Norman's desert-island-reading book montage

Jazz and Twelve O'Clock Tales: New Stories
Talking Dirty to the Gods: Poems
A Game of You
ERODING WITNESS
Sit Down and Shut Up: Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death, and Dogen's Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye
The Palace of the Peacock
Beloved
Little Kingdoms
Bedouin Hornbook
Sonny's Blues
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom: A Play
Joe Turner's Come and Gone
Collected Poems, 1948-1984
Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Winter's Tales
Four Major Plays: A Doll's House/Ghosts/Hedda Gabler/The Master Builder
Seven Plays
The Zoo Story
Collected Plays:  Volume 1


Norman's favorite books »
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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Time to Step Up

Wednesday, April 27th is step up day, so the 6th graders will be spending the morning in the upper middle school, getting a taste of what school will be like next year. Spelling will be done during Language Arts on Thursday.

Homework:
Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.

Language Arts homework due Thursday, April 28th. Either complete Step 2, or continue working on Step 3 of writing your essay.
Language Arts homework due Thursday, April 28th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.
Language Arts homework due Friday, April 29th. Turn in Reading Response Letter to Norman.
Complete Literature Circle assignment and be ready to participate in group.

Monday, April 25, 2011

The sixth graders are well into their student led literature circles. Using the novels, The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, and The True Meaning of Smekday, the students have been taking charge of their own learning.  They have been assigning their own homework, agreeing on amount of pages to be read, and discussing the texts together. This unit will culminate in a presentation in which each group will find a way to share the novel they read with the rest of the class.

Lit Circle at work.




In Writing Workshop the students are about to start the collecting information phase of their writing. We have explored different places to find information, from books, the internet, questions readers may ask, interviews with family members, just to name a few sources. After this step the young writers will go on to create outlines for their essays.


Homework:
Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.
Cultural Studies homework due Tuesday, April 26th. Read the Geography of Northern Africa handout. Complete questions 1 to 4. 
Language Arts homework due Tuesday, April 26th. Either complete Step 2, or continue working on Step 3 of writing your essay.
Language Arts homework due Wednesday, April 27th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.
Language Arts homework due Friday, April 29th. Turn in Reading Response Letter to Norman.
Complete Literature Circle assignment and be ready to participate in group discussion.Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, April 19, 2011


Today in Cultural Studies the students used the Code of Hammurabi as a spring board to a discussion on the relationship between rules, laws, and consequences. Dividing into groups they worked on creating their own rules. The students were generally struck by the fact that while coming up with rules was generally easy, creating appropriate consequences was much more difficult.


In Language Arts the sixth graders are working on coming up with essay topics. Their first assignment was to write down 20 questions that wanted to know about their topic. 

Homework:
Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.
Cultural Studies homework due Wednesday, April 20th. Read the Ancient Israelites handout. Complete questions 1 to 4. 
Language Arts homework due Wednesday, April 20th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.
Language Arts homework due Friday, April 22nd. Turn in Reading Response Letter to Norman.
Complete Literature Circle assignment and be ready to participate in group discussion.Posted by Picasa

Monday, April 18, 2011

Homework:
Reading: Read for at least thirty minutes seven nights a week. Remember to enter your reading time and the pages you read in your log, and get it signed by your parents.
Cultural Studies homework due Tuesday, April 19th. Finish reading Conquests and Empires handout. Complete questions 1 to 4. If questions are not completed for homework, they will be done in class tomorrow.
Language Arts homework due Wednesday, April 20th. Weekly Word Quiz; Five sentences with spelling words.
Language Arts homework due Friday, April 22nd. Turn in Reading Response Letter to Norman.
Complete Literature Circle assignment and be ready to participate in group discussion.