Grades: There have been many questions lately in regards to the new grading and what you see in the grade book. I took a few minutes today to go over it again with the students, and I’ll do my best to summarize it today on here as well.
Please keep in mind–DO NOT LOOK AT THE AVERAGE of the grade! What is important is the 1-4 you see under each standard. Please let me know if you have any further questions. The grade will change for the report card and you will get a standard-based grade checklist as well.
Scholastic Book orders due TOMORROW! Please be sure you have submitted your order by tomorrow as I will be turning in the order at noon.
Today we continued looking at different text in preparation for our literary response this week. We spent some time watching accounts of Sept 11th to go with the recording and book. (Todd Beamer, 102 Minutes that Changed History) We also talked about the importance of Sept 11 and I was able to share a personal story for what that day meant to me.
We them completely shifted gears. I divided up the students into groups. Then, we read over the Spaceship discussion:
I gave the students 10 minutes to decide on their 7 passengers and the justification for their picks.Then we went around the room to share out. Although I would’ve liked to continue the debate–I had to reveal my true purpose in the discussion. Since we’ve had multiple discussions on discussions–it was time to put it to the test. I didn’t give the class much guidance on remembering the norms we had discussed–but let them go at it how they chose. Once we finished, we reviewed our norms and how we would be more successful implementing them in the classroom. We will be practicing again tomorrow–this time using guidelines and being a little more structured.
After a brief intro on prepositions-which included the students standing on their chairs–time was closing in. Students left with the assignment to find a list of the most commonly found prepositions and bring them to class tomorrow–either in their online binder or in their notes.