As I mentioned in an early post (there's not many of them....lol), we started blocking 7th grade reading and language this past school year. I believe we are doing that once again this year. I loved it! I ran out of time each day, but I think some major changes are in store.
So far, I have uploaded the calendar into Google Calendars. I am currently updating my online lesson planner - Planbook, if you are interested. Other items on my list:
- Vocabulary: I have used various vocabulary workbooks and lessons. I just haven't found one that works well. I think perhaps the first part of the year will deal with Greek and Latin roots and affixes.
- Poetry 180: I tried this at the end of the year, and many of the kids liked it. I think I will look for more middle school appropriate and community appropriate poems though.
- Close reading: I need to find a source for cheap, OR BETTER YET FREE, resources that the kids can mark up! Part of close reading is marking up the text, and I don't have books they can mark. Making copies is fine, but time consuming and eventually I run out of allotted copies. :)
- Daily Writing (or close to it): Last year our class wrote a lot (usually weekly), but not daily. I also need to allot time to revise and edit, more than once!
- Literature Circles: I haven't used lit circles in quite a while. I think this will be better than classroom novels.
- Independent reading: I do this every year, but I think I am going to assess independent reading a bit differently.
- Layered Curriculum: I am going to use this more on a regular basis, rather than on selected assignments.
Smiles,
Trish
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