Holiday Book Recommendations

	Jingle (Swindle #8) by Gordon Korman (Ages 8-12, GL 3-7) Griffin Bing and his friends are NOT happy. Instead of going away for winter break, they've been signed up to volunteer at a local Christmas extravaganza...as elves. It's not easy being an elf. But it's nothing compared to being blamed when a prized Christmas possession is stolen from right under your nose. It's time for these elves to get off the shelf and track down a Christmas thief!
	The 12 Screams of Christmas (Goosebumps Most Wanted) by R.L. Stine (Ages 8-12, GL 3-7) Kate Welles wants to play the lead in her school's Christmas play. Kate's teacher decides she needs to find a special place to rehearse. A certain house with a special history. The kind of place that Kate would normally be pretty frightened to go into. The kind of place that gives new meaning to the term: Christmas Spirit.
	Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle (Ages 13+, GL 7+) This novel is being produced as a major motion picture. What do a Christmas Eve snow storm, 14 perky cheerleaders, a Waffle House, and a guy covered in tin foil have in common? Answer: these romantic holiday stories. Through an interconnected cast of characters set in one small Southern town, each author reveals a serendipitous night in the life of a particular teen.
	What Child Is This? by Caroline B. Cooney (Ages 11-15, GL 6-10) On this Christmas Eve, the snow lies on the ground and the stars shine bright, but the grown-ups leave a lot to be desired. And the children desire so much. Katie, a foster child, wants only one thing: a family.
	The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan (Ages 12+, GL 7+) With only twelve days left until Christmas - Lily's favorite time of the year - Dash, Lily's brother Langston, and their closet friends take Manhattan by storm to help Lily recapture the holiday magic of New York City in December.
	North Pole High by Candace Jane Kringle (This book is only marketed as YA -- no specific age/grade information given.) Meet sixteen-year-old Candycane Claus. She's the most popular girl at North Pole High. Her father is world famous. Every day is Christmas. What more could a girl want?
	Whispering to Witches by Anna Daze (Ages 8-13, GL 5-7) When his father is called away at Christmas, Joe resigns himself to spending the holiday with his mother, stepdad, and half-sister Esme. After a train ride leaves him stranded at the wrong station, he borrows a large tricycle that seems to have a will of its own. It transports him to the ramshackle headquarters of the somewhat disreputable Dead-nettle Coven. The witch world is in an uproar over the theft of the world's most dangerous spell, and apparently, somebody thinks Joe has it.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from my classroom to your home! I sincerely believe that each and every one of you (students AND parents) deserve a break and some relaxation from the craziness that was the first semester of middle school! Here's hoping you get some quality family time in and lots of sleep, reading, and playing outside so you can come back on Wednesday, January 4 rejuvenated and ready to go!

I often post book recommendations for these longer breaks, and I haven't this year so far. Here are my past book recommendation posts, and please check back later today for my Holiday Book Recommendations for Middle Schoolers!

Symbaloo for Argumentative Group Research

www.symbaloo.com/mix/fightingfor

Attendance

I cannot stress how important it is that your child attend school on a regular basis. Also, understand that while we are happy to give make up work to your child when they miss school, they are missing instruction. We plan our lessons carefully to build on each day, scaffolding learning for students so that they can learn concepts over a period of time.

Start Strong
Absenteeism in the first month of school can predict frequent absences later in the school year. Nearly half of all students that missed more than two days of school in September when on to miss almost a month of school.

Chronic Absences
An estimated 5 to 7.5 million students in the United States miss almost a month of school every ear. This adds up to over a year missed by the time of graduation.

Chronic Absence = Missing two or more days per month
Research shows that students who miss 10 percent of school, or two days per month, show negative academic progress. In some schools, that adds up to 18 days a school year and is considered to be chronic absence.

Dropout Indicator
By sixth grade, a chronically absent student is shown to have a significantly higher chance of dropping out of high school.

