January 7, 2016

College Board released the October PSAT results today. Students spent a few minutes at the beginning of class accessing their accounts and examining their results. Students who are having trouble accessing their scores should talk to their counselors.

After 15 minutes of independent reading time, I shared some of the questions from the "Fierce Wonderings and Deep Mysteries" form and asked students to choose one question to respond to in their Writer's Notebooks. I segued this into a Padlet activity where students shared their ideas about where we can find answers to our questions. Many students suggested that answers can be found through personal experiences, faith, and books. In fact, several Pixar movies can help us answer our questions, too! (The site says these are themes, but they appear to be more like tropes.)

We then created our own grid to match up books we've read to questions we want answers to. It was interesting to see how many titles share similar ideas! I plan to combine all 3 classes' titles into one document and display it somewhere so students will be able to access it when they're looking for a new book.

To begin our research discussion, I asked each group to choose a topic. We then walked that topic through a few activities: evaluating sources, narrowing topics, and going beyond the first page of results. Students should begin thinking about a topic they would like to know more about. We will begin our research project tomorrow!

Coming up:
Monday - Nelson-Denny Reading Inventory (not graded)
Tuesday - Writer's Notebook Check #6 (minor grade)
Wednesday - Research due (major grade)
Thursday - Final Exams for 1st and 2nd periods
Friday - Final Exams for 3rd and 4th periods; early release

Today's Board