Generating Research Topics

Make sure you have 'dropped' your 'Feature Article Unit'  into dashboard, so I can inspect your H/W from earlier in the week. 

All Classes H/W
1) Grammar Recap: Your Gossip Girl Scripts are due: Next Mon
2) Homework Task: Because I love to do grammar (Take a screen shot of the finished exercise and put it in your grammar H/W section for ML# 2 as evidence) The video is VERY important. It shows you when you can just infer the relative prounoun. This H/W takes 5mins to complete!

Lesson Recap: Going for Content to Curiosity

Use these links for online topic searches

1) Look at the headlines at yahoo.com (Make sure you are on the U.S. site)

2) New Articles and Research Topics. Use this class code when asked: KZMAC

3) This site also has good ideas for topics http://www.bbc.co.uk/iwonder

By the end of today's session, you should have a minimum of 5 'areas of curiosity' - that you might take deeper into the research process.

Truth Survey

Our class has been selected to pilot a new Student Feedback program that gets input from students on how they feel about the teaching and learning they are exposed to.

Access the survey here
Middle School: http://sasms14a.youthtruthsurvey.org/ 

Timmy HB - Share your Passion Day!!!

H/W. No new H/W tonight. Make sure you use  the rest of the week to stay up to date with H/W set earlier in the week.

Reading Classes
Reminders: Membean Test Friday.
Next Reading Response: Due Next TUE (this is the last extension!) - Make sure you are establishing a 'STRONG' claim!

Relative Clauses: Intro

Enjoy!
Add 'seeing Les Miserable LIVE'  to your bucket list- "It's not about how many breaths you take, but about how many moments that take your breath away"  - One Day More

Feature Article: What topic are you an expert on?

Today, we learned the last type of clause: relative clauses. Relative clauses add details to sentences which often makes writing more precise. (Can you spot the relative clause in the last sentence?)

Grammar:  H/W All Classes
Write 5 sentences that contain relative clauses. Write sentences related to the topic you wrote about today in the Feature Article unit. (The sentences should be written in your Unit 8 grammar file in the H/W box (Due: Thur)

Finish class work
Finish your "Writing as an Expert" topic from class today. You can 'kill two birds with one stone' by simply highlighting 5 relatives clauses in this piece. Due: Thur

Writing H/W

Homework Task: As you are watching T.V./ browsing the web over the next couple of days, choose 5 concepts that you wonder about or would like to delve deeper into. Make a list of those concepts topic in your Feature Article H/W box : Due Thur

Tiger Tales: Step 2

It is VERY IMPORTANT you follow these guidelines for publishing your TigerTale article. This is a different slideshow then yesterday. Make sure you follow the submission instructions clearly or your piece will not be accepted for publication.

Reading Classes - Reminder: Your 3rd Reading Response is due this FRIDAY!

Late Start Tomorrow!

Introduction to Non-fiction Reading

Today we learned about non-fiction text structures. We learned about the 3 types of non-fiction. We also learned about the different text structures that appear commonly in expository non-fiction. Can you list the 6 common non-fiction text structures? We also learned that some non-fiction writing blends combines elements of fiction writing. 

Bake sales on tomorrow. Bring some money to support causes if you would like too.

H/W
50mins of Membean (30 in class) by Friday

 All Classes: Optional but EXPECTED!
Do you want to get published in the Middles School Magazine? Read these guidelines below.  This is optional but I would hope that many of you will choose a small section of your work to present for publication

Task 1: Use tonight to select the poem or exerpt from a piece you want to present. Write an intro. ot the piece explaining why this section is so special.  Create a new file and drop your piece into this file. Add your new file to this doc. Tigertales Submission. More instructions tomorrow.

NEXT WEEK

Congratulations on your poetry presentations today.

Next Week: We begin our new units. Make sure you have copies of the files below and shortcuts on your favorites bar. 

Grammar: Unit 8 Sentence Phrases
Reading: Non-fiction Book Clubs
Writing: Feature Article Writing Unit

This has been a light H/W week - Hope you caught up with your independent reading!- How close are you going to get to 40?