Reminder: 702 Small Moment Personal Narratives are due Thursday.
This is the order in which you should submit your papers:
Top: Cover page
Next: Final draft (handwritten, no mistakes you know of, no cross-outs)
Next: Most recent rough draft
Next: Least recent rough draft
Bottom: Rubric (copied neatly from the writing workshop chart the class created today)

Papers are due Thursday at the start of class. Any papers submitted after that lose 5 points. Friday is the last day to get credit for submitting your narrative. Please make sure all the parts of the narrative are there (see above) and stapled before you turn it in.

Read over the break. Continue to log your reading and respond to the text.

Happy New Year to those who celebrate.

See you Thursday...

Revisions, Reading Logs, and other Reminders

Those of you who are rewriting your goal letters, please include your first draft along with the new (and better) copy and rubric.,and hand it in on Monday. All goal letters will be graded by Monday. If you did not get your letter back today for revision, you will get it on Monday and you will need to rewrite it (following the directions above) by Thursday.

Please take the time to read at least 25 minutes each weekend night and respond at least once per reading. Log your reading! Reading logs will be collected Friday, October 3. There should be reading log-ins each night at home (H) and every day that you read in school (including DIR).

See you Monday...

Homework: Read at least 25 minutes. Respond to reading on post-its or in sourcebook. Please keep all of your responses in your sourcebook (past post-its onto the pages). Your sourcebooks will be collected and graded in two weeks.

Those of who you didn't turn in the Goal Letter must turn it in tomorrow or suffer a zero. Late papers will suffer minus-5 points. In the future, missing rubrics will lose you 3 points.

All students must submit revised and edited drafts on Friday. THERE MUST BE PROOF OF DRAFTING, REVISING, and EDITING. These drafts will be used as your periodic assessments (or how we measure your progress at the halfway point of the term). If you do not have your drafts to turn in on Friday, you will receive a zero. Please bring your work to class with you each day. Your drafts will be returned to you so you can work on them Monday and all of next week in class and at home (use the time over the two-day break to write). The due date will be on or around Friday, October 3. We will plan our publishing party soon afterward.

See you tomorrow.

Thanks to the Parents...

Meet the Teachers Night A Success!
Mrs. Moreno and I would like to thank the enthusiastic parents who came out to meet us (and Ms. Fong) in our ELA classroom.
I am tired, so that's all for tonight (yes, teachers get tired, too.)
Remember that goal letters are due tomorrow.
See you then.

Reminder: Please bring ALL of your work to class with you everyday. If it's in your locker, it's not in class. If it's at home, you may not be able to try the strategy we learned in class. Mrs. Moreno and I will give you feedback on your readers' sourcebooks this week. Please organize/update them according to our comments. Also, please keep all of your writing drafts in a folder.

Continue to revise your drafts tonight. 702 and 731 should have a clean Draft #2 ready for further revision/editing on Thursday. 731 will switch papers with a fellow writer tomorrow to get a new perspective.

Use the field work time on Wed. to complete your goal letters. They are due Thursday.

We look forward to seeing parents tomorrow night...

Supplies

These are some of the supplies that you will need every day for reading and writing workshops. Failure to have these supplies can cause unnecessary delays and missed work. Please make sure you bring these supplies with you EVERYday.

• post-it-notes (standard size or larger)
• a colored pen - other than blue or black (for revising and editing)
• a highlighter
• loose-leaf paper (our class supply will soon run out); we can store your packs in our room and use them to replenish the class supply
• a pocket dictionary and thesaurus (we can store them in our room; please write your full name on the front or inside covers)
• a folder for writing materials (drafts, etc.)

Other helpful items:

• hand-sanitizing gel and/or wipes
• tissues
• paper towels
• extra pens (for our class supply)

Thanks....

Reminders: Goal Letters are due Thursday. Please attach the rubric to the letter (it should be the last page). Small Moment Personal Narratives will be due Thursday, October 2 - more publishing instructions to come this week.

Library News, Pen Pals, and Other Thoughts

The 702 library staff (Michelle, Rita, and Brianna) have been working hard to get our library in order. We will be adding more books to the collection this week as we clean out the closets and categorize the titles. Each time you finish a book, please head over to the reading response center (located next to the sharing shelf) and take a reading response that makes sense for the title you just completed. Once the sheet is filled out, place it in the reading response bin next to our library card catalogs. It will go into your portfolio eventually as evidence of your reading achievement.

