Genesis: In reading workshop, fact/opinion knowledge was preassessed, which paved the way to students’ study of logical fallacies in persuasive language.  We also read “The Monkey’s Paw” by W. W. Jacobs to practice the annotation skill of circling key words and phrases as well as our inquiry into plot line (exposition, initial incident, rising action, turning point/climax, falling action, resolution/denouement).  Each student continued independent reading and conferences that are targeted toward individualized reading goals.  Genesis students will work with Ms. Rekkas in writing workshop for the next two+ weeks in order to integrate grammar and writing process study.  In writing, students pretested their grammar knowledge and began prewriting and brainstorming for children’s “scary story” picture books.

Legacy/Explorers: In reading workshop, students learned the literary term “allusion” and applied it to their independent reading texts while locating references in popular culture.  Students investigated what makes allusions successful or unsuccessful in writing (after being introduced to works by Geoffrey Chaucer and Walt Whitman), and were assessed on these concepts.  Every student continued independent reading and conferences that are targeted toward individualized reading goals, and students began presenting their book talks to the class, where they think-aloud their reading process and share a piece of text from their book that demonstrates their critical stance on the literature.  In writing workshop, we developed our curriculum integration plans.  These define student-developed curriculum that will be investigated in a collaborative group using age-appropriate primary sources from across the humanities.  We will continue this inquiry in LA and X Block during Trimester 2.  We also reviewed the components of Summary Notes (these summary paragraphs address an author’s main idea and point of view in a nonfiction article).  Students continued to revise their work for their writing portfolios.

Genesis X Block: We began our unit with a conceptual study of change.  Students worked in collaborative groups to practice the higher-order thinking skills engaged through abstraction: finding examples, categorizations, non-examples, and generalizations of and about change.

Explorer X Block: Students wrote and shared “I Am” poems in order to reteach and reinforce knowledge of participial phrases.  We also practiced four-line grammar analysis of sentences with participial phrases.