Have a great vacation... but not from reading!

Enjoy the break for family, fun, and making connections, but remember to read! December reading logs will be collected the first day back. If another copy is needed, it can be printed from here. Just click the image to enlarge. Remember, front and back must be completed for full credit.

Making Connections Homework

Due Dates:

1st Period: 12/16, 3rd Period: 12/16 6th Period: 12/11, 7th Period: 12/11

Vocabulary Cartoons to Help You Study!

Click on the arrow to play.

Benevolent-Characterized by or expressing good will or kindly feelings; charitable(giving); desiring to help others

Malevolent - Wishing harm or evil to others; showing ill-will

Astute - smart, perceptive, clever, shrewd

Obtuse - not quick or alert in perception, feeling, or intellect, not sensitive or observant, not sharp, block-headed, slow in comprehension

Elated- very happy or proud, jubilant, in high spirits

Melancholy - a gloomy state of mind, especially when habitual or prolonged (depressed)

Irate - angry, enraged, furious

Pugnacious - inclined to quarrel or fight, combative, quarrelsome

Amiable - having or showing pleasant good-natured personal qualities; friendly; sociable; agreeable; willing to accept the wishes, decisions, or suggestions of others

Craven - cowardly, timid, fearful

Making Connections

We are working on active reading strategies. One important role of the reader is the connector. We discussed the three kinds of connections that readers make: text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world.

Why make connections?

It helps us:
•understand how characters feel and the motivation behind their actions.
• have a clearer picture in our head as we read thus making
us more engaged.
• keep us from becoming bored while reading
• set a purpose for reading and keeps us focused
• see how other readers connected to the reading
• become actively involved
• remember what we have read and ask questions about the text
•have a stronger understanding of the writer’s message

We are practicing these connections with selections from the literature book along with the self-selected novels that students are logging and reading.

Cause and Effect

In class Thursday and Friday we are discussing 4 different cause and effect patterns.
Then we applied this strategy to a story in our literature book.

This page is a short cause and effect homework assignment, due next class meeting.

Binder Check

We spent time in class filing papers and getting organized. This table of contents is posted in the classroom. Any questions? This is where the graded work should be located. Keeping organized is a priority. A binder check may happen in class...taken for a quiz grade. Be Prepared!

December Reading Log

This log will be used as a TEST GRADE, so completion of both sides is very important!

Show, Don't Tell

Look at the following two paragraphs:

The weather is very nice today. The nice sky looks so pretty. Blue skies are high up. Trees look good. The air is clean. It is warm. I feel the sun. There is a good breeze.

AND

I can feel the sun’s rays dance across my skin, warming each cell with its long, dazzling fingers. A ceiling of azure, high, high above, invites me to gaze toward the heavens. Wispy puffs of milky-white moisture streak across the sky, reflecting the sunlight. The palm and oak stretch their arms into the light, swaying in the light springtime breeze. With each breath the fragrance of earth, clean and fresh, fills my head. The delicate heat of the atmosphere wraps around me, embracing me. What a delight!

While both paragraphs address the topic, the second one is SHOWING when the first was only TELLING.

Your assignment is to write a SHOW, DON’T TELL for each of the following topics. Your writing must be a minimum of one sheet of notebook paper (front only) and may be no longer than two. Please use your very neatest handwriting. You may type your assignment using Times or Arial font but you may not add clip art or other decorations. Use a 12 pin font. Whether typed or handwritten you must place your heading in the upper right corner.

This assignment will be graded for a completion grade, 100% for turned-in, on time, and on-topic writing, or a 0% for work that is missing or late. In the event of an EXCUSED absence, the assignment will be due on the next day of attendance.

On “Show Don’t Tell Day,” your papers will be collected and checked in. They will be assigned a number randomly, and the heading will be inked-out to protect the writer’s anonymity. Then teams will be given several papers to read, compare, and discuss detailed writing. We will then choose the paper that we think showed the most WITHOUT telling. The writer will receive a certificate (suitable for framing) and a sweet treat!

Due dates for these topics will be posted in class and on this website.

1. The party was fun.
2. That was quite a storm.
3. I was frightened.
4. What a great surprise.
5. The teacher was mean.
6. That meal was delicious.
7. What a rollercoaster ride!
8. The show was fantastic.
9. Boy, am I angry.
10. What a beautiful animal!
11. I was treated like royalty.
12.What a wonderful friend.
13. That was an interesting bus ride.
14. That was a great piece of writing.

