Lincoln Park Zoo
Navy Pier Imax & Park
Until Graduation,
Ritchie
For the 8th Grade Field Trip, we went to Lincoln Park Zoo, Navy Pier Imax & Navy Pier Park! Below are two galleries of moments from our trip! (If you have pictures, please send them to me!!) Lincoln Park ZooNavy Pier Imax & ParkEven Reeses enjoyed his new gift from the city! (Thanks Julia for helping me pick it out!!) We had a great, but long day!
Until Graduation, Ritchie
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P8th graders had a blast learning about different ways advertisers persuade audiences to buy products and use certain companies. Students watched a variety of different commercials, analyzed them for Ethos, Pathos, and Logos as well as Persuasion Techniques. Afterwards, students created their own commercials to try to persuade audiences to buy their product or use their company! Can you find the techniques in these superior commercials? Some files were unable to load, but all the students did an excellent job with this creative multi-media project! Many used Apps to do special effects and editing! Very Proud!
Until Next Time, Ritchie For the past few weeks, 7th grade have been working on their SUMMER Multi-Genre writing projects! Multi-genre writing? What's that? Instead of a long research paper, the multi-genre project, lets students create a collection of shorter pieces centered on a important and well researched topic. It offers an opportunity to allow students to write from all three modes of writing (informative, argument, and creative writing). My students are so used to the traditional "essay" format it took a while to let them explore new avenues of how to display the information they were presenting! Multi-Genre writing was a great way to enhance student engagement by allowing more choice and creativity in their products. My goal for the end of the year was to get students to LIKE writing again— so many times they were forced to complete district mandated essays that were above grade level or lacked interest! For sake of time, my students completed informative & research topics. We also completed Narratives! Normally, I would incorporate argumentative, but I didn't want my kiddos to feel "rushed"! Below are some examples of our SUMMER Multi-Genre Writing (research & informative)! Students had a huge menu to choose from! Or they could have proposed a topic to me of their choice! All of these projects are related to summer! :) Oh, wait! There's more! :) Some students went "tech" and decided to display their information with PowerPoint, Excel, Publisher or Google Slides! Below are file links to some more excellent work!
We even had a special guest, Mr. Mueller, come and present about Lake Thunderbird! Great Idea Anna!
NarrativesHere are some Narratives from week 3! Excellent Work 7th Grade!!! :)
Until the Fall, Ritchie Dollar stores are a treasure beyond measure! I found these over the summer and knew they could be the potential to be fun game! I've been hoarding them in my classroom ever since... Waiting for the perfect opportunity! In 7th & 8th grade, we've been reviewing all forms of editing skills including a massive punctuation unit. It can be a rather "dry"subject & what better way to learn than by practicing by playing! My students were put into groups of 4+ and given one finger football game a piece! ( 5 teams=5 games=5 bucks! Awesome deal!!) Rules: One team would correct a sentence strip and the other team would check to see if the error was corrected. (Today we practiced commas and semi colon usage) If the team was correct, they received one point and then got a chance to hit for another point using the football. If the team was wrong, the other team would explain the right answer and shoot for a point. If both teams decided, they could be given 4 downs in order to make a field goal! A student kept score & the winners were able to earn some "bulldog bucks"! **4 different worksheets (various levels) were used as the sentence strips! Overall, the kids (I think) enjoyed it! There weren't any complaints of boredom! ;) Can't wait to finish up this unit and start Multigenre writing! :) Peace Out!
