For today's post, I thought I'd write about the different technologies that the ELA department uses on a regular basis. This is probably going to be a long one :)
GOOGLE
As a district we have "gone Google" - which simply means that we are using many of the Google Apps for Education products with our students. Kids all received a school issued email address which has proven helpful for me to make announcements, and for the kids to email questions to me. I am usually working from home for an hour or two after 8:30PM, and I try to get a response back to any kids and parents who have emailed me at that time. Google also provides kids with a suite of productivity software (word processor, spreadsheets, presentation) that can be accessed from any device that has an internet connection. Students also have a large amount of storage - Google Drive - which again is accessible from any device that has an internet connection. While we still use Microsoft products, Google Apps eliminates the excuse of not having a particular piece of software at home, so kids can work on anything, anywhere!
BYOD
Bring your own device allows our district owned devices (laptops and chromebooks) to go further - which increases overall access across the school. While not every situation requires the use of a device, I will notify kids when the opportunity arrives. Some ways we have historically used student devices include the following: Looking up definitions of unknown words (either as part of a vocabulary activity or as part of close reading a difficult text), conducting research, or even typing a paper. The activity that the kids are working on determines the types of devices we ask the kids to bring in. For example, it wouldn't make sense to have kids typing a paper on their cell phone, but it makes perfect sense to look up unknown words on a phone.
APPS
Today we had the kids download a few apps to their devices - if they brought one. These apps work for all iPods, iPad, tablets, and smartphones. Here is a list of what we downloaded:
1. Infinite Campus Mobile Portal - this is the portal app for kids to check their grades. As 8th graders it is important to develop that academic behavior of monitoring grades for missing work as well as the overall class grade. The portal app is much more user friendly than the web version and it even provides notifications of when assignments are entered or marked as missing.
2. Overdrive e-reader - Students are able to check out electronic versions of many of our library books. In many cases, the high-demand books that students have to go on a wait-list to check out are available as e-books for check-out immediately.
3. Quizlet - This is a handy app that we use to help kids study for assessments. We set up flashcards of terms and other content and kids can use them to study. In addition, quizlet has a variety of games using the content we supply.
REMIND
Remind is a texting service that allows me to send broadcast text messages reminding students about upcoming assignments, when to bring devices, and other school events. The texts are generated from a computer phone number, and they cannot be replied to. The students do not have my personal phone number, and I am unable to see their phone numbers as well. Parents are also encouraged to sign up for this service! Click here to sign up.
Because this post is already long, I will finish up the topic of technology in the ELA classroom in the next installment!
Happy Thanksgiving to all and have a great long weekend!
Monday, November 24, 2014
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Wrapping up First Quarter
Well, the first quarter is in the books! I overheard one of my students say, "Wow, I can't believe we're already done with one quarter of 8th grade!" I'm going to take that as a good sign - time flies when you're having fun!
A note about quarter grades...
When you receive your child's report card, you will notice that each class gives four separate grades. The letter grade is the indicator of your child's academic progress in each course. In addition to the letter grade, your child receives a score in three life-skills areas: Respect, Responsibility, and Engagement. These three areas are the academic behaviors that we believe contribute to a successful student - and a successful person in everyday life. Click here to read the descriptions for each of the life skills grade and the scale that is used to evaluate your child.
In many ways this first quarter is an adjustment period for many students - teacher expectations are different, homework load tends to be different, etc. I have always felt that the most growth happens during the second and third quarters of the school year, so I'm looking forward to this time of year!
A look ahead in ELA...
We have started our second major unit of the school year recently - Influence and Choice. The literary part of the unit focuses on characterization and character analysis. We began by looking at ourselves - how we interpret and group one another as well as how we assign personality traits to one another. We eventually moved on to how authors create characters and what we as readers have to look for when closely analyzing a character. Starting small, with short pieces of text - then moving on to short stories and eventually a novel, students will become adept at identifying character traits, and then providing evidence from the text and an explanation of that evidence to clearly demonstrate their thinking.
