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

We have our last chance to revise our short stories this week - we have the laptops Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (if needed) to type, share (via GoogleDocs), revise and edit. Students edited each others', I helped edit as well, and students practiced reading them aloud slowly before they let me know they were finished. Everyone had a rubric from which to double-check their work, of course.

Homework
* Read 20 min. / Blog
* Bring reading materials WEDNESDAY!

We revised a bit more today - we added sensory details (effectively!). Students then shared one piece of writing with a friend and they helped each other with the sensory details in the lesson of choice.

For reading, we read "The Noble Experiment" in the Literature book, finishing Close Read questions A, C, E, F, G, I and questions 7 & 8 on pg. 820 for homework if need be.

Homework:
* Finish Close Read questions A, C, E, F, G, I, and pg. 820 #7 & 8.
* Read 60 min. / Blog by Sunday PM

MAP testing today - Our goal was to take our time and try our best!!

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