Donaldson's Doodles

assessments for the last week of school

Monday:  Presentations- be sure to bring a prop or visual

Tuesday: Open book test for And Then There Were None and verb tense quiz.  You may prepare for the written section by thinking about whether or not Justice Wargrave committed the "perfect" crime.  Are you able to justify that answer.  You will need to include specific examples.  The final piece will be 1-2 well written paragraphs. 

May 11 - 15

Thank you for making Teacher Appreciation Week so enjoyable.  I loved the little notes, flowers, and candy.  It has been a true pleasure working with my students and parents this year.  -md

Monday: Students continued working on verb tenses. (Our song is sounding great! We may even sound better than the original artist.) We completed our simple and perfect tense organizer and participated in a hands-on activity.  Students examined their second reponses and read the feedback given.  The last 3 responses are due on Wed. Finally, students prepared for their compare/contrast papers. Prewriting was finalized.  Students should have a quote or line from the text that is important to understanding each character. A page number is essential.

Tuesday: We will be in the media center writing a response to literature- comparing and contrasting two characters from And Then There Were None. Students had an option to work individually or with a partner. The draft should be printed at the end of class.

Tips

• Double-space the paper and the Work Cited Page

• Use margins of one inch at the top, bottom, and on both sides

• Tyoe in standard 12 point Times New Roman or Arial
• Use present tense verbsu use the name of the a author of a work, give the author's firs and last name (i.e. Agatha Christie.  For all subsequent references, use only the author's last name (i.e. Christie). Omit formal titles, such as Mrs.
• Write only in third person. Use he, she, they, it
• Do not use first or second person (Avoid saying I think, in my opinon, you, your, our, we us)

• Avoid using contractions (can't), slang (a lot) or vague diction (seems,thing)

Parenthetical Documentation

• When using MLA style,  a parenthetical citation should immediately follow a quotation from a source or a paraphrased source's idea.  The author's name followed by a space and the page number should be in parenthesis and followed by a period.
• If the second quotation or paraphrased source's idea comes from the same source as the first, only the page number needs to be written in parenthesis and followed by a period.

Work Cited

• Double-space
• Author's last name, first name. Book Title. Place of Publication: Publisher, Copyright Date.  (Be sure to indent the second line.)

Wednesday: Students will have an opportunity to revise their draft and conference. Responses are due.

Thursday: Students edit, proofread, and publish their work. The final piece should be stapled to the draft, prewriting, and the rubric.

Friday: We will have a dicussion about the novel. (This is a good review for the open-book test on Tuesday.) Students will plan their 1-2 minute speech (based on a story from the literature book) due on Monday.

NEXT WEEK

Monday: Presentations

Tuesday: Verb quiz, ATTWN open-book test

May 4 - 8

This week’s DGP: philip and vera formed an alliance and trusted each other

Monday: We completed DGP, read chapters 10 and 11 (finish the last sections for homework).  We worked on a categorization activity on verbs. We listened to the verb tense song. (Tomorrow we will sing along.)

hw: finish reading; DGP; bring W & G book; responses due Wed.

Tuesday: We will work on DGP, read and discuss chapters 12 and 13.  We will sing the verb tense song, and begin to take notes on the tenses. 

hw: DGP; bring W & G book; responses due Wed.

Wednesday: We will work on DGP, read and discuss chapters 14 and 15.  Students will continue taking notes on verb tenses. Reading genre responses will be collected. (Today is the anniversary of Jennifer Brady's death.  Wear black if possible.)

hw: DGP; bring W & G book

Thursday: We will work on DGP, read and discuss chapter 16 and epilogue.  Students will complete a “tense” activity. 

hw: DGP; bring W & G book

Friday: We will work on DGP, read and discuss the manuscript.  Begin gathering information on characters using the A-Z organizer

hw: DGP; last responses are due on Thursday

April 27 - May 1

DGP:  dr armstrong was peering into the dead mans face

Monday:  Students identified the parts of speech in this week’s DGP. We will gather information to write a compare/contrast piece. (We created criteria to evaluate Vanilla Wafers and Oreo cookies.) HW: DGP; readers response (3) due on Wed.

Tuesday:  Students will determine the sentence parts in this week’s DGP. We will read model compare/contrast pieces (cookies, teachers, and birds). Students will identify two items to compare/contrast and begin to gather information. Students will identify two items to compare/contrast and begin to gather information. Prior to reading chapter 6 in And Then There Were None, students will use Senteo to gather prior knowledge. We will learn the fate of two characters. HW: DGP; readers response (3) due on Wed.

Wednesday:  Students identified the clauses, sentence kinds and types in this week’s DGP. We will finish gathering information to write a block/parallel compare/contrast piece. Prior to reading chapter 7 in And Then There Were None, students will use Senteo to gather prior knowledge. HW: DGP; block/parallel due Thursday.

Thursday:  Students correct convention errors in this week’s DGP. We will write point-by-point/integrated piece. Prior to reading chapter 8, students will participate in carousel brainstorming. HW: DGP; point-by-point/integrated piece due Friday.

Friday:  Students will diagram in this week’s DGP. We will evaluate our the two organizational methods used for writing compare/contrast. Students will examine the author’s use of foreshadowing.  We will pay particular attention to the weather, food, and the characters’ actions. HW: DGP

Parts of Speech I-Movie

Parts of Speech Video

April 13-16

Welcome Back.  I hope everyone had a restful spring break; it certainly went by quickly!  I am looking forward to hearing everyone's adventures.  

Please take advantage of our before and after school study groups for the CRCT. Refer to your choice on the Prep Menu.

