Monthly Archives: October 2015

Corrections

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This week marks the third week of the six weeks and some students have some work to do.

I graded everything that was given to me on Friday, October 16.  That was the day everything was due.  If your student has a zero, they have until Wednesday to get it to me.

I gave all students the opportunity to correct their work and improve their grades.  They need to get all corrections to me before they leave on Wednesday, October 21 since benchmarks are taking up the last two days of this week.

Most of the mistakes that were made were minor and can be corrected.  I believe grades should be an indicator of where students are in their learning.  If they are learning, the grade should reflect that.  Learning from their mistakes is a critical life skill.  Some mistakes in life cannot be erased.  However, mistakes in punctuation on a take home page can be, as long as they put forth the effort to do the corrections.

If you have specific questions, please do not hesitate to email me.

Writer’s Toolbox & Homework

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BadabingLast week, I introduced the “writer’s toolbox” that includes Ba-Da-Bing!  Writers use Ba-Da-Bing to add details to a sentence.

Ba – What are your feet doing? What kind of action is in the sentence?

Da – What did you see? Did you see anything or make any observations?

Bing – What did you think? What thoughts did you have in this part of the story?

For example:

Original sentence: “A truck hit a telephone pole.”

Ba-Da-Bing!: “While walking down the street, I saw sparks flying and thought, “What is going on?”

Today, we added Dialogue to our toolbox.  Punctuating dialogue reminds me of “The Chicken Dance.”  Ask your student to demonstrate how it works.

To practice punctuating dialogue, I sent home with your student an orange sheet with sentences to complete.  It is due Friday, October 16.

 

Quick Writes, Zero260 Words, and Other Stuff

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Quick Writes:

A Quick Write (QW) happens in the first few minutes of class.  I will have a prompt on the board and students are to respond to the prompt in their compositions books.  They write the date and then give 5 blue lines of response.  QWs are designed to get brains thinking and to help build writing stamina.  QW grades are based on completion and not necessarily on content, since QWs are merely warmup exercises.

Zero260 Words:

Ask your student what these words are.  I am curious if they remember what the title “Zero260” means.  The grade for these words (entered October 7) was based on completion.  Students were to copy the word, the proof, and use the Zero260 word in a sentence.  If your student’s grade is not a 100, then points were lost for not following the instructions given for entering the words into the composition books.

Silent Reading

Every other Wednesday is our day to go to the library and check out books.  After taking care of what I call “library business”, we spend the rest of the class period silently reading our book(s). Student earn a daily grade based on their ability to take care of business and silently read.  Points are lost when students fail to follow those directions (i.e., they choose to talk instead of read).

Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

djames@kaufmanisd.net