Classwork+September+2010

=Classwork September 2010= toc

Week of September 27, 2010
** Wednesday, 9/29/10 ** ** SS ** Students started class by writing their own headline for the current event they read yesterday. We finished our inverted pyramids for our hard news stories and wrote "bare bones" summaries. Mrs. Blattner collected the pyramids and bare bones summaries. After, we returned to our quest for becoming globally literate. Each student was assigned a river from the list of the world's longest rivers. Each student then located the latitude and longitude of their river and identified the general location on a map (Packets of maps were distributed for students to keep in their binders.). Next week we will spend time in the lab, researching our rivers. Students will give brief presentations in class to teach us about their rivers next week! ** LA ** Students shared their fantasy setting journals and illustrations. Next week we will try our hand at creating our own fantasy settings! Mrs. Blattner collected fantasy journals. ** Tuesday, 9/28/10 ** ** SS ** Students used their "hard" news articles to identify the "inverted pyramid" of a news story. Some students brought in articles that they did not understand. Students are encouraged to take time to find an article of their interest and something that they can understand, based on their own life experiences or prior knowledge. We will continue with our news article study tomorrow. ** LA: ** Students returned to the computer lab today to finalize friendly letters. Students were encouraged to focus on "diction" or word choice, as they revise. Careful and interesting word choice enhances writing and makes our "writers' voices" sing. All final drafts were turned in at the end of class. If you are absent today, be certain to speak to Mrs. Blattner about completing this work. ** Monday, 9/27/10 ** ** S.S.: ** Students started class by composing a "headline" from their weekend, including a subject and an "action word". Next, we read the current event article "US Hiker Departs Iran Free on Bail". We identified (underlined and marked) the 5 Ws and the H. We then used an activity sheet, Inverted Pyramid, to identify the structure of the news article. Students concluded that the format of a news article makes summarizing quite easy--maybe 5-7 sentences in total. We will practice this skill again tomorrow. ** L.A.: ** Students met with two different peers to receive and give feedback on our friendly letters. Students will use this feedback tomorrow in the lab, as they revise and edit their final drafts. We also reviewed the requirements for the fantasy journals and received a packet, explaining each week's writing topic and a rubric.

Week of September 20, 2010
Students participated in a special Literacy Celebration Day, discussing summer reading books and participating in rich learning activities.
 * Wednesday, 9/22/10**

Students returned to the lab to put finishing touches on the drafts of their friendly letters. Students will have one more editing session and a teacher/student writing conference before the final draft is turned in.
 * Tuesday, 9/21/10**
 * L.A.**

For a warm up, students were given maps of Alaska and Iran. They identified Tehran, Iran and Point Lay, Alaska, determinig the latitude and longitude coordinates. These two locations will appear in current events we will be using in class in the coming days. Student then started by taking a tour of the newspaper, identifying different parts of the paper, include the masthead, folio, index, editorials vs. news, hard news vs. soft news/feature stories, photos with captions, etc. Then, we examined an article about walruses. We read aloud the article and identifed the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, why) and the H (how). We examined the format of a news article, where most of the important information can be found in the first paragraph and less important details at the end of the article. We learned that articles are formatted in this way so that readers can look at opening paragraphs to get the jist tof the daily news. This format is called an "inverted pyramid". We then drew a diagram of the article on the board. We will work with the inverted pyramid more next week. Students returned to the lab to work on revising their friendly letters. Today's focus was inserting transitional words within paragraphs to improve the flow of our writing. We used sample paragraphs from student's letters in class to practice this skill on the Smartboard.Students received a copy of transitional or linking words for future reference. This list will be kept in our writing folders. In addition, students were asked to revise the closing sentence in their body paragraphs, so that the sentence leads into the next paragraph's topic. We will conclude revisions tomorrow in class.
 * S.S.**
 * Monday, 9/20/10 ﻿**
 * L.A.**

Students started class by writing a "headline" that represents something they did over the weekend. We shared headlines and talked about how a good headline is carefully crafted with a strong action word and a subject (someone doing the action). We talked about how some journalists are hired to just write headlines at newspapers. Next, students explored the parts of a newspaper, leafing through copies of //The Oregonian, The New York Times,// and //The Wallstreet Journal//. By raising our awareness of how newspapers work and the kinds of information within them, we will be more comfortable in finding our own current events articles in upcoming weeks.
 * S.S.**

Week of September 13, 2010
We had a special math/science activity today and enjoyed an early dismissal of 12:15. Have a meaningful Yom Kippur.
 * Friday, 9/17/10**

Students returned to the lab to work on revising their friendly letters. Each student was given written feedback and edit from Mrs. Blattner, as well as a writer's check-list.
 * Thursday, 9/16/10**
 * L.A.**

