ELA Weekly:
March 21 - March 25
Curriculum Manager Announcements
DEADLINE TOMORROW: Writing, Photography & Poster Contest Opportunity!
Area students are invited to participate in the Hidalgo County Bar Foundation Law Day Contests and statewide Law Day Contest. Entries are being accepted for the Editorial Contest, Photography Contest and Poster Contest. All entries must reflect the student's interpretation of the 2016 Law Day theme, “Why should all people be treated fairly even if they are suspected of wrong doing?" The deadline to submit entries is Tuesday, March 22nd. The winners of the HCBF contest will be submitted to the statewide contest. The criteria and prizes are detailed below:
- Editorial Contest (Local Prize: $250; Statewide Prize: 1st Place - $1,000; 2nd Place - $500; 3rd Place - $250)
- Original editorial must be no longer than 500 words and must be typewritten and double-spaced. It must show critical analysis and historical evidence. Please title the editorial and include an electronic version of the entry.
- Photography Contest 6th - 12th Grade Students (Local Prize: $150; Statewide Prize: 1st Place - $400; 2nd Place - $200; 3rd Place - $100)
- The color or black and white photograph must be the student's original unpublished work and should have been taken after June 1, 2015. Photographs must not be larger than 8 x 10 with two duplicates.
- Poster Contest K - 12th Grade Students (Local Prize: $100; Statewide Prize: 1st Place - $150; 2nd Place - $75; 3rd Place - $50 and a $10 gift certificate)
- The poster must be a two-dimensional drawing, painting or collage. No computer-generate work will be eligible and must not be larger than 25 x 32 inches.
- Click this link for the 2016 Law Day Awards Entry and Release Form
Course Specific
6th Grade ELA
Content: While teachers developed their STAAR Success Unit plans at Course Collaboration 4B, please remember that the STAAR Success Unit will not begin until April 18th. Prior to the STAAR Success Unit, teachers should focus on two genres that have not yet been studied this year: Drama & Poetry. Students will begin their study of drama this week. Teachers will begin with a fictional story, which provides an opportunity to review fiction TEKS (6.6 & 6.6A). They will then move into a focused study of drama, looking at how dialogue contributes to understanding of character development. Students will also receive practice analyzing tone and looking at how tone contributes to understanding dialogue and character.
Assessments: Students will take BWA 10 (Drama) on Friday, April 1st.
Webinar: The next 6th grade ELA Webinar will be on Wednesday, April 6th. We will not have a webinar this week.
Archived Webinars: Please visit the links below to view previous webinars.
- February 24th: https://bluejeans.com/s/9clM/
- February 10th: https://bluejeans.com/s/97i0/
- January 27th: https://bluejeans.com/s/92s@/
- January 13th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8@hm/
- December 2nd: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Thh/
- November 11th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Okg/
- October 28th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Kvp/
- September 30th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8E2z/
- September 16th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8AMZ/
7th Grade ELA
Content: This week is a Flex Week, which will provide teachers time to review for the Writing STAAR, which is next week on Tuesday, March 29th. Teachers should use the guidelines below for suggestions for review:
Teachers received the STAAR Success Guide at Course Collaboration 4A, and it is also posted on the Hub. This guide provides key information about the Writing STAAR, including a frequency distribution chart for all SEs that have been assessed since 2012, guidelines for skills that should be the focus of expository essay instruction, as well as key revising & editing skills and suggestions to address student skill gaps. The guide is located within the 7th grade ELA folder on the Hub.
Expository Essay:
Teachers identified skill gaps from a district-wide assessment administered on February 5th and graded on February 12th.
Teachers collaborated around ideas for instruction to address skill gaps on February 12th at CC4A.
Teachers plan to use a chunk of time each day to address writing gaps, utilizing the lessons gathered from peers at CC4.A.
Teachers use the expository prompts that are tied to the Tangerine novel unit they are teaching in class. Teachers spend a lot of time on all of the components of the essay, with more time dedicated to students’ weakest writing skills (identified at CC4.A), through a Writing Workshop model of instruction. The message here is “quality over quantity.” Between now and the Writing STAAR, I suggest that students write no more than two full essays, from start to finish. Instead, teachers should give students lots of opportunities to revise the same essay, focusing on one or two skills at a time. The majority of the writing experience should be spent on generating strong supporting ideas, and revising to make sure ideas are tight, controlled, and organized. Once students have mastered the 3 big skills (controlling idea, supporting ideas, and a clearly organized structure), teachers should focus their coaching on the higher-level skills of precise word choice and sentence variety.
Revising & Editing:
Teachers identified skill gaps from a district-wide essay and BWAs.
Teachers continue to use the Do-Nows on the Hub, which address the skills on the Writing STAAR, focusing on the skills that students are still most struggling to master
Teachers focus revision practice on the skills students are still most struggling to master, as they spend time writing and revising during class (using the prompts discussed above) in authentic writing and revising exercises.
