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September 29, 2005
The week of October 17 has been designated at middle school conference week. Tomorrow, I will send home a blank schedule form for you to pencil in your first and second choices for a conference slot. I will try to honor one of those times. Please return the form ASAP, and I will confirm the time slot with you.
Posted by Krodman at 02:28 PM
Of course, logs can't read, but reading logs can speak. They speak volumes about how much students are reading. The State of Georgia requires that each middle school student read ONE MILLION words each academic year. That's equivalent to twnety-five 150 page books. Students read silently for 30 minutes each day Tuesday through Friday. They are also to be reading 30 minutes each night for homework. So far, I haven't been requiring this as part of each night's assignment. Middle School homework sometimes seems demanding at first. Beginning at the start of the new nine-week period, this will be a standing homework assignment for sixth and seventh grade language arts classes. Students already use a reading log to keep track of both reading completed in class and at home. So, if you want to "listen" to find out how much your child is reading, take a look at the neon yellow reading log.
Posted by Krodman at 02:19 PM
September 16, 2005
No it's not what you think. We didn't open anybody's head and map their brains! Mind Mapping is a strategy used to put written information into a visual format for easy recall. Since today was "Study the Constitution Day" across Georgia, our class attempted to bring visual meaning to a complex subject. With an easily readable abridged version of the constitution, we first read each paragraph then highlighted important words. After some discussion, we decided how to represent the ideas presented in short phrases and/or pictures. Students were creative in their ideas drawing frames around pictures of men's heads to represent the "framers of the constitution". We made it through Article IV and will continue next week. What comes to your mind when you think of justice (fairness)? Students drew two children sharing a candy bar. Tranquility (calm)? Students drew a still lake with a duck. Liberty (freedom)? Students drew the American flag. Our final task will be to use the mind map to create an essay explaining the Constitution of the United States.
Posted by Krodman at 03:42 PM
September 14, 2005
In Spelling this week, new decoding units were introduced. The sixth grade list encompasses words with —at. Seventh graders will work with words having the —ed decoding unit. Skills covered are vocabulary, writing, build-ups and visualization for both grade levels. Students will be assessed with written sentences and a spelling test.
Sixth grade grammar reviewed jingles for the sentence, noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. Skills covered were classification, labeling parts of speech, and recognizing subjects and predicates. Active assessments will include oral skill checks and classified sentences.
Mrs. Johnson (speech and language pathologist) facilitated a discussion of a poem with the seventh grade class. Skills covered were tone an central theme. Assessment was a pair-written poem. Science vocabulary was the center of the lesson for the sixth grade. They brainstormed weather words and completed word concept maps for unfamiliar weather words.
Posted by Krodman at 02:55 PM
September 08, 2005
Today we took a vocabulary test over the vocabulary for Section 2 of Chapter 2 in the Geography book. Well, as the title says, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Tomorrow we will have another quiz over the words. Please study these definitions. Suggestions for studying can be found in a previous post about studying for spelling words. The same principles apply.
Posted by Krodman at 02:50 PM
September 06, 2005
Now that we have studied the Scientific Method, we are ready to do our first experiment.The lab is downloadable for you to see. Over the next three days, students will develop a hypothehsis, help construct the experiment, make and record observations, and draw a conclusion. Our highlighted reading skill is Cause and Effect. After completing the experiment, students will apply the skill to what they have observed. Look for their conclusions and observations in a later post.
Download file
Posted by Krodman at 09:43 AM
