Five Elements of a Short Story
We’re reviewing the elements of a short story as we get into writing our own. Check out this rap that Mrs. Graff found last year and now it’s a video!
Red Ribbon Week
Check out our student council members preparing items for Red Ribbon Week. Curtin is celebrating being drug free this week and student council is giving all students a different drug free item each day.
Students got ribbons on Monday
6th grade got guitar keychains that say “I Rock Drug Free”. Unfortunately, there was some assembly required!
Student Council members are proud to say we’re Drug Free at Curtin Middle School
Conferences
Parent/Teacher Conferences are coming up on November 10 and 11. You can schedule your conference online this year! Visit the link below if you’d like to select your time.
Unit 2: It Happened in the Country
Mr. Yeager, our student teacher, has officially taken over teaching all Language Arts sections in Room 215 and will continue to do so through December 10. This week we have just started our second unit that focuses on stories that happen in the suburbs, or rural settings. Our new essential question is “How does the rural setting affect the story?”
We started reading Ray Bradbury’s “The Whole Town’s Sleeping”, a great mystery! We’re studying this story and using it as an anchor for our own short stories that we are in the process of drafting out right now. We’re going to continue our focus on short stories by reading some Edgar Allan Poe just in time for Halloween!
Please remember that Marking Period 1 is over next Friday – October 28. All make-up/missing work is due by Thursday, 10/27 and AR Goals are due by Friday, 10/28! Report Cards will be distributed at Parent/Teacher Conferences on November 10 & 11.
Mr. Poole Reciting “Invictus”
This was a few weeks back, but Mr. Poole stopped by to share his interpretation of the poem “Invictus”. Many of our students chose to memorize this for their first performance piece.
Block 3 plays Vocab Charades with Mr. Yeager
Katie, Max, and Tye act out “archaeology” today during a vocab review game!
Our Classroom
Here are some pictures our classroom, Room 215.
The classroom:
Unit 1 Theme and Essential Question:
Our Daily Agenda and Weekly Goals/Objectives:
Homework and Absentee Board:
Urban Prep Core Values:
Realistic Fiction Book Clubs
Books have been handed out and our Realistic Fiction book clubs are officially underway. Students should be reading one of the novels seen below. We are working on a 16 school day pacing to get through our novels, which means we will be finishing and taking an AR test on October 17. Of course we encourage our students to read ahead of schedule if they are really excited about the book and finishing early is OK!
In addition to reading, students are expected to complete a Thinkmark each day with a summary of what they have read AND they have journal questions to complete in their Composition Books in order to prepare for their Club Meetings and discussions. All Thinkmarks and Journal Questions will be collected and graded at the end of the unit!
Check out the author’s websites for more information on the books we’re reading in class.
Sharon Draper: http://sharondraper.com/
Walter Dean Myers: http://www.walterdeanmyers.net/
Marking Period 1 is underway!
We are preparing to begin the 4th week of the school year, which means that the first marking period is half-way over this week! Time is definitely going fast.
We’ve had a great few weeks in Room 215 as we have been establishing our routines and classroom expectations and getting to know each other. We have already read 7 different non-fiction and fiction pieces, we’re working on our 2nd writing piece and starting our 3rd this week, and we’re getting ready to start preparing for our first public speaking – a memorized poetry performance! In addition to all of this, we have finally been able to start our first Book Clubs of the year! Our goal for these novels is to have them tie into the Unit Theme: “Urban Settings – It Happened in the City” and have students be able to discuss how the urban setting affects the story.
Block 3 started reading Sharon Draper’s Copper Sun this past week with our student teacher, Mr. Yeager.
Blocks 1 and 2 will be starting Book Club this week that focus on a variety of Sharon Draper realistic fiction novels including, Forged By Fire, November Blues, Copper Sun, and We Beat the Street. We will be introducing and selecting our books this week and the starting our book club on Monday, September 26. Look for your child to be bringing home a book club book in order to keep up with the 16 day reading schedule!
A New School Year
Welcome to a new school year! It’s hard to believe that summer is over already and we are going to be starting the 2011-2012 school year, but I hope you are all as excited as I am! 8th grade can be a really fun time in your life, so while you are working hard at having a successful year, make sure you take advantage of the different activities you can get involved with as well. Many people say that their best memories of middle school and high school come from the activities they participated in. Don’t miss out!
My goal for the upcoming school year is to work on providing more of you what you need individually to be more successful AND to try out new and exciting ways to bring technology into our classroom and assignments. Hopefully this blog will be one of those ways.
Please comment below and tell me what one of your goals is for the upcoming school year.
