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Class News

Class News

This fall has been a busy one!  To update you on everything we’ve done so far would take a while, so I’ll just mention the big ideas we’ve been working on.  The BIGGEST news is that we all have finished designing or updating our blogs, and we’ve posted our writing on them, so please take a moment to check them out!  I hope that parents feel free to comment on their child’s blog.  Everyone LOVES the encouragement that comes with a positive comment on our writing.  Writing is hard, and we can all use a boost!

Also . . . .

In Grade 8 we’ve worked on:

  • Quickwrites – We’ve done several to get the ideas flowing and ready for our more formal assignment on Memoir.
  • Memoir – We read lots of memoirs (some of which you’ll find on the One Note for Grade 8), analyzed the form and wrote our own. They are ON THE BLOG!  Please feel free to read and comment on them!

  • Vocabulary – lots of prefixes and more to come . . .
  • Punctuation – Quotation Marks!  Test on Tuesday!
  • Independent Reading – We are all reading our own novels.
  • Elements of a Narrative – So far we’ve discussed and studied character, conflict, plot, and theme.  We’ve written about character, conflict, and now in the process of writing about theme in the context of a short story.

In Grade 7 we’ve worked on:

  • Independent Reading – Getting into the reading habit by reading in class and at home every day has been a focus for us.  I’m proud of the work students have done to get into the reading groove.
  • Short story study – We’ve read “Seventh Grade” by Gary Soto, “Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Hughes, and “Charles” by Shirley Jackson.  Through these short stories and our own novels, we’ve been studying the elements of a narrative.
  • Elements of a narrative – We’ve discussed and written about character traits, and we’ve touched on conflict and themes in our discussions.
  • Vocabulary – lots of prefixes and more to come . . .
  • Media studies – We designed our blogs!  Take a look at the way in which we’ve made our blogs unique and expressed our personalities through our designs!
  • Quickwrites and developing our ideas – We did several quickwrites and we developed the one we did on “My Favourite Place” to put on the blogs.  Please feel free to read our blogs and leave a comment!
  • Grammar – We worked on identifying the subject and predicate (main ingredients) of a sentence.  Now we’re working on Coordinating Conjunctions: FANBOYS! Our test is on Thursday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And what’s coming up?  Novel studies in small and large groups will begin this week in both grades!  In grade 8 we’ll be reading The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, and some of us will read Rules by Cynthia Lord. Reading a novel as a group means there will be daily reading homework with specified page numbers.  Work the following day may include chapter tests, discussions, and other activities, so it will be important that all students keep up with the reading homework.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ll continue our work on vocabulary and punctuation (dashes, parentheses, ellipses and more coming up).  We will be writing short stories and newspaper articles!

In Grade 7 we will be reading several novels as large groups.  In Grade 7B, we will be reading Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelson.  In 7A students will either be reading Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick or Shipwreck by Gordon Korman. Reading a novel as a group means there will be daily reading homework with specified page numbers.  Work the following day may include chapter tests, discussions, and other activities, so it will be important that all students keep up with the reading homework.

We are in the process of writing “Where I’m From” poems (check out the original by George Ella Lyons and mine here).  We studied the original and developed our own based on the poet’s style of ‘showing’ rather than ‘telling’.  They should be on the blogs in a week or so and they are going to KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF!  Be on the lookout!  We will also continue our study of prefixes in vocabulary and in grammar, subordinating conjunctions are up next!

If you’re not convinced that punctuation matters, you should consider this.

 

 

 

Questions and comments are welcomed!  Thank you for reading!

Hard Work Underway!

Hard Work Underway!

If you are new to our class blogs, WELCOME to “Discovering Our Voices” where I try to keep parents and students informed about what’s going on in the classroom, AND where students share their writing with peers, parents, and me.  This year, I am also putting LOTS of information on our two OneNote notebooks – one for 7th grade and one for 8th grade.  If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, please do so!  There’s lots of information in the OneNote notebooks that you will find useful in class and at home.

We’ve been at school for a month now, and if you think of what we’ve done so far, it’s clear we haven’t wasted the last four weeks.  In all my classes, we’ve been reading daily, at home and at school, and many students have already read a book or two!  If you’re a parent, please ask your child about what book(s) he/she’s been reading this year so far!

Here’s a quick list of what we’ve done so far in each grade.  If you’d like more information, please ask your child to show you our grade level OneNote. You’ll find lots of resources there.  Students and parents are also always welcome to email me with questions about our work in the classroom!  I will do my best to keep you informed.

Grade 7:

  • 2 vocabulary units focused on prefixes (sub, contra/contro)
  • short story unit to review/learn the elements of a narrative
  • Writing Territories (identifying the types of things we could write about this year)
  • quick-writes (a five minute writing session in which we just let the ideas flow)
  • reading response journal with a focus on character traits
  • grammar: sentence elements – subject and predicate

Grade 8:

  • 2 vocabulary units focused on prefixes (sub/trans, pro/retro)
  • memoir unit – reading lots of memoirs in order to understand the form
  • Writing Territories (identifying the types of things we could write about this year)
  • quick-writes aimed at ‘mining’ ideas for our own memoirs
  • reading response journal

It’s clear that we’ve been busy in English class so far.  In the near future, all my new students will have blogs, and we’ll be ready to share our writing with our peers and parents.  I can’t wait to ‘hear’ your voices on the blog!

 

Subject-Verb Agreement, Opinion Essays, and Literature Circles

Subject-Verb Agreement, Opinion Essays, and Literature Circles

It has been a very weird week because I’ve been home sick.  I know that Grade 8s are doing some really excellent work in the classroom, and I’m excited to get back to work because we have some rich units to finish up and others to start.  I wanted to give you a general sense of where we’re at and what we can all look forward to in the near future.

