ELA Weekly:
September 8-September 11
Curriculum Manager Announcements
Course Specific
6th Grade ELA
SpringBoard: Students will finish the first Bundle this week. On Tuesday, they will complete the final SpringBoard lesson (1.10) prior to beginning the Embedded Assessment 1. Wednesday and Thursday will be dedicated to working through the Embedded Asssessment (writing a Personal Narrative). On Friday, students will take Bi-Weekly Assessment 2, which is a Reading multiple choice exam that is directly derived from the 6th grade Reading STAAR. Teachers should scan data by the end of day Friday, September 11.
Revising & Editing Do-Nows: The focus for the week is Sentence Structure (6.19(C)). Teachers should begin each ELA class with a Revising & Editing Do-Now that prepares students to demonstrate mastery of these skills on the IA. The Do-Nows are developed using the backward design model, focusing on key TEKS that students will need to have mastered for success on IAs and the 7th Grade Writing STAAR. All Do-Nows for Quarter 1 are posted on the Hub, within the Quarter 1 folder.
7th Grade ELA
SpringBoard: Students will continue to focus on Revision throughout this week's SpringBoard lessons in preparation for the Embedded Assessment 1. On Thursday, students will complete EA 1, which is a revision of a previously-written draft of a personal narrative. Teachers can continue to emphasize the importance of revision as part of the writing process, helping students to understand the difference between revising and editing. Based on feedback from Victoria Young, the Director of Reading, Writing, and Social Studies STAAR Assessments, it is evident when students have engaged in authentic revision practice through their performance on the Writing STAAR. Revision is a skill that takes lots of practice at examining one's own writing with a critical eye. SpringBoard provides students explicit practice with revision, and the lessons this week are key to developing this skill.
Revising & Editing Do-Nows: The focus for the week is Sentence Structure (7.19(C)). Teachers should begin each ELA class with a Revising & Editing Do-Now that prepares students to demonstrate mastery of these skills on the BWAs and the IA. The Do-Nows are developed using the backward design model, focusing on key TEKS that students will need to have mastered for success on BWAs, IAs, and the 7th Grade Writing STAAR. All Do-Nows for Quarter 1 are posted on the Hub, within the Quarter 1 folder.
Bi-Weekly Assessment: Students will take a Reading Bi-Weekly Assessment on Friday, September 11th.
8th Grade ELA
- In SB 1.7, students should identify the 5 W's (Who, What, Where, When, and Why) which will help provide a clear example of how strong readers engage with a text. If the student cannot identify the basic content, then they will not be able to apply literary concepts for further application.
- SB 1.8 is heavy with literary concepts connected to poetry. Ensure that you are identifying the concept and explicitly providing examples of the concept within the poem. Students tend to not be confident with poetry; however, by showing how to distinguish the concept, they will gain the skills necessary to confidently engage with poetry.
Revising and Editing Do-Nows: The focus for this week is capitalization (8.20A). Ensure that students can articulate two key items in their response: 1) What is the mistake and 2) Why should this change be made.
- Non-Example: Make the little letter a big letter because it starts the sentence.
- Example: In the statement above, capitalize the T in the because it is the first word of the sentence.
All Do-Now slides for Q1 are posted on The Hub and are aligned to the SpringBoard Grammar Handbook, IAs, and focus on key grammar TEKS that students must master in order to be successful.
Bi-Weekly Assessment 2: Students will have 30 minutes to take a timed multiple choice exam. The scanning deadline is Friday, September 4. Teachers are responsible for printing their assessments and scanning their data.
English I Pre-AP
- Level 1 (Identify): This can be reinforced by a 5 minute entrance quiz assessing students knowledge of the outlined literary devices. Based off of their score on the entrance quiz, you can adjust instruction and/or monitor specific students more closely who may need additional support. This will help troubleshoot at the beginning of the lesson, rather than at the end.
- Level 2 (Apply): Make sure students are annotating the text and providing textual evidence as their support. Set the expectation that students must always have evidence to support their claim or evidence that influenced their inference. Even if the student may generate the right answer, push them to provide evidence and respond with the academic vocabulary needed to push towards the strongest response.
OER Crossover Introduced: The OER Crossover, or OER CO, is a STAAR EOC question that accounts for 9 points of a students overall score. The OER CO challenges students to respond to a question that connects two selections, and requires textual evidence from BOTH selections in order to receive a passing score.
