Week of April 23rd, 2012  In workshop Three we have completed the reading, the story elements, the vocabulary study and this next week we will work on the writing component. We will identify the topic  sentence, supporting details and conclulsion in a lilterature response.  We will identify the form, audience, and purpose for writing. We will brainstorm ideas for writing using a graphic organizer. The students will generate appropriate word choices to respond to a writing prompt.  They will plan a literature response using a graphic organizer. They will write a first draft and use a rubric to assess and then revise their writing. 

Week of April 16th- - spring vacation, no school

Week of April 9th-This week we will analyze the theme of two short stories.  We will identify different themes by examining a character's thoughts and actions.  The students will understand that the theme of a story is a lesson about life that an author wants the reader to understand.  Different readers may recognize different themes in the same story.

Week of April 2nd, 2012- This week we will analyze the plot of a myth, and relate the story elements to the plot.  The students will complete a story pyramid for the story "A Touch of Gold".  We will analyze the plot of the story "The Strange Orchid".  We will identify the problem, attempts to solve the problem, the turning pont, events that lead to the solution and the resolution.  The students will complete a story web.  There is no school on Friday. 

Week of March 19th, 2012-  This week we will continue to build reading skills and strategies.We will analyze the main character of a short story (tiki's Choice") and describe how the character changes.  We will complete a character web to apply what we know about the changes. As an extension we will discuss what lesson the character has learned at the end of the story.  The second short story "Fool's Gold", we will identify details that reveal character traits., Through a graphic organizer and discussion, we will evaluate a character's words and actions. The next skill we will explore is analyzing setting.  The students will identify the setting of the story "The Last Day of Pompeii", and relate the setting to the characters and the plot.  The students will identify details that describe the setting in a graphic organizer, and analyze the effects of the setting of the story. They will also discuss the importance of the setting in the excerpt from "The Donner Party"  

Week of March 12, 2012

This is the final CMT review week.  We will be working on identifying the author's purpose, interpreting figurative language and summarizing. Our reading selections will be articles, stories and fables.

 Week of March 5th, 2012  We are reviewing for CMT's.  We will be distinguishing between fact and opinions.   Our reading selections will come from movie reviews, letters to the editor and articles.

 Week of Feb. 27th- We are continuing to work on CMT skills.  We will be finding word meanings in context, drawing conclusions and making inferences. Our reading selections will come from book reviews and articles.

 Week of Feb. 2oth- Have a wonderful vacation!

Week of February 13th- Reminder, Feb. 15th is an early release day.

 We will continue our CMT review.  The skills we will practice are recognizing cause and effect, comparing and contrasting and making predictions.  The reading selections will come from informational articles, personal narratives, and news articles.

 Week of February 6th,  2011-We will concentrate for the next 2-3 weeks on the skills needed for the CMT exams in March.  This week, we are reviewing and completing reading strategies  in Milestones in Reading. The passages encompass different writing formats including story, folktale, science articles and fairy tales.  This week the concentration will be finding the main idea, recalling facts and details and understanding sequence.  

 Week of January 30th, 2012 Conclusion of Reading One: The student's will identify the story theme to determine the author's message.  The student's will review the elements of a short story vs. a novel. 

Reading 2- The students will: Preview text features to activate prior knowledge, make predictions and set a purpose for reading.

- draw upon and discuss visual and mental images from a poem.

Literary elements: the students will

-identify rhyme and repetiton of a pem

-use text marking to identify examples of rhyme and repetition.

Week of January 23rd

Reading comprehension: We will review story elements, and strategies for reading for detail.  We will respond to the reading through discussion and writing.

Story Elements- The students will:

-analyze setting including setting changes and ithe effect on the character and plot

analyze plot, ientifying the plot problem

use text marking to identify details about setting and character

Critical thinking- We will state a point of viw and support it.

Week of January 16th- No school on the 16th in honor of Dr. King

We will begin Workshop 3- Identity Crisis

The students will activate prior knowledge about identity

vocabulary for the first reading

deceive

identity

impostor

recognize

unique

The students will identify the elements of a short story including setting, character, plot and theme

The students will practice sorting story elements into a graphic organizer

Week of January 9th, 2012- reminder January 11th is an early dismissal.

The students will take the rSkills test 1 to assess progress on the skills for Workshops 1 and 2.  Concentration will be in the areas of comprehension, vocabulary/word study and Grammar, usage and Mechanics. The students will also take the district math mid term, and begin Mesopotamia final projects.

Week of January 3rd, 2012- HAPPY NEW YEAR!

FUNCTIONAL LITERACY- Making real-world connections

comprehension: The students will:

read to find out about  careers

identify aspects of a specific job including qualifications prerequisites, and salary

Critical thinking

analyaze and rate abilites to do a job

Workshop wrap up

review skills

comprehension

vocaulary

short answer

Test taking strategies and skills review

practice test-taking strategies answering fill in the blanks.

demonstrate understanding of text selections, vocabulary and skills

practice answering multiple chioce questions

practice on demand writing by responding to an open ended short answer prompt

Week of December 19th- Reminder early release on Friday...

students will:

-identify the topic sentence, details, and summary of a narrative paragraph.

-identify the form, audience and purpose fro writing

-brainstorm ideas and appropriate word choces for writing

-use a graphic oranizer to plan and write a first draft of a narative paragraph.