In writing, we noticed that sentence problems (fragments, comma splices, and fused sentences) seemed to be an area of need based on the results of the first quarter writing piece. Therefore, that is what we are going to be to focusing on during grammar instruction. We begin by looking at writing, identifying the problem sentences, and then applying three fixes that students actually already have in their "writing toolbox" from the beginning of the year grammar unit on sentence structure. Our formal writing piece of the second quarter is argumentative in nature with an increased emphasis in constructing refuting statements to counterclaims. In addition to the writing piece, shortly after the Christmas holiday, we will be having in-class debates on the topics that each student wrote about.
Don't forget the Independent Reading Requirement that continues during each quarter of the school year. To read more about those requirements, click here.
As always, if you have a concern or a question about anything - please send me an email or give me a call at school.
A note about quarter grades...
When you receive your child's report card, you will notice that each class gives four separate grades. The letter grade is the indicator of your child's academic progress in each course. In addition to the letter grade, your child receives a score in three life-skills areas: Respect, Responsibility, and Engagement. These three areas are the academic behaviors that we believe contribute to a successful student - and a successful person in everyday life. Click here to read the descriptions for each of the life skills grade and the scale that is used to evaluate your child.
In many ways this first quarter is an adjustment period for many students - teacher expectations are different, homework load tends to be different, etc. I have always felt that the most growth happens during the second and third quarters of the school year, so I'm looking forward to this time of year!
A look ahead in ELA...
We have started our second major unit of the school year recently - Influence and Choice. The literary part of the unit focuses on characterization and character analysis. We began by looking at ourselves - how we interpret and group one another as well as how we assign personality traits to one another. We eventually moved on to how authors create characters and what we as readers have to look for when closely analyzing a character. Starting small, with short pieces of text - then moving on to short stories and eventually a novel, students will become adept at identifying character traits, and then providing evidence from the text and an explanation of that evidence to clearly demonstrate their thinking.
In writing, we noticed that sentence problems (fragments, comma splices, and fused sentences) seemed to be an area of need based on the results of the first quarter writing piece. Therefore, that is what we are going to be to focusing on during grammar instruction. We begin by looking at writing, identifying the problem sentences, and then applying three fixes that students actually already have in their "writing toolbox" from the beginning of the year grammar unit on sentence structure. Our formal writing piece of the second quarter is argumentative in nature with an increased emphasis in constructing refuting statements to counterclaims. In addition to the writing piece, shortly after the Christmas holiday, we will be having in-class debates on the topics that each student wrote about.
Don't forget the Independent Reading Requirement that continues during each quarter of the school year. To read more about those requirements, click here.
As always, if you have a concern or a question about anything - please send me an email or give me a call at school.
Parent - Teacher Conferences
Parent conferences are fast approaching! If you'd like to come in and talk about your child and his/her progress in ELA sign up for a time to meet with me.
Conference times are as follows:
Tuesday, November 18th 3:30 - 7:00 PM
Thursday, November 20th 12:30 - 7:30 PM
If you'd like to sign up to see me (or any other teachers in the Justice League) click here. Most of us still have openings available!
Conference times are as follows:
Tuesday, November 18th 3:30 - 7:00 PM
Thursday, November 20th 12:30 - 7:30 PM
If you'd like to sign up to see me (or any other teachers in the Justice League) click here. Most of us still have openings available!
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
First Writing Piece of the Year!
We are currently in the midst of the drafting process for the first major writing piece of the 2014 school year. While we have completed a number of short, informal pieces, the personal essay will be the first work taken all the way through the writing process.
The personal essay is meant to be a reflective writing. In past years, students have written numerous personal narratives - an event focused type of writing. This is what I call the "My Trip to Disney World" type of writing. In seventh grade students wrote a personal memoir. The memoir focused on an object/time period and the relationship of the writer to that object/time period. In a personal essay, the focus is on lessons/insights learned by the writer - usually through some sort of life experience. At this age, reflective writing can be quite difficult. Even though most teenagers love talking about themselves, it usually tends to be superficial. We want the students to really examine their topics and discover what they have learned from them.
