- Dr. Alleyne
- Ms. Daniel
- Ms. Stroud
- Mrs. Thon
**Students click this link after completing your reading inventory: bit.ly/2HYFA6l**
*After finishing the survey, you may click this link to explore some Reading and Writing Resources: www.cooperelaresources.com/more-resources.html*
Week of April 30 - May 4, 2018
Parents, students are taking the final Reading Inventory of the year this week. As a result, students will be spending two days in the computer lab. Please check with your teacher if you have any questions about which days your child will be taking the Reading Inventory.
Monday: Students will review figurative language commonly used in poetry - we call these figurative language devices "poetic tools." Then, students will conduct a first read of "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost. After their first read, they will listen to Robert Frost narrate his poem. Students will fill out a venn diagram comparing and contrasting reading a poem silently against listening to it read aloud.
Tuesday: Students will review the poetic tools from yesterday. Then, we will work together in whole group and smaller breakout groups to use close reading in order to analyze "Nothing Gold Can Stay." Students will then choose one of the poetic tools to utilize in a poem that they will compose.
Wednesday: Reading Inventory
Thursday: Reading Inventory
Friday: Students will conduct independent reading in the classroom. Encourage your student to bring in a poem that they enjoy to share with the class.
Homework:
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of April 23 - April 27, 2018
Monday: Students will begin to learn about the various components of a poem. After taking notes about poetry components, students will analyze "Block City" by Robert Louis Stevenson to demonstrate their knowledge on poetry components.
Tuesday: Students will learn about how to close read a poem in order to analyze the multi-layered meanings in poetry. Students will then read the poem "Tear Drops on my Car" and analyze it for the meaning using the steps they learned in class.
Wednesday: Students will learn about a specific type of poetry - the haiku. Students will then use their knowledge of the components of haiku (line, syllable, etc) in order to compose a haiku within their groups.
Thursday: Students will analyze different haikus to help evaluate the different parts needed for a poem to be considered a haiku. Students will then engage in a cut and paste activity in order to write a haiku individually.
Friday: Students will deploy to their independent reading classroom to continue their independent reading instruction.
Homework:
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of April 16 - April 20, 2018
Monday: Students will begin work on new stations this week. There are eight stations, each one focused on helping students develop an important 6th grade ELA standard that will help students transition to the expectations of the 7th grade ELA classroom.
Tuesday: Students will continue to work on their stations.
Wednesday: Students will continue to work on their stations.
Thursday: Students will continue to work on their stations.
Friday: Students will continue to work on their stations. All station work is due at the end of class.
Homework:
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of April 9 - April 13, 2018
Please note that students are taking the Georgia Milestones this week. They will not meet with their ELA class everyday.
Encourage your child to get plenty of rest each night in preparation for the Milestones!
Monday: Students will continue to work on the stations activities that they began the week before Spring Break. There are eight stations, each one focused on helping students develop an important 6th grade ELA standard.
Tuesday: Students will continue to work on their stations.
Wednesday: Students will continue to work on their stations.
Thursday: Students will continue to work on their stations.
Friday: Students will continue to work on their stations. All station work is due at the end of class.
Homework:
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of March 26 - March 30, 2018
Monday: Students will be introduced to the stations activities that they will be working on this week. There are eight stations, each one focused on helping students develop an important 6th grade ELA standard. Students will work with the teacher to complete their first station today.
Tuesday: Students will complete their second and third stations.
Wednesday: Students will complete their fourth and fifth stations.
Thursday: Students will complete their sixth and seventh stations.
Friday: Students will complete their eighth and final station. Once they complete the final station, they will use the remaining time to either catch up on any station they have missed, finish work for any station they may not have finished on time, or read independently. All station work is due at the end of class.
Homework:
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of March 12 - March 16, 2018
Monday: Students will go to the computer lab to complete the Benchmark testing that they started a few weeks ago. Students will also be working on USA Test Prep assignments for EOC preparation as well as a grade recovery opportunity.
Tuesday: Students will self-assess the writing that they did for On Demand Writing #1 in January. Now that they have been learning about argumentative writing, they will use the rubric in order to assess their arguments. Students will also suggest changes and revisions to their work that would strengthen their argument.
Wednesday: Early release day. Students will review the components of a successful argumentative essay, and then they will conduct the first read on the article in Springboard that discusses whether Dodge Ball should be banned in schools.
Thursday: Students will conduct the second read of the dodge ball article. They will answer the text dependent questions and fill out a graphic organizer detailing both sides of the argument. Then, students will choose the side that they support. Students will break into groups and debate the issue using claims that they have written as well as textual evidence from the article that supports their claims.
Friday: Independent reading. Students need to be sure that they are bringing a book from home or a library. This should be the book that they read for their 30 minutes of reading homework every night! We will continue to do our breakout sessions for independent reading. Remind your student that they need to go to their regular teacher's classroom first for attendance.
