Week of Oct. 7th
Students are exploring the concept of Bucketing and how this concept is used to determine common ideas across texts. They will read the six documents needed to answer the essay question: Who are The Outsiders?
Week of Sept. 30th/Oct. 1st
Before beginning out introduction to our DBQ "Who Are The Outsiders?", students developed their skills in comparing and contrasting a video and a text with the same subject matter: Heard Behavior. We view a classic video of a Candid Camera clip "Everybody's Doing It" and compared it to a text we read earlier this year. Then students used a Venn diagram to identify the similarities and differences of these texts in presenting the same idea. Students had to familiarize themselves with academic vocabulary and then write a response explaining how the audience is impacted by these two types of texts.
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After our hook lesson into The Outsiders DBQ, we spent one lesson understanding the idea of the "American Dream". We studied a cartoon image by Greenberg (see image below), reviewed the traditional definition, then read "The House on Mango Street", a chapter from the book with the same name. Students were then asked to research the American Dream of today to that of their grandparents and to write a paragraph explaining the differences between the two..
Weeks of Sept. 16th and Sept. 23rd
We continued working on the Central Idea of an informational text and its development this week. Our example text this week has been "Let 16-Year-Olds vote for L.A. School Board." Then students demonstrated their application of this week's lessons using either "The Limits of Empathy" or "Putting Good Deeds in Headlines May Not Be So Good." They created a timeline (1st image) showing the development of an author's argument then wrote a strong objective summary (2nd image).
Students ended the week with developing and writing their own argument essay using evidence from "Let 16-Year-Olds vote for L.A. School Board." They were introduced to the T.E.X.A.S. body paragraph (3rd image) writing frame as well as Introductory (4th image) and Conclusion (5th image) paragraphs specific to argumentative essay writing.
Students ended the week with developing and writing their own argument essay using evidence from "Let 16-Year-Olds vote for L.A. School Board." They were introduced to the T.E.X.A.S. body paragraph (3rd image) writing frame as well as Introductory (4th image) and Conclusion (5th image) paragraphs specific to argumentative essay writing.
Week of Sept. 9th
This week we focused on annotating informational texts: "Herd Behavior" and "The Destruction of the Amazon, Explained" to determine the central idea of a text (Image 1), identify evidence within a text to support a central idea, and connect the relationships between people and events and how people influenced the event to happen (Image 2). We then turned our focus to inferences and how to use evidence to explain the inference within a text (Image 3).
Skills for the Weeks of Aug. 26 and Sept. 3 (Standard RL.7.3)
In these first two weeks we will be focusing on the reading literature standard 7.3. This standard requires that students be able to determine the plot of a story. Of course, before students can do this, they need to be able to define the different parts of a plot (see image 1 below). Once they can define these terms, they should be able to identify these parts within a song (see image 2, the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," image below). Then this is followed by their ability to determine the these parts in a short story ("The Dinner Party" by Mona Gardner) and their impact on the plot (see image 3, the graphic organizer, below). This exercise will be graded.
Students will then analyze characters and the way author's reveal them to the reader. Students are using the I SAW A character method (see image 4, below) to show their understanding of Indirect Characterization. Students will read the short story "Seventh Grade" by Gary Soto and complete a graphic organizer in class. This exercise will be graded.
Then student will turn their focus to conflict and the different types. They will determine the conflict of a main character in "Seventh Grade," using the "Somebody...Wanted...But...So....Then" strategy (see image 5 below). We will read the short story "The War of the Wall" by Toni Cade Banbara. Students will use this story to apply all these skills (images 3, 4, and 5) to ensure they have a solid understanding of standard RL.7.3.
Students will then move onto writing a narrative writing wherein they create their own plot.
Students will then analyze characters and the way author's reveal them to the reader. Students are using the I SAW A character method (see image 4, below) to show their understanding of Indirect Characterization. Students will read the short story "Seventh Grade" by Gary Soto and complete a graphic organizer in class. This exercise will be graded.
Then student will turn their focus to conflict and the different types. They will determine the conflict of a main character in "Seventh Grade," using the "Somebody...Wanted...But...So....Then" strategy (see image 5 below). We will read the short story "The War of the Wall" by Toni Cade Banbara. Students will use this story to apply all these skills (images 3, 4, and 5) to ensure they have a solid understanding of standard RL.7.3.
Students will then move onto writing a narrative writing wherein they create their own plot.