Reminder; Reader's Sourcebooks due Monday

Reader's Sourcebooks are due Monday. Please make sure your reading responses are all done. You should have 5 for January and 16 for December. I will not be checking the remaining responses from November. Your responses should include the title of the book you are responding to, and a critical thinking response such as a prediction, reaction, or other inference. Summaries are not responses.

Interesting article about using comics and graphic novels in the classroom:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6624192.html?nid=3335

Practice Listening, Short Answer and Editing

Listening Practice
Parents and students this link takes you to the 2006 NY State ELA Listening Section text. Do not read it yourself, but rather have a parent or sibling read it to you twice while you take notes. http://www.nysedregents.org/testing/elaei/06exams/gr7ls.pdf

This is the link for Book 2. You can complete the short answers and editing section. http://www.nysedregents.org/testing/elaei/06exams/gr7bk2.pdf

2 Points

Class 702 practiced reading a passage from last year's ELA test and responding to a short answer prompt. I was impressed that many of you were annotating (or making notes, underlining, and/or highlighting) the passage as you read, and used the RAFT (restate the question, answer the question, give examples, tie it up) strategy to answer the prompt. Nearly the entire class earned 2/2 points. YAY. Tomorrow Class 702 will take the practice test from 2005. Book 1 will include multiple choice and short answer, while Book 2 will include listening and editing. Make sure you bring a pen or pencil (or two).

Class 731 took both parts of the practice test today. Mrs. Moreno and I scored Book 1 and will score Book 2 tomorrow. The results of both Books will be the basis of both class' periodic assessment, which will be available on Teacherease. The test scores WILL NOT count toward your classroom grade, but is, rather, a way for us to know what to expect on the real test. We will build our upcoming lessons on areas in which you still need help.

Homework: Read/Respond Jan. #3. Reader's Sourcebooks due Friday.

lol

haha very funny post mrs marks!

Practice Test

731 will take a practice ELA exam and 702 will take its on Thursday. We will use the skills we have learned so far, and the results will give Mrs. Moreno and I a good picture of the skills that still need to be strengthened. We will divide the class into small groups based on those needs.

In the final run before the test, we will practice listening, note-taking, making inferences, predictions, finding main idea, comparing and contrasting, restating prompt/answering/for example/tie it up (RAFT), recognizing author's purpose, editing, and other necessary skills to excel on the test

Homework: Read/Respond Jan. #2.
Please remember, Readers' Sourcebooks are due Friday. Submit your best effort!

Geared Up for the Test

Mrs. Moreno and I hope you all had a wonderful and restful break. Now it's back to business.

We are preparing for the ELA test (January 20-21). You will be able to use all of the strategies we have learned so far in class, plus the test sophistication strategies we are learning now, to excel on the assessment, which consists of reading comprehension, multiple choice questions, short answer questions, a listening portion with short answer questions, and an editing section.

We are also beginning a short but fun and beneficial expository writing unit, How-to-Guides. We will be evaluating how-to guides, including recipes, operating instructions, and other informational texts, and writing our own.

Readers' Sourcebooks are being collected Friday and will be graded according to the rubric. Please refer to the rubric to earn top points. Each time your Sourcebook is collected, you should show improvement and have corrected any previous weaknesses. This is the time to check that all your notes, classwork, and reading responses are complete and in order

Homework: Read/Respond Jan. #1.