6th Blue ELA

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Homework for Coop Day Two

Students are to come to class on Coop Day Two having read both assigned short stories with a theme identified and written for each one. A theme is a complete thought- and they have notes they took in class yesterday to help with this. As a reminder, attach the phrase “the author believes that” to a topic in the story, and then after determining what the author believes, remove the attached phrase. (Again, we did this in class and they took notes). They need to bring these written down themes with them to class. 

In addition, I announced in class the writing assignment we will be doing instead of the writing listed on the syllabus. Students received a gingerbread half-sheet that announced they will be realtors writing flyers to sell gingerbread homes. We will work more on this descriptive writing project in class on Day Two. They need to begin imagining and designing their dream gingerbread house for homework.

Writing Assignment Alteration

Parents, 
 
As a heads up, please note that I am giving students a different writing assignment for the weeks leading up to Christmas break. I am introducing this assignment in class on our first day of coop this week, and it will culminate the last day of coop the following week. 
 
There will be no work in The Essay and Thinking in Three's so please disregard that on the syllabus. 

Week of Nov 27 Update

Students will need to read “The Necklace” for coop Day One and “The Wise Old Woman” for Day Two (see attached links). We will be working on the element of theme this coming week. 

HOMEWORK DUE THURSDAY

Please have your child use their conflict notes from class to determine and write down the conflicts from both “Rain Rain Go Away” and “All Summer in a Day.” It is very important that students are reading the short story assignments! (links below to online pdfs)

Week of Nov 13 Update

What a crazy, fun week we’ve had! Thank you to all the parents who made Wednesday/Thursday possible!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure you are having your child read the listed short stories. Last week only 4 students in 6th grade red (out of 14) and about half of 6th grade blue had read the short story, making the activities I had planned nearly impossible. The literature portion of this unit is NOT ON THE SYLLABUS and is only found here!

For the week we return from Thanksgiving, your child needs to have read the short story “Rain Rain Go Away” by Coop Day 1 and “All Summer in a Day” by Coop Day 2. Links are posted! 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

No Grammar Olympics Next Week!

Due to some Thanksgiving-related ELA activities I want to incorporate on Monday and Tuesday, there will be no Grammar Olympics next week.

Week of Nov 6 Update

Yesterday I ended up leaving before class because my daughter needed me. We were blessed to have Mrs. Zinn come in at short notice and take over class! 

This week in ELA in addition to the items on the syllabus: 

We dove into our new short story unit by looking at the five elements of short stories we will be studying throughout this unit: characterization, setting, theme, conflict, and plot. We also reviewed how to construct a plot diagram. Yesterday they read our first short story, “Charles” by Shirley Jackson and then drew the plot diagram and discussed all the elements. Before Tuesday please have your child read the short story “Two Thanksgiving Gentlemen” (link provided below). 

Mrs. Zinn said they were an awesome class and they enjoyed the story and discussions. Thank you for sending them to school with the mindset of being active, engaged learners!

Week of October 30 Update

This week we enjoyed listening to everyone’s oral history projects on Day 1 and had an amazing book experience on Day 2! Next week begins our short story unit. I will send out updates and links for stories that will need to be read at home in advance. Nothing needs to be prepared for this coming week. 

Week of October 23 Update

This week we *finally* got to try our papaya. Student opinion varied widely, but almost all of them at least tasted it. We then finished tracking the references to papaya as a symbol through the end of the novel. Students then color-coded what papaya symbolizes per reference. As a class we decided that papaya most often symbolizes home (Vietnam), hope, and as a measurement of goodness. Then after looking at p. 27 in Thinking in Three’s, we imagined writing an essay proving that papaya is the most important symbol in the book. From there we practiced and crafted a thesis statement. Finding and using text evidence in a response to literature is a skill we will be working on throughout the year. 

We also reviewed this week the element of setting - time, place, social condition- and all the different components as setting is the driving force in the plot of this book. 

On the first day of coop next week we will be listening to students’ oral history projects. Please email those to me the day before so I can make sure they open as we will be pushed for time to listen to them all during class. Due to this, we will not be doing spelling or Grammar Olympics next week.  I will try to find time to fit in the essay book pages (35-36) but those may need to be addressed at home as well. 

On the second day of coop we will be having our Inside Out and Back Again book experience. It should be a fun week!

Have a great weekend and enjoy this gorgeous weather!