Reading Activity

Happy Day!


Choose the appropriate NewsELA article for your reading level:

Baltimore Riots - support version

Baltimore Riots - advanced version

Baltimore Riots - grade level 

Then read this article for one person's point of view about the riots: 

NY Times Baltimore op-ed "In Baltimore, We're All Freddie Grey"

Answer the following questions on a sheet of paper, and be prepared to discuss: 

1. What are the reasons for the rioting in Baltimore? Consider all the factors.
2. Are the riots justified?
3. What solutions can you come up with for the unrest in Baltimore.

Update Week of April 27

Vocabulary Words for this week

Biography Essays due Wednesday, April 29.
Turn in:

• Outline
• Completed Peer Review sheet
• Final Draft of Essay (including citations)
• Rubric

All graphic organizers (central idea, inferences, context clues, prepositional phrases, significant moments) due Friday, May 1.

Word Maps for Unit 3 due Friday, May 1.

Research

Updates

We have a busy and productive week this week.  We are introducing new vocabulary words and writing, typing, and editing our ACES essays.

Update--because of many student absences expected this Thursday and Friday, we have changed the due date for our ACES Essay and Unit 2 Vocabulary quiz to Monday, April 27.  

Here is a copy of the ACES Essay Assignment and the vocabulary words.

ACES Essay Assignment - Advanced
ACES Essay Assignment

Unit 2 Vocabulary 


In class today, we started working on the introduction for the essay. Here is a copy of the sample essay that I am working on with the class.

From the Bronx to the Supreme Court

Outline to Essay Lesson - Using the Sonia Sotomayor memoir, My Beloved World, as an example, this lesson guides students in the construction of their ACES outline to the essay.

Transition Words
Peer Editing Checklist

Here is some more information on in-text citations from Purdue Writing Lab.

Finally, in their reflection essays, many students mentioned that they would like more practice on concepts presented in class.  Please consider using IXL  Language Arts section for practice in language arts.  There are exercises that give students immediate feedback on many of the Common Core standards, including prepositional phrases, ellipses, parts of speech, and many other concepts that we learn in class. Students can do 20 practice exercises per day for no charge.

Update April 16

This week our Reader's Workshop slowly moved to a Writer's Workshop as students began working on their final essays for the Biography Unit.   Please ask your child about his or her essay assignment. Students are asked to get a parent signature on the assignment so that parents know what they are working on.  The due date for the essay is April 24.

This week we also introduced new vocabulary words.  We are having a quiz on these words on Friday, April 17.  We will introducing ten new words each week.

Unit 1 Vocabulary Words

This Week in Language Arts

Welcome back from Spring Break! I hope everyone had a relaxing vacation!

On Monday of this week, students received their Reading Workshop quizzes and their Opinion Essays. They were asked to review the errors and feedback and learn from their mistakes.  They were also given an ACES Essay assignment which asks them to think about how they will grow in their learning this last quarter of middle school.  The essay is due Wednesday, April 8.  Students who were absent on Monday should have picked up the assignment sheet from me today during class, and can turn in their paper on Thursday.

Here's a copy of three different versions of the assignment.

ACES Reflection 
ACES Reflection Advanced Version
ACES Reflection with Sentence Starters

I am excited about our guest author coming to teach 8th grade students on Wednesday and Thursday. Nathan Kotecki will be our Writer-in-Residence . He is an author of Young Adult fiction including his two published novels, The Suburban Strange and Pull Down the Night. Nathan is working with all of our ELA students all week. He is spending two days with each grade level conducting an author's workshop with the students. In the 6th grade session, Nathan shared with students his inspiration for writing, and he explained the process involved in publishing a novel. Students are getting a first-hand account of how much work really goes into drafting a piece of writing. This will be a wonderful experience for our students, and I appreciate the efforts of Ms. Shauna Martin, our Literacy Coach, in bringing this opportunity to Culbreth.

Friday and Saturday (yes, we have school on Saturday this week) students will continue reading and working on their reading strategies through the use of graphic organizers. All graphic organizers will be due in class next Monday.

Next week, students will be working on a more extensive ACES Essay in which they will write about the person they have been reading about these past few weeks. More to come on that next week.

Final Grades are Posted - Review Activities

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Spring Break.

I've posted final grades for Q3.   Please email me if you have a question about your grades.

I have also noticed that many students need some review and practice on some of the concepts we've been learning this quarter. I will be posting lessons on these concepts frequently.
The first one is Central Idea.  Here is a video that explains this concept a little differently.

Learn Zillion Central Idea