DISCOVERING NEW ADVENTURES THROUGH
Welcome to week 8! It's a short week to celebrate such an achievement, or possibly UF homecoming. This week's theme is concept mapping, a great way to organize and process information. We will be practicing this strategy with fiction (Watsons Go to Birmingham) and non-fiction science articles this week. Because it is such a short week, we will have our weekly vocabulary test on Thursday. We had a quiz on point of view after a discussion and video today. The results show that this is a topic many students need to work on, so be prepared to see more of this in the future. What to expect this weekMonday - Vocabulary intro, Concept Mapping BrainPOP video
Tuesday - Vocabulary illustrations, Watsons chapter 8 with concept map Wednesday - Vocabulary foldable, concept map about science article Thursday - Vocabulary Quiz, Watsons chapter 9 Friday - NO SCHOOL Thank you for your patience as this has been an unusual week that has not completely gone as planned. There was a substitute teacher in class on Wednesday and students needed to complete reading an article, and identifying the topic and main idea with 2 supporting details.
Yesterday, we had three assignments. The first was vocabulary illustrations that we used as our bingo-style review before the quiz today. Second, students who had not finished reading chapter six needed to finish reading first, then all students needed to complete a concept map of Chapters 1-6 including characters, setting, plot, themes and conflicts that have appeared so far. The final assignment was a "character journal" in which students needed to retell one of the events from the book The Watsons Go to Birmingham from a different character's point of view. This was a creative writing assignment and students were not required to have the book to complete this assignment. It was due today, but will be accepted on Monday for a one point late penalty. Today we had our weekly vocabulary quiz. After the quiz, we read Chapter 7 in The Watsons Go to Birmingham. We continued working on the concept map and worked on gathering quotes that are important to the story. This paper is not due for a grade yet, but is important because it is part of a larger project that we will be working on in class. There was nothing new assigned for homework today. Have a great weekend! Mrs. McCartney Today was Library Day! We went as a class to the library and had an interactive technology lesson about travel in the 1960's. Following a presentation, we got to experience several different possibilities for how the Watsons could have gone to Birmingham through a "choose your own adventure" style presentation. We then discussed challenges that the Watsons would have faced, how Green Books helped with this problem, and how travel has changed over time. There was a short written response due at the end of the activity. This was a lot of fun and will be in place of the Green Book Challenge project that was formerly announced.
Students who have recently exhibited behavior that takes away from the learning of others were given an alternative assignment. They were given an article about the history of Green Books and were asked to write an essay about potential challenges the Watsons would have faced in travelling from Michigan to Alabama and how Green Books could have solved these problems. The essay is required to have an introduction, body, and conclusion with at least two quotes from the article to support their reasoning and is due tomorrow. This week we will be continuing our work on topic and main idea, adding reading strategies such as previewing, skimming, visualization, jotting down notes and other ideas to get the most out of what we are reading. Today we began with a bell work activity: determining meaning from vocabulary used in context. Next we watched a BrainPOP video about reading strategies twice and took notes. https://www.brainpop.com/english/studyandreadingskills/readingskills/ We had a discussion about organization and the exit ticket for class was to write down the topic, main idea and one supporting detail from the video. At the end of class, the vocabulary answers were projected on the board so students could check their answers. These are also listed in the Assignments page of this website. What to expect this weekMonday - Vocabulary intro, Reading Strategies Tuesday - Library Day! Wednesday - Non-fiction article analysis, finish Watsons chapter 6 Thursday - Text prediction, create computer-based timeline, read Watsons chapter 7 Friday - Vocabulary Quiz, design a newspaper edition from Watsons chapters 1-6 Technology MentorsHere's a shout out to any adult volunteers who would be willing to come assist students with technology this week. Tuesday through Friday students will be using technology for the majority of the period to complete various tasks. They would greatly benefit from a mentor to guide them through problems that occur when using technology or doing research. Please contact me via email if you are able to join us at any point this week.
Thank you, Mrs. McCartney Happy Friday! We have made it 6 weeks into middle school!
Today we had a vocabulary quiz today and finished out the week by reading The Watsons Go To Birmingham. No homework this weekend in my class. Have a great weekend and come back Monday ready to learn. Today was an independent work day. Students were allowed time in class to finish the following: using each vocabulary word in a sentence, reading response for Watsons Go To Birmingham or Malala's Story, and a vocabulary enrichment activity in preparation for the vocabulary quiz tomorrow.
I was so glad to see everyone at Open House tonight! Thank you for coming out! We began class today with a bell work writing prompt: why is education important? This was the first half of a "before and after" mini-essay and students were asked to writer their answer in paragraph form.
After a brief discussion, we read a short article about Malala Yousafzai, a girl from Palestine who was shot in the head for pursuing an education. <https://www.malala.org/malalas-story> We analyzed the article in regard to topic and main idea, using supporting details to defend the main idea. This was an individual activity completed in small groups. If this was not completed in class, it needs to be done for homework. We then completed the second half of the mini-essay, starting with the phrase "After reading about Malala's story, I think education is important because..." This activity was due during class. If not completed, it may be done outside of class and turned in for a late grade. Finally, we started chapter 5 of The Watsons Go To Birmingham. We did not finish the chapter in all classes, but what we did get to read is sufficient for completing the reading response assignment tomorrow. We started today with a vocabulary illustration activity. Students were asked to fill in the boxes with the 10 vocabulary words from this week and draw pictures to represent them. If this was not completed in class, it needs to be done for homework.
Next, after a brief review of the notes from yesterday, we had a pop quiz about the topic and main idea of a short passage. Finally, we finished class reading The Watsons Go to Birmingham chapter 4. As we read, students are expected to practice taking notes. There will be a participation grade for this in class activity and the notes will be returned tomorrow. Welcome to week 6 of the 6th grade! This week we will be talking about the central idea of a text using evidence from the text to support our answer. Today we started the day with vocabulary in context. In this exercise, students are presented with the new vocabulary with an example of it being used in context and are asked to write the meaning or a synonym of the word based on the context. This week's vocabulary is taken from The Watsons Go To Birmingham chapters 3 and 4. Next, we watched a BrainPOP video about main idea in literature, took notes and talked about the difference between topic and main idea. Finally we ended class by analyzing a few passages in small groups to determine the topic, main idea, and 2 details that support the main idea. Please note that although I do not assign homework in my class, if classwork is not completed in the time allotted, it needs to be done for homework and turned in the next school day. Students should look over and review their notes on Main Idea tonight to prepare for a quiz tomorrow asking them to determine the topic and main idea of a short passage with two supporting details. What to expect this weekMonday - vocabulary intro, literary devices: main idea
Tuesday - vocabulary illustration activity, review main idea, pop quiz, Watsons Go To Birmingham (begin chapter 4) Wednesday - bell work writing prompt: why is education important?, non-fiction article analysis: Malala Yousafzai, Watsons Go To Birmingham (continue/finish chapter 4) Picture Day Thursday - Vocabulary sentences in context, Reading Response, vocabulary enrichment activity Progress Reports Go Home Today Open house at tonight at 6 p.m. Friday - Bingo at the Bell (using vocabulary illustrations), Vocabulary Quiz, Watsons Go To Birmingham (chapter 5) Happy Friday! (Even if it is the 13th) Today we had a vocab quiz and read The Watsons Go to Birmingham. I passed back a lot of work that students completed. There is no homework over the weekend unless students are missing work.
Have a great weekend! Mrs. McCartney |
Mrs. McCartneyIt is my goal to help every student reach their potential. Sixth grade can be hard, but it is the first step of responsibility and independence in a journey that lasts a lifetime. Archives
April 2020
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