The title of this personal essay reflects the topic choice - "____________ and Me." My students have selected topics ranging from sports (Basketball and Me) to nature (Fishing and Me) to hobbies (Music and Me) as well as their families (Family and Me). We are focusing the essay on what lessons these people/topics have taught the students that could be applied elsewhere in their lives. To help them provide support for their thinking, we are having the students use the DRAPES strategies (Dialogue, Rhetorical question, Analogy, Personal experience, Example, and Statistics). Other instructional focus areas include the use of simile and metaphor, as well as proper subject-verb agreement.
Students will need to have their first draft completed by next week Tuesday, October 21st. Feel free to ask your child about his/her topic and perhaps even take a look at what they have written so far!
Friday, October 3, 2014
Independent Reading
As we hit the mid-point of the first quarter, I wanted to write a post about the 8th grade ELA independent reading requirement. We have five targeted goals that have been the driving force behind our program:
- To engage and motivate students to learn about things that interest them.
- To promote a love of reading.
- To build vocabulary.
- To build knowledge of the world.
- To build students' reading stamina.
With these goals in mind we have implemented our independent reading requirement. In this recurring assignment, we are asking students to read 650 minutes over a four week period. This roughs out to be an average of 25 minutes of reading per day. To help support their efforts, students generally receive about 15 minutes of time in class to read three days per week.
Every four weeks students receive a log page where they can record the number of minutes they read each time they sit down to read. The logs are collected at the end of the four week period and a grade is recorded in the independent reading category of my gradebook. This category is worth a total of 10% of the final grade in my class. Click on the independent reading requirement link above to see the grading scale.
In addition, students complete a status check every week where they record the name of the novel and the page they are on. This allows me to see how quickly each of my students finish their books as well as what kinds of books they are reading. A side benefit is that the status also provides me with a number of titles that I read. I can see the trending book selections, and make sure I stay current!
As an 8th grade ELA department, we also have set a book goal for the entire grade. By the end of the school year we would like the 8th grade students to have completed 7,000 books. It seems ambitious, but we all think these kids can do it!
Friday, September 19, 2014
Kick Start
In the next series of posts, I'm going to go over the various class requirements and routines that we have set up as an 8th grade English/Language Arts (ELA) department. All 8th graders going through DPMS will experience the same activities and the same curriculum delivered on the same day. In fact, if you went from one ELA classroom to the next you would enter the new classroom at almost exactly the same point in the lesson going on in the room you just left! As you read through these posts you will find that I use the pronoun "we" instead of "I" because all of this information applies to every 8th grade ELA teacher.
Kick Start is the way that we start our ELA classes. We want to kick start their thinking to get class off and running.
The first component is a word of the day. We have a vocabulary word that is either taken from a text that we are working through in class or from the Vocab Ahead website. Vocab Ahead takes collections of common SAT vocabulary broken down by grade level. They include short videos that give the definition of each word and then use the word in a few sentences. In the vocabulary section of their notebook, students write the word, part of speech, definition, synonyms, and antonyms. In addition we usually have the kids write a sentence about an instance where the vocab word applied to them, or we have them list three things that would match the definition (3 things that are archaic - if archaic was the vocab word).
On the same slide we also have one of the national holidays - and there are definitely some odd ones (Friday is National Talk Like a Pirate Day) - as well as some trivia that usually connects to the holiday. It provides for some great discussion!
Lastly, depending on the day, we either have a short written component or we do a book talk. For the written component, we ask students to either respond to their choice reading book or the current class read aloud. We also try to reinforce the grammar we are teaching by having students apply those skills in a short response. In an effort to combat the "I don't know what book to read" complaint from the kids, we give book talks or show book trailers so kids always have a title in mind for their next book. It's amazing how many of the titles we've shared are in the hands of the kids!
After we complete Kick Start we are ready to get going for the rest of the day!
As always if you have any questions or concerns send me an email or give me a call!
Kick Start is the way that we start our ELA classes. We want to kick start their thinking to get class off and running.
The first component is a word of the day. We have a vocabulary word that is either taken from a text that we are working through in class or from the Vocab Ahead website. Vocab Ahead takes collections of common SAT vocabulary broken down by grade level. They include short videos that give the definition of each word and then use the word in a few sentences. In the vocabulary section of their notebook, students write the word, part of speech, definition, synonyms, and antonyms. In addition we usually have the kids write a sentence about an instance where the vocab word applied to them, or we have them list three things that would match the definition (3 things that are archaic - if archaic was the vocab word).