Homework:
Students will be given practice tasks from USA Test Prep in order to reinforce the standards they have been learning as well as to prepare for the EOC. Please make sure that your student is working on the packet every night.
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of February 26 - March 2, 2018
Monday: Students will begin to compose the explanatory essay for Embedded Assessment 2.2. Using the information they have read and collected on their note-taking graphic organizers over the past couple of weeks, students will begin to compose their introductory paragraph. Students will focus on creating a thesis statement that informs the reader what their essay will be about, and they will also create a hook that grabs their reader's attention.
Tuesday: Students will continue to build their explanatory essay for Embedded Assessment 2.2. Today, they will be using their resources in order to compose the body of their essays as well as their conclusion paragraph. Students who need extra guidance will be given a graphic organizer to help them with composing a body paragraph or a graphic organizer to help them with composing a conclusion.
Wednesday: Students will continue to draft their explanatory essays. They will begin to revise their essays using the explanatory essay checklist. If students are missing important components of their writing, they will have the opportunity to revise their work to include those components.
Thursday: Students will be putting the finishing touches on their explanatory essays to prepare for publishing their final drafts. They will be using their checklist to help them decide whether they have successfully composed an explanatory essay, and they will be making changes if they are missing any components. Final drafts will be collected at the end of class today!
Friday: Independent reading. Students need to be sure that they are bringing a book from home or a library. This should be the book that they read for their 30 minutes of reading homework every night! We will continue to do our breakout sessions for independent reading. Remind your student that they need to go to their regular teacher's classroom first for attendance.
Homework:
Students will be given practice tasks from USA Test Prep in order to reinforce the standards they have been learning as well as to prepare for the EOC. Please make sure that your student is working on the packet every night.
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of February 12 - February 16, 2018
Please note that students will be taking a Benchmark exam at some point during the week. As a result, there are only 4 days of instruction. Please keep the dates of each teacher's benchmark in mind as you read through the lessons this week:
Daniel, Alleyne 2/13
Clark, Thon 2/14
Stroud 2/15
Monday: Students will continue to read articles, essays, and short stories about the Civil Rights Movement. Students will also learn about pulling notes and textual evidence from these different types of texts to use in an explanatory essay.
Tuesday: Students will work on analyzing an explanatory essay prompt. Then, they will continue to read articles, passages, and short stories about the Civil Rights Movement. Students will pull relevant details from the texts and record them on a graphic organizer that helps students prepare for writing an explanatory essay.
Wednesday: Students will use the graphic organizer they have been working on to draft a successful introductory paragraph for their explanatory essay. Students will also look at examples of successful and unsuccessful introductory paragraphs in order to better understand how to compose an introductory paragraph.
Thursday: Benchmark testing (see dates above for each individual teacher)
Friday: Independent reading. Students need to be sure that they are bringing a book from home or a library. This should be the book that they read for their 30 minutes of reading homework every night! We will continue to do our breakout sessions for independent reading. Remind your student that they need to go to their regular teacher's classroom first for attendance.
Homework:
Students need to study their Unit 2 Vocabulary Preview. Encourage your student to study!
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of February 5 - February 9, 2018
Monday: Students will will use a rubric to assess their proficiency in writing an explanatory paragraph in response to a prompt. Teachers will walk students through using a rubric to grade writing.
Tuesday: Students will have the opportunity revise and edit their explanatory essay based on their assessment from Monday. This is the final opportunity for students to submit work for their first performance task of the semester.
Wednesday: Students will unpack Embedded Assessment 2.2. Students will be writing an explanatory essay for this assessment. We will evaluate our proficiency in the necessary skills for the next assessment using our QHT strategy. We will refer back to this assessment throughout the unit, and reevaluate our proficiency periodically throughout the unit.
Thursday: Students will be taking a vocabulary quiz. The quiz will be over the Unit 2 Vocabulary words. There is a tab at the top of the page with the words and the definitions. After the vocabulary quiz, students will be reading and evaluating an explanatory essay exemplar in order to evaluate what they will need to do on the next assessment in order to be successful.
Friday: Independent reading. Students need to be sure that they are bringing a book from home or a library. This should be the book that they read for their 30 minutes of reading homework every night! We will continue to do our breakout sessions for independent reading. Remind your student that they need to go to their regular teacher's classroom first for attendance.
Homework:
Students need to study their Unit 2 Vocabulary Preview. Encourage your student to study!
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of January 29 - February 2, 2018
Monday: Students will preview the vocabulary for our next story, "The Scholarship Jacket". Students will read the words in context and work on developing skills by deriving a definition from context clues. Students will be given a vocabulary homework sheet that they will be working on throughout the week. There will be a vocabulary quiz on Thursday!
Tuesday: Teachers will introduce the concept of subplot as well as review the concept of plot. Students will share examples of plot and subplot scenarios. Once students feel comfortable with the concept of subplot, they will conduct their first read of "The Scholarship Jacket". Students will work together to determine both the main plot and the subplot of the short story.
