December 8th-December 12th

Investigator role sheet
Read the instructions for the Investigator role. Figure out what you would like to research and present to your group on Friday.

Online discussion post will be open on Tuesday. Responses to the questions as well as two replies to peers will be due by Thursday at 8 pm.

Double Entry journal will be due on Friday. Make sure you pick rich, meaningful text and analyze it thoroughly. Your DE journals allow your conversations during group discussion to be rich and deep.

Lit Circles!

It's Lit Circle time! The books we are reading have underlying themes of justice and human rights. They include topics of war, civil rights, poor working conditions, government censorship, and agriculture to name a few.

Overall Plan
Mondays through Thursday class time:

-Mini-lessons for 15 minutes

-30 minutes of uninterrupted independent reading

-Students respond to interesting or challenging material on their Double Entry Journal as they read. As long as students record key phrases on the journal during class, they can work on this during the week for homework.

-Students will collect material for assigned roles from Tuesdays through Thursday. They will gather the information on a document and have it ready to present on Friday for group discussion. Students will be able to do this for homework each night.

-Ms. Grinnell will post the discussion prompts online by Tuesday morning. Students will review the prompts, respond, and reply to each peers' comments at least once. Discussion posts are due at the end of the day on Thursday. I am looking for fruitful discussion with references to evidence from the text.

-Discussions posts are due by 8 pm on Thursdays

Friday class time:
-Students will present the material they found during the week that relates to their lit circle role. (Students will receive a handout that has the instructions for their goals.)

Monday, 12/1
Students will develop a calendar for reading with their lit circle partners. Every Monday through Thursday, students will have 30 minutes to read in class. They can also come in to read at lunch, before school, or after school. These are Book Room books, so I cannot lend them out.

Students will prepare rules for their lit circle groups.

Week One Discussion Post

Please look at the following list and choose your top three choices for our lit circle. AIG students, you must choose a Challenge level book from the list. Lit Circle options

When you have picked your top three, please fill out the following Google form with your choices: Lit circle choices

Editorials

Mini-lessons on writing techniques throughout editorial unit

Part 2 - (debatable claim and assigning evidence to supporting arguments) due end of class Wednesday, 11/5

Part 3 (lede, background, thesis) due end of class Thursday, 11/6

Part 4 (body paragraph SA#1) due end of class Friday, 11/7

Part 4 (body paragraph SA #2 and counterargument) due end of class Monday, 11/10

Part 5 (conclusion and Works Cited) due end of class Wednesday, 11/12

Finalizing (Peer edit with revisions, review rubric) classwork and homework, Thursday 11/13

Finalizing Peer edit with revisions, 11/14 (homework = revisions), Grammar post-test
Final Draft due at beginning of class Monday, 11/17
1 point extra credit on editorial: Research which publication you would like to send your article to and send it off. Use email as proof.

Wednesday, 11/5 homework: read 30 minutes
Thursday, 11/6 homework: start reviewing grammar study guide - study guide
Friday, 11/7: work on grammar study guide

Editorial Templates

Welcome! Grab a grammar answer sheet (orange) and data tracker sheet (white) from the front table. Check your homework answers and record your data on your tracking sheet. Please do not change your answers. If you did not do the homework, do not grab an answer sheet. Do not copy someone else's answers. This will not help you get true data for self-assessment. If you copied someone's answers, let me know and I will get you a new sheet.

When you are finished, get a computer and finish up Part 1 of the Editorial task. After that, go to my blog. I've added Part Two and the outline for the introduction to the document. Go ahead and copy Part Two and the introduction outline in your Editorial document. Get to work!

Op Ed Template Parts 1-5
200 Ideas for Editorial Writing Prompts
How to write a debatable claim

This week

We have started studying the art of editorial writing. Through the process of reviewing sample pieces and breaking down different parts of an editorial, we can become more comfortable with the writing style.

Let's start with a list of words that you need to know for this unit: Vocabulary. We will cover all of these terms in class, but make sure to fill out the "What I Think It Means" category.

Here is the copy of the grammar assignment I gave for homework yesterday: Grammar #1. If you haven't turned it in yet, go ahead and get it done. We'll go over the answers in class on Thursday.

Here are some common parts of successful editorials:

Lede: hooks the reader; shows immediate relevance of the issue/problem

Thesis: debatable claim about the issue/problem

Argument Paragraphs: multiple points to support the thesis; evidence based; include analysis

Counterargument: addresses flaws in the argument or possible reader objections; can come at any point in the body of the op-ed

Conclusion: a call to action for the reader: what can s/he do about this problem?

Activity: Read the following article and try to identify the lede, thesis statement, argument, counterargument, and conclusion. "Why I Lived With My Garbage For a Year"

Are the lede, thesis, and conclusion statements effective? Why or why not?

Is the counterargument valid, and does the author give a rebuttal to it?

What evidence does the author provide? Does the type of evidence vary?

Look at the author's paragraph structure. Does he use this format: topic sentence, evidence, elaboration, summative statement?

Does a thesis statement always have to be in the introduction? Why or why not?

Due Monday:

It is time for some independent work. If you haven’t already heard, the 8th grade ELA teachers must give a common ACES assignment. Today you will read and annotate an article about the Outer Banks, the location of our upcoming field trip. You will complete an ACES response to a prompt about the article. Here are the details:

Step 1: Take a copy of the  "Rising Seas: Will the Outer Banks survive?" article Also, take a copy of the rubric ACES rubric and the ACES template. ACES response template

Step 2: Thoroughly read and annotate the article. Your prompt for the ACES response is “How do the text features of the article help the reader understand the central idea of the text?” In order to answer this question, you need to know what a text feature is and what the central idea of the text is.

Text features: graphs, diagrams, pictures with captions, subheadings, bold print, etc.

Do not count underlined words as a text feature for this assignment. That was just a glitch with the document.

*AIG students, I expect you to use the shoreline diagram from page 2 as one of your pieces of evidence!

Central idea: Ha! You must figure this one out on your own! You can do it! Writing sentence summaries for each paragraph might help you determine the main idea.

Step 3: Before you start writing your ACES response, read over your rubric carefully to see what is required of you.

Step 4: Look over your ACES template and start writing! Notice on this template that you must supply two pieces of evidence with elaboration. Be specific, thorough, and descriptive in your response.