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.