Wednesday: Teacher will work with the students to review the concepts of change, plot, subplot, inferences, and predictions. After the review, students will go back into "The Scholarship Jacket" in order to determine how certain characters change over the course of the story. Students will be recording these changes in a t-chart in their composition notebooks. This t-chart will be useful for the embedded assessment students will complete on Thursday.
Thursday: Students will be taking a vocabulary quiz. The quiz will be over the words from the homework they were given last week as well as new vocabulary words from "The Scholarship Jacket". They were given this assignment back to study for the quiz this week! After the vocabulary quiz, students will be taking Embedded Assessment 2.1, which asks the students to give an explanatory response to a prompt about "The Scholarship Jacket".
Friday: Independent reading. Students need to be sure that they are bringing a book from home or a library. This should be the book that they read for their 30 minutes of reading homework every night! We will continue to do our breakout sessions for independent reading. Remind your student that they need to go to their regular teacher's classroom first for attendance.
Homework:
Students will be given a "The Scholarship Jacket" Vocabulary Preview worksheet in order to study for the quiz on Thursday. They also have their Unit 2 Vocabulary Preview back. Encourage your student to study!
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of January 16 - January 19, 2018
Monday: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Schools are closed today.
Tuesday: Students will continue to work in groups in order to analyze the effect of internal and external forces on a character in a story. We will be using clips from the movie Up, and students will be completing a chart in groups to determine the internal and external forces in each scene as well as how these forces change Carl.
Wednesday: Students will dissect an explanatory paragraph with the teacher in order to understand the necessary parts of an explanatory paragraph. Then, students will respond to an explanatory writing prompt using details from the activity on Wednesday as well as what they just learned about explanatory writing.
Thursday: Students will be taking a vocabulary quiz. The quiz will be over the words from the homework they were given last week. They were given this assignment back to study for the quiz this week!
Friday: Independent reading. Students need to be sure that they are bringing a book from home or a library. This should be the book that they read for their 30 minutes of reading homework every night!
Homework:
Students will be given back their Unit 2 Vocabulary Preview worksheet in order to study for the quiz on Thursday. Encourage your student to study!
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of January 8 - January 12, 2018
Monday: Students will finish the On Demand Writing Assessment that they began last week. Students who finish early will be given the opportunity to get started on the Unit 2 Vocabulary Preview that is homework for the week.
Tuesday: Students will preview Unit 2 vocabulary and main ideas. Then, we will unpack Embedded Assessment 2.1. We will decide as a class how prepared we are for the embedded assessment using an anchor chart and make a plan for what we need to work on in order to ensure that we will be ready for the assessment.
Wednesday: Students will work in groups in order to analyze the effect of internal and external forces on a character in a story. We will be using clips from the movie Up, and students will be completing a chart in groups to determine the internal and external forces in each scene as well as how these forces change Carl.
Thursday: Students will dissect an explanatory paragraph with the teacher in order to understand the necessary parts of an explanatory paragraph. Then, students will respond to an explanatory writing prompt using details from the activity on Wednesday as well as what they just learned about explanatory writing.
Friday: Students will engage in a Touchstones assessment. This assessment helps inform teachers what standards need to be focused on within lessons in order to ensure that all students' needs are being addressed.
Homework:
Students will be given a Unit 2 Vocabulary Preview worksheet that they will be working on throughout the week. The worksheet asks the students to define the vocabulary for Unit 2 and Walk Two Moons or Wonder (depending on which novel they will be reading), then they will write sentences with 10 of the words. They will also make connections between synonyms, and then finish the sentence using context clues.
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of December 18 - December 20, 2017
Monday: Students who are failing and/or missing assignments will be given the opportunity to have a catch-up day. For students who do not need to have a catch-up day, they will be creating mad libs in a fun contest with their peers!
Tuesday: Students who are failing and/or missing assignments will be given the opportunity to have a catch-up day. The rest of the students will create a Winter/Holiday themed rap and battle it out at the end of class. There will be a vote to decide the winner!
Wednesday: Students who are failing and/or missing assignments will be given the opportunity to have a catch-up day. The rest of the students will create a Winter/Holiday themed rap and battle it out at the end of class. There will be a vote to decide the winner!
*Please note that students will only be in our classrooms two days this week - Monday and either Tuesday or Wednesday due to the early release schedule*
The 6th Grade ELA team at Cooper Middle wishes you all a happy and safe Winter Break! We will see the students back in school on January 4!
Homework:
Monday-Wednesday: Read 30 minutes.
Students are expected to continue reading 30 minutes a day over the Winter Break!
Week of December 11 - December 15, 2017
Monday: We will review theme as well as how to determine the theme of a text. Then, we will conduct our first read of "The Fun They Had." Students will mark the text for evidence of the theme that they determine.
Tuesday: Students will create a plot element map for "The Fun They Had." Students will be responsible for writing a summary of each plot element as well as creating an image that correlates to each plot element.