Grammar: Subject-Verb Agreement

We’ve been working on subject verb agreement for a little while now.  The rules are simple at first, but get a little more tricky as we get into interrupting phrases, compound subjects, etc.  Here are some of the rules we focus on in Grade 8:

  1. A verb must agree with the subject.  If the subject is singular, the verb is singular.  If the subject is plural, the verb is plural.   
  2. When a subject is separated from the verb by a group of words/phrase, the verb must agree with the simple subject.
  3. When the parts of a compound subject are joined by and, use a plural verb.  
  4. When the parts of a compound subject are joined by either/or or neither/nor, the verb agrees with the subject closer to the verb.
  5. Don’t be confused by a subject that follows the verb.  Identify the subject and then determine if it’s singular or plural before selecting the correct verb form.

The practice work we are doing in class will prepare you for our test, which should be in the next week or two.  I have also sent you a list of links if you’d like to practice your subject-verb agreement skills online!

* Please note that the example in the above picture proves that cats can’t be professors AND that people WILL notice if you use subject verb agreement incorrectly!

Opinion Essays

We’ve been working on developing the skills to prepare us for opinion essays for a little while now.  The things we’ve done so far?

  • We wrote on-demand (no prep) opinion essay writing on the topic of homework (This was actually a former OSSLT opinion essay topic.).
  • We reviewed and assessed sample OSSLT opinion essays on the same topic and using the samples, we created a list of things that a strong opinion essay contained (success criteria).
  • We learned about using criteria to make a judgement/opinion using a real life award – the Giraffe Hero Awards – and a set of case studies.
  • We used our success criteria list to create an opinion piece outline.
  • We selected a Giraffe Hero based on the set criteria, and we are in the process of writing opinion pieces that propose the individual is worthy of the award.

After we’ve completed these essays and typed them up, we’ll start learning more about how to research a topic, develop or identify our opinion on a topic, and then write a personal opinion piece on that topic.  Since there are benefits to both approaches, I’m still not sure if we’ll all study one general area or if each student will choose his/her own topic and opinion.   If you have a preference, please feel free to comment on this blogpost, talk to me in person, or send me an email.  If you have ideas for a general topic that will appeal to most students, please let me know!

 

Literature Circles

If you’ve never experienced literature circles, you have a treat coming!  The best thing about literature circles is that you get to discuss a book with a small group of your peers as you read it, and through that discussion, you are bound to dig deeper into the ideas the novel explores.

How it works:

  • starts with a BOOK PASS, which is one (or two) wicked class periods where you have to look at about 15-20 books: read the back, read a page, and decide if it’s of interest to you, write a note
  • select top 3 choices
  • Mrs. D makes groups based on several factors: a) how many copies I have; b) how many people I’ll need for each group in both classes; c) how the book fits each students’ reading abilities; d) if each group will have some good group dynamics;
  • books get handed out and students decide how much to read for each day or the week (a minimum of 10 pages of reading homework per day is expected for all books)
  • each week students will write a Reading Response Journal entry on the novel which will hopefully help students to a) think about the ideas in the novel; b) identify good questions to bring to the group; c) help students to prepare for the culminating essays; d) spark discussion during our weekly meetings
  • we may also do some vocabulary work based on the novels, so different groups would have different vocabulary lists
  • groups may have different end times for their novels since some novels are shorter than others
  • when we’re all done, students will have to write an essay on a) character; b) conflict/climax; c) theme

*The Literacy/Literature Circle discussion starts off difficult to hear, but hang in there because the sound quality improves as it goes.

This discussion is a pretty good one!  These girls have all read and thought deeply about the ideas in their novel.  They don’t just say, “I really liked the part . . . ” without having something important to say about the characters and themes of the book.  Everyone speaks in the circle and contributes good points. (We will discuss more about this particular circle discussion in class before we begin our discussions.)

 

Yes!  We are going to be very busy with grammar, opinion pieces, and literature circles!  And that’s just the next couple of months, right?

 

Week in Review: A brief look at our first week back

Week in Review: A brief look at our first week back

Thank you to all my students and parents for the warm welcome back!  It’s good to be back to a normal routine again!

We started off the week with this lovely quote:

 

WRITING

After reading and discussing the meaning of the quote, we all (grade 7 and 8) wrote two journal entries:

  • Masterpiece Me! – a journal entry describing something we’ve done over the last few months that we are proud of, that shows expertise or improvement in a specific area
  • Work-in-progress Me! – a journal entry identifying two specific goals for this year.  The first goal – and action plan to achieve it – was to be a goal outside of English class.  It could be a personal goal, a goal for sports or another subject in school, a general goal for learning skills, etc.  The second goal – and action plan to achieve it – was to be about English class (e.g., a reading, writing, speaking, listening, media studies goal).

These journal entries allowed us to reflect on our learning and learn about goal setting, which is an important learning skill.

READING

Nonfiction Reading:

Grade 8 students read an article entitled: “How to stick to your New Year’s resolutions” from HowStuffWorks and answered 4 multiple choice questions about the text.

Grade 7 students read an article entitled: “How to set goals for the New Year” by WikiHow and answered 4 multiple choice questions about the text.

Each of the above articles was available at various reading levels, so the titles may be slightly different for each level.  Each student received an article that was appropriate for their ability.

 

Independent Reading:

Students also had time in class to read their self-selected novels/books.  We read every day at school, and students were expected to read at home (Grade 8 -30 minutes; Grade 7 – 20 minutes).

