March 25 Reader's Workshop Update

This week we studied direct and indirect objects and a had a brief introduction to significant moments in reading.

Brain Pop Video on Verbs and their Objects (you may need to login into your school account to access)
Indirect/Direct Practice Sheet

Significant Moments Presentation

Suggestions on studying for Reading Workshop Quizzes:

Review all our past lessons and do the practice exercises.
Practice reading and using your reading strategies: context clues, making inferences, finding central idea, identifying significant moments.
Stop to make sure you understand what you are reading. Stop and reread if necessary.

Dashes vs. Parenthesis Confusion and Idioms

There seems to have been some confusion on dashes vs. parentheses.

Here are some tips to help out.

Dashes vs. Parentheses
Remember that dashes interrupt. Parentheses do too, but they include information that is related to the topic.

Here's some additional info on idioms.

Commonly Used Idioms

To "head off"

Week of March 16

No quiz on Tuesday. The quiz on punctuation (hyphens, dashes, parentheses, and ellipses) and inferences will be on Thursday of this week.  Please continue to practice. I have added a practice sheet on context clues. Try it first and then check your answers.

Reader's Workshop Update

This week's lessons are Figurative Language, Punctuation (Parenthesis, Ellipses, Hyphens, Dashes), and Making Inferences.

Practice identifying figurative language techniques that authors use while you are reading.  Think about how they change your understanding and appreciation of the text and why authors use these techniques in their writing.

Some punctuation marks are frequently misused and misunderstood. The students got a great introduction to parentheses, hyphens, dashes, and ellipses today and how authors use them in their writing.  They also practiced finding them in their reading.

Friday's lesson is Making Inferences. This lesson goes a step further than students are accustomed to by asking them to find multiple clues and identify patterns or connections among the clues to help them find an inference.

Figurative Language Lesson
Punctuation Movie (30 minutes)
Punctuation Lesson (Hyphens, Dashes, Parentheses, Ellipses)
Making Inferences
Context Clue Practice - see if you can figure these out!
Answers to Context Clue Practice - no peeking before you're finished.


Study guides: Some sites for practice and more information:

Greek and Latin Roots Quiz
Prepositions
Punctuation
Making Inferences 

Greek and Latin Roots and Opinion Essay Update

Because of the delayed opening on Friday and shorter classes, the quiz that was scheduled for Friday will now be on Monday.  We spent our class time Friday reviewing prepositional phrases and Greek and Latin roots.  Here's a link to the Bingo game that we played, if you want to review your root words. The first couple of pages give the instructions for the game.  Scroll down to the 3rd page to see the roots and then some words that are derived from those roots.

Greek and Latin Root Bingo


Opinion Essays

I have been grading essays and posting grades in Google Classroom.  I am also sharing the rubric with with students so you can see your grades.  If yours is graded, please take the time to read my comments in your document and read the rubric that I shared with you. Please be patient with me if yours is not graded because each one takes quite a bit of time to read, grade, and give thoughtful feedback.

There are still many students who have not turned in their essays, and there are students who are receiving theirs back because they missed important concepts such as citations or evidence and elaboration.  If you have questions about how to do the essay or need help with typing, please come by my classroom before school from 7:50-8:10 or after school from 3:15-3:45, and I can help you.

Have a great weekend!

Reader's Workshop Update

Quiz on Context Clues, Prepositional Phrases, and Central Idea will be on Friday, March 6.

Homework for Wednesday, March 4:
   Practice 1: Root Words and Structural Clues (due Thursday)
Lesson 39: Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases (due Friday)

I don't have an electronic copy of these worksheets. They will be given out in class on Wednesday.

Reader's Workshop Update

As I have mentioned in class, here are the mini-lessons and practice graphic organizers for our Reader's Workshop:

Context Clues

• Reader's Workshop Introduction and Expectations
• Context Clue Mini-Lesson
• Context Clue Practice 
• Fun Context Clue Video
• Advanced Vocabulary Practice

Prepositions

• Prepositions Mini-Lesson
• Prepositional Phrase Partner Practice

Central Idea

• Central Idea Mini-Lesson
• Central Idea Movie
• Central Idea Practice
• Central Idea Practice Graphic Organizer

We will have a quiz on Friday on these three concepts.