Wednesday: Students will discuss whether each plot element is an essential component of a story. Then, they will formulate a short story by synthesizing plot elements in a round robin writing activity.
Thursday: Students will review "The Fun They Had" and answer a practice question for the warm-up. They will review in their groups and as a whole class. After the review, they will take Common Assessment #2 (Comprehension questions for "The Fun They Had")
Friday: Independent Reading. Students will be looking out for plot elements as they read their books.
Homework:
General Education: Students will read "The Breakaway" and then determine and discuss the assigned plot elements each night.
AC: Read "The Treasure of Lemon Brown." Then, determine and discuss the assigned plot element each night.
ALL CLASSES: Read for at least 30 minutes each night
Week of October 30-November 3, 2017
Monday : Use the Personal Narrative Checklist in order to analyze the story Mashed Potato Pizza. Students will look for the POV, hook, setting, dialogue, and vivid verbs within the story. Then, they will begin to revise their rough draft while focusing on including these components in their rough drafts.
Tuesday: Using the same story, students will use the checklist in order to identify the incident, the characters involved, the response to the incident, a clear sequence of events, and a clear personal reflection. Then, the students will revise their rough drafts while focusing on making sure they have included these elements in their rough drafts.
Wednesday: We will look back at the checklist in order to review the required components of their personal narrative. Students will go to the computer lab in order begin writing the final draft of their personal narrative.
Thursday: We will look back at the checklist in order to review the required components of their personal narrative. Students will go to the computer lab in order begin writing the final draft of their personal narrative.
Friday: Independent Reading
Homework:
Monday-Thursday: Review your personal narrative draft and make revisions as needed. Final Draft is due on Friday, November 3, 2017.
Week of October 23-October 27, 2017
Monday : Review content and skills in Unit 1. (inference, dialogue, narratives vs. personal narratives, connotation and denotation, figurative language, using text evidence to respond to text dependent questions)
Tuesday: Unit 1 Assessment
Wednesday: Review personal narrative pre-writing and drafts. Review embedded assessment skills. Introduce personal narrative checklist.
Thursday: Use the personal narrative checklist to complete, revise and edit drafts.
Friday: Independent Reading
Homework:
Monday: Read for at least 30 minutes. Review notes and Springboard WB for tomorrow's assessment.
Tuesday-Thursday: Work on revising your personal narrative.
Week of October 16-October 20, 2017
Monday and Tuesday: Engage in a "first read" of The Jacket. Discuss and make inferences based on text evidence and background knowledge.
Wednesday and Thursday: "Close Read" The Jacket. Revise parts of the story to accurately add dialogue. Discuss the placement of quotation marks, commas, and punctuation.
Friday: Independent Reading
Homework: Read each day for at least 30 minutes. Work on your personal narrative draft.
Week of October 9 - October 13, 2017
Monday: Introduce the concept of inference. Students will read short passages, then use text evidence and background knowledge to make inferences.
Vocabulary Words: inference, connotation, denotation, figurative language
Tuesday: We will review the use and placement of commas and quotation marks in dialogue. Student's will "spice up" text by adding dialogue.
Wednesday: Introduce "connotation" and "denotation". Students will discuss and sort words into groups of positive, negative, or neutral connotation. Students will justify their answers.
Thursday: Review figurative language. Students will create figurative language posters that include an explanation and several examples of figurative language.
Friday: Writing Picture Prompt, Personal incident-response narratives and Independent Reading
Homework:
Monday: Inference Questions (Due Tuesday)
Tuesday: Read the story "Flipped" on Springboard workbook pg. 19.
Complete Grammar and Usage Question on pg. 21 of the Springboard workbook.
(Due Wednesday)
Wednesday: "Close Read" "Flipped". Find and write 4 fragments from the story. Revise each fragment into a complete sentence. (Due Thursday)
Thursday: Complete the Incident/Response chart on Springboard workbook pg. 25.
(Due Friday)
*After finishing the survey, you may click this link to explore some Reading and Writing Resources: www.cooperelaresources.com/more-resources.html*
Week of April 30 - May 4, 2018
Parents, students are taking the final Reading Inventory of the year this week. As a result, students will be spending two days in the computer lab. Please check with your teacher if you have any questions about which days your child will be taking the Reading Inventory.
Monday: Students will review figurative language commonly used in poetry - we call these figurative language devices "poetic tools." Then, students will conduct a first read of "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost. After their first read, they will listen to Robert Frost narrate his poem. Students will fill out a venn diagram comparing and contrasting reading a poem silently against listening to it read aloud.
Tuesday: Students will review the poetic tools from yesterday. Then, we will work together in whole group and smaller breakout groups to use close reading in order to analyze "Nothing Gold Can Stay." Students will then choose one of the poetic tools to utilize in a poem that they will compose.
Wednesday: Reading Inventory
Thursday: Reading Inventory
Friday: Students will conduct independent reading in the classroom. Encourage your student to bring in a poem that they enjoy to share with the class.
