


Students practiced this method on Thursday and Friday of this week. These books will be necessary for the reading over the week of November 17, so please have students bring these to class in a binder, which will also be necessary.

Thanks and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me! It's been a hectic week, so I promise to be done with the Inquiry Project and paragraph grades by Tuesday. Please check Jupiter Grades this weekend for updates.

Ever grateful that I get to be learning with your children each day,

Terri K

Week of November 10-13

Hello writers, readers, artists, and researchers,

I am almost finished with the Inquiry Projects students worked so hard on over the last month! I should have them graded and handed back on Thursday. For this activity, the students will receive the grading sheet and the actual projects will be in the classroom for other students to read and reference for the rest of the semester. We will be looking for information, providing feedback, or perusing all the Inquiry Projects during reading time in the coming weeks. These will not only be useful for purposes of learning new information or providing helpful feedback to our ORAA middle school community, it will also be a reminder that writing is meant to be read--especially research!

This week is a short week, due to the Veteran's Day Holiday on Wednesday. Although students may not be in attendance in school, Iready practice and reading toward our goal of 40 novels this year is always encouraged for every student.

Tuesday: Read short essays about current teens changing the world. Write a summary paragraph about the assigned reading and another paragraph which connects student's own life to one of the highlighted teens. If there is time, students will finish and discuss the film Ruby Bridges. If there is not time, this film is available on Youtube.

Wednesday: Veteran's Day, Observed.

Thursday: Daily Oral Language. Vocabulary Mapping: Students will learn different ways to approach vocabulary studies in novels. (Notes will follow on Thursday). Begin in-class novel.

Friday: Read novel in assigned book clubs. Complete comprehension worksheet (copy will be attached in Moodle by Friday).

As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Mrs. K

Inquiry Project Due Thursday and Teens Changing the World

Hello again artists and scholars,

This week our Inquiry Projects will be due at the beginning of class on Thursday. I wanted to give students extra days to write their paragraphs and bibliography since this is one of the major English grades this semester.

At the beginning of the week, we will be practicing interview techniques and interviewing the researchers who did Inquiry Project, which is all students in Middle School. This is the only way we will be presenting these projects, through the genre of interview. If students prepared an extra art or artifact, I am also happy to display these in class!

At the end of the week, we will begin our Teens Change The World Unit. We will be studying human rights, social justice, and what WE can do to change our world for the better. We have guest speakers and lots of great books and activities for this unit. It will conclude at the end of the year, when students are most reflective about making changes for the future.

Tuesday: Interview question-writing and interviews of partner researchers.
Wednesday: Interview presentations
Thursday: Inquiry Projects Due at the beginning of class, on paper. Continue interview presentations.
Friday: Teens Change the World Art Walk and Jigsaw reading.


Have a wonderful week! I look forward to learning so much about the research done by our students.
Mrs. K