In English this month we have been working on an essay called Breaking Barriers.  These essays will be submitted to a national contest sponsored by Scholastic Books.  Each student's essay will be about a personal barrier they have faced or are facing and how they used one of Jackie Robinson's nine values to help them overcome that barrier.  Please ask your student about their essay.

Sixth grade is focusing on folk literature this month.  They must read three folk stories, choose their favorite from the three and prepare and present a puppet show about that story.  I will post the instructions for this month's project on this website.

Hello everyone!  I hope your Thanksgiving Day preparations are going well.  We are all looking forward to spending time with family next week.  

As we wrap up this week, sixth, seventh and eighth graders have been working on the summative assessment for our unit on informative/explanatory writing. Each grade took a baseline assessment at the beginning of the year on the same subject.  I am excited to see the growth they have achieved over the last few weeks.  Seventh grade has completed the assessment and they have self-assessed their writing using the scoring rubric.  Please ask them how everything went and what they wrote about.

Eighth grade finished reading To Kill A Mockingbird and we are now studying Night by Elie Weisel.

Sixth grade continues to study The Lightning Thief.  They are polishing up a mini-essay in which they find elements of mythology in the classic myth of Prometheus and come up with a theme contained in the story. Ask them about their thoughts on what we have been doing.

I am thankful for your students, their wonderful personalities and their willingness to learn and grow.  Thank you for sending them to us and thank you for your support.

 

Three weeks down for the year.  We have been working hard in both English and literature.  In seventh and eighth grade we have completed one week with our new writing program called Step Up to Writing.  The focus was on the writing process and the traits of effective writing.  Seventh and eighth graders were able to evaluate a piece of writing using a rubric with those traits.  

 

Sixth grade is in the middle of these writing ideas.  We reviewed the core topics and are preparing for a quiz next week, please ask your student about it!  

The first week of school is over!  We had a great week and look forward to many more.  In sixth grade, we began our study of science fiction and fantasy.  Each sixth grader should have a science fiction or fantasy book to read for the months of August and September.  Parents, look at the previous post to see the instructions for the book report sixth grade needs to do for this book.  It is due September 28, 2018. 

Seventh and Eighth graders have been diving into The Giver and To Kill A Mockingbird in literature classes.  In English, we have begun our study of a new writing program entitled, Step Up to Writing.  I love to see each students' unique and talented way of expressing themselves.