Homework:
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of April 23 - April 27, 2018
Monday: Students will begin to learn about the various components of a poem. After taking notes about poetry components, students will analyze "Block City" by Robert Louis Stevenson to demonstrate their knowledge on poetry components.
Tuesday: Students will learn about how to close read a poem in order to analyze the multi-layered meanings in poetry. Students will then read the poem "Tear Drops on my Car" and analyze it for the meaning using the steps they learned in class.
Wednesday: Students will learn about a specific type of poetry - the haiku. Students will then use their knowledge of the components of haiku (line, syllable, etc) in order to compose a haiku within their groups.
Thursday: Students will analyze different haikus to help evaluate the different parts needed for a poem to be considered a haiku. Students will then engage in a cut and paste activity in order to write a haiku individually.
Friday: Students will deploy to their independent reading classroom to continue their independent reading instruction.
Homework:
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of April 16 - April 20, 2018
Monday: Students will begin work on new stations this week. There are eight stations, each one focused on helping students develop an important 6th grade ELA standard that will help students transition to the expectations of the 7th grade ELA classroom.
Tuesday: Students will continue to work on their stations.
Wednesday: Students will continue to work on their stations.
Thursday: Students will continue to work on their stations.
Friday: Students will continue to work on their stations. All station work is due at the end of class.
Homework:
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of April 9 - April 13, 2018
Please note that students are taking the Georgia Milestones this week. They will not meet with their ELA class everyday.
Encourage your child to get plenty of rest each night in preparation for the Milestones!
Monday: Students will continue to work on the stations activities that they began the week before Spring Break. There are eight stations, each one focused on helping students develop an important 6th grade ELA standard.
Tuesday: Students will continue to work on their stations.
Wednesday: Students will continue to work on their stations.
Thursday: Students will continue to work on their stations.
Friday: Students will continue to work on their stations. All station work is due at the end of class.
Homework:
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of March 26 - March 30, 2018
Monday: Students will be introduced to the stations activities that they will be working on this week. There are eight stations, each one focused on helping students develop an important 6th grade ELA standard. Students will work with the teacher to complete their first station today.
Tuesday: Students will complete their second and third stations.
Wednesday: Students will complete their fourth and fifth stations.
Thursday: Students will complete their sixth and seventh stations.
Friday: Students will complete their eighth and final station. Once they complete the final station, they will use the remaining time to either catch up on any station they have missed, finish work for any station they may not have finished on time, or read independently. All station work is due at the end of class.
Homework:
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of March 12 - March 16, 2018
Monday: Students will go to the computer lab to complete the Benchmark testing that they started a few weeks ago. Students will also be working on USA Test Prep assignments for EOC preparation as well as a grade recovery opportunity.
Tuesday: Students will self-assess the writing that they did for On Demand Writing #1 in January. Now that they have been learning about argumentative writing, they will use the rubric in order to assess their arguments. Students will also suggest changes and revisions to their work that would strengthen their argument.
Wednesday: Early release day. Students will review the components of a successful argumentative essay, and then they will conduct the first read on the article in Springboard that discusses whether Dodge Ball should be banned in schools.
Thursday: Students will conduct the second read of the dodge ball article. They will answer the text dependent questions and fill out a graphic organizer detailing both sides of the argument. Then, students will choose the side that they support. Students will break into groups and debate the issue using claims that they have written as well as textual evidence from the article that supports their claims.
Friday: Independent reading. Students need to be sure that they are bringing a book from home or a library. This should be the book that they read for their 30 minutes of reading homework every night! We will continue to do our breakout sessions for independent reading. Remind your student that they need to go to their regular teacher's classroom first for attendance.
Homework:
Students will be given practice tasks from USA Test Prep in order to reinforce the standards they have been learning as well as to prepare for the EOC. Please make sure that your student is working on the packet every night.
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of February 26 - March 2, 2018
Monday: Students will begin to compose the explanatory essay for Embedded Assessment 2.2. Using the information they have read and collected on their note-taking graphic organizers over the past couple of weeks, students will begin to compose their introductory paragraph. Students will focus on creating a thesis statement that informs the reader what their essay will be about, and they will also create a hook that grabs their reader's attention.
Tuesday: Students will continue to build their explanatory essay for Embedded Assessment 2.2. Today, they will be using their resources in order to compose the body of their essays as well as their conclusion paragraph. Students who need extra guidance will be given a graphic organizer to help them with composing a body paragraph or a graphic organizer to help them with composing a conclusion.
Wednesday: Students will continue to draft their explanatory essays. They will begin to revise their essays using the explanatory essay checklist. If students are missing important components of their writing, they will have the opportunity to revise their work to include those components.
Thursday: Students will be putting the finishing touches on their explanatory essays to prepare for publishing their final drafts. They will be using their checklist to help them decide whether they have successfully composed an explanatory essay, and they will be making changes if they are missing any components. Final drafts will be collected at the end of class today!
