Week 9: 10/27-10/31

This week, as the quarter quickly comes to a close, the students are creating their own magazines reflecting what they have learned and are still curious about on the topic of immigration. Students are working in small groups to design their magazine cover. Then, each student is responsible for writing their own article and supplemental feature (for example, an advertisement, a poem, a comic, a political cartoon, a crossword puzzle, etc.). The students will be working on this project throughout the week and it is due for students in 6-1 and 6-3 on FRIDAY OCTOBER 31.

We are taking a break from Skill of the Week in order to maximize our time on the project.

Here are some links that might be helpful as the students are creating their magazines...

Immigration Process
Millions of Immigrants Waiting for Green Cards

Challenges Immigrants Face
Newsela (type "immigration" in the search bar - tons of resources there!)
Migrant Workers in Michigan

American Dream
What Happens to the American Dream in a Recession
Waking Up from American Dreams
VIDEO (from my favorite author!): Is the American Dream Real?

Interviews with Francisco Jimenez
http://www.teachingbooks.net/content/Jimenez_qu.pdf
http://www.learner.org/workshops/tml/workshop8/authors2c.html

Mentor Text for Profiles/Biographies
http://www.thewritesource.com/studentmodels/wi-kameelah.htm

Hiring Discrimination
He Dropped One Letter in His Name

Week 8: 10/20-10/24

This week, we are wrapping up our reading of The Circuit, reading an interview with the author, a writing our own informational texts (in the form of magazine articles) about the challenges that migrant workers face. Also, Monday is the National Day of Writing with the theme #writemycommunity, so we are brainstorming the communities we are a part of, listing the people that we appreciate in those communities, and choosing one to write a letter of gratitude to. In the process we learned from Soulpancake about The Science of Happiness - showing gratitude increases the level of your happiness!

Our skill of the week is AAAWWUBBIS front branch sentences. AAAWWUBBIS words are used in phrases to add extra information to our sentences. AAAWWUBBIS words include (but are not limited to): as, although, after, while, when, unless, before, because, if, since. Listen to this song or practice here!

Week 7: 10/13-10/17

This week, we are moving ahead with our reading of The Circuit, and some of the classes might even finish the novel! As we read, we are continuing to look for and highlight those places in the text that reveal the challenges migrant workers face, especially in the categories of work, money, education, and health.

Our Skill of the Week is formatting titles correctly. In class, we discussed several rules:
     -"smaller" texts are always formatted with quotation marks (i.e.. short stories, poems, chapter titles, song titles, and newspaper articles)
     -"larger" texts are formatted with italics when typing and underline when handwriting (i.e. novels, newspaper titles, and album titles)
     *An easy way to test whether a text is "smaller" or "larger" is to ask whether it can be broken into sections. If a text CAN be broken into sections, it is most likely a "larger" text.

HOMEWORK:
     -Read 30 minutes each night. All Reading Logs due by October 30.
     -6-1 Author's Craft Evidence Sandwich revisions due Thurs. 10/16
     -6-2 Author's Craft Evidence Sandwich due Thurs. 10/16
     -6-3 Author's Craft Evidence Sandwich revisions due Fri. 10/17
                      

Week 6: 10/6-10/10

This week, we are in the middle of writing our Author's Craft Evidence Sandwiches. The students are learning the four parts of an Evidence Sandwich (Focus, Context, Evidence, Analysis) and drafting their own about the author's use of symbolism in "Inside Out." At the end of the week, we will return to reading the novel.

Our skill of the week is citing quotations. The rules we discussed in class are:
1. The transition into the quote must include the speaker's name as well as a verb (such as said, asked, declared, shouted, etc.)
2. A comma is needed before the opening quotation marks.
3. The first letter of the first word inside the quotation marks is capitalized.
4. The punctuation from the quote is only inside the quotation marks if it is a question mark or exclamation point.
5. Inside of the parentheses is only the author's last name and page number where the quote was found (no pg. or p. or # or comma needed).
6. A period is needed after the final parenthesis (unless you are continuing the sentence).
Here is an example: Anita announced, "I love french fries!" (Smith 42).

HOMEWORK: Read 30 minutes each night. Reading Logs for the quarter are due October 30. Check your planner for the due date of your Author's Craft Evidence Sandwich!