Assessments: Students will take the 7th Grade Writing STAAR next Tuesday, March 29th. Good luck to all of your students! They’ve worked so hard this year, and have improved so much since September!
Webinar: The next 7th grade ELA Webinar will be on Wednesday, April 6th. We will not have a webinar this week.
Archived Webinars:
February 24th: no webinar
February 10th: https://bluejeans.com/s/97hY/
January 27th: https://bluejeans.com/s/92t2/
January 13th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8@hA/
December 2nd: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Thi/
November 11th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Okf/
October 28th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Kw6/
September 30th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8E2D/
September 16th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8AN7/
September 2nd: https://bluejeans.com/s/8zrR/
August 19th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8zrU/
8th Grade ELA
Upcoming Webinar: There is a scheduled ELA Webinar this Wednesday, March 23 from 4 pm to 4:45 pm. The Course Leaders will have designated time to meet with you all and answer any specific questions or concerns before the STAAR exam. Teachers and Campus Managers, this is a great time to ask any specific questions or suggestions as the final push before next week's exam.
STAAR Logstics: Make sure you have spoken to your Academic Counselor and Campus Manager to make sure all logistics for the STAAR exam have been finalized.
Provided Resources: All teachers and managers received the following:
- ELA 8 STAAR Success Unit
- STAAR Question Stem Resource
- Note: Please use these documents as you refine your reviews for STAAR.
Teacher Flex Days (STAAR Prep): This week is a continuation of the STAAR ELA 8 Teacher Flex Days. You should use the plan created at Course Collaboration 4A as well as the resources provided on the The Hub and your colleagues.
- Note: Refer to the six step process for creating effective reviews. Coverage of the content and skill is critical to ensuring student success.
- Remember, only passages and questions, along with only whole group instruction, is not going to provide drastic changes in student performance. Look and reflect on your individual data, make meaningful lessons that connect the content and skill to meaningful texts, and challenges students in the same manner they are going to be challenged on the STAAR assessment.
Grammar Focus/Do Now: This week's GF/DN focuses on sentence structure and revision. (8.14D). When preparing for the GF/DN, think of this process as an entire lesson cycle.
- Note: The GF/DN should take no more than 10 minutes.
- 2 minute: Assign Yourself/Take-Out Materials/Attendance
- 2 minute: Teacher direct teach
- 2 minute: Teacher model
- 2 minute: Student practice (ensure students share responses with a partner before whole group)
- 2 minute: Student create/explain (ensure students share responses with a partner before whole group)
Additional STAAR Guidance: Conducting a whole class review of each question on the IA or BWA is not going to increase student understanding or their performance. Think about the following process when planning to spiral in purposeful-skill-specific review of material.
- What is the question did students struggle with on the exam?
- What was the skill being assessed in this question?
- What did the question sound like? What was the question stem used?
- What are your upcoming lessons?
- Where can you spiral in the question stem into your instruction to allow students a purposeful "at bat" with the skill.
- How will students demonstrate their new understanding based off of your purposeful review of the skill?
Follow this process when planning and stronger, skill specific lessons that are beneficial for students and their instruction will be the result.
Archived Webinars: Please visit the links below to view previous webinars:
- March 9th: https://bluejeans.com/s/9jBq/
- February 24th: https://bluejeans.com/s/9b5j/
- January 27th: https://bluejeans.com/s/93au/
- January 13th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8_9A/
- December 16th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Xoz/
- November 11th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Oln/
- October 28th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Kvb/
- October 14th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Kva/
- September 30th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8D_S/
English I Pre-AP
Upcoming Webinar: There is a scheduled ELA Webinar this Wednesday, March 23 from 4 pm to 4:45 pm. There is a scheduled ELA Webinar this Wednesday, March 23 from 4 pm to 4:45 pm. The Course Leaders will have designated time to meet with you all and answer any specific questions or concerns before the STAAR exam. Teachers and Campus Managers, this is a great time to ask any specific questions or suggestions as the final push before next week's exam.
STAAR Logstics: Make sure you have spoken to your Academic Counselor and Campus Manager to make sure all logistics for the STAAR exam have been finalized.
Provided Resources: All teachers and managers received the following:
- English I STAAR Success Unit
- STAAR Question Stem Resource
- Note: Please use these documents as you refine your reviews for STAAR.
Teacher Flex Days (STAAR Prep): This week is the beginning of the STAAR English I Teacher Flex Days. You should use the data you gathered from Course Collaboration 4A as well as the 2.24 Webinar to identify WHAT content needs to be reviewed as well as HOW it will be spiraled into your instruction.
- Note: Refer to the six step process for creating effective reviews. Coverage of the content and skill is critical to ensuring student success.
