First Week of School /8/26/09

We are getting into the first week and have started on some interesting units.

8th Grade Reading - We are reading about and discussing George Orwell who wrote "Animal Farm" and "1984". Literature circles read about and then presented a display sheet about Orwell's personal life and experiences. We will be reading about Burma today where Orwell lived for a time and the human rights issues there to put some of Orwell's political dissatisfaction into perspective. The literary focus for "Animal Farm" will be on satire and we will be analyzing and doing some creative presentations exemplifying satire.

6th graders in Reading brainstormed this week about things that we associate with summer, and then we "acted out' the vocabulary words while leading into the story called "The Sound of Summer Running". These students will be working on note cards this week also to study various terms associated with literature that may be used during the year to help them become familiar with the meanings for these terms. We'll be working on fluency today, also - how do you phrase your reading, etc. Next story will be "Stray" - students love a good animal story.

7th Reading - We're ready today for an Amy Tan story about a mother who desperately wanted her daughter to be a "genius" in some area - a by-product of many Chinese fleeing from Communism and desperately hoping for a better future. The story is "Two Kinds" and I'm sure will generate great discussion about the pressure kids may feel.
More later

Time to get ready

I've been working in my classroom a lot to get ready for August 18th, which is when the teachers start. It's best to have everything organized, because it is hard to fit everything in during the teacher's workshop before students come.
Got several new things to put in the room. I think I'll try the new digital bookmarks to help the students in keeping track of their independent reading times. I got twelve of them for $80, which was a bargain. Also, I have a new poster on which you put an answer and the students have to determine the question. I think that could be fun, but if anyone has ideas for what the answer could be for the first week, let me know. The students really like the poster called "Question of the Day", which is usually one about their opinions, so this should be good, also. I do have new book sets coming in. The 6th grade last year read about nine different books as a group, besides their independent reading, so I hope we can be as successful this year. Have to get to work - might as well get used to it.