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Last week, started reading a new book called Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.  It is a very different book than our previous read.  It is a serious historical fiction book dealing with themes of racism, love for family and how to deal with injustice.  

I encourage parents to check out a copy from the library or borrow your child's book and read along.  It is an extremely well written book and I'm sure you'll appreciate it, but more importantly than that you may want to help guide your child through some of the issues it raises.  We have taken and will continue to take a lot of time in class discussing these issues, but a teacher isn't a parent.

One of the controversial choices the author, Mildred D. Taylor, chose to make is to include the "n word" at times in her book.  Her intended audience is young adults, but she doesn't shy away from the harsh truth of our past.  You should know we don't use this word in class and if it comes up during read alouds, we just say "n".  We will continue to discuss it though.  What does it mean?  Why would she use it in a book for young adults?  Should she have used it?

Let me know if you have any concerns or questions, or if you would prefer your child was reading an alternate book.

Reading Blog Update

10/23/2012

 
Parents, please be sure to check in with your child on how they are doing with their reading blog.  

Last week, was our mid-trimester check and a number of students reported having read between 0-500 pages and also that they were not on track to meet their goal.  Students had an opportunity to revise their goal, which some did, but my hope was that for most students it would be a wake up call.

The expectation for 6th grade is to read 1,500 pages of grade-level reading per trimester and respond to each book that is finished with a blog post.  I understand that for various reasons 1,500 pages is not reasonable for some students, and that's okay!  That's why each student has taken time to set personal goals that make sense for them.

So at the end of the trimester, some students will be able to say that they worked hard and met their reading goal, but they didn't meet the 6th grade expectation.  As long as the student set a good goal for themselves, I think they should be satisfied with that result.  Perhaps they'll increase their goal a little bit for the next trimester.

However, some students have set goals that are lower than the 6th grade expectation and haven't really done anything yet to meet that goal.  Every sixth grade student should be reading regularly.  That might be 10 pages a night, 30 minutes a night, 5 nights a week, or maybe they plan to read extra on the weekend.  The idea is that everyone has made a goal and knows what they have to do to reach that goal.  No one should be reading nothing.

If you have any questions about the reading blog expectations please let me know.  I'd much rather help now than at the end of the trimester when it's too late.
 
Today is the mid-point check to make sure you are on track to meet your reading blog goal.  

Students, complete this survey to let me know how you are doing.  Parents, be sure to ask your child tonight about their reading blog.

For everyone's reference, the independent reading expectations for the 1st trimester of 6th grade are as follows:

Exceeding Expectations
I showed deep inferences and applications that go beyond what was taught like writing exceptionally insightful responses to 2,000 pages or more of grade-level reading per trimester.

Meeting Expectations
I wrote insightful responses to 1,500 pages of grade-level reading per trimester.
I didn't make any major mistakes.

Making Progress
I showed some understanding, but made these mistakes:
  • I wrote mostly summaries of the books I read, and didn’t include enough of my own thoughts.
  • I read less than 1,450 pages.  (0-100, 101-400, 401-1000, 1001-1,449)

With Help
With extra help, I showed a little bit of understanding of at least some of the expectations.  My mistakes are circled above.

Not Yet
I didn't demonstrate this expectation.
 
 
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Watch the video below to see how to set up your reading blog!
 
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Watch this video from Common Craft on how to create a secure password for your new Google account.

 
Seekers, Spirits in the Stars 304 pgs.

 I finished this book, by Erin Hunter, about a month ago. It's about 4 bears who have been on a great journey and must save the wild before every last living animal is dead. One of the bears, Urajk, is very useful because he has a special power that allows him to change from one animal to the next. He has many opportunities  to do this, and has saved his friend's lives many times.                 

I really like this book but at the end it gets really sad cause Urajk dies saving his friends. I like that the author put some emotion in the book but I wish she hadn't had Urajk die. Urajk was like almost the whole reason that they had gone on the journey in the first place. He knew that he was going to die but the others didn't believe him. That part kind of reminds me of Jesus and how he died to save us! He told his disciples that he was going to die but they didn't get it. That's exactly what Urajk did for his friends.                           

I really love this book, but not just this book. This is just the last in a whole series so I would recommend those first! I love the authors way of writing. It's so adventures and funny and sad all in the same time!