-use a rubric to assess and revise writing

Grammar and Mechanics

-identify and orrect sentence fragments

-identify and correct capitals

-edit draft to correct specific spelling, grammar ans usae errors.

-proofread a writing sample.

Week of December 12th-reminder early release on Wednesday.....

-Students will view and extend vocabulary within the readings

they will apply meaning of target vocabulary

Word Study

-apply knowledge of prefixes to determine the meanings of words

-identify and add appropriate suffixes to change verbs into nouns. 

Week of December 5th-

-Students will apply sequnce of events to Hurricanes: The monster storms

Reading Comprehension: The students will :

-preview text features to activate prior knowledge, set purpose and generate aquestions.

-Apply strategies to find sequence of events in a science text

-use text marking to identify sequence of events

-review strategies for finding main idea and details in a text

-read and interpret a diagram

respond to reading through writing

Vocabulary: abandon, evacuate

Week of November 28th-

Students will review sequence words- at first, soon, then, finally

vocabulary words: focus, degree and increase

The students will practice finding the sequence of events in a magazine article

critical thinking skills: State a point of view and support it.

Week of November 21st- Reminder, there is a half day on Wednesday and no school Thursday or Friday....

Reading 1- students will   -   identiy the steps used to find a sequence of events. 

                              -   identify the steps used to sequence events in a newspaper article.

                                      -   organize the sequence of events in a graphic organizer.

Week of November 14th, 2011

The students will

-begin workshop 2, When Disaster Strikes

- preview text features to make predictions about the reading

-respond to questions, stating and supporting opinions with reasons and explanations

vocabulary- destruction, major, prevent, recovery, and severe 

Week of November 7th, 2011

workshop 1 wrap up

the students will:

practice test taking strategies, making an educated guess

-demonstrate understanding of text selections, vocabulary and skills

-practice on-demand writing by responding to a short answer prompt.

Week of October 31st

The students will begin work on an expository paragraph.  They will identify a topic sentence, details and conclusion.  They will use graphic organizers to plan and write the first draft.  The students will also identify the audience they are writing for.

-The students will identify subject and predicates and edit sentence fragments.

Week of October 24th:

This week we will work with the new vocabulary words from the first three readings,in a vocabulary challenge  and add synonyms and antonyms.  An expository writing piece will be introduced.  We will model and brainstorm.

week of October 17th

This week we are working on skills in the R book in Read 180. The first reading will be teaching new information, the second reading will be practicing skills and the third reading will be applying these skills.  Academic word families: communicate, communication, immigrate, immigrant, percent, percentage, culture, cultural, graduate, graduation, current, currently.

new skills: obtaining information from a circle graph and drawing conclusions from the reading.

 week of October 10th: reminder no school on Monday and Tuesday.

Read 180 students continue to work in workshop 1, reading 2.  Objective: Use a graphic organizer to show main idea and details.  The students will write a brief reaction piece comparing the character from the first reading to the young lady in reading 2.

key vocabulary word is motivate.

homework: reading 3, Surprise Visitor, read the article and answer the questions.

Differentiated support:Aactivate prior knowledge/think aloud.nct

continue reading 3:  target word is Percent.  The students will locate the main idea and important details in this portion.  They will also answer questions using  a circle graph.

week of October 3rd

Read 180  students continue to work in workshop 1.  We are reading lesson 2.  Objective:PRACTICE FINDING THE MAIN IDEA AND SUPPORTING DETAILS IN A PROFILE.

key vocabulary words: income and isolated.

Differentiated support- closed syllables, comparatives and superlatives.

 Homework:  read the passage and answer the questions.  Lesson 1- Food for Thought- due Thursday.

 Lesson 2- The Ant and the Grasshopper due Monday Oct. 10th

Week of September 26th

The students have been tested and grouped by Lexile levels.They have picked books for the portion of time they read silently.  Our small groups are looking at the target vocabulary in the first Workshop called The New Americans.  We watched an anchor video to kickoff the workshop, and started working in the R skills books that are part of this program.  The targeted word this week is  currently.  Our objective this week is to identify steps to find the  topic, main idea and details in a piece of non-fiction writing, and a newspaper article.  We will then organize this information into a main idea web. Differentiated support with comparatives and superlatives ex. old, older, oldest   busy, busier  good, better, best

Week of September 19th

Read 180/System 44

We will launch the first Workshop- The New Americans.  This entails:

-exploring the topic

-building high-utility academic vocabulary (that they will see in the content area)

-viewing the short anchor video that is motivating and background building for the unit.

VOCABULARY: COMMUNICATE, IMMIGRANT, INFLUENCE, POLICY, TREND

 Welcome back!!!!

 If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail........Abraham Maslow

 Summer 2011

Welcome to Cloonan!!! I  look forward to working with your children.  I know you are more anxious than they are, and I promise you, by the middle of September, this will all feel easy.  I am the inclusion teacher for the Gold House.  By actually going to class with the students, I am better able to help them complete and be successful in their assignments.  I will also see many of the kids in my academic enrichment /Read 180 class where we work on specific IEP skills, as well as practice the tools that will help them become scholars.  Read 180 is an interactive program  where the kids and I work on all the skills they will need to become lifelong readers. 

I look forward to meeting you  in September.

 to all my 7th and 8th graders- yes my room is now 320 upstairs, but I am still a gold house teacher and YES you can come upstairs to visit! See you all soon xxxxx