 

Vocabulary

We are continuing to work on our vocabulary in both grades.  Almost all of our vocabulary this year will be based on prefixes, root words, and suffixes because learning these word parts helps us to learn the meanings of many unfamiliar words.  It reminds us, also, to look for meaningful word parts in longer, unfamiliar words.  That helps when we are reading and come to a word that we’ve never read before!

We have started using vocabulary.com again, and we had fun doing a vocabulary jam on Friday!  This site is great for becoming familiar with the meanings of the words on our lists, but students should also remember to use the definitions given during our vocabulary lesson.

 

This week’s words in Grade 8 start with ‘dia’ and ‘per.’  In grade 7, our words start with the prefix ‘hyper.’

 

grammar

Although we didn’t do much in grammar this week (none in grade 8), we did get a sneak preview into learning about FANBOYS (coordinating conjunctions) by reviewing what a RUN-ON sentence is and how to fix it.

How can you fix a run-on?  You can: 1) separate the two independent clauses into two separate sentences; 2) Use a semi-colon, but only when the two independent clauses are closely related; 3) Use a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS)!

 

 

A Busy September

A Busy September

September has been busy!  I’m sure you’d agree.  After a nice long summer of sleeping in, swimming, travelling, hanging out with friends and family, and doing all those fun summer things, we took the first week of school to get into routines.

During week one we worked on:

  • remembering our locker combinations and using lockers efficiently (7th grade)
  • selecting a good book to read (everyone)
  • remembering what to bring to class each day (book, reading notebook, writing notebook, duo-tang, pencil, agenda)
  • developing good habits and routines (getting to class on time, using the bathroom during breaks as much as possible, taking our books out so we’re ready for class, putting cell-phones away during class)
  • using our agendas properly to record homework

These daily habits and routines may not seem like a big deal, but they are!  They allow us to use our time wisely in class so that we’ll get the most out of our learning this year.  They’re time savers and organizational strategies that we can use this year and in the future to maximize our learning time and focus.

 

During week two and three we:

  • read every day in class (7th and 8th grades)
  • read lots of memoirs to learn about the genre and in preparation for our first writing assignment in 8th grade
  • we’ve also written many quick-writes in 8th grade!  A quick-write is when you do about 7-10 minutes of nonstop writing to explore a topic for a possible future piece
  • worked on sentence fluency and grammar in 8th grade by combining, reorganizing, and imitating sentence structures
  • had our first vocabulary lesson in 8th grade on the prefixes ‘PRO’ and ‘RETRO’ (don’t forget our first Vocabulary test is on Thursday!)
  • read two short stories in 7th grade: “Seventh Grade” by Gary Soto, and “Thank-you Ma’am” by Langston Hughes in order to learn about the elements of narrative fiction 
  • We’re working on identifying character traits and supporting our ideas with evidence from our self-selected novels in 7th grade. In order to help us learn about character in 7th grade we watched this video
  • We reviewed the Reading Response Journal Guide (see below) in both 7th and 8th grade (this is an ongoing review that we’ll do throughout the year). [embeddoc url=”https://rdeighton.edublogs.org/files/2017/09/Reading-Response-Journals-1etcp04-24vxbnk.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft” ]
  • Almost all students have completed and handed in their first reading response journal entry for this year. If you haven’t done so, please do!  Most 7th grade journals have gone home to parents/guardians for signature so that parents can stay informed about their child’s progress and view my comments on the response.
  • In 7th grade, we are also busy reviewing the foundational elements of a SENTENCE – Subject and Predicate!

Next week, amongst other things, we’ll start to design our blogs for this year!

Reading Strategies 3: A Close Reading Approach for Nonfiction

Reading Strategies 3: A Close Reading Approach for Nonfiction

For the past several weeks in Room 211, we’ve been focussing on nonfiction reading.  Nonfiction texts present a variety of different types of challenges to readers.

Those challenges can include:

  • Vocabulary: Unfamiliar vocabulary, especially if the text is in a content area that the reader has little prior knowledge about can make reading nonfiction a challenge.
  • Concepts: Nonfiction text can be challenging because it contains many concepts – some of which may be entirely new to the reader – packed in to fewer sentences (dense text).
  • Structures: Text structures in nonfiction can include: cause-effect, problem-solution, compare and contrast, describe and explain, etc.. Becoming familiar with these text structures can help the reader.
  • Bias: Some nonfiction text includes obvious or not-so-obvious biases that the reader needs to keep in mind while reading.
  • Graphic information: the use of charts, maps, graphs, images (photos, diagrams, etc.) can be both helpful and confusing.  Readers need to be able to navigate thoughtfully, making connections between the text and the graphics.

In this excerpt from one of our Grade 7 Science textbooks, there are several terms that might be unfamiliar to the reader, such as: bioinvasion, native, species, ecosystem, and lamprey.  There are also terms that take on a new meaning because of the context, such as: introduced, foreign, natural enemies, and dramatic.  Some terms also require background knowledge from other disciplines, such as: European settlers!

Although this textbook does an excellent job of introducing terms and concepts in a way that supports the reader in learning new concepts (introduces new terms and explains their meaning, uses bold print to help reader identify new terms, etc.), the challenge to interpret and comprehend nonfiction texts in everyday newspaper and magazine articles can be much more challenging. That’s where Close Reading Strategies are most helpful.

