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Showing posts from December, 2014

Period 1-Informational Essay

PERIOD 1 This week students worked tirelessly on their informational essays.  After several lessons and examples, they finally completed their rough drafts.  These drafts were submitted to turnitin.com.  One of the things I love about this site is that it allows students to read and evaluate one another's essays using questions that I personally write.  In addition, the person evaluating the essay can  comment directly on the writer's rough draft. I gave the students a long talk before we began and made sure that they all understood to comment in a respectful, kind manner.  I also encouraged them to give the quality of feedback that they would like to receive on their own writing.  Most students did an outstanding job.  I was so pleased with how serious they took this task.  In addition, students were required to complete a self-evaluation which forced them to take another look at their draft. I am hoping that students received some valuable feedback.  Of course, I to

I'm Back!

First of all, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you enjoyed your time with family and friends!   PERIODS 0 and 2 This week we read an article called "Affluenza: Is it Real?" and students used two  critical reading strategies to help them comprehend the text.  Before reading, I showed the students two very short video clips about the article. Then, we marked the text,.  Next, students had to think of a way to group (also known as chunking) the paragraphs together in a way that made sense.  For example, they might choose two group the first three paragraphs together because it was the introduction. Afterwards, they summarized each chunk of information.  The students sure had to say a lot about this topic, and I encourage you to ask them about it!  We are reading this article as part of our Juvenile Justice Unit which really complements The Outsiders.   We also finished reading The Outsiders .  Yes, I know it took us forever, but we did so many oth