January 27, 2016

After independent reading time, students picked a word to share and define in the Vocab section of their Writer's Notebooks. My word was "hemodialysis," which is a medical procedure to remove fluid and waste products from the blood. It comes from the book We Were Here by Matt de la Pena.

Working in groups, students chose one of the three excerpts and applied the DIDLS strategy to reveal the tone of the passage. I shared a video on how to write effective thesis statements, and students worked together to create a thesis statement from their charts. Students should use what they've learned about writing a good thesis statement as they plan their summer reading essay that they'll write on Friday. (See Classroom for more detailed information on what we did in class today.)

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