Almost Turkey Day – Give Thanks!

Two days until our Thanksgiving holiday – We can do this!

Spelling quiz is today with grammar quiz tomorrow.  Last week, we watched 3 Scholastic videos related to Thanksgiving.  Students completed a three column chart with notes.  These notes are to be used for your weekly journal assignment which is an informative essay.  You may choose to write in first person as a fictional character present at one of the events, or strictly as a non-fiction paragraph.  These 9-sentence paragraphs are due tomorrow.

Students in my homebase class have requested a secret Santa swap.  I am sending home permission slips for this today.  If you want to participate, please return tomorrow so we can draw names before Thanksgiving.

Looking forward, we have a book review due before Christmas holidays.  Please see me about the book you plan to review, or you can choose to write about our read aloud – Double Dutch by Sharon Draper.

Good Writing Can Come in Small Packages

Laura Randazzo – Solutions for the Secondary Classroom

Micro Fiction – Flash Fiction – Two-Sentence Stories – Sudden Fiction – Twitter Tales

Whatever you want to call them, super-short stories are a super-fun way to spend a single class period, as you introduce your teens to the idea that an entire story can exist within just a few lines.

Micro fiction can pack an emotional wallop. Take, for instance, this two-sentence tale:

Or, how about this creepy moment?

Whether you’re looking to launch a creative writing unit or just need a breather day between major units, try two-sentence storytelling. Click here to view my ready-to-use materials or Google “flash fiction” to find a wide variety of approaches/inspiration.

Teach on, everyone!

View original post

Happy Veterans’ Day!

Wishing a wonderful holiday to all veterans past and present.  I hope everyone has had a safe and enjoyable day.  Tomorrow we begin Unit 3 Week 2.  I just posted the newsletter to the website.  Journal entries from Week 1 are due tomorrow.  They are explanatory paragraphs on how water weathers rocks.  Information can be found in your science books to support your information. Please be sure to use your own words, not the author of the book or website article.

We will begin working on the simple verb tenses this week, along with spelling, vocabulary, and of course more writing.  Week 2 journal paragraph is another science prompt dealing with how the climate affects the soil.

Our unit writing which we will work on in a few weeks is a book review.  You can start thinking of which book you want to use.  We will also try a read-aloud in class which will give you another option.  See you in the morning.

This week

Don’t forget to turn in your business letters of complaint.  The final copy is due tomorrow!  Three paragraph letter in a block format – see the link for an example of correct format.  https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/BusLetter_Block.html  

You will also be completing your writing assessment in class tomorrow as well.  You will have a short time to pre-plan, then you will be writing a 3-5 paragraph essay in response to the prompt.

Many students did not complete the vocabulary and spelling homework for Unit 2, Week 5.  Turn those in as soon as possible. We will be starting Unit 3 on Tuesday.  Newsletters will be distributed at that time.  Spelling homework and test will be Friday, Nov. 7.  Grammar test will be Monday, Nov. 10.