Excused Absences Hurt, Too
Excused absences are just as negative as unexcused ones. Suspensions add additional missed time in the classroom, which in turn increases the dropout risk.

Every Minute Matters
If a student is 10 minutes late to school each day, this adds up to missing more than 33 hours of class time.

www.americangraduate.org

MAPs testing

Tuesday, 12/6 is our Winter MAPs testing day.

One of our goals is for students to make an average of two points growth from their Fall MAPs score. The higher their score was initially, the less growth they are expected to make, and vice versa.

MAPs (Measures of Academic Progress) gives us an idea of student's reading comprehension skills. You can read more about MAPs here.

To be considered "on grade level" in MAPs, scores for sixth graders are:
Incoming (Fall MAP): 212.3
Midyear (Winter MAP): 214.3
End of Year (Spring MAP) 216.4

How Text "Fits" Together

We have been working on the standard RI6.5: Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the ideas.

This standard focuses on how pieces of a text fit together to make the whole meaning, much like a puzzle fits together to create an image that you cannot see until it's complete.

This post describes text structure in nonfiction and how the concept was introduced.

11/29 - We learned five examples of how authors create structure in nonfiction text and discussed how structuring text ensures a reader's understanding. The PowerPoint for this lesson is here. We practiced by sorting five articles into the five different text structures.

11/30 - We applied our learning from yesterday by searching for these text structures in nonfiction articles. This is the Symbaloo we used to start with -- a ton of interesting arguments here!

12/1 - We close read Steve Jobs' commencement speech given at Stanford University in 2005. We found four of our five structures in the speech and annotated the speech through close reading.

12/2 - We watched a video of Steve Jobs' speech and listened closely as the structures were presented in audio format. We answered questions about how the speech was structured and analyzed how the message would be different if the speech was not structured that way.

This is important practice for our assessment on Monday, 12/5. The assessment will be online using the same format (EdPuzzle) as the Steve Jobs' speech practice.

The rubric for this assessment is here.

Nonfiction Text Structure

The structure of text is how text is "built."

Think about a Lego tower you are building. All of the decisions you make go into the structure of your building. You might decide:

• How big will the base be, to hold up the rest of the building?
• How many floors will you have?
• What colors will you use for each floor?
• What decorations will you put on the building?
• Will there be stairs or an elevator?
• Are there enough doors and windows? Emergency exits?

If you think about it this way, when authors write text, they make these types of decisions too. 

• The "base" might be the introduction. How much background knowledge does your reader have or do you need to put more information at the start so your reader can follow along?
• The "floors" might be sections. How many sections or paragraphs will you have? Will you have subheadings for different sections? 
• The "colors" might be what you put in the sections. What is your strongest starter? Do you want to entertain or inform? What types of words will you be using?
• The decorations may be "extras" you add (quotes, maps, pictures, etc.) 
• When you're thinking about stairs vs. elevators, or doors and windows, think of the text's organization. Does the design of the text make sense? Can a reader follow it from beginning to end without a problem?

Below is the power point we used to discuss this idea in class on Tuesday, and the examples we  used. You MUST become familiar with the different types of text structures before you can move on to the application of this concept.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15k8IenZk0kKoOX7vKH0O47s3QEWNaeTW4Kf2SKy71do/edit#slide=id.g19cd04a9e7_0_58

Tracing and Evaluating Claims

For the past week we have been working to learn the skill of tracing and evaluating claims in an argument. We are working toward proficiency of this standard:

RI6.8 Trace and evaluate an argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.

The link to the rubric is here.

Students will be assessed on this skill on Thursday, November 17.

I've scanned and attached all of the resources we have used in class to model and practice with. If students need extra practice at home, please feel free to use the resources linked here. I have also linked some articles that are not annotated so that they may practice using these.