Friday: Independent reading. Students need to be sure that they are bringing a book from home or a library. This should be the book that they read for their 30 minutes of reading homework every night! We will continue to do our breakout sessions for independent reading. Remind your student that they need to go to their regular teacher's classroom first for attendance.
Homework:
Students will be given practice tasks from USA Test Prep in order to reinforce the standards they have been learning as well as to prepare for the EOC. Please make sure that your student is working on the packet every night.
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of February 12 - February 16, 2018
Please note that students will be taking a Benchmark exam at some point during the week. As a result, there are only 4 days of instruction. Please keep the dates of each teacher's benchmark in mind as you read through the lessons this week:
Daniel, Alleyne 2/13
Clark, Thon 2/14
Stroud 2/15
Monday: Students will continue to read articles, essays, and short stories about the Civil Rights Movement. Students will also learn about pulling notes and textual evidence from these different types of texts to use in an explanatory essay.
Tuesday: Students will work on analyzing an explanatory essay prompt. Then, they will continue to read articles, passages, and short stories about the Civil Rights Movement. Students will pull relevant details from the texts and record them on a graphic organizer that helps students prepare for writing an explanatory essay.
Wednesday: Students will use the graphic organizer they have been working on to draft a successful introductory paragraph for their explanatory essay. Students will also look at examples of successful and unsuccessful introductory paragraphs in order to better understand how to compose an introductory paragraph.
Thursday: Benchmark testing (see dates above for each individual teacher)
Friday: Independent reading. Students need to be sure that they are bringing a book from home or a library. This should be the book that they read for their 30 minutes of reading homework every night! We will continue to do our breakout sessions for independent reading. Remind your student that they need to go to their regular teacher's classroom first for attendance.
Homework:
Students need to study their Unit 2 Vocabulary Preview. Encourage your student to study!
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of February 5 - February 9, 2018
Monday: Students will will use a rubric to assess their proficiency in writing an explanatory paragraph in response to a prompt. Teachers will walk students through using a rubric to grade writing.
Tuesday: Students will have the opportunity revise and edit their explanatory essay based on their assessment from Monday. This is the final opportunity for students to submit work for their first performance task of the semester.
Wednesday: Students will unpack Embedded Assessment 2.2. Students will be writing an explanatory essay for this assessment. We will evaluate our proficiency in the necessary skills for the next assessment using our QHT strategy. We will refer back to this assessment throughout the unit, and reevaluate our proficiency periodically throughout the unit.
Thursday: Students will be taking a vocabulary quiz. The quiz will be over the Unit 2 Vocabulary words. There is a tab at the top of the page with the words and the definitions. After the vocabulary quiz, students will be reading and evaluating an explanatory essay exemplar in order to evaluate what they will need to do on the next assessment in order to be successful.
Friday: Independent reading. Students need to be sure that they are bringing a book from home or a library. This should be the book that they read for their 30 minutes of reading homework every night! We will continue to do our breakout sessions for independent reading. Remind your student that they need to go to their regular teacher's classroom first for attendance.
Homework:
Students need to study their Unit 2 Vocabulary Preview. Encourage your student to study!
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of January 29 - February 2, 2018
Monday: Students will preview the vocabulary for our next story, "The Scholarship Jacket". Students will read the words in context and work on developing skills by deriving a definition from context clues. Students will be given a vocabulary homework sheet that they will be working on throughout the week. There will be a vocabulary quiz on Thursday!
Tuesday: Teachers will introduce the concept of subplot as well as review the concept of plot. Students will share examples of plot and subplot scenarios. Once students feel comfortable with the concept of subplot, they will conduct their first read of "The Scholarship Jacket". Students will work together to determine both the main plot and the subplot of the short story.
Wednesday: Teacher will work with the students to review the concepts of change, plot, subplot, inferences, and predictions. After the review, students will go back into "The Scholarship Jacket" in order to determine how certain characters change over the course of the story. Students will be recording these changes in a t-chart in their composition notebooks. This t-chart will be useful for the embedded assessment students will complete on Thursday.
Thursday: Students will be taking a vocabulary quiz. The quiz will be over the words from the homework they were given last week as well as new vocabulary words from "The Scholarship Jacket". They were given this assignment back to study for the quiz this week! After the vocabulary quiz, students will be taking Embedded Assessment 2.1, which asks the students to give an explanatory response to a prompt about "The Scholarship Jacket".
Friday: Independent reading. Students need to be sure that they are bringing a book from home or a library. This should be the book that they read for their 30 minutes of reading homework every night! We will continue to do our breakout sessions for independent reading. Remind your student that they need to go to their regular teacher's classroom first for attendance.
Homework:
Students will be given a "The Scholarship Jacket" Vocabulary Preview worksheet in order to study for the quiz on Thursday. They also have their Unit 2 Vocabulary Preview back. Encourage your student to study!
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of January 16 - January 19, 2018
Monday: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Schools are closed today.
