A Big Week

I am sorry about the brief absence from posting.

This week is going to be a big week.  On Friday we finished up Charlotte's Web.  I forgot how much I loved that book.  We will finish up The One and Only Ivan tomorrow.  I have really enjoyed reading these two books in two very different ways.

Today I introduced the menu board that we are going to complete to wrap up these two books.  A menu board is a group of nine projects that the students can pick from to show their thinking.  Each student will be responsible for completing one appetizer project and one main dish project.  There are also some dessert projects that are optional.  Students will receive extra credit for completing these projects.

I asked the students to show you the menu board tonight.  I was hoping that the students could come prepared tomorrow knowing which projects they would like to complete.  The projects are going to be due on October 18th.  The class will have class time to work on the projects but they can also work on the projects at home.  Tomorrow I will start giving the students rubrics to show them what we are looking for in each projects.  These rubrics plus the menu board can be found in the reading folder.  I am hoping to get these rubrics and the menu board posted tomorrow night.

Today we also passed back the first drafts the students had turned in a week ago.  I was able to write a page of comments for each student to think about as they complete their final draft.  You can find these comments along with the first draft in the writing folder.  The final draft of the project is going to be due this Friday.  Hopefully the students can use the comments to help them improve their final drafts.  Again the students will have some time to work on the writing projects at school but they are more than welcome to work on their final drafts at home.

I loved reading and making comments on the first drafts.  We have so many different projects.  We have poems and stories and a magazine article and an ABC baseball book and so much more.  I love getting to read the student's words.  After the students turn in their first projects, we will be having a writing celebration.  Our writing celebrations allow the students to share the work with everyone in the class and even other classes that we might invite.  These celebrations will hopefully persuade the students to do their best on their final draft as they will get a chance to share their writing with a large audience.

Hope you all had a nice start to your week.