Mrs. Danner's and Mrs. Kline's Classes:
As we move into the second semester, we are excited to welcome Miss Tessa Bickford to our classroom. Miss Bickford is a student teacher from Otterbein University and will be with us through April. We are excited about the new perspective she will bring to our class.
We are coming to the end of our focus on Chasing Lincoln’s Killer and will conclude with different explanatory writing opportunities based in real-world situations.
From here, we will journey into argumentative writing combined with historical fiction. As a class, we will read Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson, which takes us back to the Philadelphia Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793. It relates eerily to recent history and provides a fantastic opportunity to combine more exploration of historical documents as we read a fictional account of the time. Additionally, students will participate in Historical Fiction book clubs based on time periods and themes rather than titles, providing students with different perspectives on the historical periods explored in their novels.
Once again, students will have access to the whole class text through Canvas using PDF and read-aloud. Parents are welcome to join us as we travel back in time to before Philly became the capital of cheesesteaks and was, instead, the capital of the United States of America.
Mrs. Heinig's Classes
We have been reading about nonfiction topics that the students have chosen. Our ELA focus is to show the kids that the skills they are developing--reading, researching, writing, and then putting together an engaging presentation in order to TEACH something--are real-life skills that real people use for real purposes. We are adding text features to our writing in order to make the presentations captivating, educational, and attractive to the audience for which we prepared it. We will close out the unit learning from our classmates’ presentations. We will also learn from parents who live and work in our community as they give presentations they have used in their places of employment. We will have parents representing Link Proerty Management, DWL Architects, Nationwide Insurance, Jonathan Alder Local Schools, Ohio State Highway Patrol, and Sugar and Bise Baking Co.
We are almost ready to start the most charged unit of the year--our Debate and Argument Unit #4. We will:
perform research using online sources to make and support claims
develop organization in an argumentative essay
think critically about the topic
trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text
follow rules for collegial discussions, track progress toward specific goals, and define individual roles.
present claims and findings in a focused, coherent manner with pertinent descriptions
delineate a speaker’s argument, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
In other words, we will learn that it is important to have an opinion, be able to support your opinion with facts, and express your opinion in a manner that allows for civil discourse, be a good listener, and produce excellent writing.
