Ms. Cherry

FINALLY! Reading Grade Levels!

We've been very busy in the classroom these past two weeks!  We have finally taken the Performance Series Reading tests online and now we have a better idea what level books each student needs to read for the reading logs.  Students will be bringing home their reading levels and reading log instructions this week, so look for them!

We have finished our first novel study of The Pigman and took our final test over the book last Thursday.  We have "25 book" sticker charts in the classroom and we will be updating those this week, as well.

On Monday, we will introduce the students to the Reader's Handbook by using a scavenger hunt activity.  We will spend this week using this textbook to explore the meaning of our Ten Most Important Vocabulary Words for this grading period:

genre, narrative, expository, theme, hyperbole, plot, context, point of view, pronunciation, and parody

Ask your student at the end of the week about what these words mean.

As the grading period comes to an end in the next two weeks, we will be doing another notebook check on Friday, as well as a Book Log check.  These should be easy grades to boost averages!

Important Progress Report Info

Progress Reports went out yesterday for 6th and 7th periods and today for 1st, 2nd, and 5th periods.  Unfortunately, I realized at the end of the day while handing out 5th period reports that somehow the last 4 grades recorded for 5th period were deleted from iCue and the progress reports are incomplete!

I have just re-entered the grades for 5th period and will reprint the accurate reports to send home Monday.  I apologize for the computer glitch!  I first thought I had made some mistake, but the grades entered by Mrs. Goode were also lost, so we have no idea what happened and why it was only that class period!  Thanks for your patience!  Check iCue later tonight if you're really curious!

This week was stressful and long for the students with all the testing!  We're happy that it's over and eager to get on with finishing up our Pigman novel.  We have read up through Chapter 8 now and will work on Chapter 9 and 10 next week.  Next Thursday and Friday we have reserved the computer lab so that we can finally get reading grade levels on the students.

Please remind your students that they need to check the agenda in the classroom and turn in makeup work when they are absent.   

Welcome to 8th Grade Reading!

I am FINALLY attempting to set up my BLOG for 2006-2007!  Please be patient with me as I learn
the ropes and try to find time to keep up with posting! 

We're still in the information finding stage at this point....we've taken an oral fluency sample and completed a comprehension diagnostic test.  The first week, students found out what type of learning style worked best for them.  We hoped to have reading grade levels by now in order to assign book log books....however, with all the testing that takes place in 8th grade at the beginning of the year, we haven't been able to access the computer lab yet to finish up with that last crucial piece of information.

We began keeping book logs officially on Wednesday (9/6).  Students can still read anything they like at this time.  We will be switching to books that we approve as being of an appropriate level for each individual late in September.  We have class charts posted to keep track of our 25 books read. Soon we will introduce our "Book Review" project, which will be an ongoing way for students to share the books they've read.

Presently, we are working on organizational skills with our notebooks.  We are reading the novel The Pigman and spending alot of our time working on vocabulary skills.