Ritchie With PARCC underway, my kiddos are required to take 3 ELA & 3 Math Tests that run about 90-110 minutes each. In silence, my kiddos will try their best on developmentally inappropriate mandated tests. It's cruel. It's exhausting. And most of all, its BORING! I decided to forgo new units until after testing is complete! What better way to keep my kiddos engaged than to play review games and try new S.T.E.M activities! In the beginning of the year, we did a aluminum boat activity and it was a huge hit & success! This time, students were required to build the tallest structure they could with only 15 spaghetti noodles and 10 marshmallows. The catch? No other materials were to be used! Oh! They also only had 15-20 minutes to do this! This was extremely difficult but it was a great problem solving activity. Tensions have been running high lately and this was a great exercise to promote team building, problem solving skills and critical thinking! We've also been playing review games called "Scoot" & "Kahoot"! Scoot is a kinesthetic activity where each desk has a task card with a question or prompt on it. Students only have a limited time to complete the task and then when I yell "Scoot" they move to the next task card! 7th grade reviewed figurative language today! :) Kahoot is an online trivia game. This is seriously the best activity I've discovered this school year! I can make my own quizzes on Kahoot and students can individually sign on with a game pin & create a username on the spot. No pre-sign up necessary (only for teacher account!) This was highly successful and my kids in both 7th & 8th grade have been bugging me to play it everyday! Each student had their own I-Pad to submit answers and I could see each of their results on my screen! :) excellent formative assessment!! We did get to play some fun trivia like Disney characters, food and movie trivia! Click the link below to get Kahoot in your classroom!! :) It's super easy and tons of fun! Cant wait to start Hatchet & punctuation skills!!
Until Next Time, Ritchie Personification can be tricky! Not only do my 7th graders need be able to identify personification, but they need to be able to apply personification in writing! What better way... Than to compose an ode!! This was the perfect lesson to do right before break and for national poetry week!! As a class, we read and discussed our mentor text, "Ode to an Artichoke" by Pablo Neruda. The discussion was fruitful especially when it came down to "why do you think the author chose an artichoke as the topic?" As a class we determined, that it was a topic or subject that might not get recognition very often or it was significant to the author. Thus! our theme for our own odes were born! After reading and the discussion, students made a list of 20 things that were small but had a major impact on their life. Students agreed to give recognition to only one thing that doesn't get praise very often! After narrowing it down to one topic, students began brainstorming ways the topic impacted them, descriptive phrases and figurative language. Below are pictures of the results of 7F & 7M's work! 7F : Top 7M : Below This lesson was adapted from Scholastic! Mrs. A, Mrs. T and I were extremely proud of the thought and effort the students put into this! :)
Be on the look out for some more posts after spring break... Until next time, Ritchie "A Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes, is a great tool for showing how authors incorporate similes and metaphors into poetry. Plus! This poem has an excellent theme of never letting your dreams die! :) Below, is the poem if you're not familiar with it! We've been reviewing figurative language, last week in particular, was similes & metaphors! After discussing the meaning of the poem and identifying the figurative language... we used Langston Hughes work as inspiration to compose a "dream fulfilled" poem using similes and metaphors! The graphic organizer used was from Scholastic! Students worked in their groups to compose these poems and then shared with the class! This was such a great lesson & all my 7th graders were highly engaged during the close read, discussion, and writers workshop!
Until Next Time, Ritchie As 3rd quarter wraps up, the 7th & 8th graders are anxiously awaiting spring break! To keep my kiddos engaged and also learning during (what I like to call) the crazy time of year... We've been completing fun higher order thinking activities with each new skill or strategy learned! Take a look at some of the oral tradition work below! During our Oral Tradition Unit, we read two tall tales & learned about the elements and structure that made them unique. Afterwards, students paired up and created their own tall tale! First, they brainstormed using the graphic organizer above & then wrote a brief story on the back! In this unit, we studied fractured fairy tales, urban legends, folk tales, and fables! I didn't snap any photos, but my kiddos were given different Aesop fables to act out & we had to try to guess the moral of the story! Below is a link to read some below! 7th graders have been exploring the different types of figurative language through art & playing games! Until Next Time,
Ritchie My 7th grade kiddos have been learning about the different types of point of view and why authors choose different ones for different purposes. Not familiar with point of view? It's the stand point from which a story is told. The 5 different types of point of view are: 1st person, 2nd Person, 3rd Person Objective, 3rd Person Limited, and 3rd Person Omniscient! The pictures below, are of a project I adapted from an excellent blog called "Teach With a Mountain View". Students chose a magazine picture and then used that image to write from ALL of the different points of view. This was done over the course of a week. There was always a shared writing as a class before the independent writing workshop! I could only snap a few photos of certain projects due to it being hard to see. I had the kiddos write in pencil for a quick and easy revision/editing process! However, the ones that were clear for picture taking are so clever and witty! If I happen to do this project again in the future, we will definitely collaborate & write this on google docs! This was a such an engaging way to explore writing in different points of view! :) After drafting and revising, students peer edited each other's work for convention issues and self assessed their writing! I love using the Readwritethink.org rubrics and checklists! They are super kid friendly!