11/8/17: Introduction to Arguments/Parts of Arguments Notes (1) (2) (3)
11/8/17: Model tracing and evaluating claims: Hip-Hop Argument
11/9-10/17: Student practice tracing and evaluating claims: Wasting Fish Argument
11/14/17: Credible evidence notes and practice: Wasting Fish Argument (credible evidence notes)
11/15/17: Student practice tracing and evaluating: Should Dogs Eat Grass
11/16/17: Teacher model proficient constructed response: Should Dogs Eat Grass

Supplemental example: Longer School Day

Non-annotated argumentative articles for practice:
To Buy Or To Lease A Car
Many Believe GMOs Unsafe
The Smart Snacking Choice

What is worth fighting for?

The overarching concept of our new unit is What is Worth Fighting For. The unit is about the Power of Argument. Please check out the What Are We Studying tab for specifics on what standards we will be assessing in this unit.

Today, students explored the essential questions and thought about what is worth fighting for to them. This brainstorm will lead to an eventual argumentative paper in which they defend their ideas about what is worth fighting for.

Period 1:

Period 2:

Period 3:

Period 4:

THANK YOU, DONORS!

Our Donor's Choose for Pedal Bikes was granted, and we are happily pedaling away!

THANK YOU,
Ms. Cochran
The Garduno Family
The Elliott Family
Mrs. Carberry
Mrs. Schillo
Ms. Wood
The Kessler Family
Ms. Decker
Ms. Wiesner
The Oldweiler Family

 

 

  

Analysis

Analysis is the single most important skill a student needs to be successful in Language Arts. Therefore, we revisit this skill every few months! It's so important it even has it's own tab on this website! Have you checked it out?

Some of the "a-has" we had in Language Arts around the discussion of analysis are:

• On assessments, we cannot just re-write what is in the text.
• Language Arts is different than science and math -- there is no one right answer.
• The student who can explain their thinking and connect it to the text is the student who is proficient. 
• Almost every assessment prompt will have the word ANALYZE in it.

We practiced seeing the difference between summarizing and analyzing using quotes. 

Teacher example:

Student work:

Inquiry and Infographics

Today, students created an inquiry question about something they would like to research that has to do with consumerism. They are going to research to answer their inquiry question and create an infographic. Please see below for more information about this project that we will be working on through next Thursday, October 27.

What is an infographic?
An infographic is information delivered through graphics, rather than in a written report. We choose to assign infographics to support the development of 21st century skills by aligning informative writing ability with visual literacy. Creating an infographic deepens critical thinking skills and encourages students to make connections and create structures that may not manifest in a written report.

Project Dates: Thursday, October 20 through Thursday, October 27

Final infographic due: Thursday, October 27

Standards being assessed through this project:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.7

Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and refocusing the inquiry where appropriate.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.8

Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information for sources.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.9

Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Example student-created infographics:

The Dangers of Fracking

Women's Illiteracy & Education

Are We Obsessed with Our Technology?

Panda Mania

My History as a Reader

RADCAB

1. 1. Write this word and definition down in your notebook:
2. 
   
3. CREDIBILITY: 
4. (noun)

• the quality of being trusted and believed in

• the quality of being convincing or believable

2. In your notes, write down the definition for each part of RADCAB. Use this resource to help you

3. Play this game to practice.


When you are finished, go back to the work you did not finish yesterday! 

Consumerism

How does consumerism influence my life?

Hint: Did your mouth just water a bit? Did you say, "I love Sour Patch Kids!"











For today's work, please work independently in your spiral.

Step 1:

Click on the link to get to the Symbaloo: https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/consumerism1

You must click the box that says "Start using this webmix".

If it asks you to create an account, just click "X" in the top right corner.

Step 2:

In your spiral, answer the questions that are on the sheet at your table about the articles, videos, and games you choose.

I will be checking your spiral to see how productive you are today. A sub + computer does not equal FREE TIME.

If your name is written down by the sub you will be serving a detention and calling home.