October 9, 2011
Hello Students and Families!
This Friday, October 14, is the due date for the DAR 1812 essay. Please note that this is not an optional project. Students will receive credit in both World Cultures and Language Arts for this essay. For students who still need ideas and/or research for their essays, PBS is showing a program on Monday, October 10, at 9 p.m. It is two hours long so you may want to tape it for later viewing.
Other things we are working on in Language Arts:
We are currently studying the 6 traits of good writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. Ideas and organization are part of pre-writing, the first step of the writing process. Voice, word choice, and sentence fluency add personality, interest, and fluidity to writing. Conventions means using proper capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar. Students should employ all of these traits in the writing of their DAR essay and all of their writing going forward. Practice makes perfect, and we will continue to practice the writing process and each of the 6 traits throughout the 6th grade.
September 20, 2011
Hello Parents and Students!
There will be a quiz this week on Thursday, September 22. Students were notified of the quiz on Monday and they should be prepared to answer questions about the parts of an essay, the steps of the writing process, the four parts of speech noun (common and proper), pronoun, verb, and adjective; and using subject and predicate to make complete sentences.
Students should study and review items in their Language Arts notebook on these topics, and we will also be making a "foldable" study guide in class on Wednesday.
Other things we are working on in Language Arts Class
We have recently completed a study packet on the September 11 terrorist attacks, and students have written a friendly letter to someone that they admire and consider a hero. Next, we are learning the format for a business letter; and students will write a letter to our president, Barack Obama. They will introduce and tell about themselves and also ask the president a question. Parents, you can help by talking with your child about questions they could ask in their letter.
September 12, 2011
What we are working on in Language Arts
5 steps of the writing process: prewriting (generate ideas, make a plan, organize with tools/strategies), rough draft, revising, editing, publishing.
Parts of an essay: Introduction with thesis statement, body paragraphs, conclusion
Parts of speech: noun (proper and common), verb, adjective, pronoun, adverb, conjunction, preposition, interjection
Complete sentences: subject and predicate
This year, we are learning expository writing, which is writing to explain.
All students are required to keep a well-organized notebook/ring binder. We will be working to develop good organizational habits, and periodic notebook checks will be conducted.
I am looking forward to a very productive school year!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Nicholas