 

Close reading is a strategy that involves:

  • Changing the pace of reading by slowing it down, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, stopping frequently to break down the ideas, clear up confusion, absorb information
  • Reading with a pen/pencil in hand to make margin notes (annotation), usually making sure that they ‘square-in’ or ‘circle’ the sections of text they are questioning or responding to
  • Using tools to decipher unfamiliar vocabulary, including the use of dictionary definitions (have a dictionary or electronic device on hand), use of context and sentence structure
  • Asking different types of questions while reading (and noting those questions): questions that note confusion, questions that clarify content, questions that arise due to perceived bias, questions that are aimed at inconsistencies, errors, or ‘pot-holes’ (lack of information/explanation) in the text
  • Making comments (and noting those comments) by reacting to and inferring from the ideas in the text, such as agreeing, wondering, disagreeing, elaborating, drawing conclusions, making judgements, etc.
  • Rereading sections of text to ensure understanding, especially confusing, challenging, or dense text sections.

Whenever I teach a new strategy, I use a process that educators call “the gradual release of responsibility” which means that the teacher models the strategy first, then the class works together to use the strategy, then students work in small groups or pairs to use the strategy, and finally students are ready to use the strategy independently.  In both Grade 7 and 8, we started with shared texts.  I read aloud and modelled the process for students by thinking aloud and showing students how I made notations in the margins as I read.  We then worked as a class on several newspaper and magazine articles, and finally I asked students to use the strategy independently!

 

I was more than pleased to see the results of our lessons so far on close reading in both Grade 7 and 8.  Students in all classes worked independently to do a ‘close reading’ of an article on ‘being cool in middle school.’

In the examples below, you will see students questioning the validity of the article (questions about dates, publisher, and the study itself), questioning the assumptions that are made about who is cool and why, commenting by adding their personal reflections on the ideas in the text – both in agreement and disagreement, and wondering about information that the article might have omitted – purposefully or otherwise.  In other words, students are being critical thinkers and critical readers.  They are reading to understand the author’s ideas and perspective, and at the same time, they are capable of questioning the author’s ideas and perspective.

 

I am so proud of YOU!

YOU are becoming INDEPENDENT readers and THINKERS!

 

 

Both of these students questioned the date of the article, wondering if the results of the study would still be valid given the fact that it’s a 2014 article!

 

 



 

 

There is no doubt that using Close Reading strategies in this reading of text helped students to understand the details of the text in a way that would not likely happen with a quick, cursory reading of the text. The stopping, rereading, thinking, and noting all helped students to really dig deeply into the text.  In addition, students make personal connections and reactions to the text that might help them better understand and evaluate the biases or points of view expressed in the article.

Close Reading strategies will serve students well in all kinds of reading experiences they are likely to encounter in their lives today and in the future.  Whether it’s reading a challenging textbook, reading newspaper articles, magazine articles, opion-editorial pieces, legal documents, or reports at home or at work, close reading strategies are an essential tool in helping students to comprehend, accept, critique, reject, and determine the value, truthfulness, and validity of what they read.

 

READING IS THINKING!

Reading Strategies 2: Reading Narrative Texts

Reading Strategies 2: Reading Narrative Texts

HOW ARE CHESS AND FOOTBALL LIKE READING?

Before you can play chess, you have to know the value and function of each of the pieces.  The ‘King,’ of course is the most important piece.  If lost to your opponent, it’s game over – checkmate.  But, it’s the ‘Queen’ who holds the most power.  She’s the protector of her King; she’s the all-mighty traveler across the checkered board, moving diagonally, laterally, vertically, any number of spaces at a time.  The pawns, the Rook, the Knight, each has his own methods, his own power and strategies to protect the King.  The board itself must also be understood – white squares and black, diagonal lines, vertical and lateral lines, L-shapes, are all important configurations, and a good chess player sees all the past action, the potential moves, the trajectory of the game being played.

You could say the same of the football game that I still strive to understand.  In order to understand the game, you have to know what each player is supposed to do out there on the field: the quarterback, the running back, the receivers, guards, and centre.  You have to know what the goal of the game is, the rules of play.

The same applies to the good reader. That’s why, in the early part of the year, I ask students to learn about the basic elements of a story or a narrative (the fancy-dancy adult word for story). The protagonist and the antagonist (your King and his enemies), the setting, point of view, conflicts, the way the plot curves from exposition to rising action, climax, resolution and falling action, are like the pieces on the chess board, the board itself, the whole ‘game’ in a sense.  Knowing these elements can and will help students to appreciate how the story works, how each element is essential for the story to move ahead and work as a whole.

Knowing is not enough though.  Knowing the function of each piece on the chess board, what the goal of the game is, the rules, will only truly make sense when you’re playing, or watching, a chess game.  You have to immerse yourself in the game in order to truly understand it. That’s when you get to see the pieces in action, on the route to their goal.  You need to APPLY your knowledge in order to fully understand it.  And of course, the same goes for understanding football.  You have to actually watch a game, or play one, for it all to make sense.

And so it goes for reading too.

In Grade 7, we applied our knowledge of the elements of a narrative to short stories, like “Charles” by Shirley Jackson, “Thank-you Ma’am” by Langston Hughes and other short pieces of fiction.  We also applied our knowledge to our novel studies of “Touching Spirit Bear” by Ben Mikaelsen and “Freak the Mighty” by Rodman Philbrick.

In Grade 8 we applied our knowledge of the elements to short stories like “The Fan Club” by Mona Raynard and “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury and other short stories.  We also applied our knowledge of the elements during our literature circle studies of books like: “Speak” by  Laurie Halse Anderson, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, “Among the Hidden” by Margaret Peterson Haddix, and many other great novels (see this post for the details).

