Welcome to Friday!
Today in ELA, we'll be taking our first STAR Reading test. It's important to try your hardest on this test and to not skip through the test in order to finish. We will go through how to log in to the site and afterward, we'll record our results in our ELAIN.
Friday, September 18, 2015
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Thursday, September 17th, 2015 - I LOVE Thursdays!
Hey there! Welcome once again to my favorite day of the week!
Mrs. Isham makes her return once more to our humble classroom to give a final baseline writing prompt. Today's entry will be an Expository Essay.
We've started working with plot structure in class, and yesterday the kids, while working in groups, created posters for the various Elements of Plot. Once they had completed this, their task was to then figure out the order in which the elements went together. Frankly I was impressed: one group only needed 2 tries, and the other needed only one! Very well done indeed!
Today we'll return to the discussion by applying this newfound knowledge to examples of both visual and written text. The "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" animation will be our starting point. The animation is fairly simple and straightforward, thus enabling the students to better achieve an understanding of the elements. This will be the part that we do together as a class. Then, the students will work independently to discern the plot structure of a text called Just Once by Thomas Dygard.
Mrs. Isham makes her return once more to our humble classroom to give a final baseline writing prompt. Today's entry will be an Expository Essay.
We've started working with plot structure in class, and yesterday the kids, while working in groups, created posters for the various Elements of Plot. Once they had completed this, their task was to then figure out the order in which the elements went together. Frankly I was impressed: one group only needed 2 tries, and the other needed only one! Very well done indeed!
Today we'll return to the discussion by applying this newfound knowledge to examples of both visual and written text. The "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" animation will be our starting point. The animation is fairly simple and straightforward, thus enabling the students to better achieve an understanding of the elements. This will be the part that we do together as a class. Then, the students will work independently to discern the plot structure of a text called Just Once by Thomas Dygard.
Wednesday, September 16th, 2015 - Happy Wednesday!
It's the middle of the week, and it's a good time to catch up on some of the work that we have been doing in class lately. We have been busy creating and adding to our ELAINs and our SS notebooks, and I think today would be a good time to organize and catch up a little bit.
In ELA, we have been doing several things. Yesterday, the classes took time to write a Persuasive essay. The topic of this essay was "Do kids need their own cell phones?" Each student was given an article from TIME for Kids that addresses this topic. Their task was to read this article and then answer the question in a persuasive essay. In order to write an effective essay, the students were required to cite evidence from the article to back up their answer.
We also discussed the literary element of Characterization yesterday by doing a close reading of text from My Side of the Mountain. Students were required to look for examples of Sam Gribley's character through the events in the story. They had to cite the text example, and then make an inference about how this text example illustrated something about his character.
Our next element that we will be discussing is going to be Plot. To do this, we'll start by kicking it old school with a look at Goldilocks and the Three Bears to give us a simple example of plot elements such as Rising Action, Climax and Resolution.
In Social Studies, we are still plugging away with the 5 Themes of Geography. This is where both classes will be playing catch-up today. Our SS Interactive Notebooks are a little sparse, so I'm hoping that we can plump them up today!
In ELA, we have been doing several things. Yesterday, the classes took time to write a Persuasive essay. The topic of this essay was "Do kids need their own cell phones?" Each student was given an article from TIME for Kids that addresses this topic. Their task was to read this article and then answer the question in a persuasive essay. In order to write an effective essay, the students were required to cite evidence from the article to back up their answer.
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| TIME for Kids article |
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| Persuasive Essay Prompt |
We also discussed the literary element of Characterization yesterday by doing a close reading of text from My Side of the Mountain. Students were required to look for examples of Sam Gribley's character through the events in the story. They had to cite the text example, and then make an inference about how this text example illustrated something about his character.
Our next element that we will be discussing is going to be Plot. To do this, we'll start by kicking it old school with a look at Goldilocks and the Three Bears to give us a simple example of plot elements such as Rising Action, Climax and Resolution.
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| The Plot Pyramid Diagram that we'll be using. |
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Tuesday, September 15th, 2015
Hello! I hope everyone is settling in to the school year, and getting accustomed to the routines and requirements of their classes.
Today in ELA, Mrs. Isham will make another appearance to give us the next baseline writing piece. This time, students will be required to write a Persuasive piece whereby they try and persuade the reader to take a side on an issue.
Students will also be writing their first Reader Response in their ELAIN (ELA Interactive Notebook). We have been discussing and working with Literary Elements the past couple of days, and this will give them a chance to write about how these elements affect a story.
Today in ELA, Mrs. Isham will make another appearance to give us the next baseline writing piece. This time, students will be required to write a Persuasive piece whereby they try and persuade the reader to take a side on an issue.
Students will also be writing their first Reader Response in their ELAIN (ELA Interactive Notebook). We have been discussing and working with Literary Elements the past couple of days, and this will give them a chance to write about how these elements affect a story.
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| Reader Response Page for ELAIN |
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Monday, September 14th, 2015 - Welcome Back from the Weekend
Hey guys! How was your weekend? Did you recover form the first week of school? I hope so. We have a full week of learning ahead of us, so let's get started.
Last week in ELA class, the classes completed a baseline writing prompt for Mrs. Isham, our new reading teacher. The students were asked to write a narrative about their summer based on the perspective of their favorite shoes. This week, the students will complete 2 more baseline writing pieces so that we may understand where the students are beginning with their writing skills.
We also began our ELA Interactive Notebooks (ELAINs). We are using composition notebooks in which we will glue such things as notes and contented-oriented sheets to reinforce these notes. The students will also be keeping track of various goals and STAR assessment data. They will use these to push themselves throughout the year.
We will review our work with the Literary Element known as Setting based on the work we did with a short blurb from Holes.
Last week in ELA class, the classes completed a baseline writing prompt for Mrs. Isham, our new reading teacher. The students were asked to write a narrative about their summer based on the perspective of their favorite shoes. This week, the students will complete 2 more baseline writing pieces so that we may understand where the students are beginning with their writing skills.
We also began our ELA Interactive Notebooks (ELAINs). We are using composition notebooks in which we will glue such things as notes and contented-oriented sheets to reinforce these notes. The students will also be keeping track of various goals and STAR assessment data. They will use these to push themselves throughout the year.
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| The Goal Setting Page for Reading |
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| STAR Assessment Data Tracking Page |
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| Elements of Setting Graphic Organizer for Holes |
Friday, September 11, 2015
Friday, September 11th, 2015 - Happy Friday!
Woohoooooooo! We made to the first Friday of the school year! Pat yourselves on the back!
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Thursday, September 10th, 2015 - Happy Thursday!
Welcome to my favorite day of the week! I wanted to take the time and show you my blog. We've been so busy in class lately that I haven't had a lot of time to do so. You can access this blog from home if you have internet access by going to josephpappa.blogspot.com. When you go there, you'll be able to see all of these things, click on them, vote in a poll, or check out videos, like the one we'll see below about India.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Monday, September 7, 2015
Tuesday, September 8th, 2015 - Welcome Back to School!
Good morning, kids! Welcome back to school, and welcome to my classroom. This is my blog that I created last year for my students to look at and gather information from about class. It's also a wonderful resource for parents to visit, as I discuss the things that are currently happening in class (current events, announcements, class happenings, homework, important pages, et cetera). To find my blog on the web, all you have to do is type in josephpappa.blogspot.com in the address bar at the top and you or your parents can check it out when you have internet access.
I hope today goes smoothly for all of you! Remember: it's the first day, so juuuuuusst relaaaaaaax...deep breaths everyone....
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