Bowne Park Field Trip - Tues. June 16

Reminder: All students must have a signed and completed field trip permission slip to go on the Bowne Park outing tomorrow.
School uniforms are still in effect, but students may wear shorts. Girls, please be tasteful (if you think the shorts are too short, they are).
You are allowed to bring portable radios and other equipment OKed by Mr. Millman. Do not bring anything not on the "OK" list - it will be taken away.
As always act like ladies and gentlemen on this public trip.

Realistic Fiction; Revised Work Graded; Final Exam Status

Mostly all realistic fiction stories that were submitted were graded and feedback was given via Teacherease. Please check the site.
If you have submitted work digitally, or have printed work that you have saved on a home laptop, please make corrections/revisions ASAP as our grading deadline is tomorrow.
Thanks to the (small) group of students who dug through their work-in-progress folder, and revised work from as far back as September. Overall, you improved the quality of your work (and your grades!).
For those of you who have not submitted ANY work for realistic fiction, you will receive a zero. Some of you were supposed to email me or Mrs. Moreno early this weekend (not on Sunday evening). If you have not done so yet, please do it immediately.

As for our final exam, we found out that 7th-graders will be singing at the 8th-grade stepping up ceremony on Monday morning, and we are not sure of the timetable. Middle school students are being dismissed at 12. Looks like there is no time to get this final in. If we feel that you need to take it to raise your grades (those of you with NCs or failing grades) we will see you individually tomorrow.

Final Exam (Mon. June 15) Study Guide

• Habits of a Good Reader: Selecting a just-right book; keeping a reading log; responding to literature (inferences such as connections, predictions, envisioning, etc.)
  
• Habits of a Good Writer: The writing process, including pre-writing (brainstorming, outlining, gathering ideas, etc.); drafting;, revising, editing, and publishing
  
• Small Moment Personal Narrative; Zooming in on a small moment; creating a timeline; painting a picture through the five senses, imagery, etc.; active words
  
• Persuasive Writing: How to convince readers to do something or think a certain way; choosing an idea; researching/citing sources; elements of effective persuasive writing (including clear message, attention to audience, effective word choice, factual support, and ethos); avenues of persuasion (PowerPoint, PSAs, speeches, letters, posters, etc.); delivering a persuasive argument to an audience (performance)
  
• Response to Literature: Selecting a big idea; writing a theme statement; using text evidence to back up opinions; structure of a 5-paragraph essay
  Response to Film: Akeelah and the Bee/Spellbound; film reviews; changing the ending/adding a scene; communicating with a character; creating magazines/newspapers.
  
• Poetry: Poetic tools (repetition, internal rhyme, end rhyme, onomatopoeia, line breaks, stanza breaks, vivid language; similes/metaphors); Poetry Hides; Self-Portrait; Memory Poem; City Haiku; poetry performance
• Literature Circles: planning for discussion; discussion
• Realistic Fiction: Characteristics of the genre (life-like, believable plots, situations, characters, conflicts); plot map elements (introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement); scenes; chapters; dynamic characters (characterization: appearance, speech, actions, thoughts/feelings, relationships); hooking the reader; transitions; plot twists; flashback; flash-forward; timestamps; narrators (first-person, third-person); showing not telling (imagery, description, etc.)

Publishing Date; Final Exam

As planned, we will publish this Friday at the end of the ELA period. Every student received a rubric today and was told to go home and use the field work hours to write...finish your drafts, so that we can focus on last-minute revisions, editing, and comparing work to the rubric tomorrow.
702 has a double period, while 731 has one writing period. Don't waste a minute!

Work will be collected and the end of the ELA period on Friday. Mrs. Moreno and I will try to grade all stories and give feedback by Monday, so that you may take Monday to revise at home.

Our final has been pushed up from Tuesday to Monday. There will be a study list posted on the blog. Everyone will need to check the blog on Thursday so that they may come to us with questions by Friday.

Review the notes in your Readers' and Writers' Sourcebooks. It's not necessary to study, just scan what we have learned.

As we discussed, the final will only count if it helps your term 3 grade. Everyone must take the exam, and is encouraged to do their best.

Plan for Week of 6/8; Final Exam

We will publish our realistic fiction short stories by the end of ELA period on Friday, June 12. (731 is period 2, 702 is period 3). Please be prepared. If you are planning to type your stories, include all handwritten drafts. You will receive a rubric early next week.

As discussed today, we will have an ELA final exam - tentatively scheduled for Monday, June 15. It will cover many of the skills and strategies we learned all year. It will only count if it helps your term 3 grade. If it does not, then it won't. I suggest that all students study (look through your Sourcebooks), especially if you have received an NC or a grade that did not meet your personal standards at any point this year.

You may continue to revise/make up work from any term this year. We had previously set a deadline of today, until we found out we had more time. All revised/made-up work is to be turned in to Mrs. Marks or Mrs. Moreno (you can email us if it's easier) by Wed. June 10. If you need help before then, see us.

Have a great weekend!

Plan for Friday

All students should have completed the drafting process (all chapters written) and have revised at least two of those chapters. We will continue to revise on Friday.

Every student is encouraged to revise/make up unsatisfactory or missing work from any point in the year. Look for your work in your work-in-progress or old work folders. See Mrs. Marks or Mrs. Moreno if you need help.

Have a great day off - your teachers will be planning for the rest of this year and next year...