This page will mention their homework as well as the daily agenda for that
day, so parents can understand what is expected at home and what
papers/projects are due and on what day.
Homework will consist of reading and writing in their Writer's Notebooks!
Weekly Textbook Assignment
Practically every week, students will be assigned a short story or article
from the literature textbook. Students will be assigned questions and a one-
page written response to that piece. They should answer all questions and
write their responses in their notebooks! Students will discuss the story or
article in their small response groups every Friday.
Six Weeks S.S.R. Book Project
Ongoing novel reading and six weeks project: Students will be responsible for
reading at least one novel EVERY six weeks. They will have a menu of choices
to complete a six weeks project for their self-chosen novel. (1st Six Weeks,
we will ALL be reading "The Outsiders" for this project to build unity within
our team, but after that-each student will get to choose!) Their weekly
participation/citizenship grade will take into account if the student is
bringing their book to class, so it is important for students to bring their
novel to class everyday! If they abandon a book, then they must speak to me
and fill out a handout explaining why they are abandoning the book, but they
will not be excused from doing the six weeks project.
Students should be writing a reader response to their s.s.r. book almost
every week.
Writer's Notebook
I also expect my students to write everyday in their notebooks. I don't
expect complete drafts everyday or every week. I expect their notebook
entries to be filled with writing that is thoughtful and a variety of
different ideas and pieces of writing. *Check the Writer's Notebook Rubric to
see how I will grade their notebook entries.*
See below the explanation of the writer's notebook.
Ideas for Writer's Notebook Entries
A place for you to live as a writer. Keep all your writing in this notebook
and/or portfolio envelope.
What makes a writer?
A writer sees something cool and does something about it.
If a writer overhears a crazy conversation, they write it down.
If they see an unusual person, they write a quick character sketch of them.
If they have a vivid dream, they write it down and extend it.
If they wish they would have said something during an argument, then they re-
write the argument.
Other Ideas: Memories, drawings, newspaper articles, quotations, images,
word lists, ideas for stories, poems, songs, rap lyrics, dialogues,
experiences, events, & rewrites of any of the above . . .
DAILY AGENDA/HOMEWORK
4th Six Weeks
Six Weeks S.S.R. Persuasive Book Project Due: Febuary 16
Six Weeks Major Writing Assignment: Expository Essay (from a prompt) Due:
January 24th
Week of January 2-6:
No Textbook work.
No reader response.
Write 5 pages in your Writer's Notebook.
Choose a book by Friday for S.S.R. time and reading at home.
We will be disecting prompts to the expository essays similar to the ones on
the STAAR test and writing a kernel essay (pre-write draft) for each prompt.
Week of January 9-13
No textbook work.
1 page Reader Response due on Friday.
Write 5 pages in your writer's notebook.
You should be reading about 2 hours per week at home.
Week of January 16-20
No textbook work.
1 page reader response due on Friday.
Write 5 pages in our writer's notebook. (I'm collecting notebooks on Friday,
so I'm expecting 15 pages for the first three weeks.)
Write 5 pages in our writer's notebook.
You should be reading about 2 hours per week at home.
Agenda: We've been working on revising our first draft expository essays.
We've been rotating between the revision stations. Student are revising their
lead paragraphs, writing more complex (badabing) sentences, replacing weak
verbs with stronger, more descriptive verbs, and "exploding a moment."
Week of January 23-27
No textbook work.
NO reader response.
Write 5 pages in our writer's notebook.
You should be reading about 2 hours per week at home.
Agenda: We will finish the 2 round of revision/teacher's conference stations
today. On Tuesday, we will write a "Near-final" draft. Do short editing
stations on Wednesday. Thursday, we will have school-wide testing day for the
Language Arts District Benchmark. On Friday, we will complete our expository
essay drafts and/or finish the essays for the district benchmarks.
Week of February 6-10
Textbook work: pages 958-967 (worksheet is provided) Due: Thursday at
beginning of class.
NO reader response.
No required pages in your notebook.
You should be reading about 2 hours per week at home.
Nothing was due last week. We've been doing everything in class. This week,
we're reading 2 persuasive editorials and analyzing them in the textbook and
we will be writing a one-page max persuasive letter. (Due next Tuesday)