Welcome Back--and Back to Business!

I hope that everyone enjoyed our combined winter/spring-like weather over break.  It was so special to wake to winter white blanketing the ground and trees on one day, then to hike in a warm spring breeze the next, albeit through mud!  Today we switch gears, back to the business of learning in school.

"Little Red Riding Hood" essays were due today; if anyone fell behind with this or forgot to print, tonight and tomorrow night will be the time to catch up.  Today in class we revisited spelling rules, practiced using commonly misspelled words (linked below), and embarked on new rules in the form of plurals.  Students worked on ten rules for creating plural nouns, and should finish up the packet if needed tonight.  Tomorrow students will take the ELA department benchmark test that they took early in the year.  While I score the test to determine growth across the three times it is given, the scores are not entered into Aspen and do not figure into report card grades.  The data is informational for me and for our department to analyze students' growth and development.  The test questions are written a la the newest version of MCAS, so they serve the dual purpose of being practice for that test.  We will work on the essay component together so that will also become practice for the kind of writing required on the MCAS.

While this week is all business, students are in store for more choice reading next week!  This time, they will return to fiction and read in pairs or small groups.  Students in each class should think about with whom they might want to read, as well as a novel they want to read together.  Students are welcome to borrow or purchase their shared novels on their own, but we'll visit the library next Monday to choose books, and I have multiple copies of many selections as well.  They'll begin reading and meeting with their groups next week.

Homework

Monday/Tuesday:  finish plural packet; finish/print Little Red essay to turn in if needed.

Wednesday:  finish organizer for bee essay; if you want to begin drafting, go for it!

Thursday:  finish essay draft

Friday:  finish final draft of essay & print; self score on rubric (you will turn in essay and rubric Monday)

If you and your reading partner(s) are getting a book on your own (you each need a copy), bring it in on Monday (we'll visit library on Monday to get books).

Commonly Misspelled Words activity  

Editing Checklist

Writing Rubric

Common Ideas Between "Hum" and "Why We Need Bees"

A Single Story...Told Five Different Ways

We continue to weave the thread of "a single story" and its implications for readers throughout our reading this week.  Today's story was the classic "Little Red Riding Hood", a German folk tale published by the brothers Grimm, famous for their collection of fairy tales.  Students worked in small groups to examine how the setting, characters, actions, and language reflect the authors' background, Germany in the 1800s.  They also considered how this fairy tale presents a "single story".  Students will remain in their groups throughout the week, each day reading a different version of the tale and answering the same questions about it.  The versions include "Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China", "Red Ridin' In the Hood" by Mexican-American author Patricia Santos Marcantonio, "Little Roja Riding Hood" by bilingual author Susan Elya and Latina illustrator Susan Guevara, and "Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion", a "classic fairy tale with an African safari twist".  To culminate, students will synthesize their group work and our listening, discussing and writing about "the danger of a single story" in a short essay.  While we may have time to begin this writing in class on Friday, I will ask students to complete the essay over the break so that the information and their experience of it is still fresh, as opposed to waiting until we return.

Homework:

Monday:  add to group notes as needed; do spelling rules 15-18 in packet.

Tuesday:  add to group notes; do spelling rules 19-22.

Wednesday:  add to group notes; do spelling rules 23-25.

Thursday:  add to group notes; do spelling rules 26-28.

Friday:  add to group notes; write final response essay: due 2/26 (preferably typed!)

Little Red Riding Hood Group Work Questions and Essay

Little Red Riding Hood Original Version

Danger of a Single Story TED talk

The Power/Danger of a Single Story

Following JFK's Diversity Day events and continuing the mission to become a more inclusive school, students will explore the notion that there is power--and perhaps danger--in telling stories and reading them with a myopic viewpoint.  Chimamanda Adichie's TED talk (linked below) will be the springboard for some deep thinking and writing on this topic.  Students will be considering how an author's perspective influences their writing, and how readers bring their own lens of experience to texts they read.  We will pick up this work next week by reading five versions of a classic fairy tale retold by authors of varying ethnicity.

Later this week, we will begin reviewing and practicing spelling rules. Students will be given a packet of the rules with which they'll practice, and they should hold onto these in their binders as a reference.

Homework:

Monday:  finish nonfiction book cover

Tuesday:  finish "Power/Danger of a Single Story" hw writing prompt on handout

Wednesday:  none!

Thursday:  finish practice work Spelling Rules 1-5

Friday:  finish practice work Spelling Rules 6-10


TED talk

Power/Danger of a Single Story hw writing prompt