Ms. Faircloth

Today students did a flashdraft about their topic for 15 minutes. There was no editing or trying to filter what they wrote. The goal was to figure out what you already know about your topic. Then, students looked for what kinds of text structures they might use in their final article, and what "holes" they have in their research at this point. They continued researching and finding answers to their research questions.

Today we read to page 122 in Uprising . Then students had time to work on their Character Graphic Organizer and on vocabulary in their Reading Notebook. (Vocab check on Day 4 - 8 words minimum for Q3)

Today, students worked with the books from the library, doing research about their topic.

Today periods 3 and 5 worked on the article and close reading questions for "Working Life". Period 7 rewrote the answers for "Life in America" if students didn't earn an A or B on the assignment. The steps: Read article once Read questions Re-read article, highlighting and annotating Write answers using complete sentences, evidence from the article, and restating the question as a topic sentence.

Today students focused on their first choice of a research topic from the collections they scanned yesterday. Today they actually began taking notes about what they found - tracking their sources on a page, giving each source a number. They needed to keep track of which sources they got which notes from.

Today students finished the questions about the non-fiction text " No Place For Jews ". Then we continued reading in Uprising. ( We are reading the section from pp. 44-69.)

Today we finished reading through page 43 in Uprising . Then students read the non-fiction text " No Place For Jews " and the Close Reading Questions . We will finish these tomorrow at the beginning of the period.

Today students worked on getting a "birds eye view" of a variety of possible research topics. They chose a few sources in each collection for 6th grade ELA on the library website, and read/watched the source. The goal is to narrow their interest down to one (or maybe two) topics that they will get into more deeply tomorrow, taking notes. NOTE - if the link doesn't take you to a group of collections specifically on the MMS library site, you will need to go to the library site, choose "catalog" and then the "catalog" tab specifically. Then choose Destiny Discover on the left side, then collections. You may also be able to search for "Faircloth" in the search field and it should pull up the 6 collections we created for 6th grade.

Today we started reading Uprising. Students also worked on their Character Graphic Organizer as we finished each chapter about a new character.

Today students worked on non-fiction text " The Land That Time Forgot ", about Italy and migration to the US at the turn of the 20th century. Then students answered Close Reading questions about the text

Today students worked on the Scholastic Issue about Martin Luther King, Jr. They did the comprehension questions on the back of the issue, along with both sides of a worksheet about Martin Luther King.

Today we did a note-taking lesson. Students watched a video about Malala , practicing how to take notes in a "fast & furious" manner. Then we reread the notes, students created topics or headings that might be used to organize those notes, and rewrote them in a different space in their notebooks. Next we watched a longer video about Malala , and students took notes again. They were also asked to notice the reactions of the audience and the interviewer.

Today, students wrote a timed write to wrap up our Argument unit.

Today, students read "The Living Kuon Yin", using the signposts to highlight and annotate the story. It will be one of the choices for the timed write prompt tomorrow.

Today we read the prelude to Flesh & Blood So Cheap , the non-fiction text that we will be reading along with our novel this month. Students discussed the content. Then we read the dedication page to Uprising  and discussed it. Students made inferences about the dedication with their elbow partners, then shared. We read the first chapter and discussed. We talked about flashback . Then students thought about: Why might an author choose to start a story at the end? Why do you think Haddix chose to use this technique? As a reader and writer, what do you think about this as a beginning?

Today we finished up the DBI for Uprising . Students completed their notecatcher.

Students had 15 minutes to finish their Text Structures Packet #2. Then we played Jeopardy - with the theme being "Text Structures".

Today, we looked at the next part of the DBI - first hand accounts, news articles, and other poems or songs about the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Students recorded their notices, wonderings, and thoughts about the texts in their notecatcher.

Today we started the second Text Structures packet. The readings are about Disney World and the Graphic organizers are separate from the readings. Students needed to use the signal words and author's purpose to identify the text structure and then complete the graphic organizers for the correct text type. (There will be 15 minutes on Day 4 to complete these)

Today we started a Document Based Inquiry (DBI) to prepare for the next novel we will be reading. Students recorded what they noticed, wondered, or thought about the images in the text set. I challenged them to see if they can identify the issues that will be present in the next novel from the text sets.