As a group, we are finishing our last type of paragraph, the comparison/contrast paragraph. Also, we have begun to look at how thesis statements can outline an entire paper. We have also been working on our creative writing stories and are drafting some wonderful adventures.
April 16-27
We have continued to make progress in our writing class. As a group, we have almost completed all of the paragraph types. Many members of the class have completed the four steps to drafting a thesis statement. Some members of the group have also begun to make effective and strong arguments in their papers by getting rid of ineffective phrases like I think, I believe, kind of, and sort of.
March 25-April 5
Some of the class has continued to work on the nine types paragraphs, focusing on examples, comparisons and contrasts. Other members of the class have begun the four step thesis statement writing process. The independent story writing assignment is being worked on by all. Any ideas that are gathered over Spring Break should be written down before our return.
March 12-23
Now that exams are over, we returned to our writing routine. Some of the class has continued to work on with nine types of paragraphs, while others have begun the first step towards writing an effective thesis statement. We have also reviewed the parts of speech and how to be grammatically accurate in our writing. In addition, we have continued to work on our stories, specifically in the creation of a travelogue to focus on the four areas of action in our world.
February 27-March 9
We completed our culture exchange for the Imam Malik School in Morocco and mailed our package to our new friends. We also continued to work on our nine types of paragraphs, learned about propaganda techniques in advertising, examined the difference between a fact and an opinion, and reviewed for our upcoming trimester exams.
February 13-24
We have continued our work on the culture exchange for the school in Morocco. We hope to mail our culture package during the week of Feb. 27. We have also reviewed the proper use of commas and semicolons. In addition, a creative writing project has been assigned to the class that will take the remainder of the year to complete. The students have been asked to complete a 30 page story that contains an element of fantasy and magic. Progressive assignments will be introduced over the next few weeks.
January 30-February 10
Some members of the class have completed all nine types of paragraphs. Others are still completing their work on Step By Step, Fact, or Compare/Contrast types of paragraphs. In addition, we have begun our work for the culture exchange with the Moroccan school. We have explained American Football to them and will create a PowerPoint including American foods, interests and music.
January 16-27
All members of the class have begun writing at least one of the nine types of paragraphs. We have completed work in Narrative, Step by Step, Fact, Reason and Example Paragraphs. We have also done some creative writing, crafting poems from our memories and autobiographical information.
In addition, though the iEARN network, I have contacted the Imam Malik School in Berrechid, Morocco. We will be completing a cultural exchange with this school right before exams. We will gather and draft items of interest that express our American Culture. We will then ship these items to Morocco, and they will send us a package detailing their culture.
January 3-13
We have progressed in our Paragraph Writing Strategy. Some members of the class have begun writing the two types of Sequential Paragraphs and the Descriptive Paragraph. Others are completing their work in either detail or clincher sentences.
December 12-23
We have reviewed how to write two types of detail sentences and three types of clincher, or closing, sentences. We have also practiced filling out a modified paragraph diagram and writing a paragraph from our diagrams. We have also discussed persuasive writing. We analyzed videos and articles trying to identify the issue being presented and the argument of the piece. Issues of interest have been steroid use in sports, gambling and exclusion from the Baseball Hall of Fame, religion and sports, and arranged marriage and bride price for underage girls.
November 28-December 9
We have spent a great deal of time reviewing the basic paragraph structure. We have reviewed how to write three types of topic sentences, point of view, verb tense, use of transitional words, and how to write two types of detail sentences. We are moving forward with writing logical, concise paragraphs with a single focus. We will begin writing the 9 types of paragraphs, hopefully, in a week or two.
November 14-25
We spent a great deal of time preparing for our end of term one exams. As a group, we studied hard and did well on the test.
October 31-November 11
In conjunction with the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts, we completed our poems and had a wonderful reception. Thank you to all the families for showing your support. We are very proud of the work our students completed. The framed poems and pictures will be on display at Craig High School during parent/teacher conferences next week. Besides discussing different forms of poetry, we began a review of basic paragraph structure and topic sentences. Vocabulary review sheets for the upcoming exam were also distributed.
October 17-28
We learned several proofreading and editing strategies over the last two weeks. We learned how to run an advanced spell check, how to use the thesaurus to enhance our vocabulary, how to use Clip Talk, Ginger and other speech to text translators to make sure our final products are of professional quality. We also reviewed the eight sentence types and saw how using a variety of sentence types in our paragraphs will enhance the flow of our work. We completed our trip to the METC in Madison, NJ. We also looked at four poem structures, (haiku, sestina, acrostic and an individual free verse poem), to help us write a descriptive poem about an object from the museum.
October 19 (In Class)
Please click here to access the paragraph we will work on correcting together. We will practice the spelling strategy and using the thesaurus. Punctuation and sentence formulas will be reviewed as we go.
October 3-14
We finished with our QAR strategy, and the class knows how to answer four types of questions. They can also write questions for each of the four categories. We took a pretest before we move in to the Paragraph Writing Strategy. This pretest will gauge how much review time we need to spend on the structure of a formal paragraph.
September 19-30
We were introduced to three strategies in two weeks. The class learned SCOPE, (a proofreading and editing strategy), QAR, (a question and answer strategy), and LINCs, (a vocabulary strategy that will help in definition retrieval). We also reviewed the eight types of sentences from last year and took our first vocabulary quiz.
September 6-16
During the first two weeks of school we focused on problem solving. We analyzed problems in human behavior, based on the NJ Commission of Holocaust Education 9/11 Initiative, and saw how people are motivated to action because of a need they are trying to fulfill. We also learned how to ask good questions and how to answer them. We created cross word puzzles to demonstrate this skill.
