My name is Mr. Simpson, and I teach Language Arts to 8th Graders. If your child has me for first/second or third period, I am teaching from the America's Choice curriculum. If your child has me fourth period, I am teaching from the Ramp-Up to Literacy curriculum. Both of these are new to the school, so your teachers are learning (to an extent) along with your children. Please try to keep that in mind as the year moves along.
Currently, my AC classes are working on composing original narratives. This project begun in class on Monday, September 22. The final assignment will be due on Friday, October 3. At this point, your children should have written approximately one paragraph about a personal memory that they would like to convert into a short story (1). They should have written detailed descriptions of each character with the goal of having each character described well enough for a stranger to correctly identify them in a heavy crowd (2). Next, they were supposed to describe each setting in a way that the readers would feel as though they had been there before and could easily visualize them (3). After that, they were supposed to write a B-M-E chart, which breaks the story down into a sequence of events separated by beginning, middle and end (4).
All of this should have been done prior to class on Monday, September 29. As of now, they should be writing rough drafts of their short stories, which will be edited during class on Thursday and Friday. By the end of class on Friday, October 3rd, each student should be working on the final draft of their short story.
OCTOBER 7, 2008
I will be out of the building for professional development on Tuedsday and Wednesday of this week. Yesterday, we began talking about how to write journal entries. We stated that questions must not only be answered, but the writer must also use his/her imagination and creativity to take the answer in multiple directions. While I am out of the building, they should be working on writing journal-entry answers to ten questions I've given to their substitute.
Also, all kids were told to have a composition book for Lang Arts class at the beginning of the year. On Monday, we will begin using them on a daily basis. Please make sure your kids have their composition books by Monday if they don't have them already.
OCTOBER 15, 2008
Students in periods 1/2 and 3 should be reading the Treasure of Lemon Brown over the weekend in their LOL Textbooks. They will be given a worksheet for Setting and Characterization to be completed and brought back on Monday. PLEASE help your kids by reading the story with them or having them read it to you. The worksheet should be self-explanatory.
NOVEMBER 3, 2008
We are now entering into Unit 3. This week, we began with the 15-day assessment test followed directly by the Unit 2 Final Exam. We will begin Unit 3 on Thursday. Children will be doing Literature Circles in class for the next six weeks. There are two things that are essential to kids doing well during this period: self-discipline with regards to academics and self-discipline with regards to behavior.
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