Genesis: We finished planning and drafting our persuasive essays this week. We spent class time analyzing and critiquing persuasive essays for their rhetorical approaches. Our goal was to apply what we learned about effective persuasion to our own drafts. Students also practiced organizing and drafting their ISAT extended reader response and independent reading/conferences.

Legacy: We continued our craft studies with excerpts on details by author Francine Prose. Exemplar texts by Anton Chekhov, Herman Melville, and Virginia Woolf were used in guided reading. In addition, students used their details focus to draft short fiction pieces that will be analyzed in student craft studies. We also began readings of graduation speeches in preparation for our drafting in writing workshop.

Explorers: Students combined role, audience, format, and topic (the RAFT strategy) for a long-term creative thinking/writing exercise that will become part of their novel portfolios. We practiced ISAT extended reader response and narrative writing. We also supplemented our read-alouds with flash fiction stories.

Genesis: Persuasive essay (typed, double-spaced, size 12 Times) draft due Monday 3/2. 

Legacy: None.  (Please take a break!)

Explorers: RAFT and last week’s thesis statement are due Monday 3/2.  SAT/WWW quiz on Monday 3/2.

Genesis: Persuasive essay prep sheets must be in by today (Thu)!

Legacy: 1 pg. fiction piece (with backstory additions) is due today (Thu).

Explorers: Bring your RAFT assignment to class tomorrow.

Genesis: MOSS READING: If you have not completed your response revisions, finish them for homework.

Legacy: 1 pg. fiction draft due Thursday 2/26. Use Times New Roman 12 font, please.  You will also have class time Wednesday to work on this in longhand.

Explorers: Continue independent reading; study for WWW/SAT quiz on Thursday 2/27.

Genesis: Persuasive essay preparation sheet / Reasoning Web due date moved to Wednesday 2/25.
Legacy: 1 pg. fiction draft due Thursday 2/26. Use Times New Roman 12 font, please.
Explorers: Thesis statement due Tuesday 2/24.

Genesis: Students learned how to develop ISAT reader responses using a claim, text evidence, interpretation, and extension.  They practiced those skills with various in-class prompts.  In our persuasive writing unit, we worked on prewriting activities to jumpstart our writing process on a topic that students are passionate about.  This assignment will likely include additional research for students.  They continued their preparation for essay writing through collaboration and group discussion about the pros and cons of various perspectives on a topic/issue.  

Legacy: We began a critical reading/writing unit that focuses on accelerated high school reading and composition skills.  Students read and responded to short stories, and collaboratively worked on developing thesis statements for future craft study papers.  We read aloud three flash fiction stories as exemplary texts for craft study, and discussed what the authors did to communicate meaning/effect for readers.  Students also presented features of a nonfiction article to the whole class and continued reading workshop.  Daily freewrites continued.

Explorers: This week’s writing workshop was used for poetry portfolio development.  Students investigated how poetry intersected with the text of Fahrenheit 451 through a close reading activity with Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach.”  Students also individually worked on developing thesis statements for their Fahrenheit 451 composition papers.  We continued our vocabulary study.

Genesis: Complete Persuasive Essay Preparation Sheet for your next writing block (Block 4: 2/23; Block 5: 2/24).

Legacy: None.

Explorers: Complete thesis statement for our next reading block (Block 4: 2/24).

Genesis: Turn in Ancient Civilization papers with parent signature on Thursday 2/19.  Block 5: Come to class Thursday 2/19 with persuasive essay topic defined.  

Legacy: Due Friday 2/20: Mini-letter essay; any rewrites; 2 SAT quizzes.

Explorers: FAHRENHEIT 451 read by Thursday 2/19!  Turn in those reading contracts!  WWW/SAT quizzes and rewrites due Friday 2/20.

Genesis: Continue independent reading with active reading strategies; Block 3 reading complete organizer prompt for Wednesday 2/19.

Legacy: DUE FRIDAY: SAT quizzes (2 lessons); mini-letter essay; comparative essay rewrites, reading contracts!

Explorers: DUE FRIDAY: WWW/SAT quiz; Rekkas rewrites; reading contracts!

All gifted/enrichment students took Winter NWEA tests this week.

Genesis: Students completed their Ancient Civilizations projects.  They analyzed the rhetoric in advertising images and applied those appeals to their own product advertisements.  We began our reader response unit in preparation for the ISAT test.

Genesis X: We completed our Literature Web study of A Light in the Forest by cross-referencing images/symbols from an article on Elian Gonzalez, a drawing and poems by Sherman Alexie, and a poem on “Identity.”

Legacy: We completed our social-emotional lesson on Dabrowski’s “positive disintegration” theory of human development.  In our revising/editing of comparative essays, we referred to Glenbrook South writing principles to aid us in adapting our sentence patterns.  We analyzed paragraphs of a model comparative essay draft by Ms. Rekkas, completing its active revision on the SMART board together.

Explorers: We began our novel study of Fahrenheit 451 through our cross-referencing of texts by Thomas More (Utopia), George Orwell (1984), as well as nonfiction articles on McCarthyism and the Chinese Cultural Revolution.  Students also developed ekphrastic, metaphorical, and abecedarian poems.