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JOURNAL BLASTS

 Writing Current Assignments--Click on this link to access copies of Book Review handouts.

Mr. Boeckman's Fun Grammar Websites

 WEEKLY SUMMARY FOR DECEMBER 14-18

Dear 8C Families,

We ended up only spending one class period in the computer lab working on the Supreme Court projects to support Ms. Kalish and social studies. Students were in such great shape by the end of Monday that we felt it unnecessary to spend more time in writing class. As a result, I was able to start the book review unit earlier than planned.

For the book review, students started the unit by analyzing 12 book reviews to identify what are the elements of good reviews. Each student got to keep a copy of the book reviews as exemplars. We also discucssed how to plan a book review; a planning sheet was due for homework on Thursday. Yesterday, students had most of the class period to begin a rough draft of their book review, which was due today. Students revised today for ideas and sentence fluency.

A final book review is due Tuesday, although we will not work on the book reviews anymore in class. This seems to be a busier weekend than normal, so I chose not to make it due Monday.

I also introduced Abravocabra list #5. We will probably have a quiz this Wednesday, December 16.

Next week, I plan to give students a chance to practice some of the elements of the research paper, which officially begins after break. However, since we will finish the book reviews earlier than planned, I thought this might be the best use of our time. There will be nothing major due, but I may assign a few small written assignments throughout the week.

As always, your child also has a weekly journal blast due by the end of the week. I usually post the journal blast Sunday mornings.

Thanks and enjoy the double-digit warmth. As a fairly recent transplant to Chicagoland, I  am still amazed that temps in the 20s and 30s seem warm.

Stephen Boeckman

8C Writing

Publishing Your Work: 

Occassionally we will be publishing work here: https://sites.google.com/a/wps39.org/boeckman-writing-class/