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/printouts/Editing%20Checklist.pdf. Onward to another author's style... Figurative Language! Until next time, Ritchie When the opportunity arose to implement an Exploratory Unit at Washington, I just had to volunteer! We do not have art as an elective... It made sense to me to allow students who have an aptitude for art or simply just an interest in it... the chance to engage in an art project. Although I allowed for some students to explore different art related concepts on their own, the majority in my four week class chose to participate in creating a one point perspective drawing. One point perspective is the simplest method of perspective drawing which uses a single vanishing point. I showed my students a tutorial online and multiple different drawings. Most of the students took the initial lesson & ran with it! There were many different ideas that were generated! Very proud! After the art work was complete, my students created free verse poems to give insight about their drawing! Take a look at these masterpieces below! These are just a few of the talented projects that are on display in the front lobby at Washington! You should take a peak! They are even more amazing in person!! :) More art is on its way!
Until Next Time, Ritchie We've all been there. It's late, you can't sleep and you're watching a late night television program. Then all of a sudden... You hear Sarah McLachlan's "In The Arms of an Angel..." and horrible images of puppies and kitties and other animals in cages pop up on screen. Every time that commercial appears (no matter how many times I've seen it) it's a tear jerker each time!! It's moving... It gets to me... And my wallet. Well, one night, as I reached for the tissues, this great idea fell upon me! I felt like this could be the perfect opportunity to show my 8th graders what thinking from another perspective could be like. We've been studying word choice (recently mood & tone) but now we're starting to shift to Voice & Perspective. After learning about the different types of point of view, I decided to begin my 8th graders with writing in first person. It would be way too easy to write from their own point of view! It was much more engaging to think from the perspective of a caged animal! This was not as easy as it looks. My students (yet again) arose to the challenge and wow'ed me with their creativity! They even incorporated great mood/tone as well! Take a look at some of the 'Sarah McLachlan' inspired poetry below. Many students chose to write from the perspective of their pets, while others chose to write from the perspective of wild animals caged in zoos! After the Elks Essay, be on the look out for more project posts soon!
Until Next a Time, Ritchie My students know I'm a sucker for Shel Silverstein! I often use his poems in class to demonstrate author's style, such as word choice. As we were wrapping up our review of Parts of Speech... I thought it would be a "cute" idea to have my students create a description poem & model it after one of my favorite poems by Shel Silverstein!! Have you ever heard of "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take The Garbage Out"? You haven't?? Check it out below! I actually didn't think this was going to be as challenging as it was... But I was wrong... Way wrong. My kiddos brainstormed for nearly two days and we shared multiple ideas before drafting! They battled through the ups and downs of pre-writing & drafting. I know what I need to do for next year to make it smoother. :/ However, with that said, my 7th graders arose to the challenge and created some great poetry! The word choice and description was excellent! Check out some of their projects below! They were all so adorable... I really had a hard time choosing what was going to be published on my blog! Great job! I can't wait to go onto dialogue next week! That's going to be a hoot!
