Genesis: We wrapped up our Civil War literature circles this week.  Students had chosen the book in this genre last week, reading Letters from a Slave Girl: The Story of Harriet Jacobs by Mary E. Lyons or Soldier’s Heart by Gary Paulsen.  I was impressed by the quality and depth of students’ literature circle discussions.  Literature circles depend on individual student contribution, and the level of role sheet discussion preparation that students completed for homework was high.  They did a fantastic job Discussion Directoring, Illuminatoring, and Connectoring!  We also focused on grammar/4-line grammar analysis this week, analyzing Phillis Wheatley’s diction after responding to critical thinking questions emerging from one of her poems.  Students will be assessed on their parts of speech mastery next week.  In preparation for their quiz, they are working on collaborative stories that apply the parts of speech with a memorable context/concept.

Legacy: Students developed RAFTs informed by their reading of Fahrenheit 451.  A RAFT is a curriculum strategy that relates Role, Audience, Format, and Topic.  This differentiated approach allow students to exercise creativity within a critical response to a text.  Students’ RAFTs are going well!  They are due Monday 5/18.  We also kept up on our current events with a reading of the article “Don’t!” from this week’s New Yorker.  The article linked self-control capability with future academic/life success–ask your student about it!  Students designed their own experiments to continue the studies’ research during X Block.

Explorers: Students developed their graduation speeches during writing workshop time.  These speeches explored a theme that could communicate an audience “call to action”; students worked to integrate famous quotations with their recollection of personal experiences.  Students also read and discussed selected science fiction stories and in preparation for a collaborative project next week.