 

WHERE ARE THE STRATEGIES?

You’ve got the book or the short story, and you’ve got the knowledge of the elements, but how do you approach putting the two together?  That’s where the strategies come in.  Students in both 7th and 8th grade have been shown how to use the elements in conjunction with:

Sticky Note Strategies for Narrative Texts:

The chart below shows how students can APPLY their knowledge of the elements of a narrative text in conjunction with the reading strategies outlined in the Ontario Language Arts Curriculum, such as: use prior knowledge, visualize, make inferences by using stated and implied ideas, make connections to extend understanding, ask questions, reread to clarify understanding, notice language elements, react, judge, analyze, and synthesize.

In order to write a good sticky note the reader must answer the questions or follow the instructions  which are meant to help students think about the text being read in light of what they know about narrative text.  Just like the football or chess expert who is watching the game might cheer at a particularly brilliant play or move, speculate what might happen later on in the game based on what’s happening now, judge and even criticize the actions of the players, the reader begins to see the inner workings of the novel or story, how it might progress and why, and essentially what the author is trying to tell the reader through the use of the elements.

Open Response Notes

Three Ways of Thinking

Literal: Your thought was stated directly in the text, like a fact from the text.

Inferential: Your thought was not stated directly but there is evidence for it in the text; it is hinted at, suggested, or implied.

Critical: Your original thought, opinion, connection, or critical question related to the text.

Language Notes

  • Notice when a sentence or a phrase really stands out to you as strong, interesting, or evocative (emotional) – or reread to look for one.
  • Copy that sentence on a sticky note.  Put the quotation in quotation marks, and add the page number in parentheses at the end.
  • Explain why you chose this sentence. What is your response or connection to it?
  • What do you notice about how the author has written this sentence? What makes it strong or interesting?

Conflict Notes

When you notice a conflict in the story, make a note:

  1. Which type of conflict best matches this situation? (Human vs. self? Human vs. Society? Human vs. Nature? Human vs. Human?)
  2. What does the character want?
  3. Who or what is getting in the way?
  4. What caused this conflict?
  5. How might this conflict be resolved?

Vocabulary In-Context Notes

  1. Copy the sentence or phrase that includes the unfamiliar word onto the sticky.
  2. Box the unfamiliar word.
  3. Underline clues in the sentence (the context) or the word itself (e.g., root, prefix).
  4. Write down your prediction of the meaning of the word.
  5. Look up the word and check your prediction agains the actual definition.

Mood Notes

For mood notes:

  1. Pick a paragraph (or two) of text that has a noticeable mood (gives you a feeling).
  2. Write down 5 words or phrases that the author uses to convey this mood.
  3. At the bottom, name the mood.
  4. Optional: Write more about it.

Examples of moods in literature: uneasy, joyful, suspenseful, chaotic, peaceful, angry, cold, cheerful, dark, disappointment, hopeful, intense, jubilant, mellow, mischievous, melancholy, refreshed.

Theme Notes

Theme=issue+what the author is saying about the issue

After you finish reading a section of text:

  1. Make a list on your sticky note of all the issues or topics you think the author is bringing up in this section.  Some examples of issues involve abstract ideas like: hope, neighbourhood, friendship, identity, oppression, and love.
  2. After you make the list, circle the one you think is most important to this section and jot a few words about why you think this is a theme for the section and what the author is saying about this issue.

Say What? Notes

  1. Find a section that confused or surprised you.  Write down your initial thought. (Code: SW?)
  2. Use one of your chosen strategies (reread, ask and answer questions, think aloud) to reconsider the passage. Write the strategy you used if possible.
  3. Write down any new thoughts and questions about this section of text.

Character Notes

  1. Notice when you find clues in the text about a character’s traits and write down the clue.  Say what you inferred about the character from that clue.
  1. Notice when you find clues about a character’s motives (what he/she wants) and write down the section of text that provided the clue. What did it reveal to you about the character? Explain.

Character Notes Cont’d

3. Notice when a character shows a flaw in his/her character. Write down the part of the text that provided the clue. How will that flaw stop him/her from achieving his goals?  What would have to happen to change this character?

4. Notice when a character changes, and guess what has caused the change.  Write down the clues from your text and your inference.

 

Reading Response Journal Strategies

Like the sticky note strategies, the questions and suggestions below are designed to help students think through their reading, to record their thoughts, and go deeper into the underlying meanings of the story.  Students use the same reading strategies as above for their sticky notes, but in a journal they have room to dig even deeper into one of the elements (or more than one) using several strategies at once.  Students might choose to discuss character, for example, asking questions that lead to inferences, reacting to a character’s actions or words, making judgements and predictions based on their inferences and so on.

 

 

Reading Response Journals

Format:
Every new entry in your response journal should be clearly defined by:

The date: Right hand side
The title of your book: Centered at the top of your page
The page numbers that you are responding to: Left hand side
Quotes taken from the text: In quotation marks, write the FULL quote from the book with the page number in parentheses right beside the quote
Length: Each entry should be at least 3/4 to 1 page in length.

Below, you will find ideas for what to write about in your response journal.