Take time this weekend to work on the self-addressed goal letter. IT IS DUE THURSDAY, 9/25. The handout contains the due date of Monday, 9/22. Ignore that.

Please give me some feedback on the pen pal idea I threw out there a few days ago. I am thinking that we could correspond with seventh-graders in another state and get to know how people in other parts of the country think, feel, and entertain themselves. Post ideas/comments here.

See you Monday.

Drafting, Career Project...and What Do I Do When?

Most of you are at the point where you are out of the Sourcebook and drafting scenes on loose-leaf paper. Please keep your papers organized (in a folder, for example). DO NOT THROW AWAY ANY DRAFTING PAPERS. You will need your Sourcebook each day in class as we learn a new technique and try out the strategy. I am impressed with scene development. Keep stretching the moments with details and descriptive words. Use your classmates as "sounding boards". Peer review will be a big part of what we do in our ELA community.

702 has been introduced to the career goal statement letter project. Class 731 will get the details tomorrow.
Due date for 702 is Thursday, Sept. 25 and 731 to be determined. Please use your field work time on Wednesday to work on this letter.

Over the next week, you will learn ways in which you can spend your class time if you finish the work time assignment early. We have set up a reading center in the room, where library assistants have stocked reading response sheets. We will also create an interactive word bank that will help the writing community experiment with word variety.

Keep up the good work...

Welcome to the new contributors...Thanks for checking your e-mails and signing up for the blog. Both classes should be fully functional soon. I am resubmitting all the e-mail addresses over the next two days.

Over the course of the next few days, Mrs. Moreno and I will be assessing student reading levels so that all students are reading books that they can understand (and of course, that they like). We will also review procedures for responding to text once a book is finished. The library assistants for each class have been hired; A new group of assistants will be hired in early October. We will also have other classroom jobs - think about how you would like to contribute.

Our career project assignments have been copied. Next to copy is the rubric. Hopefully, we will have the opportunity to review the assignment and the rubric Friday or Monday. Keep investigating careers and colleges in the meantime.

See you soon...

Small Moments

Develop small moments through the five senses.
731: Choose at least one sense as a focus for each idea you develop (1/2 page each minimum).
702: We will start to draft tomorrow.

JOB POSTING: Library Assistants Needed!
Michelle will be our first library assistant (702). We are in need of one more assistant for her class, plus two assistants for class 731. Your job responsibilities will include keeping track of library cards, reshelving returned books, and making sure all bins are neat and organized. You will also check reading response sheets and make note of which sheets need to be replenished and/or copied.
Applications will be taken via the Parking Lot.

See you tomorrow....

Ideas

You have been gathering, developing and choosing ideas (702 did that today) for personal narratives. We have some great ideas! You have been responding to literature by connecting ideas from the text to your lives, the world, and other texts. Mrs. Moreno has posted ideas for sharing our voices in and out of class. With all these ideas being generated, we are off to a great start. After two weeks of school, Mrs. Moreno and I are impressed with your ideas.

Tonight, read for at least 25 minutes in a quiet place and respond to the reading according to the homework. 702 should finalize their small moment timelines, while 731 will continue to develop story ideas. Bring in all of your career info... we will begin the project later this week.

Here's another idea: I want to start a pen pal program with a seventh-grade class somewhere else in the U.S. I have some ideas about how to do this. Share your ideas here.

Mrs. Marks

SKATEBOARDING

A hint you can leave with Mr. Moroney:
Skateboarding could be in your phys. ed. class! Skate Pass, a Colorado company that supplies skateboards, helmets, and pads plus a skateboarding program for phys. ed. teachers, is changing the rules about "no skateboarding in schools"....11 states have taken up the program. Maybe we can write a persuasive letter to Ms. Schneider and get this program in our school. What do you think?
-Mrs. Marks

Sharing Your Voice

Small moments...and connections

Great work today in 702 - amazing story ideas as we zoomed in and stretched with details. Develop your ideas further by Monday.

731 did an excellent job with the read-aloud today. We generated a great working list of character traits for two characters in our new story. Continue to make connections as you read independently.

Have a great weekend.
Mrs. Marks

You did an amazing job with text connections today. Keep making connections as you read your independent texts. We will continue to learn more ways to respond to reading.

