Hello Language Artists and their Families
Let me first start by saying how grateful I am for our beautiful community, and how lucky I feel to have you all in my life. After what happened in Paris this weekend, it is especially important that we band together in solidarity and take a few extra moments to appreciate our loved ones and our privilege. We are all French this weekend, and we all mourn as any human with love in their heart must. Stay strong and don't let fear triumph in your world.
I hope the weekend is treating you well. We had a fun, busy week, as we began our foray into Banned and Challenged Books. We had an awesome presentation by Lori Lieberman, our Librarian and Media Specialist, on some of the reasons why books are challenged, which included several great video clips put out by authors who have had their work challenged or banned.
We also spent some time learning to code texts - a method used to show close reading while demonstrating our thinking about and understanding of the material we read. Students put this method to practice in reading an article about censorship by renowned and oft challenged author Judy Blume.
In order to help build background knowledge for this unit, we are learning some vocabulary words that will aid in our understanding of the complex topics we will discuss and write about. Students should be working on their vocabulary packets this weekend, as we will discuss the words on Monday.
This week, we will discuss objectionable content (why do books get banned?) and Young Adult Literature Themes (what do we get out of reading high quality literature?) We will read some banned and challenged picture books to test our knowledge of objectionable content and to see if we can spot some of those themes. We will select our own novels to read, and start learning the process of pulling out the textual evidence we will use in our argumentative essays. Students can look forward to a busy, text filled week.
Please keep checking the calendar, the blog, and the Links & Documents tab, as assignments are updated regularly. The links work, so please use them if you need an extra copy of an assignment.
Thanks for your continued hard work, and parents expect that email about the unit soon.
Have a great Sunday :)
Ms. Spiegel
Let me first start by saying how grateful I am for our beautiful community, and how lucky I feel to have you all in my life. After what happened in Paris this weekend, it is especially important that we band together in solidarity and take a few extra moments to appreciate our loved ones and our privilege. We are all French this weekend, and we all mourn as any human with love in their heart must. Stay strong and don't let fear triumph in your world.
I hope the weekend is treating you well. We had a fun, busy week, as we began our foray into Banned and Challenged Books. We had an awesome presentation by Lori Lieberman, our Librarian and Media Specialist, on some of the reasons why books are challenged, which included several great video clips put out by authors who have had their work challenged or banned.
We also spent some time learning to code texts - a method used to show close reading while demonstrating our thinking about and understanding of the material we read. Students put this method to practice in reading an article about censorship by renowned and oft challenged author Judy Blume.
In order to help build background knowledge for this unit, we are learning some vocabulary words that will aid in our understanding of the complex topics we will discuss and write about. Students should be working on their vocabulary packets this weekend, as we will discuss the words on Monday.
This week, we will discuss objectionable content (why do books get banned?) and Young Adult Literature Themes (what do we get out of reading high quality literature?) We will read some banned and challenged picture books to test our knowledge of objectionable content and to see if we can spot some of those themes. We will select our own novels to read, and start learning the process of pulling out the textual evidence we will use in our argumentative essays. Students can look forward to a busy, text filled week.
Please keep checking the calendar, the blog, and the Links & Documents tab, as assignments are updated regularly. The links work, so please use them if you need an extra copy of an assignment.
Thanks for your continued hard work, and parents expect that email about the unit soon.
Have a great Sunday :)
Ms. Spiegel