The following strategy can serve as a foundation: APPE
- Answer
- Proof 1
- Proof 2
- Explanation
This strategy is outlined in detail at the end of the Unit Road Map under the Instructional Notes section.
Revising and Editing Do-Nows: The focus for this week is capitalization (8.20A). Ensure that students can articulate two key items in their response: 1) What is the mistake and 2) Why should this change be made.
- Non-Example: Make the little letter a big letter because it starts the sentence.
- Example: In the statement above, capitalize the T in the because it is the first word of the sentence.
All Do-Now slides for Q1 are posted on The Hub and are aligned to the SpringBoard Grammar Handbook, IAs, and focus on key grammar TEKS that students must master in order to be successful.
Bi-Weekly Assessment 2: The scanning deadline for BWA2 is Friday, September 4. Teachers are responsible for scanning their data by the designated deadline.
English II Pre-AP
OER Single Story Introduced (Monday): The OER Single Story, or OER SS, is a STAAR EOC question that accounts for 9 points of a students overall score. The OER SS challenges students to respond to a question from a selection, and requires textual evidence in their response in order to receive a passing score.
The following strategy can serve as a foundation: APE
- Answer
- Proof
- Explanation
This strategy is outlined in detail at the end of the Unit Road Map under the Instructional Notes section.
OER Crossover Introduced (Friday): The OER Crossover, or OER CO, is a STAAR EOC question that accounts for 9 points of a students overall score. The OER CO challenges students to respond to a question that connects two selections, and requires textual evidence from BOTH selections in order to receive a passing score.
The following strategy can serve as a foundation: APPE
- Answer
- Proof 1
- Proof 2
- Explanation
This strategy is outlined in detail at the end of the Unit Road Map under the Instructional Notes section.
Revising and Editing Do-Nows: The focus for this week is capitalization (8.20A). Ensure that students can articulate two key items in their response: 1) What is the mistake and 2) Why should this change be made.
- Non-Example: Make the little letter a big letter because it starts the sentence.
- Example: In the statement above, capitalize the T in the because it is the first word of the sentence.
All Do-Now slides for Q1 are posted on The Hub and are aligned to the SpringBoard Grammar Handbook, IAs, and focus on key grammar TEKS that students must master in order to be successful.
Bi-Weekly Assessment 2: BWA2 is a timed OER Single Story. Students will have only 30 minutes to complete the OER SS. The scanning deadline is Friday, September 4, 2015 by COB. Please plan your time accordingly so that all OERs can be graded, bubbled, and scanned into GradeCam by the stated deadline.
AP Language
SpringBoard: The focus for Unit 1 continues to be preparation for the Synthesis Essay. Students are analyzing texts, summarizing their understandings, and synthesizing interpretations. This week, students are reading several texts by the same author or texts with a similar theme. They will make text-to-text connections, use text evidence to support ideas, and identify the relationships between texts and ideas within texts.
AP Exam Preparation: Teachers discussed multiple choice questions during last week's Webinar. They categorized a sampling of questions into the four types of multiple choice questions, using training materials from NMSI. This categorization helps students identify strategies for answering the MC questions. As teachers incorporate more MC practice in class, they can use this categorization practice with students to help students develop testing strategies.
Bi-Weekly Assessment: Students will take BWA 2 on Friday, September 11th. This assessment is multiple choice only. The scanning deadline is the end of day, Friday, 9/11.
AP Literature
SpringBoard: Students will spend this week continuing the Writing Workshop: Responding to Poetry. This workshop specifically prepares students for the Poetry Analysis FRQ, which they will see on IA 1. The workshop model provides students step-by-step practice, giving them the opportunity to see this genre of writing modeled by the teacher (through Guided Writing), practice revision with the support of the teacher, and analyze their own writing through independent practice.
AP Exam Preparation: Each quarter, through Q3, has a focus on one Free-Response Question. Quarter 1 focuses on the Poetry Analysis FRQ; Quarter 2 focuses on the Prose Analysis FRQ; and Quarter 3 focuses on the Open-Ended FRQ. Students have several opportunities to analyze texts of each genre and craft genre-specific analyses through SpringBoard lessons.
Bi-Weekly Assessment: Students will take BWA 2 on Friday, September 11th. This assessment is multiple choice only. The scanning deadline is the end of day, Friday, 9/11.