Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself. John Dewey

Information about Monday, September 21 (I was out yesterday and the kids had a sub.)

F.Y.I.-- Each L.A. class begins with a Seven-Minute Write and about five minutes of Daily Oral Language review, which we then correct and discuss. The sub distributed the weekly Spelling/Vocabulary packets and the DOL/Grammar packets to the sixth graders and got everyone started on the weekly "stuff". Then they began work on what will become their Personal Mission Statements by doing a "Character Traits Inventory". The fifth grade worked on a grammar assignment (nouns), which they did not complete. We'll go over that today.

In Social Studies I assigned a short interesting reading selection about the Iroquois Confederacy. Both groups had a cloze activity (basically filling in blanks) to complete after (or while) reading the selection aloud and discussing it. Sixth graders were able to complete the assignment in class; the fifth grade struggled and only completed ten of the eighteen sentences. We will work together to finish the material tomorrow since the fifth grade didn't have Social Studies today. This will provide a a real "teachable moment" -- for those who found it challenging, there are strategies for finding information in text. I'm pleased that the present sixth graders remembered those strategies from last year!

Back to Grade 6: Only a couple partially completed DRA tests need to be completed today, otherwise everyone is encouraged to get their second independent reading book done for this month. Remember students are required to read two books per month, which is why they should ALWAYS read at least 20 minutes per night.

I'll write more later about today's assignments.

Take care,
Teri