Class 702 is on a roll....you deeply engaged yourselves in the read-aloud today. More of the story to come next week. We will dig deeper into our writing by developing more personal narrative ideas tomorrow.

Tomorrow 702 (and next week 731) will get to know our classroom library. We will learn about the various genres, sort some books that Mrs. Moreno and I have yet to place in the library, and review a system for checking out and returning books.. Also, if you want to be a library assistant, please let us know tomorrow.

Mrs. Marks

Brainstorm

Now that the writing process is becoming clearer, continue to brainstorm ideas for the personal narrative. Class 731 got to try out two strategies, and I was impressed with the enthusiasm and creativity the class showed in the process. We have a great and growing list of story ideas. Class 702 did an amazing job with the timeline, and tomorrow will try out the web and develop some story ideas.

Read and respond to reading tonight. Tomorrow, we will review the text-to connections.

Keep compiling information about your career and colleges/universities that offer training. You will begin the project next week.

Mrs. Marks

The Writing Process

We will learn the truth behind the mysterious writing process and brainstorm ideas for the mysterious personal narrative tomorrow. All things will be revealed...

Homework: Research colleges/universities that offer academic programs related to your career. Choose a college or university that interests you, visit the schools' web sites, and find out if they offer courses and a degree in the job/career you want. Take notes in your writer's sourcebook. You will use the information you gathered from researching the career, and from the colleges/universities, for your first project.

Read for 20 minutes in a quiet, focused place. Respond to reading using post-it-notes or your reader's sourcebooks.

Second week off to a good start

Continue to investigate your career by using keywords in Internet searches, and talking to people who work in the jobs you wish to have. A 702 student found someone who works in the career field he likes, and he e-mailed her a list of questions and got amazing responses in return. First-hand knowledge is always a great source of information.

Read 20 minutes tonight in a quiet place without TV or music to distract you. Check your understanding by finding the main idea every few pages, or for each chapter.

See you tomorrow...

Keep exploring...

Exploring a career is the first step in creating a plan for college and beyond. Next week, you will continue to investigate your chosen career and work in groups to find common threads among the class' career choices. Success in ELA will prepare you nicely to be anything you wish to be...

In your writer's sourcebook, continue to take notes from information you find online, through interviews, and by reading magazines, newspapers, etc. We will begin a project early next week that includes a resume (a document that tracks your academic and personal experiences and accomplishments) and goal statement letter. These will help you set goals for yourself in ELA and across all your classes.

Have fun reading this weekend. Remember, at least 60 minutes total. Response to reading should be written in your reader's sourcebook, or on post-it-notes.

See you Monday.
Mrs. Marks

Reading..and Careers

You are reading and responding to literature really, really well. Please find a quiet, comfortable place at home to read each night - we will start with 20 minutes and build stamina (how long you can do something) each week. Log your reading (time you read, pages you read) and a reaction in your reader's sourcebook.

In your writer's sourcebook, continue your inquiry into future careers. Research the career you chose yesterday by Googling a keyword (for example, "teacher") or asking someone you know who is in that career. Once you have gathered some information, take notes in your writer's sourcebook. You will come up with a list of questions you still have about the career tomorrow, share your ideas with your classmates, and do more research this weekend. You will start your career project on Monday.

More details about my former life as a journalist tomorrow.

~~Mrs. Marks~~

As you consider which career path I took to get to teaching (hints: I was not an astronaut or a comedy show host), you are also thinking about careers in which you are interested, and more importantly, what you need to do to make your dreams a reality.

All classes: Your homework (Writer's Sourcebook) should include a brief description of the career, requirements (character traits, training, experience, education, etc.) and any other information you would like to add. You will use this reflection as a starting point for our first project, which will guide our work in ELA this year.

731 - Have fun reading your newly selected books. Respond to the reading with post-it-notes or in your Reader's Sourcebook.

702 - We will select books soon.

Great first day...

It was a very productive first day of school. Now that we got to know you a bit, I want each of you to think of two questions you have for me and Mrs. Moreno. You can jot these questions on post-it-notes and place them on the parking lot tomorrow. We will answer them as the week goes on.

Remember, your Sourebooks and supplies are due tomorrow. 731 will have their Sourcebooks set up and 702 will set them up tomorrow so that we can start writing. We will also be choosing independent reading books and begin learning strategies that will make even the most resistant readers love to read.

See you then!
Mrs. Marks