Until Next Time, Ritchie 8th graders have been learning Connotation, Denotation, shades of meaning and the difference between Mood & Tone! We watched several movie trailers and as a class identified the moods and tones. We watched the original Mary Poppins trailer and then "Scary Mary". It blew my mind how many students have not seen Mary Poppins!! If you're interested in "Scary Mary" check it out on YouTube! We also read an excerpt from Maniac Magee (Chapter 17) and analyzed how authors make specific word choices to enhance the message they are trying to send to the reader! After that we practiced writing in different tones without saying the word they were suppose to write in. Ex. Critical, proud, angry! The kids did great at "showing" not "telling"! :) So, this got me thinking... What If Moods Could Speak? What type of voice would they have? What experiences would they associate their feelings with? In this mini project, students chose a mood and were able to choose one poem format to write in. I was blown away by my students creativity! Below are some pictures of the poems they created! Excellent Job 8th Graders!!
Moving onto perspective, voice and point of view! Until Next Time, Ritchie Recently in 8th grade reading, students completed an informational "tic-tac-toe" menu to show their mastery of the non-fiction skills we have been learning! Students were able to choose their own informational article to read and 3 activities they wanted to complete from the menu! Afterwards, students were able to share new information they learned with an "Article Talk" activity. This project was a great way to motivate students to read informational texts they were interested in and differentiate at the same time! Below are pictures and explanations of some the popular activities students picked to complete. Students appeared to enjoy this project! Great work 8J & 8R!! Now we're onto "Flowers For Algernon"!
Until Next Time, Ritchie If you're not familiar with shared writing, it's a type of strategy when students and teacher collaborate to produce a written work. There are many benefits to using this technique such as increasing confidence and building motivation in struggling writers. It also allows as a 'stepping stone' for independent writing and encourages students to think deeply about the choices authors have to make. Plus! It's fun! ;) We use this technique frequently in my class. We may write as a class to produce a model or we may write in pairs to produce a written work (interactive writing). Then we always practice independently! As we continue with our word choice unit in the 7th grade, we've been slowly understanding why word choice in writing is a deliberate choice & why it's necessary to revise our 'go to' words. Taboo words are words that need to be limited and replaced with a more vivid choice. (Taboo words: went, put, said,etc) For example, "I went to the store" could be replaced with "Mr. Ritchie frolicked to Game Stop to purchase a brand new XBOX game that his wife says he doesn't need"! You get the picture. 😜 Below are samples of a "taboo word" writing activity. 7th graders worked in pairs to produce a description paragraph of a topic that was unknown to the rest of the class. The challenge?? Each group had a list of taboo words they couldn't use in their paragraphs. During our share time, students read their passages and we tried to guess the description based on their clues! This was really beneficial to point out texts that didn't offer enough description or groups who mastered "painting that picture" for us. As a special treat, in honor of my birthday... No, I'm not 40... Thanks Glen. ;) After reviewing different types of nouns, adjectives and verbs, we played a game called Scattegories. 8th graders have been reviewing using vivid words (adjectives, verbs and adverbs) & figurative language. Below are pictures of the Figurative Posters the kiddos created! We will continue into the month of February learning about connotation, Denotation, mood, and tone! Be on the look out for more project posts soon!
Until next time, Ritchie 7th grade had the opportunity to learn the revision process through strict modeling and exemplary texts. We originally wrote the first draft of "My Teacher's Secret Life" as a homework assignment back in September/October. I kept the assignment until December when we we were ready to review Narrative Writing again to add more narrative techniques to our 1st draft. I can't tell you all what a wonderful idea this was. I truly believe my students learned more about their writing and what they needed to do to "revise" it to make it better. This was more useful than any other assignment they have completed with me thus far this year. The growth I saw from the first draft to the final was astounding! I am super proud of my 7th grade kiddos and how far they have grown! Below are some links to some FINAL draft documents. Disclaimer: All teachers gave permission to be used in these narratives. Many of these tales will make you laugh, cry and probably wet your pants! ;) ENJOY!