Students turned in their Global Literacy Practice map homework and participated in a warm-up, which was collected. Students were asked 3 questions: 1. What continent is out of proportion the most in its land mass size and population size? 2. What is another term used to refer to the continent "Australia?" 2. What is a good definition for the term "continent," now that we have used this word in our map skills?
 * S.S.**

We finally added notes to our Global Literacy note taking packet. We used p. 62-63 of our Social Studies textbooks to put in our own words the following terms: (Ps. Students were encouraged to draw diagrams or put in their own memory devices for understanding the different terms!) -lines of latitude or parallels -equator -lines of longitude or meridians -prime meridian -continent Students spent the first half of class visiting the library with Ms. Slater. Ms. Slater gave a brief orientation of the library and circulation expectations for middle schoolers. Then, Ms. Slater shared a wonderful collection of fantasy books, as we begin to select our first independent reading book.
 * Wednesday, 9/15/10**
 * L.A.**

Students then returned to the classroom for a "chalk talk". We wrote about what we know about the genre "fantasy." Then, Mrs. Blattner showed a clip from the movie //The Wizard of Oz//, so that students could discuss the key elements of the genre fantasy. Mrs. Blattner gave the students a green handout with a listing of fantasy authors and the traits of the genre (extra handouts in classroom).

Mrs. Blattner keeps a classroom library and many fantasy books are available for students to check out.

Fantasy handout:

**Tuesday, 9/14/10** **L.A.** Students reviewed proofreading marks for editing writing. Each student received a green proofreading marks page to keep in their writing folders. Students edited a sample friendly letter on the Smartboard in the computer lab, using proofreading marks. The remainder of the period was spent composing friendly letters. Students were asked to print out their rough drafts by the end of class and submit them in their writing folders. **S.S.** Today students composed "where in the world" they have been on 5 X 7 notecards, identifying the city, country, latitude, and longituded. Each student wrote several sentences about their experience visiting their identified location. We will post the notecards on our classroom world map. We then spent time exploring an atlas. We discovered how maps have titles and reveal the kind of information they display. We looked at how legends work and how different maps show different views of the world, depnending on how the cartographer (map maker) created the map (aerial view, what country is at the center of the map, etc.). Students received a Global Literacy map practice homework packet, which is due on Thursday!

Monday, 9/13/10

L.A. Students continued working on their friendly letters in the computer lab. We used the writer's handbook //Write Source 2000// to examine the parts of a friendly letter (heading, greeting, body, closing).

Students completed "part 2" of the "Where in the World" mapping activity. Students selected a place they have been, located the latitude and longitude on a map, and checked the coordinates against an Atlas. We labeled the class map on the back bulletin board, identifying terms like map title, hemisphere, equator, prime meridian, and legend. Students added a yellow sticker "dot" to the map, representing the place they visited. Students are getting pretty good at the basics of "map sense"!
 * S.S.**

Week of September 3, 2010
**Monday, 9/7/10**
 * L.A.**

-We worked in the computer lab today, setting up our friendly letters, humanities folders on the network. We began composing our letters.
 * SS.**

-We practiced our understanding of latitude and longitude. See activity sheet below:

Week of September 1, 2010
-Prewrite, "Reading & Writing Life": We divided our papers into 4 sections, listing positive and negative experiences with reading and writing. All writing remains in our writing folders. -Mrs. Blattner read her letter to the class and passed around a photo from her 6th grade year.
 * Friday, 9/3/10**
 * L.A.:**

-Identified 7 continents and 4 major oceans on globes -Looked at the latitude and longitude of Portland, OR and Jerusalem, Israel on Google Earth -We determined the best city to fly from to go to Jerusalem, based on closest distance from the US to Israel -We determined that latitude lines are parallel lines (horizontal) and longitude lines run North and South. -We also learned that latitude measures locations North and South of the equator and longitude measures locations East and West of the prime meridian. -Both the equator and the Prime Meridian are at 0 degree marks on the globe.
 * SS:**

-Identified "FATP" (form, audience topic, and purpose) in writing prompt, "Reading & Writing Life" -Distributed writing folders -reviewed Humanities 6 classroom expectations & Procedures -reviewed the class web site called "Write Post Read" :)
 * Thursday, 9/2/10**
 * L.A.:**

-Textbook Scavenger Hunt: We explored the parts of our textbook and how to locate information. -Geography Knowledge Quiz: We took a "prequiz" to find out how much about geography and map reading we know. We worked with a world map and identified major continents, regions, oceans, the equator, and the prime meridian. We reminded ourselves that these special places on a map, like continents and oceans are capitalized. We took extra care to correct all of our spelling of these special places.
 * SS:**