Acting Up! Acting Out! on the Verb's tendency to be a drama queen.

Homework due Thursday, January 7^th: For language arts students should be ready for their Weekly Work Study quiz. They should bring in their completed Weekly Word Study sheets, as well as five sentences using their five spelling words.

Homework due, Monday, January 11^th: Students should memorize William Carlos Williams’ poem, “The Red Wheelbarrow.” For drama class students should bring in a piece of writing—poem, dramatic monologue, or even a piece of fiction, that they are interested in memorizing.

Homework due Tuesday, January 12^th: Students should bring in the five words they plan to study for their Weekly Work Study quiz.

Homework due Wednesday, January 13^th: Students should read from chapter 20 to chapter 22 of the Island of the Blue Dolphins, and then complete their Literature Circle tasks for that week.



Ongoing Homework: Students should remember to read for thirty minutes each evening. Reading the assigned novel does count towards the nightly reading. Remember there are no restrictions on what you choose to read, as long as you make sure you get your assigned reading done. Please remember to record the date, the title of what you read, and how many pages you read on your Reading Journal entry form. Please turn in your entry forms on Friday, so that I can review how your reading is going. I will return them to you on Monday. I would encourage you to keep up with your reading over the weekend.

In Literature Circles today the 6^th graders spent the class learning about the role of vivid, active verbs. When I asked the students in the beginning of the class which part of speech they thought was the most important in a story, one of them indentified verbs as being the most important because, “They are about action.” The students were given a passage from Island of the Blue Dolphins, in which they were each asked to circle strong, active verbs. They then shared their choices with the three other members of their Literature Circle. They had to explain their choices, and talk about how the verb they choose affected their sense of the novel. To end the class each group picked one verb to dramatize for their classmates. The verbs chosen were attacked, whirled, watch, slash, and breaking.

In cultural studies the students continued working on their in-class project to plan an expedition to an imaginary land of their creation. They where also given an overview of the Age of Exploration.