Interactive Notebooks are such a great way to teach new concepts and review old material in a more engaging way. I prefer interactive notebooks to the traditional notebook. In my experience, kids lose notes and are not being taught the organization skills they desperately need using that method. It ends up not being a tool they can use to go back too. I've had such a success with this strategy that I just had to share with you a little bit about what my 7th & 8th graders have done with our interactive notebook & journals so far this year. Half of our notebook is interactive & the other half is a journal/reflection writing. We have only done 7-10 "interactive notes" this year. I only pick concepts that are brand new or ones that I really want to emphasize. I feel as though this strategy should be used sparingly to reinforce tough concepts. Plus! The kids get more into it when it's not a daily task. 😉 The examples above are a few foldables we did this week in 8th grade. We learned about 5 different ways authors can use to organize informational text. Students knew what these terms meant - but didn't understand WHY it was important. Interactive notebooks can provide an opportunity to learn great organizational skills and how to synthesize information if they are implemented efficiently. (Fun Fact: I had the pleasure of watching a kindergarten classroom this week... They even we're doing cause & effect structure!) Journals are an amazing way to track & see growth over time with my student's writing. I can see entries from the beginning of the year and assess how much each of my students have improved! It also reaches multiple learning styles and it's an easier way to provide differentiation. I can't think of any negatives... Seriously! ;) Below are a few journals from 7th grade shortly before winter break. I never had to "fight" with my students when we whip out the journals! However, I do try and pick topics that are fun & that they can relate too. 7th grade really enjoyed "Make survival guide on how to Survive a Boring Class"! ;) I hope to post more about what we are up too soon! :)
Until Next Time, Ritchie **Be on the look out for some great project posts such as "My Teacher's Secret Life", & "Alter Ego" in a few weeks!** We've finished up our novel "Freak The Mighty" in 8th Grade! This week students finished their "Life Sized Biography" of a dynamic character in groups and then presented them to the class! Below are pictures of student work and presentations. The kids did an amazing job with this critical thinking project!! After presenting, group members filled out a peer assessment and self assessment. After break, come look at these amazing projects! They will be up in the hallway near my classroom!! Until next time, Ritchie With winter break approaching, both 7th and 8th grade students and I have been very busy right up until the very end! Next week, I will be posting photos of student projects we've been working on. Until then, let me give you some insight of what we've been up to for a while! In 8th grade reading, we've been studying a novel called "Freak The Mighty" by Rodman Philbrick. Over the course of 5 weeks, we've been learning how to "look beyond" the obvious and really analyze characters and their motivations. This book was received very well by students. Believe me, there's no greater joy as a reading teacher...when I had kids complaining whenever we stopped reading for the period. As we finished the last chapter today, most of the kids whispered under their breaths " wow, that was a really great story". I'm glad we were able to use this text to understand and discuss difficult concepts such as death, grief and the complexity of friendship/ family dynamics. 7th grade has been studying revision techniques and Narrative Structure. Last week, students learned about the 6 Traits rubric and learned how to "evaluate" and "critique" narrative writing. In cooperative groups, students were given several different passages ranging from below average to above average. As a team, they discussed strengths/weaknesses and scored the passage on each trait. Later on, students revisited a story they wrote in first quarter. Below are pictures of suggestions some students made when the they had to evaluate their own rough draft of "My Teacher's Secret Life"! (Rubric wasn't shown to protect student's own assessment scores) It was amazing how perceptive and open the students were to this process. They were eager to revise their rough drafts all week! Pictures will be posted of before /after pictures next week! Amazing writing and reading transformations have occurred the past few weeks! I can't tell you how proud I am!
