January 10th

 We started the day reviewing the writing homework from last night.  Well, I actually gave them 20 minutes of reading time and for those who didn't do their writing, finish it then.  Well, in each class only a SMALL portion of the students did their writing.  Parents, writing is 1/3 of their ELA State Test and if they refuse to practice, they cannot hope to pass the state test.

We shared their writing on the document camera, talking about what was good, what was OK, and what needed to be changed or added.  This is a great learning opportunity for students to learn from other students.  Again, if you didn't do your assignment, you had nothing to share and gain.  I am very disappointed with my young writers for not even trying.

Chapter 9 was about "Hard Times and World War II".  We got to learn about how the Stock Market Crash affected everyone.  We got to learn about Joe Louis and his personal fight with the Nazi's in his epic battle with Max Schmeling where he defeated him in the first round!  We got to learn about the Tuskegee Airmen and the 761st Battalion.   We got to see how each of these groups faced racism or injustice and how they overcame it.  It was a pretty powerful chapter.

Students then started looking at how the author described the characters and using the text evidence to support their description.  (Lesson 2B.9).

Long Soup Lines during Great Depression

Stock Market Crash

Joe Louis 

Tuskegee Airmen

761st Battalion

I loved that the students could see all the accomplishments of the African Americans,  I also love how they could see that even with these accomplishments, they were still not treated the same.  Even more powerful, the spirit to never give up and to keep doing what was right, regardless!

We will be working with the essays started for homework last night tomorrow in class.  Students who didn't do it last night are strongly advised to do so tonight!

Homework:

1. Read 45 minutes - Fill out log... (Logs are in corner of reading area!)
2. Preposition practice - Lesson 1.16 Prepositions
3. Reading Comprehension "Moving to the City"
4. Writing - If you didn't do your opinion essay, do so tonight!