26 January, 2010

Tuesday January 26, 2010

In all hours today we did Mini-Lesson #5 on Latin word parts -pend- and -pel

Hours 1,3,4 
Began Lit Circles to read short stories with poverty themes

Hours 5,6
Will read and think-aloud through Safe in the Classroom
The students will then write 2 discussion questions to submit for credit.
Students will also Finish their Poverty KWL and submit for credit

Honors
Will read and think-aloud through Safe in the Classroom
The students will then participate in a class discussion of the text.
Students will also Finish their Poverty KWL and submit for credit.

25 January, 2010

Monday January 25, 2010

1st, 3rd, and 4th hour
We read an article titled "Safe in the Classroom" to continue our poverty unit. This is a non-fiction article.
The students were asked to write 2 possible discussion questions on the article.

The students were also asked to finish their KWL charts on Poverty and submit to be graded.

5th, 6th, and 7th hour
We are switching the Sustained Silent Reading day to Monday. The students read for 35 minutes and then did a 5 minute freewrite about some aspect of what they are currently reading.

22 January, 2010

Friday 22 January

Today is SSR. Read for 30 minutes. Record how many pages you read and write for 5 minutes.
Count your words and record in the margin of your entry.

21 January, 2010

Thursday 21 January

Today's Agenda
    Freewrite #4
    Mini-Lesson #4 Writing Discussion Questions
    Read the Article titled "Global Teen"
             Write 2 discussion questions based on the article and the concepts learned in the Mini-Lesson.
   
Next week we will be using these discussion questions for a fishbowl discussion.

Wednesday January 20

Today students applied what they learned yesterday to a cartoon about job loss and the recession. Students completed an analysis worksheet on a cartoon that I provided them.

Tuesday January 19

Today we began looking at Media Messages about poverty. We started today by examining techniques that political cartoonist use to get messages across. We looked at the website linked below and then examined some political/editorial cartoons with poverty themes. 
It's no Laughing Matter

18 January, 2010

Monday, 18 January

Today, we revised our Found Poetry. The students typed the poems in Google Apps and shared with me for grading. They also chose several images of poverty to illustrate their poems.

15 January, 2010

Friday, January 15

Today is SSR.
We are trying something new this semester. We will be reading for 30 minutes each Friday and then doing a Freewrite for 5 minutes after reading. You will count your words today just like you did on Wednesday. Also, you need to record how many pages you read.
Happy Reading!

13 January, 2010

Wednesday, January 13 and Thursday, January 14

WEDNESDAY
Freewrite #1 for the semester.
Today we began a KWL chart on the topic of Poverty in America. We did the K (know) column in class and the students will finish the chart as we move through this unit.

THURSDAY
I provided the students with some poverty statistics and from the information on the chart, the statistics, and the classroom bulletin board the students are to write a Found Poem. A found poem is a poem composed of words and phrases found in literature provided as a stimulus.
The student poems must be at least
10 lines or phrases long. They will be submitted at the end of the hour.

11 January, 2010

Monday January 11

Today in class we finished watching the animated feature 9. Tomorrow we will be discussing several topics related to the film.
The topics we will be discussing include, but are not limited to
  • Propaganda
  • Author Bias
  • Artist Sensitivity
  • Apocalyptic literature
  • Poverty
  • Forced Poverty
  • Philosophy
  • Irony
  • Facets of humanity
There are several other things that we may or may not address.
We will begin our poverty/critical reading unit in force on Wednesday.

08 January, 2010

Welcome to a new Semester

We're starting the year off with a critical reading unit looking at the issue of poverty in America. We will be reading a variety of non-fiction texts and media.
We will also view some fiction pieces that have certain biases or elements of propaganda. Students will be asked to create a real to life project at the end of the unit.
Most of what we do in this unit will be online using netbooks, the computer lab, and Google Docs.