Topic #1 is due 12/10 for A day and 12/11 for B day

FRIENDLY REMINDER....

Reading Logs will be collected right after Thanksgiving!

Explanation, Supporting Detail, Elaboration

Click on the image to enlarge...
We learned about the Four Square Grapic Organizer to plan our writing, and then we rewrote out District Timed Writing #1. In the Four Square we represent three levels of detail, and we explored detail by color-coding some sample essys in class. This page is homework, due 11/24 for B day and 11/30 for A day and 7th period students.

Vocabulary Cartoon Assignment

This week we're learning about mnemonics and vocabulary while tapping our artistic abilities. Look for your students work on their vocabulary cartoon. We will be revisiting this activity throughout the year. This activity encourages learning new vocabulary words along with the use mnemonic devices to commit them to long-term memory.
Click on the image to enlarge it.

After-school Make-up

Did you miss a test? Or an important lesson on the Extended Response or the Four Square Writing plan? Mrs. Amerson is available on Tuesday and Thursday after school. Please let her know that you will be staying. Let's get everyone caught up before the holiday crush starts!

Writing Week

We will be reviewing the District Writing Assessment #1 and making revisions to our drafts to place in our Language Arts portfolios. We will learn a powerful graphic organizer, The Four Square Writing Method, to help improve the focus, organization, and detail of our essay writing.

The rewrite of our District Writing #1 will begin in class on Monday and Tuesday, and should be finished for homework, to be collected Thursday and Friday.

Later this week we will use this strategy when we do the District Writing Assessment #2. We're looking to make great strides as writers this week!

Procedures Update

The student agenda/planner book is our "go to" tool for school to home communication. As such, we are implementing a new practice. If a student does not have an assignment when it is due they must fill out a gold slip. One copy comes to us, and one copy goes home for parent signature. We ask that parents sign the gold slip and return to class, indicating an awareness of the missing work. Now we will also stamped the agenda book"Missing assignment. Sign gold slip." This should help you to follow up with your student and get more of those papers turned in. Remember, unexcused late work is assessed a 1/2 grade penalty for each date past the due date.
When graded work is returned, this stamp is placed on the planner.

Thank you for your efforts to help our sixth graders practice responsible work habits and follow class procedures.

Assignment: Extended Response to "Eleven"

We practiced scoring FCAT extended responses, and then we worked in teams to write a "4" the highest score. We practiced using the rubric to self-evaluate. Now we're ready to try it on our own. This assignment was started in class, but students may take more time to complete at home. Here is the assignment:


This will be collected on Thursday for 4th and 6th period, and on Friday for 1st, 3rd and 7th period Language Arts Classes.

Look for the new monthly reading log

One of the best ways to become a stronger reader? Read! We'll be using this log to track and learn more about our students reading habits. 120 minutes of reading per week will be a breeze - less than 15 minutes per day. Find books and genres your children enjoy. Logs will be checked in class at the end of the month.

On the back of the log is a reflection activity that reinforces skills and concepts taught in class.

Accessing the online textbook

You will begin by clicking the "Online textbook resources" link on the lower right of this page. This will bring you to the Classzone.com home page.Scroll down to the Online book link and click. First time here? Click "Create a Student Account."

This is where the secret code is entered. Students copied this into agenda books in class.

Enter your name, create a username and a password. Then scroll down.

Choose a secret question and answer to secure your account.

Enter that information, and you have success! You can go to Classzone from here.

Click GO to get to the online book.

From here you can scroll the table of contents or the index (upper left) or enter the page number (lower right). Your whole book is here!

The New Nine-Week Quarter

New Textbooks! Vocabulary Cartoons! Four Square Writing! The FCAT Extended Response Rubric! ... and so much more.

Please be sure your child has his or her Literature textbook in class next week (October 24th and 25th). We will be exchanging them for the brand new MacDougal Littell texts.

2 Heads are Better than One!

Greetings families! My name is Judith Gould, and I am thrilled to be co-teaching your children with Ms. Amerson this year. I have been an educator for 18 years, teaching grades from Kindergarten through twelve. I have published 16 books on Language Arts and writing, and for the last eight years I have been working as a consultant to schools throughout the country implementing best practices in Language Arts instruction. La Villa is the perfect place for my return to the classroom. I love middle school, and I love the arts, too. Maybe you'll catch me in one of the local theatrical productions, or singing with the Orange Park Chorale. I understand the artist, and I love the unpredictable and delightful mind of the middle school child!