October 26,2007

Next week marks the start of the Newbery project. By Tuesday all students should have completed reading their Newbery selection. I will check to make sure all students have completed their notes packet. Wednesday will be the first in class work day. They will have a total of 7 class periods to complete the project. The final due date in Friday, November 9. This project has a wonderful finished product. Feel free to ask your child to see their work as I am positive that they will be proud to show it off!

LAKEVIEW MASCOT!

Lakeview is offering a new opportunity for students to get involved in. Last year, the Student Council purchased a Spartan mascot head and uniform. This basketball season marks the inaugural year of the Lakeview Jr. High Mascot. We will be selecting 3 students to rotate games through the Junior Varsity and Varsity season.

On Tuesday, October 23, all interested students will report to my classroom after school for a 1 hour clinic on the responsibilities/duties of the mascot. I will explain the try-out process and have a short practice time. On Wednesday, October 24, any student who is still interested becoming the mascot, after coming to the clinic, can try-out. I expect this to last until 5pm.

October 19, 2007

This week marks the conclusion of Nouns in Language Arts. Students took their tests on Friday, which will be returned to them on Monday. Next week we will begin the process of writing an Extended Response.

Next week is the last full week that students have to complete their Newbery book and notes packet. Please check to make sure your student is taking notes while they read. During my note check I have seen many packets that have a long way to go before they are complete. We will being creating the Newbery project on October 31.

October 12, 2007

Language Arts: This week we continued our grammar unit on nouns. Students learned about singular, plural, possessive, and plural possessive nouns. Our unit test will be next Friday. We will have one traditional review day, followed by a review utilizing the projects created by the students who tested out of the unit.

Reading: Unit 4 in the WordSkills series is a review of units 1-3. Instead of having a cumulative test, we graded our workbooks for accuracy. Next week we will take a week off of WordSkills.

Newbery: Students should continue to read their Newbery books and take good notes. Today was the first notes check and parent voucher turn in day. I recommend looking at the online grade book to check for homework completion.

I am about half way done grading the persuasive papers.

October 5, 2007

CONGRATULATIONS! We have just completed writing personal narratives. Please be patient as I try to give students the feedback they deserve.

A note about grammar...

As a way to differentiate for students who need a challenge beyond what the English series can give them, I have begun test-out activities. I plan on doing this as much as I can. I administered a pretest to students this week. Any student who received an A on the pretest (remember this is before instruction) will not follow the regular grammar curriculum. Instead they will apply their knowledge in another way. If your student tests out of a unit, I will contact you regarding their differentiated plan.

Have a great weekend!

October 1, 2007

Students are well into writing their personal narratives. This week we will be going to the IMC to type our final drafts.

This week I will introduce the annual Newbery Project to students. This project will take us into November. More information to come...