Hello Language Artists and their Families!
Thank you for your hard work on our Expository Writing Sample. We spent a little time discussing how to craft a thesis statement (or main idea) and how to use cited, supported evidence to back up our claims. Then, students worked on their own to craft short expository essays about how candy and sweets have changed over the last 150 years, using two interesting articles from Scholastic Scope Magazine.
This work was good preparation for our next unit, which will require an essay with a clear thesis statement and examples of textual evidence in each paragraph. We're going to start talking about censorship and banned/challenged books on Monday, and we will have a guest lesson from our Librarian and Media Specialist Lori Lieberman on Tuesday. Students will learn about why books are challenged and banned, and what different forms of "objectionable content" exist. We will have a fun opportunity to read some banned/challenged children's books, and students will eventually pick their own YA banned/challenged novels to read.
A letter to families will go home with students and go out via email so that everyone knows what to expect from the unit. Parents/guardians will be able to approve the books their students choose to read, as the content of these books is often controversial (hence the ban or challenge).
For this unit, students should expect to read their books with extreme thoroughness, taking notes as they go. They should also expect to write a six paragraph essay and to present their essay in a formal speech. It's going to be a lot of very rewarding, mind expanding work :)
Students should also expect a lot of work in our Interactive Student Notebooks, so these need to be up to date, with entries for Elements of Story, Mood/Tone, and Confirmation Bias, completed ASAP.
I hope you are all having a great weekend!
Ms. Spiegel
Thank you for your hard work on our Expository Writing Sample. We spent a little time discussing how to craft a thesis statement (or main idea) and how to use cited, supported evidence to back up our claims. Then, students worked on their own to craft short expository essays about how candy and sweets have changed over the last 150 years, using two interesting articles from Scholastic Scope Magazine.
This work was good preparation for our next unit, which will require an essay with a clear thesis statement and examples of textual evidence in each paragraph. We're going to start talking about censorship and banned/challenged books on Monday, and we will have a guest lesson from our Librarian and Media Specialist Lori Lieberman on Tuesday. Students will learn about why books are challenged and banned, and what different forms of "objectionable content" exist. We will have a fun opportunity to read some banned/challenged children's books, and students will eventually pick their own YA banned/challenged novels to read.
A letter to families will go home with students and go out via email so that everyone knows what to expect from the unit. Parents/guardians will be able to approve the books their students choose to read, as the content of these books is often controversial (hence the ban or challenge).
For this unit, students should expect to read their books with extreme thoroughness, taking notes as they go. They should also expect to write a six paragraph essay and to present their essay in a formal speech. It's going to be a lot of very rewarding, mind expanding work :)
Students should also expect a lot of work in our Interactive Student Notebooks, so these need to be up to date, with entries for Elements of Story, Mood/Tone, and Confirmation Bias, completed ASAP.
I hope you are all having a great weekend!
Ms. Spiegel