Mr. Perry and Ms. Shulman's

What’s Happening

  Semester 1 

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Reading Information: 

 October's Genre is Mystery

 November's Genre is Science Fiction and Fantasy

  

Skill Focus:

• Building Vocabulary will be worked on all year.
• Text Features
• Litarary Elements
• Summarizing (Main Idea / Supporting Details)
• Compare and Contrast
• Mental Imagery
• Author's Purpose
• Belief's and Assumptions
• Drawing Conclusions
• Inference
• Synthesize
• Evaluate and Reasoning

 

Dive Into Reading

Read at least 30 minutes, 5 days a week at home.

Remember to fill out an entry in your Reading Journal each reasing session. 

Reading entries will be checked daily and handed in every Monday.

Strategies for Reading

Connect

Connect personally with what you’re reading.  Think of similarities between the descriptions in the selection and what you have personally experienced, heard about, and read about.  What passage from your reading stuck with you?  Why do you feel it is important?  What meaning does it have for you?

Question

Question what happens while you read.  Searching for reasons behind events and characters’ feelings can help you feel closer to what you are reading.

Predict

Try to figure out what will happen next and how the selection might end.  Read on to see how accurate your guesses were.

Infer

Try to figure out what a person is feeling.  Why is a certain event taken place?  Why did the person / animal make a certain choice?  With inferences, we may never know if it is true or not.  We are making assumptions based on what is stated in the text combined with our schema (prior knowledge).

Visualize

Visualize characters, events, and setting to help you understand what’s happening.  What mental images do you see based on what you are reading?  What words/descriptions does the author use to help you with your mental images?  Why was the image important to you?

Evaluate

Form opinions about what you read, both while you’re reading and after you’ve finished.  Make judgments about the information and develop your own ideas.  What is your synthesis while you are reading?  How does what you just read change your synthesis?

Clarify

Stop occasionally to review what you understand, and expect to have your understanding change and develop as you read on.  Use resources to help you clarify your understanding.  Reread when necessary.  Be metacognitive (think about your own thinking)!

Reading Learning Targets

Learning Target 1 ~ Student understands and uses different reading skills and strategies.

1.1 word recognition

1.2 word meaning strategies (reference skills / word origins / root words / context clues / structural analysis / schema)

1.3 apply content and academic vocabulary

1.4 read fluently (145-155 wpm) / (pacing / phrasing / expression)

 Learning Target 2 ~ Student understands the meaning of what is read.

2.1 demonstrate reading comprehension (questioning strategies / use prior knowledge / monitor for meaning / graphic organizer)

2.1.3 determine importance

2.1.5 predict and infer

2.1.6 create mental imagery

2.1.7 summarize text

2.2 understand & apply knowledge of text components

2.2.1 time, order, sequence

2.2.2 organizational features

2.2.3 literary elements

2.2.4 organizational structure

2.3 expand comprehension

2.3.1  cause and effect relationships

2.3.2 informational material ~ relavance toward specific purpose

2.3.3 literary devices

2.3.4 synthesize

2.4 think critically

2.4.1 draw conclusions and develop insights

2.4.2 author's purpse & style

2.4.3 analyze and evaluate text validity & accuracy

2.4.4 author's use of persuasive devices

2.4.5 generalize

2.4.6 analyze concepts / themes within / among / beyond / multiple texts

2.4.7 author's beliefs and assumptions (multiple texts)

Learning Target 3 ~ Student reads different materials for a variety of purposes.

3.1 to learn new information

3.2 to perform a task

3.3 for career applications

3.4 for literary/narrative experience in variety of genres

Learning Target 4 ~ Students sets goals and evaluates progress to improve reading.

4.1 assess strengths and need for improvement ( evaluate reading progress, apply goal strategies, monitor progress)

4.2 develop interestes

4.3 share reading experiences

 

Book Bistro:

• Students are allowed to bring a sandwich bag full of snacks to eat during the Book Bistro.  A bag of candy is not allowed.  A healthy drink may also come with students.  These snacks are only to be out and eaten during block class on Book Bistro day.

 

• Students must complete a project / projects for the Book Bistro each month.  The project(s) need to relate to the Genre of the month book.  Please choose projects from the Project List.  A total of 50 points need to be completed.  Double check the rubric at the end of the Project List for expectation clarification.

• September Focus is ""Award Winner" ~
• October Focus is "Mystery" ~ 
• November Focus is "Fantasy / Science Fiction" ~
• December Focus is "Adventure" ~
• January Focus is "(Auto)biographical" ~
• February Focus is "Historical Fiction" ~
• March Focus is "Realistic Fiction / Coping" ~
• April Focus is "Newberry Award Winners" ~ 
• May Focus is "Animal Fiction" ~