Monday: 

• Students will identify the parts of speech in this week’s DGP-

bobby cox the braves manager yelled loudly at the umpire but he retreated to the dugout when he was given the signal

• We will briefly review Ray Bradbury’s short story, “The Veldt.”  The class will begin to draft a response to literature based on the theme technology or parenting.
• Each group will separate.  Half the group will begin the I-movie and the other half will work on CRCT review (technology).
• HW: DGP, Book review due 4/16, Quickwrite- Imagine that you have been invited on vacation to an island.  Describe the island.  Be sure to include sensory details.

Tuesday:

• Students will identify the sentence parts in this week’s DGP-

bobby cox the braves manager yelled loudly at the umpire but he retreated to the dugout when he was given the signal

• The class will continue to draft a response to literature based on the theme technology or parenting.
• Share the writing homework.
• Students will receive their roles for the book And Then There Were None.
• Each group will separate.  Half the group will begin the I-movie and the other half will work on CRCT review (technology).
• HW: DGP, Book review due 4/16, Read chapter 1, sections i- iv.

Wednesday:

• Students will identify the clauses, sentence type and kind in this week’s DGP-

bobby cox the braves manager yelled loudly at the umpire but he retreated to the dugout when he was given the signal

• The class will revise the response to literature based on the theme technology or parenting.
• Students will finish reading And Then There Were None. We will discuss the characters’ traits and foreshadowing.
• Finalize the I-movie.
• HW: DGP, Book review due 4/16.

Thursday:

• Students will add capitalization and punctuation to this week’s DGP-

bobby cox the braves manager yelled loudly at the umpire but he retreated to the dugout when he was given the signal

• Share book reviews with the group.
• Create a dinner party for the characters in the book.  What would be on the menu? Who would be on the guest list? Be sure to justify your reasons.
• Students will finish reading chapter 1, sections v-viii in the book And Then There Were None. We will discuss the characters’ traits and foreshadowing.
• HW: DGP

Friday:

• Students will diagram this week’s DGP-

bobby cox the braves manager yelled loudly at the umpire but he retreated to the dugout when he was given the signal

• Students will rotate in stations.
• Viewing The Parts of Speech i-movies.
• Finishing the character dinner party. (If not completed in class, it is due on Monday.)
• CRCT review- technology
• Chapter 2 section i-iv (may read silently or listen to the tape)
• HW: DGP, finish dinner party if not complete

March 29 – April 3

Simpson is offering CRCT prep sessions before and after school this week and the week after spring break. Any student may attend any session regardless if they have that teacher or not. It is advised that you attend sessions for your areas of weakness. Here is the schedule for this week-  6th Grade CRCT Prep week1

DGP-  raise your hand if you can hear the music

Book review- contract due 3/30; written review due 4/16

This week we are reviewing the CRCT standards by a Performance Task (Language Arts Adoption Committee) and reading a literature selection (“The Veldt”)

(1) Performance Task

     Students will take the role of a publishing company.  They will submit materials to be reviewed by the Cobb County School District in their adoption of language arts textbooks.

     a.  Their company will submit a table of contents and literature selections.  The literature selections have been chosen.  Students will examine the selections and group them by genre.  They will create a TE table of contents to identify the purpose of the selection and a brief summary.

     b.  Keeping with the current trends, their publishing company will create a DVD to explain the 8 parts of speech.

(2) Response to Literature

     Students will read “The Veldt” on Monday and Tuesday.  Wednesday, students will reread “The Veldt” examining the piece for textual evidence.  Thursday, students will participate in a shared inquiry discussion.  On Friday, the class will draft a response to literature essay based on “The Veldt.”

Pronoun Games & Reviews

Game 1        Game 2    Game 3        Game 4  Game 5

Study Guide- Pronoun organizer 

Another PRONOUNS PowerPoint

REMEMBER YOU HAVE A QUIZ ON FRIDAY!

Examining WebPages

Overview- Evaluating Media Literacy

• Setting criteria for examining websites

• Purpose, Authority/Reliable Source, Organization/Navigation, Currency/Up-to-date, Visual Design

Use the criteria to examine two of the websites-

Sample 1                    Sample 2                     Sample 3                 

Sample 4                    Sample 5                 

March 23 - 27

Don’t forget about the Talent Show, The Fun Run and Our Recycling Day.  We will be reading Agatha Christie’s book, And Then There Were None after spring break.

Monday:

·         DGP (Students worked in groups and chose a sentence to write the parts of speech.)

·         Students were introduced to the Book Review Guidelines .  The contract is due 3/30 and the review and rubric will be due 4/16.

·         Students were introduced to Interrogative Pronouns, and began their pronoun family scrapbook on their group’s assign pronoun.

Tuesday:

• DGP (Students will complete the warm-up identifying sentence parts.)
• CRCT review
• We will visit the media center to choose a book for our book review.
• Students will present their page of the scrapbook.
• HW: Study pronouns for the quiz on Friday; begin planning the reading contract (due 3/30)

Wednesday:  Today all students are banned from using PRONOUNS. It is No Pronoun Day.

• DGP (Students will identify the clauses, sentence type and sentence purpose)
• CRCT review
• We will review the various types of pronouns with the Pronoun PowerPoint.
• Students will evaluate websites.
• HW: Study pronouns for the quiz on Friday; begin planning the reading contract (due 3/30)

Thursday:

• DGP (capitalization and punctuation)
• CRCT review
• We will make corrections to our pronoun pretest.
• Quick write- Write a paragraph when you made a mature decision. Eliminate all pronouns.
• Read “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
• HW: Reread the short story and identify the places where Jack acts grown up and identify the places where Jack acts like a child. Study pronouns for the quiz on Friday.

Friday:

• DGP (diagramming)
• Pronoun Quiz
• Shared inquiry for “Jack and the Beanstalk”
• Reading contract (due 3/30)