Ms. Cherry

The Latest in Reading!

Hello!  I'd like to thank all of the students and parents who sent encouraging letters and cards, flowers, food, etc. during my absence due to my son's death.  I very much appreciated the incredible outpouring of support and love. 

We're finally getting settled back in and back on a more normal schedule.  We have started using the book "100 Words Every High School Freshman Should Know" for our daily vocabulary words.  We are working on two words per day and testing after every ten words.  Students get a classwork grade for copying the word, definition, and writing a sentence using the word. 

We also have been completing a daily comprehension exercise on the overhead projector to start off class.  These have been solely for practice so far, but will be graded for accuracy starting this Monday, December 10th. 

We are currently reading the novel "Nothing But the Truth", which involves several themes that lend themselves to great discussions.  Ask your student what they think about the novel so far.  We will finish the book this week and review and test over it next week.

With recent events, I have not really started tutoring for reading yet.  I plan to send out notices before Christmas and begin tutoring when we return from the holidays.

Hope everyone has a terrific break and comes back ready to learn more reading skills!

September News

Classes are moving right along and we are continuing our study of The Pigman.  I am also reading a book called "Flipped" to the class each day.  These two novels will count toward the 25 books students must read this year. 

Students are working hard on learning the vocabulary words for Pigman and we are discussing what is happening in the novel on a daily basis.  Today we took our first comprehension quiz over chapters 1-6 in the novel.  As always, complete sentences were required in order to get full credit for an answer.  We hold our students to high standards in reading class and feel it is important for them to be able to express themselves in a coherent and complete manner.  This week's vocabulary quiz was yesterday, and the scores overall were much better this time.....students are getting used to what is expected of them and some are taking studying more seriously!  We are pleased to see an improvement!  Students were given time on Wednesday to make vocabulary flash cards to study at home for Thursday's vocabulary quiz.  Check out iParent to see the scores! 

I reminded students this week that they should all be reading books on their own to make their goal of at least 6 books this grading period.  Next week marks the half way mark and they need to read at least 4 books on their own!  They should have close to 2 under their belt by now.  Remember, 150 pages counts as a book, so one 300 page book would meet that requirement!

Enjoy your weekend and happy reading!!

Welcome to 8th Grade Reading 2007-08!

We're looking forward to a great year in Reading! 

Today we set up our reading notebooks for the year.  This is a crucial tool in reading class, as we work out of these notebooks all year and they will contain information that is vital to helping students pass the CRCT in the spring!  Everyone who had their notebook in class today received a classwork grade of 100 points, since students had an entire week of notice to get a 1" binder, 5 dividers, and notebook paper.  The notebooks STAY in the classroom.  Each student has been given his/her reading score from the CRCT as well as their corresponding lexile levels.  More about lexiles later....but these should help you in choosing books for your child to read at home.  Each student must read a minimum of 25 books this school year (150 pages counts as a book).  The only homework usually given in this class is to READ at home 30 minutes a night. 

Last week we spent some time talking about last spring's CRCT reading scores and this year's expectations and standards.  We also read a story in the Literature book entitled "The Kid Nobody Could Handle".  Today we finished the quiz on that story and the scores should be available on iparent as soon as it becomes functional for parents (I did enter them!).

This week we will begin our first novel study using the book "Pigman".  We'll be working with this book for the next few weeks.

Tomorrow night is our Open House, and I hope to see alot of parents there!

McCleskey Poets!

Hi again!  We were so busy in February that I forgot to post in the BLOG!

In February we did a novel study of "Nothing But the Truth".   The students seemed to particularly enjoy the parts of this novel that were written as dialogues and that we read as impromptu plays in class.  We have some real budding actors and I'm looking forward to our drama unit coming up closer to the end of the year.

Right now the students have a poetry project that they are working on.  They are supposed to have 8 different types of poems written in rough draft by end of class today (Friday 3/16).  Over the weekend, they are required to type up the poems and bring them to school on Monday, ready to be illustrated.  The final project requires that they have a booklet with a cover.  Here is a list of the types they may choose to write:

Haiku*, Tanka*, Shaped Verwse, Diamonte, Cinquain*, Free Verse, Quatrain*, Limerick*, Acrostic, Didactic, Ethere, Song Poem, Part of Speech Poem*, ABC Poem*, Name/word Poem*, Nonet, Clarity Pyramid, Couplet*, Autobiographical poem

* means they must have two poems of this type, since they are so short (except Tanka and Haiku, which require 3)

Check out www.kathimitchell.com/poemtypes.html for extra help with some of the types and look at www.gigglepoetry.com for fun. 

So far I have been really impressed with some of the great poems the students are writing.....we have a new literary magazine at McCleskey and I plan to encourage many students to submit their work to be published in the magazine!

After we finish our poetry unit, we will be working intensively on CRCT practice.  Drama units and another novel study are on the horizon after CRCTs in April. 

Welcome Back!

Well, we've finished our first two weeks back after Winter Break!  We spent the first week working on newspaper skills.  Overall, the students seemed to learn alot about newspaper terms and sections. 

Last week we read and wrote Urban Legends.  The students really seemed to enjoy these tales and we talked about the difference in urban legends and fairytales.  Ask your student about them!  They should all know what makes a good urban legend.  We finished the week with a nonfiction short story about a woman who awoke from a coma after 16 years.  With this story, we worked on inference skills and several other comprehension strategies.