Characters:

-Describe the character of your protagonist (main character) or one of the other prominent characters in your novel. Support your ideas with evidence from the text and an explanation of how the evidence shows the character traits you’ve identified. (Ask yourself, what is this character’s strengths? Weaknesses? What should this character learn about himself, the other people in his/her life, or life in general?)
-Do you like this character? Why or why not? What advice would you give this character? –Why does this character need to hear this advice?
-Can you relate to this character? How and why? Does this character make you angry, sad, happy, annoyed, or does this character inspire some other emotion in you? Does this character remind you of another literary character or someone you know?
-Which character learned the hardest lesson in your novel? Which character changed the most from the beginning of the novel? Was this change necessary in order to solve the main problem?
-Talk about the author’s craft by telling how he/she made the characters believable, likable, unlikable,

Setting:
-Is the setting of your book important to the story? Why? Why not?
-How did the author introduce you to the setting? Can you picture it in your mind? What words or phrases were the most powerful in describing the setting?
-Does the setting of your novel remind you of a place that you know? How are the two places similar? If the setting does not remind you of any place you know, would you want to live in this setting? Why or why not?
-What freedoms or limitations does this setting impose on the characters? Does it limit their thought or movement or their ability to be themselves? Does it provide them with freedom to think, move, and be themselves? Explain.

Plot:
-Which events in the novel were the most important events, the ones that inspired the characters to change their behaviour or that changed the characters’ traits in some way?
-Did the plot of this novel remind you of other novels you’ve read? How were they similar and different?
-Did your novel end with a satisfying conclusion? If so, how was the end satisfying? If not, what were you hoping to find out?
-Was the novel paced well? If so, how did the author manage to keep your interest? If not, would you say that there were events that were not necessary? Were there boring parts? —Describe these events and explain why they were not needed. Which parts were boring to you?

Plot and Conflict:
-What was the main conflict in this novel? Identify the type of conflict (human vs. human, human vs. self, human vs. society, human vs. nature, or human vs. technology) and describe the conflict. Explain what you think might have to happen in order to resolve the conflict.
-If you’ve finished the book, which event do you think was the turning point or the climax? This is the event that resolved the conflict and was likely the most intense moment of the story (usually near the end of the book)? How did it resolve the conflict?

Point of View:
-Which point of view or perspective did the author choose to tell this story (first person, second person, third person limited, third person omniscient, third person objective)?

-Why do you think the author chose this point of view? How did it affect the story? How did it affect you as a reader? Explain.

Theme:
-What was the main theme of this novel? What issues does the story address and what is the author saying about those issues (e.g., issue=bullying, love, freedom, growing up, etc.

-An author might be saying that “you have to stand up to bullying if you want it to stop” or that “bullies are people who have been bullied themselves.” Those would be themes.)
-How did the author reveal the theme? Explain how the author might have used the characters, events, point of view, conflicts, etc. to show the theme. Was it a powerful theme? Do you agree with the author’s message?

Writing:
-Talk about the writing itself. Find a passage (a section of the text) that is powerful to you in some way and explain what the author did with language to make it powerful. Did it make you visualize or laugh or shock you, horrify you or make you want to cry? Was it beautiful? Explain.
-How did the author develop the characters? Was it through their voices? Was it through their actions? How did the author make you care about the characters?
-How did the author create suspense? Note and quote a suspenseful part of the novel and explain how the author created that suspense.
-What is your favourite line or sentence in the novel? Explain why you liked it.
-Did the author use literary devices in the novel? Note the use of foreshadowing, hyperbole, metaphor, symbol, simile, etc. and explain how it affected you as a reader.

Get Personal:
-Talk about any personal reactions you had during your reading of this novel. What made you angry, sad, happy, afraid, confused, etc.? What made your heart wrench? What irritated you?
-Did you laugh or cry at any specific point in this book? Which events or ideas, which dialogue or inner thoughts from the characters made you laugh or cry? Explain why.
-Did this book shock you? Will it change you forever? Explain why.
What did you LOVE or HATE about this book? Explain.

Reflect:
-Reflect on your experience of reading this book. Is it a familiar genre for you or a new genre for you? Would you read another book in this genre? Did you read it quickly or slowly? Did you find yourself having to reread parts that were confusing or beautiful or shocking?
-Will you try to find other books by this author? Why? or Why not?
-Were there aspects of this book that were challenging for you? Was the vocabulary difficult? Was the point of view challenging? Was the format challenging? Was the length challenging? Explain the challenges this book presented and how you managed to work through those challenges.

 

 

Reading Strategies 1: Starting Points – Recall

Reading Strategies 1: Starting Points – Recall

Over the years, I’ve encountered many students who read beautifully when asked to read out loud.  They rarely stumble over a word.  They read with good pacing and expression.  They are simply a delight to listen to, and they’re proud of their ability to read orally with grace and confidence.  Some of these students, however, cannot recall what they’ve read almost as soon as they’ve finished reading.

 

ORAL READER OR SILENT READER? DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU

The first question I have for these students is whether they tend to recall the story or information better when they read silently or aloud.  Each person is different, and it’s OK, perfectly wonderful in fact, to figure out which is best for YOU.  If you tend to recall text information better when you read silently in your head, please please please – do that!  If you, on the other hand, remember the ideas you’ve read about better when you’ve read out loud, please, please, please DO THAT!  While it may not be possible to read out loud at all times, when you can read in a whisper (in class, for example) or read loudly (at home, for example).  Do what works best for you.

 

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE RECALL

There are still some students who have poor recall of what they’ve read no matter how they read – silently or out loud.  Here are some strategies that might help you!

  1. Stop after every few paragraphs.  Ask yourself: What was that part all about?  What happened?
  2. Write some key ideas on a sticky note or in your journal.  If you’re reading nonfiction: What information was described? What was explained? If you’re reading fiction: What action occurred? What was the character thinking? doing? saying?  Was the setting described? What did the setting ‘look like’ in your mind?
  3. After each page, write ONE SENTENCE that sums up the page.  What was the most important thing?  If you had to write a title for that page – as if it was a book or movie or video game on its own, what would you call it?
  4. After each chapter, write the most important events or ideas in that chapter.

