This week we started researching the people and events of the Revolutionary War period.  Right now your child is gathering information about their topic.  Some students have had a great start and others will need some encouragement at home.  At first glance, the "Research Gathering" sheet might look pretty confusing, but for as much time as I've spend trying to make it clearer, I this is the best I can do.  I'm happy to help if you have questions, but most of the students do seem to understand the format.

Here's what your child should have at this point:

1. Library books checked out from the library
   
2. Three logical topics chosen (These will later be the three body paragraphs.  For example, if I was researching the Battle of Bunker Hill, my three topics might be be Causes of the Battle of Bunker Hill, The Battle, and After the Battle.  If I was researching a person, my topics might be Early Life, Family Life, and Major Accomplishments.  Of course, these aren't the only way by any means.)
3. Three resources written down for each topic (At least one must be a library book.)
   
4. About 1/3 of their research done (Maybe one of three topics is complete and the other two are empty, or maybe 1/3 of each topic is complete.)
5. Facts should be written in keyword outline form (This if frustrating to some kids, but I think it is very important for a number of reasons, so this format is important to follow through on.)

Check out these examples of Keyword Outlines and Summaries to see how you can improve your own work.

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These people did very well in some areas, but also made a very common mistake.  The topic sentence of the first starts with "Here are some facts..." and the second starts with "This paragraph is how".  Some other people made the same mistake by starting with "This paragraph is about..." or "This has lots of facts..."

Remember:  Don't refer to your own paragraph in your topic sentence.  Take a look at the two paragraphs above to see what you might have written instead.

Today, we're going to get set up for your research project.  You will take a look at potential research topics, and what resources you will have available.

Begin by saving a copy of this Research Starter for yourself and completing it.

Learning grammar isn't always the way we want to spend our free time, but hopefully you've noticed by now that knowing how to identify verbs, nouns, adverbs, adjectives and other parts of speech is really important to becoming a great writer.

If you are still having trouble finding the verbs, or knowing if your sentence starts with a subject or not, you might want to consider playing some of these grammar games at Grammaropolis every once in a while.  They're quick, fun, and you'll actually learn your grammar so writing will be easier for you!

So we've been in the standards-based grading system for about five months now, and I'm curious what you think.  I imagine that many of you don't really see a difference from a traditional system other than a slightly different looking report card.

I'd like to take a second to show you (parents and students) how to use the standards-based system to your advantage.  For example, you might be saying, "So what if I demonstrated a '2' in something?  What does that even mean, and what are some steps I could take right now to improve?"  Or what if you've demonstrated a '3', but lately you've been feeling bored at school?  What can you do to challenge yourself?

Please take five minutes to view the video below and learn how to use this feedback-rich system to your advantage.  When you're done, don't hesitate to comment on this post with any feedback you might have about how the system is working (or isn't working) for you so far... or maybe how you plan to use the system to your advantage now that you've viewed this video.  Thank you ahead of time for your feedback.  It will help me learn and do better in the future.

Tip 1:  Find Reliable Results with Sweet Search.

Sweet Search is a search engine like Google except the only websites it searches are reviewed and by professionals to make sure they will have true information in them.

Tip 2:  Find Accurate Results with Sortfix.

Sortfix will suggest popular search terms you didn't think of that you can use to refine your search query.  

Tip 3:  Find Readable Results with Google.

Google just released a feature that allows you to sort your search results into basic, intermediate, and advanced reading level.  Watch the video below to see how to do it.

Today we began the anything project.  It is a chance for student to be creative and self-directed as they create basically anything they want over the next two weeks.  Really, the only expectation is that writing plays a fairly important role in the process.  It will be due in 11 days on Monday the 31st.

For those of you who were absent today, have a look at some of the formats people thought they might try:

Possible Formats

We've been studying something called sentence openers this week.  They can be confusing to use, but they are worth it because they make our writing more fluent, clear, and interesting.  Check out the video below to get a little "one-on-one" help from your teacher if you are having trouble.  Parents, you might also want to view the video to see what your child will be working on for the rest of this year.

You can also download printable Sentence Opener guide here, or go to Helpful Tools and find it under Language Arts Helpers.

Tomorrow, (Thursday) we will be typing out our three final drafts of our poetry.  As you come to final draft form, please remember to meet these expectations.

Also, keep in mind, you will need three printed final versions of your poems ready to go for class on Friday.  We will be using them to create poetry posters.