MONSTER ESSAY DUE!! Students will have time in class to finish their essays. Students are reminded that the essay must consist of five paragraphs and include a visual aid of their monster. If students have already completed their essay or when they finish, they may use the rest of the period for silent reading.
Tuesday Nov. 4
Review Vocab. Students are receiving a tiered vocabulary list for this unit. The words are taken from a list of Revolutionary words used in the Declaration of Independence and other text written by Thomas Jefferson. Students have been discussing Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence in Social Studies. We will be taking the text a bit farther and looking at the grammar used by Jefferson and his highly intelligent mind. Introduce close reading. As a class we will be reading a short excerpt titled "The Voice of Reason" from Micheal Clay Thompson's, Jefferson's Truths. As students read they will be conducting a close reading by marking up their paper with different notes to help the students better understand the text.
close read. Using the handout from yesterday, The Voice of Reason, with a partner or in groups no bigger than 3, read back over the rest of the handout. You and your partner or group members will go through the close reading list from yesterday and mark each paragraph individually, just like we did together as a class on Tuesday. You must also provide a 1-3 sentence summary in the left hand margin for EACH paragraph, and analyze your notes in 1-3 sentences in the right hand margin of EACH paragraph. When you finish, put the completed handout in your class folder on the shelves. Use the rest of the period to create a study guide, or study tools for your Etymology quiz on Friday over your Revolutionary words.
Thursday Nov. 6
Mini Research/ Vocabulary Review. Students will be developing a mini research based vocabulary practice paper. Each student will choose a topic that has been briefly discussed in any of the following classes; History, Reading and Language Arts. STudents will spend time researching the topic more throughly and construct a factual paper include their list of vocabulary words this week. Since the vocabulary words are taken directly from The Declaration of Independence, the research topics are also about the Declaration and the prestigious people involved. Their papers need to be roughly a page, preferably 5 paragraphs. When researching, students will find 3 important ideas or points about their topic that they want to discuss in their paper. These main points will make up their 3 body paragraphs in the assignment.