Our short stories are published online!  If you signed the agreement, your story is here - check it out, and enjoy other students' stories, like I did!

We began our literature circle groups on 5/14.  All jobs are posted on Edline, in case you lose your work between classes.

Our schedule for Literature Circle Groups:

Monday, 5/14 - Read & Complete Role #1
Tuesday, 5/15 - Group Discussion #1
                          Begin Read & Role #2
Wednesday, 5/16 - Read & Complete Role #2
                              Independent Reading Opportunity
Thursday, 5/17 - Group Discussion #2
                            Begin Read & Role #3
Friday, 5/18 - Read & Complete Role #3
Monday, 5/21 - Group Discussion #3
                          Begin Read & Role #4
Tuesday, 5/22 - Read & Complete Role #4
Wednesday, 5/23 - Group Discussion #4
                               Complete extra jobs
                               Independent Reading Opportunity
Tuesday, 5/29 - Introduction and work on final projects (keynote)
Wednesday, 5/30 - Work on final projects
                               Visit from Mr. Spicer (AHML)
Thursday, 5/31 - Present group projects

HW:
* Each day, bring something else to read (in case you finish early).
* Read 20 min. / Blog by Sunday PM.

Today we took a few minutes first to vote on the reinstatement of "Chapter One" or not.  The results  will be evident next Friday.

Next, we prepared for the rest of the year... Our ten literature circle choices were discussed, and students voted on the stories they'd like to read.  Each student should get one of their top five choices, if all goes well!  Books will be chosen based on interest (#1), completion of work in class (#2), and reading scores (#3).  Of course, how students work well in each group will also be a consideration!

We then took time to model how students will be working in class, each job that is assigned, and how students will discuss the books every other day.  Monday's blog post will include the schedule we will follow for the rest of the year.  This is very student-driven, teacher-facilitated, and the reading will be done in class, so everyone is expected to finish the group-decided reading each day.  The only excuse will be if a student is absent, but then he/she can check out a book the next night!  :-)


HW:
* Look for something to read independently for our last month together.  Bring this to school on Monday.

On our first day back to "real school," we first practiced discussion / debate skills with an activity regarding favorite and most educational activities from Taft.  We then wrote genuine thank you notes to teachers that impacted our past three days.

HW:
* Look for something to read independently for our last month together.  Bring this to school on Monday.

It's TAFT week!

Since students will be out at Lorado Taft in Oregon, IL, there will be no work in classes, only work outside! And since I don't have any time to do any work these three days, I don't expect students to, either. It'll be hard to find any time to read - even for me!

Enjoy the three days of outdoor education!!

Today we took time to share our short stories if students wanted. I also asked if we could publish them as a book to share online. For students who gave permission, I'll work on that this weekend and get you the website ASAP.

After we shared stories, we spent the rest of the block reading two short nonfiction pieces, both about Lance Armstrong. We read "It's Not About the Bike" and "23 Days in July," while working on questions from pg 800 - #6 & 8.  These two questions will be counted for a quiz grade, due at the end of the period.

Homework:
* Read 60 min. / Blog by Sunday PM.

Phew! Is the short story unit finished? Students had time to get their stories to me today if they didn't already give me their rubric, showing me their GoogleDoc was finished. We then had the block to read "Eleanor Roosevelt" from the Literature book. This is a long story, so students were just asked to create a timeline, featuring 15 events that happened in her life. The only criteria was that it spanned her entire lifetime, instead of just her youth or just later in her life.

Homework:
* Finish timeline of Eleanor Roosevelt's life.
* Read 20 min. / Blog by Sunday PM.

We had laptops for one more day if we needed them today. We also used them for research for our independent reading - to find out what we will read next, if choosing fiction, and to find out what books or articles would be helpful if researching a specific topic. We had time for presentations, for one-on-one conferences, and for reading today, for at least one period.

Homework:
* Read 20 min. / Blog by Sunday PM