Tuesday: Students will continue to work in groups in order to analyze the effect of internal and external forces on a character in a story. We will be using clips from the movie Up, and students will be completing a chart in groups to determine the internal and external forces in each scene as well as how these forces change Carl.
Wednesday: Students will dissect an explanatory paragraph with the teacher in order to understand the necessary parts of an explanatory paragraph. Then, students will respond to an explanatory writing prompt using details from the activity on Wednesday as well as what they just learned about explanatory writing.
Thursday: Students will be taking a vocabulary quiz. The quiz will be over the words from the homework they were given last week. They were given this assignment back to study for the quiz this week!
Friday: Independent reading. Students need to be sure that they are bringing a book from home or a library. This should be the book that they read for their 30 minutes of reading homework every night!
Homework:
Students will be given back their Unit 2 Vocabulary Preview worksheet in order to study for the quiz on Thursday. Encourage your student to study!
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of January 8 - January 12, 2018
Monday: Students will finish the On Demand Writing Assessment that they began last week. Students who finish early will be given the opportunity to get started on the Unit 2 Vocabulary Preview that is homework for the week.
Tuesday: Students will preview Unit 2 vocabulary and main ideas. Then, we will unpack Embedded Assessment 2.1. We will decide as a class how prepared we are for the embedded assessment using an anchor chart and make a plan for what we need to work on in order to ensure that we will be ready for the assessment.
Wednesday: Students will work in groups in order to analyze the effect of internal and external forces on a character in a story. We will be using clips from the movie Up, and students will be completing a chart in groups to determine the internal and external forces in each scene as well as how these forces change Carl.
Thursday: Students will dissect an explanatory paragraph with the teacher in order to understand the necessary parts of an explanatory paragraph. Then, students will respond to an explanatory writing prompt using details from the activity on Wednesday as well as what they just learned about explanatory writing.
Friday: Students will engage in a Touchstones assessment. This assessment helps inform teachers what standards need to be focused on within lessons in order to ensure that all students' needs are being addressed.
Homework:
Students will be given a Unit 2 Vocabulary Preview worksheet that they will be working on throughout the week. The worksheet asks the students to define the vocabulary for Unit 2 and Walk Two Moons or Wonder (depending on which novel they will be reading), then they will write sentences with 10 of the words. They will also make connections between synonyms, and then finish the sentence using context clues.
Please remember that students are expected to read 30 minutes from their independent reading every night
Week of December 18 - December 20, 2017
Monday: Students who are failing and/or missing assignments will be given the opportunity to have a catch-up day. For students who do not need to have a catch-up day, they will be creating mad libs in a fun contest with their peers!
Tuesday: Students who are failing and/or missing assignments will be given the opportunity to have a catch-up day. The rest of the students will create a Winter/Holiday themed rap and battle it out at the end of class. There will be a vote to decide the winner!
Wednesday: Students who are failing and/or missing assignments will be given the opportunity to have a catch-up day. The rest of the students will create a Winter/Holiday themed rap and battle it out at the end of class. There will be a vote to decide the winner!
*Please note that students will only be in our classrooms two days this week - Monday and either Tuesday or Wednesday due to the early release schedule*
The 6th Grade ELA team at Cooper Middle wishes you all a happy and safe Winter Break! We will see the students back in school on January 4!
Homework:
Monday-Wednesday: Read 30 minutes.
Students are expected to continue reading 30 minutes a day over the Winter Break!
Week of December 11 - December 15, 2017
Monday: We will review theme as well as how to determine the theme of a text. Then, we will conduct our first read of "The Fun They Had." Students will mark the text for evidence of the theme that they determine.
Tuesday: Students will create a plot element map for "The Fun They Had." Students will be responsible for writing a summary of each plot element as well as creating an image that correlates to each plot element.
Wednesday: Students will discuss whether each plot element is an essential component of a story. Then, they will formulate a short story by synthesizing plot elements in a round robin writing activity.
Thursday: Students will review "The Fun They Had" and answer a practice question for the warm-up. They will review in their groups and as a whole class. After the review, they will take Common Assessment #2 (Comprehension questions for "The Fun They Had")
Friday: Independent Reading. Students will be looking out for plot elements as they read their books.
Homework:
General Education: Students will read "The Breakaway" and then determine and discuss the assigned plot elements each night.
AC: Read "The Treasure of Lemon Brown." Then, determine and discuss the assigned plot element each night.
ALL CLASSES: Read for at least 30 minutes each night
Week of October 30-November 3, 2017
Monday : Use the Personal Narrative Checklist in order to analyze the story Mashed Potato Pizza. Students will look for the POV, hook, setting, dialogue, and vivid verbs within the story. Then, they will begin to revise their rough draft while focusing on including these components in their rough drafts.
Tuesday: Using the same story, students will use the checklist in order to identify the incident, the characters involved, the response to the incident, a clear sequence of events, and a clear personal reflection. Then, the students will revise their rough drafts while focusing on making sure they have included these elements in their rough drafts.
