Thursday, January 20, 2011

Rice Picture Book

I was telling another teacher about the picture book about the grains of rice book....what was it called again???? I don't believe it was one we were given, and I think I want to order it!

Semester Ending

As the semester is ending, I feel like I have not accomplished all that I had hoped to do....I have definitely made progress, but the juggling of responsibilities has left me wanting summer to arrive so I can plan better for next year!!

Julius Casear project

Wow! I implemented the lesson plan I wrote and it was exciting to see the students so engaged!! I had a crime scene investigation and even with interuptions (due to snow days), the students were loving reading real world texts about blood splatters, studing scenes to find out facts about suspects, etc! It created really strong interest and desire to get into Act 3!!

School wide focus

Due to a school wide focus on improving test scores, I have been totally amazed at faculty meetings hearing other core content areas joining in the literacy focus and supporting reading instruction! It is very encouraging and I sincerely hope that all our classes will begin to implement the Magnificent Seven!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Passport Project

I wanted to expose my students to a larger selection of myths and legends. Therefore, I created a project where they could use selected sites on the internet to explore myths and legends from different countries. The students have to select five different stories from five different countries. They have to create a stamp representing the country and the story, rate the story out of four stars, summarize the story, and evaluate what makes it a myth or legend and how they liked the story. Through this project, they will be using the Magnificent Seven Comprehension strategies we have worked such as determining important ideas and summarizing!
The students are currently looking through stories on the laptops and will have two weeks to complete the project. I created a document that allows them to input the information they find and save it to their account. I hope they are going to read way more than five stories. I'm honestly hoping that they will go "story shopping" and read until there are five that they actually enjoy. I can't wait to see how if it's a success.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Welcome Back

Welcome back, I hope that everyone had a restful winter break. This week marks the end of The Odyssey for all of my English classes. I am looking forward to using new Power Tools in the new year.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Poetry Concept Maps

We just finished up poetry a little bit ago. Concept Maps were a great help with all the terms the students needed to learn. It helped them organize them terms and provide their own examples. They even shared in groups and could combine their notes. It was definitely a good tool to help them study for the test.