Keep a look out for those project pictures soon! Until Next Time, Ritchie 7th Grade has been busy learning about how important it is to vary sentence length and structure when it comes to writing! Students have been learning about simple, compound and complex sentences. Complex sentences can be a challenge in just understanding the clauses (independent and dependent). These two clauses which form these sentences can be difficult in identifying and writing! Interactive learning definitely helps learn these skills as well as maximize engagement! Take a look below! Compound and complex sentence practice!! After all the games and hands on activities... There was always time for some independent writing practice! For example, one independent practice we watched clips of people around the world breaking World Records! Our favorite was a bulldog named Otto who skateboards! After watching, we discussed how cool it would be to break a world record! Then my kiddos wrote a journal entry (using different sentence structures) in which they explained what world record they would want to break and why! I had many requests for a "share" and allowed any one who wanted to, to share their journal to the class!
All in all, I think we've been having fun learning these new skills! Can't wait to apply what we've learned in a short narrative after Thanksgiving! Until Next Time, Ritchie What a learning experience this has been! After months of working, the kids were finally able to showcase their projects! Their boards and presentations were phenomenal! Take a look to see examples of displays from the fair! Stunning Right???!? I'm extremely proud of all the kiddos and their accomplishments! Can't wait until February!!
Until Next Time, Ritchie Just to update you all, there were two 8th grade winners of the 'Design the Ad' from the News Tribune! This was a contest held for all Illinois Valley Students! Below are pictures of the winners & their advertisements! Congratulations! Keep a look out for the November 19th issue of the News Tribune where all winners pictures & advertisements will be displayed!
Until Next Time, Ritchie It seemed fitting this week (after Halloween) that the 8th graders & I worked on "Paired Passages" and learn more about the harmful effects that sugar can cause to our health. My students know ... (And now you do too) that I have a major sweet tooth! Now, I'm not admitting I have a secret stash of sweets in my classroom.... *cough* But, after having my students warn me time and time again that I have a sugar problem... It made me realize that we ALL can learn more about nutrition and make healthy lifestyle choices. No matter what age we are! ;) This week we read two sets of paired passages to practice analyzing similar topics & themes. One of the set of paired passages was called "How Candy Came to America" & "Death by Sugar?". Pictured below, are awareness posters that students created using textual evidence from the 2nd passage! I was really impressed that out of a 5 page article ALL of my students knew exactly the most important information to put on their posters. Evaluating information can be a challenge, but I think this was an engaging way to practice this skill! It was interesting how each student had their own creative way to "hook" their audience with concepts learned from the article!
We hung these posters around Washington, so more students and faculty could learn facts about how sugar can affect our health! If you are around for parent-teacher conferences... You should take a look! Until Next Time, Ritchie The News Tribune located in Lasalle, IL, held a "Design An Ad" contest for Illinois Valley students. Students were asked to create new advertisements for businesses around the area! Below are some advertisements that really stood out in both my 7th and 8th grade classes! The kids did an excellent job coming up with new creative slogans and ideas for these businesses! I was really impressed with their work while simultaneously working on History Fair!
I can't wait to see what the results will be on November 18! This is when the winners will be announced! Until Next Time, Ritchie For the past 3 weeks, my 8th graders and I have read short, scary stories full of suspense and foreshadowing. Some of the texts we've read in class have been, "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W Jacobs, "The Legend of Sleepy Hallow" by Washington Irving and our favorite, "Tell Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe. After reading, discussing and completing comprehension work on the "The Tell Tale Heart", some students were assigned to complete a "Tic-Tac-Tale" menu on the story. These students had 9 critical thinking choices. Some ranged from making a eulogy from the heart's perspective, creating a contemporary movie poster to using textual evidence to create an acrostic poem. We also did an "Eye Perspective" drawing and justification as a whole class. Students were able to draw what the old man or murderer saw during the rising action/climax of the story and then they wrote a justification of why they chose that scene. Check out these amazing projects below! Below are the mini projects associated with the "Tic-Tac-Tale" Menu! I loved this menu! It offered a unique way to use textual evidence to help support critical thinking analysis! I was very impressed with all of 8J's and 8R's hard work and creativity on their mini project choices! This was an excellent text to read! :) If you are a parent and are not familiar with the story, you can click the button to read the original text of the "Tell Tale Heart". Until Next Time,
Ritchie |
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