Socktober

This week my freshmen and sophomore students were introduced to ethos, pathos, and logos. As we started digging through persuasive techniques, our Spanish and P.E. teacher, Mr. Gurnee, sent out a request for us to look at the Socktober challege put out by Kid President: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFZGyUZ9YrM

Not only is it a great video to point out some of the persuasive techniques we are studying, but it is also a perfect opportunity for my students to do something positive and help people in need. We are all excited to get this underway for month of October. 

The items being requested are socks, blankets, hats, gloves, coats, canned goods, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, etc. Everything will be donated to organizations within Sanilac County. 

Students of the Week 10-6-14

This week I honored two students that went above and beyond during Homecoming week. I feel it is important to not only be good students in class, but also during extra-curriculars. These two really put in extra effort during float building. I was extremely impressed with their dedication to their classes. They received chocolate covered congratulation pretzels and a bag of cookies. :) 

Float Building

Had a great time this week getting to know some really wonderful kids (and their parents)! I feel very blessed to have such a great group for my first year as sophomore class sponsor. The kids worked so hard building the float and really displayed teamwork and dedication. I am so pleased to say that there are some extremely powerful leaders developing in the Class of 2017! Very excited to see where their future takes them. 

Students of the Week 9/29/14

Now that I have gotten routines started and have learned a little bit about each of the students, I realized that I have the opportunity to teach an incredible group of freshmen and sophomores. To honor them and their achievements, I have decided to name a Student of the Week for each grade. This week, I actually did two students for each grade because I was fortunate enough to come across an email from the Detroit Pistons that offered 8 free preseason tickets to one of their upcoming games.

I gave each of the kids two tickets and a certificate for their accomplishments. Look for new Students of the Week every week. Thank you all for your hard work! 

Fact Friday

Fridays have become "Fact Friday" in my classroom. Each Friday, the students and I dig through a nonfiction piece. It has provided a nice break in the week from our regular literature and is helping the kids understand how to read nonfiction. 

Nonfiction is the most common genre adults read in their everyday life, so I feel it is extremely important to introduce the students to this genre. My goal is to show them that nonfiction can not only be informative, but also interesting. 

Here are some pictures of the sophomores reading last Friday. We read a paired text on The Giver. The students read a condensed screenplay for the new movie and then read an article about a chemical scientists are investigating that could reduce terrible memories in the human's mind. 

Reading Strategies

Reading strategies will be extremely important this year as we explore many types of genres and topics. This week we are paying special attention to becoming an active reader. Specifically, we talked about making connections while we read. Here are some of the scenerios we discussed to show how important it is to make connections...

****The students were instructed to read the italicized passage below.

           

            The Batsmen were merciless against the Bowlers. The Bowlers placed their men in slips and covers. But to no avail. The Batsmen hit one four after another along with an occasional six. Not once did their balls hit their stumps or get caught.

What do you notice about your thinking process? How was your comprehension? Your attitude or feelings?

(The students decided that it didn't make any sense when they read it the first time.) 

Then I told them that it was about the British sport, Cricket. 

They decided that it made sense now. Then I asked them to answer these questions. 

Answer these questions:

1.      Who were merciless against the Bowlers?

2.      Where did the Bowlers place their men?

3.      Was this strategy successful?

4.      Who hit an occasional six?

5.      How many times did the Batsmen’s balls hit a stump?

Can you answer these without looking back? … Probably not. Reading is more about just decoding the words. You probably understood all the words in this passage, but didn’t really comprehend what was being discussed.

Reading is an active, constructive process.

            Good readers have a collection of thinking strategies they use to comprehend texts.

           

Some strategies:         

            *visualize (make mental pictures or sensory images)

            *connect (connect to own experience, to events in the world, to other readings)

            *question (to actively wonder, to interrogate the text)

            *infer (to predict, hypothesize, interpret, draw conclusions)

            *evaluate (to determine importance, make judgments)

            *analyze (to notice text structures, author’s craft, vocabulary, purpose, theme, point of view)

            *recall (to retell, summarize, remember information)

            *self-monitor (to recognize and act on confusion, uncertainty, attention problems)

           

Think about this: Have you ever noticed how you can drive your car across town to a friend’s house, day-dream all the way, and still arrive at your destination without much conscious attention to the steering wheel, brake pedal, turn signal, etc? To survive and arrive, you had to constantly monitor the movements of other cars behind, beside, and ahead of you; calculate stopping distances, etc. While at the wheel, you are simultaneously dealing with issues of time, space, physics, and potentially, life and death—and all the while you were wondering who else was going to be there.

The same thing happens when you read: you can “drive” through some texts without explicit self-awareness, especially when the topic is as familiar as the directions to your friend’s house. That doesn’t mean that, driving or reading, you aren’t really thinking. In both cases, you are using complex cognitive strategies, very actively and creatively at the unconscious level.

However, if you are heading off to visit a new acquaintance, in a new neighborhood (we used Detroit as an example), your awareness is elevated. Maybe you study a map or directions first. You have to watch closely to signs, you notice stores, you watch your odometer, etc.

This is probably how you feel when you read something new. Go back to the cricket passage. Even though we know the text is about cricket, we still don’t really understand what it says. We have to investigate other information before this passage can make sense. To do that, we must be active in our search.

Try this passage:

With hocked gems financing him, our hero bravely defied all scornful laughter that tried to prevent his scheme. “Your eyes deceived” he had said. “An egg not a table correctly typifies this unexplored planet.” Now three sturdy sisters sought proof. Forging along sometimes through calm vastness, yet more often over turbulent peaks and valleys. Days became weeks as many doubters spread fearful rumors about the edge. At last somewhere, welcomed winged creatures appeared signifying momentous success.

This probably puzzles you as well. But now reread this passage using this one clue: Columbus.

Now the passage clicks because you have ample prior knowledge about Columbus and his explorations. The second time through, you were using the information you have in your head already about Columbus.

We discussed how important it is to activate the connectors they already have built in their head.As soon as they were able to activate the connector for Columbus, the passage made sense. We talked about how important it is to make connections while we are reading to help with our comprehension and memory. 

Our Classroom