Spelling Bee Upcoming!

The sixth grade will be having the preliminary rounds of the Spelling Bee next week, January 20-23. There will be one winner from each homeroom who will participate in the school Spelling Bee on February 3. There will also be one runner up from each homeroom in case the winners cannot participate.

If you would like to prepare, there are activities you can complete at wordcentral.com as well as myspellit.com.

Week of 1/12-1/16

Now that we have finished our argument letters, we will be checking our progress for the quarter. We will complete one reading test as well as our second Quarterly Writing Assessment.

Also, keep those Reading Logs coming in! All Reading Logs for Quarter 2 are due by January 23, so bring them in by that date in order to receive credit.

Students in LAX, don't forget, your hacked song presentations will be on Friday January 16. We will have a bit more time in class, but be sure to do what you need to do at home so that you can be prepared.

Week of 1/5-1/9

Welcome back!

As we return from vacation, we are finishing and revising our argument letters about fracking. Students will be looking at the rubric as well as using a self-assessment checklist before they turn in their final copy.

In Enrichment, we will be completing a Root Word Challenge. I want to be sure that I am being most efficient with our time, so I will use the results of the challenge to determine which root words we will be studying. Click here for the link for the challenge. When finished with the challenge, check out these games where you can begin practicing working with root words.
Roots and Their Families
It's Greek to Me
Rooting Out Words
Matching Roots and Meanings
Root Word Jeopardy (click on the one player option)

Keep in mind that Reading Logs are due January 23. Students must read 15-20 books in order to receive a 3. If students would like to earn a 4, they must read 21+. Remember that 100 pages = 1 book. Also, remember that your total number of books read form Q1 will carry over into Q2.

Week 13: 11/24-11/27

This week we are continuing our study of arguments about fracking. We are closely reading articles on both sides of the issue, identifying the author's claims, evidence, and analysis. We are using informational text features - such as titles, headlines, authors/publishers, images, urls, etc. - in order to predict an author's point of view. Links to the articles can be found below"

"The Costs of Fracking" by Environment America
"Why Cuomo Must Seize the Moment on Hydrofracking" by Ed Rendell

Students also received information about the Quarterly Reading Expectations and wrote in their planners that all Q2 Reading Logs are due Friday, January 23. We discussed how they might manage their time in order to reach their individual reading goals.

Enjoy the short week and say thanks to those you are grateful for!

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