Wednesday: We will look back at the checklist in order to review the required components of their personal narrative. Students will go to the computer lab in order begin writing the final draft of their personal narrative.
Thursday: We will look back at the checklist in order to review the required components of their personal narrative. Students will go to the computer lab in order begin writing the final draft of their personal narrative.
Friday: Independent Reading
Homework:
Monday-Thursday: Review your personal narrative draft and make revisions as needed. Final Draft is due on Friday, November 3, 2017.
Week of October 23-October 27, 2017
Monday : Review content and skills in Unit 1. (inference, dialogue, narratives vs. personal narratives, connotation and denotation, figurative language, using text evidence to respond to text dependent questions)
Tuesday: Unit 1 Assessment
Wednesday: Review personal narrative pre-writing and drafts. Review embedded assessment skills. Introduce personal narrative checklist.
Thursday: Use the personal narrative checklist to complete, revise and edit drafts.
Friday: Independent Reading
Homework:
Monday: Read for at least 30 minutes. Review notes and Springboard WB for tomorrow's assessment.
Tuesday-Thursday: Work on revising your personal narrative.
Week of October 16-October 20, 2017
Monday and Tuesday: Engage in a "first read" of The Jacket. Discuss and make inferences based on text evidence and background knowledge.
Wednesday and Thursday: "Close Read" The Jacket. Revise parts of the story to accurately add dialogue. Discuss the placement of quotation marks, commas, and punctuation.
Friday: Independent Reading
Homework: Read each day for at least 30 minutes. Work on your personal narrative draft.
Week of October 9 - October 13, 2017
Monday: Introduce the concept of inference. Students will read short passages, then use text evidence and background knowledge to make inferences.
Vocabulary Words: inference, connotation, denotation, figurative language
Tuesday: We will review the use and placement of commas and quotation marks in dialogue. Student's will "spice up" text by adding dialogue.
Wednesday: Introduce "connotation" and "denotation". Students will discuss and sort words into groups of positive, negative, or neutral connotation. Students will justify their answers.
Thursday: Review figurative language. Students will create figurative language posters that include an explanation and several examples of figurative language.
Friday: Writing Picture Prompt, Personal incident-response narratives and Independent Reading
Homework:
Monday: Inference Questions (Due Tuesday)
Tuesday: Read the story "Flipped" on Springboard workbook pg. 19.
Complete Grammar and Usage Question on pg. 21 of the Springboard workbook.
(Due Wednesday)
Wednesday: "Close Read" "Flipped". Find and write 4 fragments from the story. Revise each fragment into a complete sentence. (Due Thursday)
Thursday: Complete the Incident/Response chart on Springboard workbook pg. 25.
(Due Friday)
Week of October 2 - October 6, 2017
Monday: Introduce the terms incident (cause) and response (effect). Engage in First Read of "My Superpowers"
Vocabulary Words: locomotive, possession, terrorize, voodoo, catapult
Tuesday: Close Read "My Superpowers" while answering text-dependent questions. Discuss the usage of commas.
Wednesday: Review cause and effect. Using the text, complete the incident, response-reflection graphic organizer
Thursday: Review literary terms. Begin writing personal incident-response narrative drafts.
Friday: Personal incident-response narratives and Independent Reading
**4 cause/effect examples with illustrations due**
Week of September 18- September 22, 2017
Monday: Explore literary terms: personal narrative, point of view, first person, third person
Vocabulary Words: locomotive, possession, terrorize, voodoo, catapult
Tuesday: Book Fair and 4 square vocabulary graphic organizer
Wednesday: Point of View and Independent Reading Summary/Book Recommendation
Thursday: Point of View and Independent Reading Summary/Book Recommendation Presentations
Friday: Independent Reading Summary/Book Recommendation Presentations
**Point of View Comic Strips are due**
Monday: Introduce the terms incident (cause) and response (effect). Engage in First Read of "My Superpowers"
Vocabulary Words: locomotive, possession, terrorize, voodoo, catapult
Tuesday: Close Read "My Superpowers" while answering text-dependent questions. Discuss the usage of commas.
Wednesday: Review cause and effect. Using the text, complete the incident, response-reflection graphic organizer
Thursday: Review literary terms. Begin writing personal incident-response narrative drafts.
Friday: Personal incident-response narratives and Independent Reading
**4 cause/effect examples with illustrations due**
Week of September 18- September 22, 2017
Monday: Explore literary terms: personal narrative, point of view, first person, third person
Vocabulary Words: locomotive, possession, terrorize, voodoo, catapult
Tuesday: Book Fair and 4 square vocabulary graphic organizer
Wednesday: Point of View and Independent Reading Summary/Book Recommendation
Thursday: Point of View and Independent Reading Summary/Book Recommendation Presentations
Friday: Independent Reading Summary/Book Recommendation Presentations
**Point of View Comic Strips are due**