Reading Response Reminder

Five total reading responses are due per trimester.

Four are standard:
-Fiction
-Non-Fiction
-Biography
-Journal prompts (Based on a fiction book)

Each trimester, there is an additional teacher created assignment.  This trimester is the Biography Project.  This DOES NOT take the place of the regularly assigned biography response.

The four standard assignments are due by FRIDAY, MARCH 2nd. (Two of these assignments were already due by January 24th)

The Biography Project is due THURSDAY, MARCH 8th.

Biography Project / Reading Responses

Five total reading responses are due per trimester.


Two reading responses were due on January 24th.  Two additional reading responses will be due by March 2nd.  Additionally, a  biography project will be due on Thursday, March 8th. Due to this fact, I will be suspending word of the week and reading log homework for some time. These two assignments will resume on March 12th. It is assumed that students will be reading nightly in order to  complete their reading assignments/biography projects on time.

Links to all portions of the project are available below:

Intro Letter for Biography Project
Project Overview
Interview Guidelines
Interview Questions
Sample Biography Essay Amelia Earhart
Book Report Rubric
Presentation Rubric


Students are encouraged to type their work in Googledocs and sent it to me for feedback prior to Tuesday, March 6th. I will not be providing feedback on March 7th, which is the night before the project is due.

All projects must be printed and be ready to turn in on March 8th.  NO printing will occur at school on March 8th.  If students need to use a school computer to print, they should be prepared to do so by March 7th at the latest.

Reading Responses

January 24th is the half way mark of the 2nd trimester.  It is expected that two reading responses will be turned in by this date.  ALL T2 responses are due by Friday, March 2nd.  The teacher assignment will be assigned shortly.

How Can I Help my Child to Become a Stronger Reader?

Five Tips from Scholastic:

1. Read aloud with your child. Find a comfortable spot where the two of you can read together every day for about 30 minutes. Take turns reading chapters from a book for pleasure, or read books that are above her reading level but are about things that interest her.

2. Encourage all reading. Comic books and magazines can provide a good reading experience. As long as they are age-appropriate, don't discourage his interest, but keep a stock of high-quality books in your home so he has other options easily available.

3. Keep a dictionary handy. Together, look up words she doesn't know and invest in a dictionary she can use on her own.

4. Use informative books. Encourage reading for information. If he has a science report, help him find books for his research rather than only going to the Web. While the Internet is an easy resource, teach him that books are often more detailed.

5. Discuss the books. Ask your child what an author's main theme is, how characters are alike or different, what she likes or dislikes about the story, and how it compares to other books she's read. Share your own thoughts.

Below are the types of reading skills practiced regularly in class:

• Identify conflicts within your reading (man vs man, man vs self, man vs. nature) Explain what type of conflict(s) you are reading about and identify which type it falls under.
• Make a text to text, text to self, or text to world connection.
• Identify different examples of figurative language from your reading: metaphor, simile, hyperbole, idiom, personification, or  examples of alliteration.
• What is the mood of your story? How does it make you, as the reader, feel while reading the story? Explain the situation. Why does it make you feel that way?
• Identify a theme within your story.  Who learned what and explain how you know that this lesson was learned.  
• Make a comparison between a character in this book and a character within another book.  Be specific.
• Explain parts of the story that are realistic or unrealistic. Be specific about what is happening in the story and what makes it realistic or unrealistic?
• Identify character traits that describe the actions of a character.  Identify evidence from the text to support your answer.
• Describe examples of irony that you see in the story.

Where is my child in relation to completing trimester one reading responses?

On Friday, November 3rd, all students will receive a note stapled in their agenda indicating which reading responses they have completed.  If the response was completed, I have initialed the box.  If it is not initialed that means I did not receive that response yet.  All trimester one reading responses are due by Tuesday, November 28th.

Progress Reports

Progress Reports went home today, along with conference sign up slips.  Please sign and return by Monday, November 6th.

Thank you!

