This week will be full of fits and starts. On Monday, the sixth graders will be taking the OLSAT during first period. Sixth graders will also have a field trip this week, where they will be treated to the dramatization of some of the short stories we have been reading. On Thursday, students have early dismissal, and there is no school on Friday! That won't stop us from accomplishing some pretty interesting things in our classes this week, however.
In sixth grade, we have concluded the unit on prepositions with our "quest" on Friday. This week, we begin the introduction of diagramming sentences. Some of you parents may remember tackling grammar in this systematic way. For many students, the visualization of the various components of each part of a sentence that diagramming provides, is the key to understanding and bringing together what they have learned about parts of speech and the correct construction of sentences throughout the entire year.
Sixth graders have begun the novel Maniac Magee, by Jerry Spinelli. Maniac's adventures, and the story of the healing affect he has on the segregated community in which he finds himself, is a favorite of students.
This weekend, seventh graders should have been working on gathering more information for their speeches on the career they have chosen. We spent one of the two periods in the IMC last week, helping them to put together sources and notecards, but we encouraged additional work at home in order to insure that each student had adequate information about his or her topic. The final notecard check, a minimum of twenty (20) cards, will be conducted in class on Monday. We will then begin the outline, from which the speeches will be given. Students will be provided class time to type their outlines. A visual aid for each speech is also required. Requirements for notecards, sources, deadlines, the bibliography and outline, and the speech, itself, were distributed to students two weeks ago, and are available on Mrs. Hayes's blog.
In reading, the seventh grade continues reading Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie. Vocabulary and questions for each chapter are begun in class, and should be completed for homework each day. Also, comparison book reports, in the form of a poster, which the students began in class last Friday, will be due on Thursday, 4/21.
