August 31

IRT: ~20 minutes
WNB: Write a letter convincing someone to start reading more. Your letter can be address to a parent or older relative, a friend, or a younger sibling. Consider using the information from yesterday's article and today's video as support for your argument.

We continued our discussion of poetry that we briefly started yesterday. We listened for different kinds of rhyme and meter. We will get into analysis on Monday Tuesday!

Enjoy your 3-day weekend!

Today's Board

August 30

Students had the first 30 minutes of class to read, annotate, and respond to today's article of the week and read independently while I held reading conferences with individual students.

Today's article: "Nerd Alert: Reading Is Good for Your Health" (this is an updated version of the article students read in class)

We finished up the writing assignment from yesterday.

I briefly introduced some poetry terms, and we viewed an example of spoken word poetry: "Hands" by Sarah Kay (the first 3:40 of the video). We will resume this work tomorrow.

August 29

IRT: ~20 minutes
WNB:

We finished up student book talks today. We'll do another round of these in the future.

Students began writing a response to the trio of excerpts that we've been working with. We will complete this work in class Thursday.

(No photo of the board today--yesterday got away from me, and I'm posting this entry too late. Sorry!)

Here's a cartoon from one of my favorite artists, Liz Climo.

August 28

IRT: ~20 minutes
WNB: Outside entry -- Students may write about any topic they choose.

We learned about more books from 4 more students. We will finish the first round of book talks tomorrow.

We read the final piece in our trio, an excerpt from Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Students worked with their groups to discover elements of the passage using the TWISTT strategy. Students will choose one of the 3 pieces to write about tomorrow.

Today's Board

August 27

Students completed the district-required Nelson-Denny reading comprehension and vocabulary tests today.

After the tests, students continued delivering book talks. We will finish this up by Wednesday.

We ended class with a writer's notebook entry: What's the biggest misconception about teenagers today? When you hear people say "Kids today," what do they usually follow it up with?

We will resume our work with the trio of excerpts tomorrow.

Today's Board

Week-at-a-Glance

August 24

IRT: ~20 minutes

We did not have a writer's notebook entry today--it totally slipped my mind!

More students delivered book talks today. We should wrap up the first round next week.

We picked up our work from yesterday, resuming discussions of the excerpt from Dispatches from the Edge, reading an excerpt from Educating Esme, and using the TWISTT strategy to analyze them. There is one more excerpt that we will discuss on Tuesday.

Students should bring their iPads on Monday so we can complete the district-required Nelson-Denny reading and vocabulary tests. We will also hear more book talks on Monday.

Today's Board

August 23

IRT: ~20 minutes
WNB: Article of the Week - "Our Plastic Oceans" /// Students read and annotated the article then responded in their writer's notebooks. The annotation protocol is posted in "Course Resources" on Canvas.

More students delivered book talks today! A few were ones I've read already, and I added several to my to-read list!

We learned about the TWISTT strategy for analyzing texts and read an excerpt from Anderson Cooper's Dispatches from the Edge. We will continue this work tomorrow.

Today's Board

August 22

We began class with book talks from 4 students. We will continue this for the next week so every student gets to share a book.

Students chose from 3 prompts about Night and wrote a response. This will be a minor grade.

When students finished writing, they used the remaining class time to read independently.

Today's Board

August 21

IRT: ~20 minutes
WNB: Write a letter to yourself when you're 30 (it will be the year 2032/2033). Tell yourself what you want to be remembered for from these teen years and what you think should be important in your life when you're grown up.

We talked about big ideas today. Students watched a short film (Oktapodi), read an excerpt from A Thousand Splendid Suns, and revisited Night while considering some questions (see image below).

Tomorrow, students will begin book talks and write a response to a chosen prompt about Night.

Today's Board

August 20

We went to the library today to learn about all of the great services available and to check out books. Students should have a book so we can begin independent reading time tomorrow.

When we returned to the classroom, we began setting up our writer's notebooks. We will finish this work tomorrow.

Coming Up
Wednesday - Book Talks begin! Three or four students will share books from their summer reading each day beginning Wednesday.
Wednesday - Night writing assignment

Today's Board

Week-at-a-Glance

August 17

We completed a brown bag activity--students made connections between random objects and Night. This work will help prepare them for the writing assignment coming up on Wednesday.

Kindness Week is next week!

Today's Board

Have a great weekend!

August 16

We started class with a recap of Wednesday and time for clarifying questions. I also pointed students to this class blog and asked them to bookmark it so they'll be able to find it easily when they need it.

I explained my cell phone policy--basically, all phones should be put away during class. Students have iPads, and they should utilize those for any activities that call for it.

Students received the book talk protocol and rubric, and I shared Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys to demonstrate how a book talk should go. Students will begin sharing their books next Wednesday.

We discussed perspective and point of view as we watched a short film, Red's Dream, read an excerpt from Salt to the Sea, and reviewed Night. The work students did today will help them with a writing assignment coming up on Wednesday of next week.

Today's Board

August 15

Welcome, sophomores!

We spent some time discussing our summer reading and meeting each other today. Some students were also able to access Canvas and view the course syllabus. We'll talk more about that tomorrow.

The books on the rail are ones that students may enjoy if they found Night interesting. On the end is the book I book-talked today, Dear Martin by Nic Stone.

Week-at-a-Glance (I'll post this the first day of each week. It's always subject to change, however!)

Today's Board (I'll post this daily.)

Dog Days of Summer

This is pretty much how my dogs and I spent our summer vacation. We hope yours was restful, too! I look forward to meeting you all in 2 weeks!

Baxter and Boomer are professional snoozers.