January 6 - 10, 2014

Thursday HW
1.  Find out 3 to 5 facts about your Book Club book author from the Internet to use in composing a short author biography for the flyleaf on our book jacket assignment.  We discussed the book jacket assignment today and generated success criteria together as a class.  I have a typed out version of the requirements and the success criteria for each student that is ready for tomorrow.
2.  Gym is tomorrow during period three rather than period four, owing to an assembly in the senior gym in the afternoon for grade 7/8 students.
3.  Bring your library books to school Monday for our book exchange period.
4.  French poems -- Friday.
5.  Two more book club sessions happened today.  Discussion is a big part of it.  Our afternoon group was a somewhat reserved and reluctant to "mix it up" a bit with ideas and opinions.  I am encouraging the students to venture more talk that is purposeful and focused.  Two more groups remain.

Wednesday HW
1.  Book Club presentations today were terrific.  I listened to plenty of enthusiastic responses to the books the students chose and some fine discussions unrolled in each of the two sessions today.  Hot chocolate, marsh mellows and cupcakes didn't hurt either ; ). We'll continue tomorrow and in the following days until we are done.
2.  MMS pages 48-49.  We circled the shaded parts that the photocopier did not reproduce on page 48 so that the students could finish their work.
3.  The human illness report is due in good copy form in class tomorrow.  This is a culminating task that our class has been working on since late November.  It should be single-spaced and in blue or black ink.
4.  French - poems - Friday.

Tuesday HW
1.  All book club reading should be done.  Students worked in generating the Success Criteria today for their oral presentations which begin in groups tomorrow.  Each student received a topic sheet and a copy of the success criteria today.  We have read this novel since early December in class and as homework.  The assignment is meant to play to the strengths of students who have strong oral skills and who may have some writing weakness.  No script is required.
2.  MMS pages 46-47.  We have introduced the topic for two classes over two days.  Some students are really struggling with the idea of tenths and hundredths in the place value chart as they relate to fraction writing.  I have modeled several responses and explicitly taught vocabulary such as "numerator", "denominator", and "mixed number".  More examples are shown in the quick review section on page 46.
3.  The human illness report is due in good copy form in class on Thursday.  This is a culminating task that our class has been working on since late November (see blog post from Thursday November 29).  The students were given a detailed topic sheet on page 22 of the Human Organ Systems booklet and space to write a rough draft for it on pages 23, 24 and 25 of that same booklet.
Our unit study of human body systems (as outlined in the table of contents) should give students the understanding they need to tackle the five bulleted questions on page 22.  To organize their rough note taking, students worked in small groups and had an organizer chart for jot notes.  Each student must produce his/her own report.  They worked in groups for support but not as a group making just one report in total.



Monday HW

Welcome back from the holidays!  I hope everyone is rested and healthy for the remainder of winter.  The days are getting brighter and longer...
1.  Finish all Book Club reading.  We start book club oral presentations on Wednesday.
2.  French Poems on Friday.
3.  Human illness report (up to 2 pages) is due in good copy form on Thursday this week.