 

WHY IT WORKS

Stopping to write, or rather KNOWING you’re going to stop to write can help a reader stay focussed on the information and ideas in the text.  When you know that in a few minutes you’re going to have to put something to paper, you’re more likely to stay focussed, to concentrate and to think about what you’re reading AS you are reading it.

I can hear some of you thinking, “OH NO!  Now, not only do I have to READ, but I have to WRITE while I read.  Double yuck!”  And it’ true.  This is not a strategy anyone wants to use forever, but the thing is, you won’t have to!  It’s something that you will use a lot at first, until focus and recall are not as big a problem for you.

 

ALL READERS NEED TO STOP, THINK, RECORD

I still use this sticky note strategy of writing what I ‘recall’ when reading more difficult text, and YES, text can be difficult for even the most accomplished readers.  Dense text that is full of challenging vocabulary (I like to use the analogy of the physics textbooks that gave me big, fat goosebumps in high school because I was so afraid of the content, so unsure of myself as a scientist), text that stuffs new facts and information into a few sentences like sardines in a can, text that tends to jump from one setting or time to another, one narrator to another, and text that may just be WEIRD because of the author’s voice or style.

 

PARAPHRASE MEANS: IN YOUR OWN WORDS

It’s important to remember that all sticky notes or notes in your journal should be in YOUR OWN WORDS! Try not to just copy off the page. Copying can be done rather mindlessly, without much attention paid to what’s being copied (I’ll bet that you could copy words in German, or Italian, or Portuguese without ever really knowing what they mean!). The whole point of this strategy is to add mindfulness to your reading, so putting ideas in your own words, or paraphrasing when you do sticky notes means that you MUST pay attention to what’s going on, you MUST understand, at least to some degree, the ideas in the text. Writing in your own words means you’ve processed the information, and now it belongs to YOU!

In order to illustrate the strategy for you, I’ll use a text we used in Grade 8 nonfiction recently called “Texting While Driving” from Car and Driver by Michael Austin, June 2009.

Here’s the text we were reading.  We numbered the paragraphs to remind us to stop and think after each one.  In this exercise, we wanted to record the ideas that were most important to us from each paragraph, and our purpose for reading was to understand why texting and driving is not a good idea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here are some of our notes.  We paraphrased, selecting only the most important information for our purposes.

 

No one wants to use a strategy like this one for everything they read, every time they sit down to read something.  However, if you have trouble remembering what you’ve read, please try the sticky note strategies in this post.  I promise that you will eventually be able to drop the strategy for most of your reading.  It may take some time, but it’ll happen.

Why Read Strategically?

Why Read Strategically?

“Reading” – the word conjures up different images, emotions, and thoughts in us, depending on our prior experiences. For some students the word symbolizes relaxation, a time to delve into the world of stories or a time to learn about things that interest them. The thought of reading gives them the ‘warm fuzzies’ and maybe they associate it with a comfy couch, snuggling under the covers with a good book, lying on the grass in the sunshine while taking magical adventures through the power of story.

 

For other students the word “reading” conjures up a very different picture. For these students, “reading” inspires a pit in the stomach, the thought of endless minutes of boredom, a struggle to ‘say the words on the page’ in their heads, or a long wait for the whole ordeal to be over (“Mo-om!  Is my 20-30 minutes up yet?”). Maybe they envision themselves on an uncomfortable chair in the classroom, the clock ticking their lives away, all that time spent NOT doing more enjoyable things, like soccer or skating, like playing video games, participating in sports, creating art, hanging out with friends.

 

THINGS THAT GET IN THE WAY OF READING ENJOYMENT

Of course, there are many students who don’t fit either of these extreme categories. They like to read sometimes, if it’s a good book, but don’t always LOVE to read. When a student lets me know one way or the other that he/she has little interest in reading, a few things immediately come to my mind:

a) This student has not found his/her type of book, genre, authors . . . yet (Yes, I’m that kind of determined teacher, not just because I want students to love reading as I do, but because I know how important it is in our world today to be a good reader.)
b) This student is struggling to actually read the words on the page
c) This student may be just reading the words on the page, but not really
reading IDEAS

 

WHAT I DO TO TRY TO BREAK THE BARRIERS:  ‘A’ AND ‘B’

In our classroom, Room 211, the classroom library is always ‘under construction.’ I try my best to continually purchase books that will appeal to a wide variety of interests and the wide range of reading skills that a Grade 7 and 8 classroom can comprise. The library shelves include nonfiction books on a range of topics (war, science, history, culture, fashion, beauty, geography, etc.), historical fiction, mystery, fantasy, realistic/contemporary fiction, sports books, books in a series, adventure and action books, romance, and science fiction.

If a student has not yet found his/her favourite types of books or books that he/she can read without a huge struggle (barriers a and b), it could be due to a variety of reasons.  I do my best to:

  • Assess the general reading level of the student through formal testing or in student-teacher reading conferences, so that I can offer up books that he/she can access independently
  • Find books that the student will enjoy

 

FINDING THE RIGHT BOOKS IS NOT ALWAYS EASY

One thing I’ve learned over the course of almost 20 years in the classroom is that students who haven’t really read much on their own before, automatically assume that they will enjoy books that relate to their interests in other areas.  For example, many a young man has entered my classroom thinking that the only books for him are sports books.  The hockey players, the football stars, the soccer enthusiasts are drawn to the novels about hockey players, football stars, and soccer enthusiasts.  And yet, while these books may be interesting to them on some level, they are not necessarily the best fit for these readers.  Often, these young readers will find that while they LOVE to DO sports, they’d rather read something . . . funny, or mysterious, or something full of action and adventure.  Finding an interesting genre of book, an author’s ‘voice’ that is both intriguing and comfortable, a book that the student can read without looking up every word in the dictionary is my main goal for students whose lack of passion for reading are caused by barriers A and B.