Movie Theme Assignment

The teacher created reading response for trimester one will be a movie theme assignment.  Why a movie and not a book?  Students need to use the same comprehension skills that they would while reading to determine theme.  The assignment is based around the concept of theme.

Movie Theme Assignment

Due Date: Monday, November 20th

Theme, as you know, refers to the lesson learned within a book, play or movie. It is something that the author is trying to teach throughout his or her work.

As a class we were able to determine several different themes watching the movie “The Lorax”. (See below)

Your task:

• Watch a movie (It will be easiest if you pick a movie that you really understand).
• Write a written summary to include: characters, setting, plot, details, problem and solution.
• Determine, at minimum, three themes from your movie. (Who learned what?)
• Be sure that your themes are universal, meaning that they are life lessons that are general and can be taken from situation to situation.
• Themes should be written as COMPLETE sentences
  Lorax Themes
  • If you interfere with nature, there may be consequences.
  • Even if you do something horrible, you can always try to fix it.
  • If you are hurting deeply, there is always opportunity to heal.
  • If you want something in life, you need to go after it.
  • You can’t always trust people, even if they are leaders.
  • You shouldn’t follow people blindly or you may wind up hurt.
  • You shouldn’t underestimate elderly people.
  • You should listen to people’s ideas because they might have an important message to  
              share.
  • You shouldn’t be full of yourself because you could lose people you love.
  • Having a lot of money doesn’t mean you will be happy.
  • One person can make a difference in the world
  
  
  Your assignment should be set up like this:
  Name
  November 3, 2016
  “The Lorax”
  Exemplar
  Summary:
  Twelve year old Ted lives in an unnatural and controlled environment near the girl of his dreams.  This controlled environment has no trees to create the air humans breathe but instead,  “fresh air” is man made and sold by a greedy business man named Mr. O’Hare.  Trying to impress Audrey, he wants to get her the one gift that she has always dreamed of, a “Truffula” tree.  Ted goes to great lengths and danger to get to the “Once-ler”, the person who knows what happened to the trees.
  The movie then shifts to the story of the Once-ler as a young man trying to make his mark on the world through selling his invention, the “Thnead”.  In trying to create this product, he harvested the soft tufts that grew from the tops of the Truffula tree.  Soon after the business was started, it was determined that the “Thneads” were not being manufactured quickly enough; therefore, it was decided that the trees needed to be cut down in order for the production to go faster and for the money to come in quicker.
  Greed set in and the Once-ler was so blinded by money that he didn’t think ahead to realize the consequences of his actions.  Soon, it was too late and the final tree fell leaving behind a barren wasteland.  The Once-ler lost all of his money, family and friends due to his greed and destruction.
  Yet, when Ted came to seek the truth about the trees, the Once-ler took a chance and gave him the last Truffula tree seed.  It then became Ted’s job to bring this seed back into his unnatural and controlled environment to plant for the whole community to see.  This was dangerous because Mr. O’Hare was also greedy and was making money off of selling “fresh air”.  Despite having to overcome some obstacles, Ted was able to plant the Truffula tree for everyone to see. Eventually, trees grew everywhere again due to the actions of one young man.
  
  
  Themes:
  Theme One: Ted learned that one person’s actions can make a big difference in the world.  He took a chance going up against a powerful and greedy man and was able to bring real fresh air and the natural beauty of the Truffula tree back into the world.
  
  
  Theme Two: The Once-ler learned that having heaps of money doesn’t mean it will bring you true happiness.  The Once-ler thought he was happy for a while with the money, but he didn’t realize at the time that he was losing all of his friends that actually cared about him and he was left alone to suffer.  Also, his family was never really interested in him until he had money, and when it was gone so were they.
  
  Theme Three: The Once-ler also learned that even if you do something horrible, you can always try to fix it.  Because of the Once-ler’s greed that led to the destruction of all the trees, he wound up alone and suffered.  Eventually, he took a chance on a twelve-year-old boy who would end up doing the right thing and brought trees and fresh air back to the world.  The Once-ler could have remained greedy and kept the last Truffula tree seed, but he did the right thing and gave it to Ted to plant.