October 28/29, 2009

October 28/29, 2009

Zombie Alert: Check out yesterday’s “Zits” comic strip.  If you click on the red “Next” button under the strip, you can also see today’s Zombie strip: http://www.arcamax.com/zits/s-633189-374870

 Thank you to Chris Crowe.


1.  Reading/Writing Time:  You may use this time to either read your Book-of-the-Month or work on your "scary" story.

2.  Everyday editing: What do you notice?  (including Capitalization)

   He was lying in bed, a breeze was blowing through the screened in porch, and he was feeling comfortable for the first time in twenty-four hours.  It wasn't so much the heat that bothered him in Manteo, it was the humidity -- sticky, cloying, like swimming through warm chicken broth.

     The Greenes had moved to Manteo in November.  The weather was fine throughout the winter and spring, but when school let out in June, the heat wrapped Roanoke Island in the shroud of perpetual humidity.   The only relief can between five and eight o'clock in the morning, when an Atlantic breeze blew in from the Outer Banks.  The best place to catch a breeze was the screened-in porch overlooking their back yard.

 -- Roland Smith, Jack's Run (2007)  

3.  Selecting books for book groups
4.  More about the October Book-of-the-Month Letter to an Author 

We looked at examples of summarizing (Don't) and synthesis (Do!), and students created a chart in their composition books to record ideas for their letters to authors. 
The chart had three headings:  emotions, thoughts, and text-to-self connections.  Students filled in as much of the chart as they could for their October Book-of-the-Month.


Students received the Prompt for this letter, which we will be doing on My Access.  A student could begin the letter on My Access now, or just work on preparing ideas and a rough draft.  We will be in the computer lab November 3/4. 



Watch for the Term 2 Targets.