 

BARRIER C

But what about the students who can read all the words with no difficulty?  Some students read aloud beautifully, have excellent decoding skills, can march through the thickest of reading jungles, reading all of the most challenging words by using their knowledge of phonics (sound and letter relationships), word parts (suffixes, prefixes, roots), semantics (word meanings), syntactics (word placement in a sentence).  These students may still not enjoy reading because they’re skimming the surface.

 

WHAT? A FOOTBALL ANALOGY?

They read books like I watch football.  I see people running across the field, throwing the ball, catching, blocking, tackling, and piling on top of one another, and yet none of it makes much sense to me, so I lose interest pretty quickly.  I see it all, but I don’t get much out of it.  I need to know more about the game.  I need someone to sit with me and explain why certain plays are happening, what each one means, and how they all fit together.

Strategic reading – like understanding the rules, goals, and nuances of football – can help readers delve deeper into the meaning behind the words, the symbols, the underlying meaning of the book.  And guess what?  THAT is where the joy in reading lies!  It’s in the deeper meanings of a text, in what the author is trying to say about people, or about life, or about an issue or topic that matters to them.

Learning how to read strategically opens the doors to understanding text at a deeper level which can help students to find the experience of reading more joyful, more meaningful.  No one wants to spend hours or even minutes doing things that have no meaning to them, so strategic reading is critical to helping students figure out what they love to read and why!

That’s why I’ve been teaching students in my classes to read strategically.  In the next few posts on this blog, I’ll explain the various strategies we’ve been working on in class, the reasons for using them, and the kinds of text they work best with, and how they’ve helped students to make reading a more meaningful experience.

 

It’s OCTOBER Already!

It’s OCTOBER Already!

The first month of school has flown by!  It’s hard to believe that we’re already in October, but when I recap below what we’ve been up to lately, I’m sure you’ll agree that we’ve been pretty busy this September.

Firstly, we’re all here!  Everyone has a blog, and I can’t wait to read all the great things that you’ll write this year.  Students are always welcome to read and comment on one another’s blogs.  Please check out the Blogging and Commenting Guidelines to make sure that your comments follow the guidelines.  In a nutshell, the guidelines suggest that you:

  • be kind
  • remember to use punctuation and real writing (no text talk please)
  • be positive when commenting on the writing your peers are doing because writing is hard and we all need encouragement more than criticism
  • respect your own and others privacy by not using first and last names and not leaving tracks (no personal information about where you’ll be and when you’ll be there)

Parents are also always welcome to comment on our blogs!  We’d love to have your voices here to encourage us to keep reading and writing, thinking and creating!

Secondly, I want to congratulate EVERYONE for doing so well in getting into the reading habit.  So many of you have already finished your first book for this school year, and you’re well into the second one!  Congratulations!  At this rate, you’re sure to read at least 10 books this year, and that is definitely something to celebrate.

 

7th Grade News!

In 7th grade, we’ve been working on a ‘close reading’ of the poem “Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon.  Close reading involves:

  • reading the piece through once to just get a ‘sense’ of it
  • rereading, part by part, at a slower rate to take the time to really think about what the author is saying
  • use a pencil (in this case a piece of chalk) to jot down ideas as you reread
  • making inferences, asking questions, making connections and judgements about what we’ve read and annotating the text (taking notes on it)
  • putting it all together to get a good idea of the main message that the author is trying to convey

where-im-from-close-reading

Today, we finished our close reading and we started working on writing our own “Where I’m From” poems.  Our writing process so far looked a little like this:

  1. We made lists of the various categories of memories that the author included, such as parents, siblings, pastimes, things people tell us, hobbies, foods that we share with the people we love, etc. etc.
  2. We added a few categories of our own, like ‘sports’ and ‘friends’.
  3. Then we started writing by taking one idea and really trying to use descriptive language, sights, smells, sounds, and feelings to describe the idea.
  4. For example, when we looked at the category of ‘chores,’ instead of saying, “I’m from doing the dishes,” we said things like, “I’m from the clean smell of sudsy Dawn, the hot water, and seeing my reflection in each plate”

Yup!  We’re getting creative, and I can’t wait to read all of the poems when they’re done!  I hope everyone posts them on their blogs so that we can enjoy them, learn more about each other, and learn more about writing from one another!

 

8th Grade News!

In 8th grade, we’re reading Memoir in preparation for writing our own memoirs.  What is memoir?  Memoir is nonfiction narrative, true stories about moments in our lives that we will never forget because they taught us something about life, about ourselves, about the world.

Here we are reading lots of student memoirs and memoirs by accomplished authors.

kaelynadrianna-haley-and-reisezach-and-cody
katie-and-logan

curtis-and-anthony-reading-memoir

 

 

 

 

 

 

By mid-week, we hope to all have decided on a topic for our memoirs.  We’ve done a few ‘quick-writes’ to help us decide which memories mean the most to us and have the greatest potential for being rich and interesting memoirs.  Once we have our topics, we’ll get busy drafting our memoirs.

Well, it’s no wonder September has flown by!  We’ve been working hard.  I’m proud of all of you, and look forward to a jam-packed October.

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