Today, 7th grade students worked on the mechanics of writing in my Reading class. Writing you ask? Yes! Reading and Writing go hand in hand, and in Reading Support we seek to support the efforts of our Language Arts teachers by practicing good writing. Students had to respond to a writing prompt, and then edit their responses to make it better. Some students still struggle with proper sentence structure, spelling, and using punctuation and capitalization in the correct place.
7th grade students also continued to read our class novel/play, Nerdlandia by Gary Soto. I truly enjoy listening to my students read the play out-loud!
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Today students continued reading the Watson's Go to Birmingham. Students are learning about themes such as friendship, forgiveness and family dynamics. Students worked together with a partner to discuss and answer questions related to the book. Discussing the questions with a peer helps students to better understand the text, retain information, and build community within the class.
Parents, please continue to talk to your students about what they are reading. Ask them questions about library books and books they may be reading in their classes. On Friday, all of Ms. LaVigne's classes visited the Library Learning Common, so every student should currently have a library book to read. Today in 6th grade Reading Support students finished taking the rSkills test. The rSkills test is an assessment that comes at the end of each workshop/unit. As I'm checking scores, it looks like most students did quite well on this test. Keep up the good work students.
Students who finished their test early completed in the puzzle challenge. Pairs of students chose a 50 piece puzzle to work on. The group that finished first won Cardinal Cash! We are also working on reading endurance in my class. Please make sure your child is reading for 20 minutes each night to improve their reading skills and build their reading endurance. Today in 7th grade Reading Support, we started a new unit, Workshop 8: Stolen Childhoods. Students leaned new academic vocabulary for this workshop. We watched a short anchor video to preview the topic and provide background information.
I'm also excited about the new class novel that we started reading today called Nerdlandia, by Gary Soto. We will be working on predicting, summarizing, fluency, characterization and many other literacy skills while reading this book. This novel is actually a play. Students have been assigned parts and today they did an amazing job sitting in the Actors chairs, reading their parts. Is your child one of the main characters?? Ask them to find out! Today in Reading Support, I will continue to conference with students regarding their new Lexile scores, and their growth Goals. In December, students took the (RI) Reading Inventory. This diagnostic test shows where a students reading level is. Students are encouraged to choose books that are close to their Lexile level. I am very proud of my students who are making consistent progress and growth in Reading. Many of my students reached their growth goals for the semester, and some even exceeded their goals! Keep up the good work students!
Parents, I encourage you to talk to your students about their reading levels, and make sure they are reading every night at home for 20 minutes or more. Today in 7th grade we read the Science texts, "America's Least Wanted. We learned about invader species of plants and animals that cause harm to the native plants and animals of America. Students learned what Kudzo is, learned about Zebra Mussels, the Northern Snakehead fish, and the dangers of Red Ants.
We Read aloud to improve fluency and discussed Cause and Effect. Students also identified the main idea and supporting details of the text. Today 6th grade students learned about the structure of a poem through the selected poetry of Emily Dickenson. We reviewed the meaning of stanza, identified rhyme patterns, simile/ metaphors and discussed theme.
Welcome back parents and students! Yesterday marked the first day of 2nd semester. I'm excited about all of the accomplishments of 2017, and the new possibilities of 2018.
Report cards will be sent home today with students. Please make sure to sign and return the envelope with your child/student. I encourage all of my parents to review grades, goals and expectations with your child. Wishing everyone a successful semester. |
Ms. LaVigne
READ 180 Teacher Smitha Middle School Log on now! Read180/System44 URL: https://h100004008.education.scholastic.com/ CALL TECH SUPPORT FOR PROBLEMS LOGGING INTO READ180/S44. THEY CAN HELP!: 1-800- 283-5974 Log on for Readworks assignments now! Readworks.org Readworks Class Codes:
1st- 4DYC7M 2nd- 63HUHW 3rd- NA3VJR 4th- Y4QWW4 5th- KT5EB3 PASSWORD IS: 1234 Archives
September 2020
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