January 13/14, 2009
Self-starter: Students completed questions 1 and 2 on the Reading Guide for Survive the Savage Sea.
1. We read the collection of excerpts from the book Survive the Savage Sea found in our Elements of Literature textbook.
We focused on External Text Features in nonfiction.
What nonfiction is
Asking questions and looking for facts -- and figuring out where to find information and answers.
We practiced the process they will use for their own reading logs.
2. Students received information for the Book-of-the-Month assignment. Today they received the book approval and a reading log. The reading logs will not be due weekly, but should be kept as they read their books, and should be brought to class each time so they can be checked and so students can receive help and feedback.
3. We went to the media center so students could look for books that would be appropriate for the Book-of-the-Month project. Students should now where where to find biography/autobiography books in the media center, where to find nonfiction, how to locate historical fiction, and where to look for the call number for a book. They filled out an exit slip with two to three books they found that would work for the assignment.
Next Time: We will go to a computer lab to look at doing research and citing sources.
