Research Sites and 5 Paragraph Writes

English time has been very focused, and the students have put forth much effort writing 5 paragraph stories. The students have used many strategies to prepare them for communicating through written expression. The use of visual organizers, posters, word walls, and many other mapping tools to accomplish independent writing habits have been practiced daily. These practices will continue throughout the second quarter as we focus on specific subjects and charting our writing fluency.

Iowa Test of Basic Skills, Character Traits, and Words Per Story (WPS)

The 8th Graders have been working on the ITBS tests for the past two weeks. They have completed the Language Arts portions and will focus on the math areas until November 12. Please remind your child that it is important to eat a good breakfast, get plenty of sleep, and to try to do their best during the test.

In grades 7, 8, and 9 we have been focusing on character traits and using various adjectives to describe our main characters. The students have been increasing their understanding of words through the use of various web-sites. They have been defining words, learning the correct pronunciations, and identifying both synonyms and antonyms. A site that can be used to enrich their vocabulary would be www.dictionary.com.

During the 2nd quarter the students will be doing many practice writes and using webs and organizers to plan out their stories. Please encourage your child to think about stories that are meaningful to them as they express their ideas. We have been focusing on "weekly words per story" and discussing the importance of trying to meet or beat the word count from their prior write. The students will begin charting their progress and reflecting on how to improve their scores. The goal of self-regulating their own work is one that we will continue to learn about throughout the year.