On the same slide we also have one of the national holidays - and there are definitely some odd ones (Friday is National Talk Like a Pirate Day) - as well as some trivia that usually connects to the holiday. It provides for some great discussion!
Lastly, depending on the day, we either have a short written component or we do a book talk. For the written component, we ask students to either respond to their choice reading book or the current class read aloud. We also try to reinforce the grammar we are teaching by having students apply those skills in a short response. In an effort to combat the "I don't know what book to read" complaint from the kids, we give book talks or show book trailers so kids always have a title in mind for their next book. It's amazing how many of the titles we've shared are in the hands of the kids!
After we complete Kick Start we are ready to get going for the rest of the day!
As always if you have any questions or concerns send me an email or give me a call!
Monday, September 15, 2014
The First Days...
Welcome to the 2014-2015 school year! This blog is meant to help keep parents "in the loop" with what is going on in your child's ELA classroom. Hopefully it will also help to spark some conversation instead of the usual "nothing" response to the "what did you do at school today question".
Here is a brief run-down of events thus far!
The first day is always one of the toughest days because of all the sitting and listening. I must have apologized a hundred times for talking so much. We went through the basics of what students can expect in ELA class as well as some get-to-know-you activities. In addition there were some PBIS (Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports) videos reminding students of the Redbird Way in a variety of situations.
In addition, we went to the LMC to check out books and went over the class syllabus as well as the independent reading requirement for the year. I have linked each of those documents here and there will be a subsequent posting on the independent reading requirement. We also did a book pass activity - I called it "speed dating" but with books. This gives the kids an opportunity to be exposed to a variety of titles and genres that they may want to pick up the next time they go to the library.
In grammar we have already begun taking a look at sentence types. The sentence is really the foundation of good writing. I want all my students to have a variety of different sentence structures at their fingertips when writing. We have reviewed simple and compound sentences and have started looking at complex sentences.
We are in the midst of our first whole-class novel - Miracle's Boys by Jacqueline Woodson. This story is about the the lives of three brothers whose parents have both passed away. The oldest brother is doing his best to keep them together - giving up his spot at MIT - to stay and raise his two brothers. The novel is beautifully written and gives the ELA teachers a common text that we can refer to in the future, as well as use to teach our expectations for responses to literature.
This is just a fraction of what we've been doing in ELA over the last ten days. In future posts I will be presenting various components of our day as well as some of the general curriculum that we teach in 8th grade ELA.
Here is a brief run-down of events thus far!
The first day is always one of the toughest days because of all the sitting and listening. I must have apologized a hundred times for talking so much. We went through the basics of what students can expect in ELA class as well as some get-to-know-you activities. In addition there were some PBIS (Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports) videos reminding students of the Redbird Way in a variety of situations.
In addition, we went to the LMC to check out books and went over the class syllabus as well as the independent reading requirement for the year. I have linked each of those documents here and there will be a subsequent posting on the independent reading requirement. We also did a book pass activity - I called it "speed dating" but with books. This gives the kids an opportunity to be exposed to a variety of titles and genres that they may want to pick up the next time they go to the library.
In grammar we have already begun taking a look at sentence types. The sentence is really the foundation of good writing. I want all my students to have a variety of different sentence structures at their fingertips when writing. We have reviewed simple and compound sentences and have started looking at complex sentences.
We are in the midst of our first whole-class novel - Miracle's Boys by Jacqueline Woodson. This story is about the the lives of three brothers whose parents have both passed away. The oldest brother is doing his best to keep them together - giving up his spot at MIT - to stay and raise his two brothers. The novel is beautifully written and gives the ELA teachers a common text that we can refer to in the future, as well as use to teach our expectations for responses to literature.
This is just a fraction of what we've been doing in ELA over the last ten days. In future posts I will be presenting various components of our day as well as some of the general curriculum that we teach in 8th grade ELA.
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