For the next two weeks or so, we will be working on reading technical materials.....specifically focusing on using student textbooks from other classes.  We will be learning techniques for reading graphics and websites and also for previewing a test (all skills that will, hopefully, serve the students well on the CRCTs).  Next week we will be going into the computer lab to work on reading websites.

This quarter we are also doing alot of vocabulary work.  Each Monday we will be working with the Classical Roots vocabulary text, learning about Greek and Latin roots.  Every day, we start class with  vocabulary warmup from the book "100 Words Every High School Freshman Needs to Know".  We will be having a vocabulary test after every 10 words.  The warmups are also graded for a classwork grade. 

We are requiring a spiral notebook this semester.  There are still several students who do not yet have their spiral in class.  If there is difficulty in getting one, please let me know.  I have given out 10 spirals with the understanding that the students will repay me with a spiral when they get one. 

Keep on reading each night and filling in those book logs! And, as always, contact me by email with any questions or concerns.

December News

When the progress reports came home in the brown envelopes at the end of November, you should have received a letter explaining about online CRCT practice tests.  Homeroom teachers have received the test identification numbers.  If your child is in my homeroom and you are interested in using the online practice tests, just email me and ask for your child's number.

We have just finished the novel "The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963".  The final test over the entire book will be given tomorrow (Tuesday 12/12).  This will be one of our rare scantron tests.  Notebooks will be checked a final time for this grading period on Friday, 12/15.  We continue to be disappointed in the lack of student use of the book logs.  This one assignment continues to ruin grade averages for those who continue to ignore the important impact this has on their grades.

Important vocabulary for this grading period is:

antagonist, protagonist, theme, topic, imagery, symbolism, personification, simile, metaphor, and conflict

We will be reviewing this vocabulary for the rest of the week and taking a post test on those terms on Friday.  Your student should be familiar with most of these terms already and should definitely be able to apply them to any story by Thursday.  The notebook check and post test will be the last grades probably taken for this report card. 

Next week we will work on summarizing skills. 

November update

Hi Again!  So much for my biweekly postings!  It's been a very busy few weeks.

We are still reading "The Watsons Go To Birmingham - 1963".  Our format for this novel is to keep a daily journal in our notebooks, introduce new vocabulary at the beginning of each chapter, read the chapters, and take quizzes over every few chapters.  We also throw in other activities to promote comprehension and make things a little more fun!  Our activity for today, for instance, was to get into groups of 3 and write a song about some aspect of the book using familiar tunes, then perform it for the class.  Some really original ideas came up!!

Progress reports went out today.  We are using a new system which requires you to sign and return the envelope we send home every 4 1/2 weeks with either a progress report or a report card.  If a student is receiving a "D" or "F" grade at the time of progress reports, the individual classroom teachers will send home an individual detailed progress report as well.  Many students in reading class are failing solely due to not completing book logs or journals.

November News

Happy November! 

The sports projects were creative and fun.  We've worked this past week on introducing students to persuasive techniques in reading.  Propaganda techniques were our focus and I used a flyer I got in the mail from Sonny Perdue to point out how many of these techniques are used in political campaigns.  The students also gave short speeches using propaganda techniques to advertise a product.

We have begun our next novel study, "The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963".  We've had fun listening to music from 1963, discussing slang terms used in that era, and talking about what it was like "back then".  This novel is always a favorite with the students.  There will be many written assignments in class for this study, so there will be alot of chances for students to earn grades.  We like to cover many aspects of this book and it draws in alot of history about racism at that time, so we will spend several weeks reading and completing various activities that apply.

As always, continue to encourage daily use of the book logs.  There are several students who have completed reading multiple books already, but there are many who have yet to fill out a book report.  We are checking book logs and notebooks tomorrow, and the students were advised about this on Monday....with a notice on the board all week. 

Enjoy your weekend and this crisp fall weather!

New Grading Period

It's been so nice this week to meet many of the parents in person.  I hope we can continue to communicate in the best interest of the students!

Well, a new grading period started last Wednesday and we already have two grades (which I will hopefully enter into iParent today!).  Last week we read a story called "The Kid Nobody Could Handle" and the students were required to write a short summary and construct a collage representing one of the main characters.  Mrs. Goode and I were pleased with some of the creative imagery used!

This week we read a story from the Jamestown readers entitled "It Wasn't Always Called Baseball" about the history of several sports.  We are now working in groups on a sports project.  Students have an individual portion to complete, which requires them to do some research on a sport.  They will receive an individual grade on that portion.  Next week, we will move into the group work, which will have the students inventing their own sport.  Mrs. Goode and I can't wait to see what they come up with!

Please remind students to continue to fill in their book logs and get them signed.  There were many disappointed by their final grades last quarter due to a severe drop in average when a "0" for a book log drastically affected their grade.  Responsibility is something we work very hard to foster in our students.  It is so important to develop accountability before entering high school. 

As always, please email with any questions or concerns any time!

Attention LEMONY SNICKET lovers!

Catch Lemony Snicket's one and only performance in Atlanta:

Wednesday, October 18 at 7:00 pm - Ferst Center for the Arts (located on the Georgia Tech campus) - 404-894-9600.  The author of A Series of Unfortunate Events will perform and sign books.  Chapter 11 Bookstores will be selling Lemony Snicket's books, including #13, The End, at the event.

Unfortunately, this event is sold out, but if you call the number, there's a waiting list!

Thanks to Jenny Warwick (Sevastian Fedak - 1st period reading) for providing this information!