- Remember, only passages and questions, along with only whole group instruction, is not going to provide drastic changes in student performance. Look and reflect on your individual data, make meaningful lessons that connect the content and skill to meaningful texts, and challenges students in the same manner they are going to be challenged on the STAAR assessment.
OER/Composition General Strategies:
- 1) Daily conferring with students about their writing: Students must individually know what they are doing right and should continue doing, what their next steps should be to improve their writing. Teacher and student should confer at all steps of the writing process (pre-writing, drafting, etc.), in addition to after they produce a piece.
- 2) Quality over quantity: Students spend multiple days in "working a piece" to improve it. You can address several different skills this way, and it saves class composing time. In struggling with a designated skill (in response to conferring), students move toward internalizing it and adopting it in future pieces. Plus, it emphasizes the idea of multiple revisions to produce a quality finished piece. Limit the "composition cold writes" where students are writing just for the sake of writing with no feedback or improvement.
- 3) Strategic mini-lessons and small groups: Chances are great that more than one student in any given class shares a need. Teachers should be providing short focuses lessons. For example, three "2-level"students are writing meandering leads that are too lengthy. The teacher could give the students a series of prompts and writing ideas, so that the students can practice writing an effective lead with a clear central idea statement.
- This information was taken from ELA 4 STAAR Success Guide created by Melissa Payne, Academy ELA Curriculum Manager.
Grammar Focus/Do Now: This week's GF/DN focuses on sentence structure and revisions (9.13C). When preparing for the GF/DN, think of this process as an entire lesson cycle.
- Note: The GF/DN should take no more than 10 minutes.
- 2 minute: Assign Yourself/Take-Out Materials/Attendance
- 2 minute: Teacher direct teach
- 2 minute: Teacher model
- 2 minute: Student practice (ensure students share responses with a partner before whole group)
- 2 minute: Student create/explain (ensure students share responses with a partner before whole group)
Additional STAAR Guidance: Conducting a whole class review of each question on the IA or BWA is not going to increase student understanding or their performance. Think about the following process when planning to spiral in purposeful-skill-specific review of material.
- What is the question did students struggle with on the exam?
- What was the skill being assessed in this question?
- What did the question sound like? What was the question stem used?
- What are your upcoming lessons?
- Where can you spiral in the question stem into your instruction to allow students a purposeful "at bat" with the skill.
- How will students demonstrate their new understanding based off of your purposeful review of the skill?
Follow this process when planning and stronger, skill specific lessons that are beneficial for students and their instruction will be the result.
Additional STAAR Resources: Two additional resources have been provided to ensure success on IA3 and STAAR. They include the following: 1) STAAR Question Stem Resource and 2) IA2 Data Reflection. Both of these documents provide information to help with planning and execution. Refer to these documents frequently to ensure effective action
Archived Webinars: Please visit the links below to view previous webinars.
- February 24th: https://bluejeans.com/s/9b5j/
- January 13th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8_9A/
- December 16th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Xoz/
- November 11th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Oln/
- October 28th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Kvb/
- October 14th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Kva/
- September 30th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8D_U/
- September 16th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Av6/
- September 2nd: https://bluejeans.com/s/8D_V/
English II Pre-AP
Upcoming Webinar: There is a scheduled ELA Webinar this Wednesday, March 23 from 4 pm to 4:45 pm. There is a scheduled ELA Webinar this Wednesday, March 23 from 4 pm to 4:45 pm. The Course Leaders will have designated time to meet with you all and answer any specific questions or concerns before the STAAR exam. Teachers and Campus Managers, this is a great time to ask any specific questions or suggestions as the final push before next week's exam.
STAAR Logstics: Make sure you have spoken to your Academic Counselor and Campus Manager to make sure all logistics for the STAAR exam have been finalized.
Provided Resources: All teachers and managers received the following:
- English II STAAR Success Unit
- STAAR Question Stem Resource
- Note: Please use these documents as you refine your reviews for STAAR.
Teacher Flex Days (STAAR Prep): This week is the beginning of the STAAR English II Teacher Flex Days. You should use the data you gathered from Course Collaboration 4A as well as the 2.24 Webinar to identify WHAT content needs to be reviewed as well as HOW it will be spiraled into your instruction.
- Note: Refer to the six step process for creating effective reviews. Coverage of the content and skill is critical to ensuring student success.
- Remember, only passages and questions, along with only whole group instruction, is not going to provide drastic changes in student performance. Look and reflect on your individual data, make meaningful lessons that connect the content and skill to meaningful texts, and challenges students in the same manner they are going to be challenged on the STAAR assessment.
OER/Composition General Strategies:
- 1) Daily conferring with students about their writing: Students must individually know what they are doing right and should continue doing, what their next steps should be to improve their writing. Teacher and student should confer at all steps of the writing process (pre-writing, drafting, etc.), in addition to after they produce a piece.
- 2) Quality over quantity: Students spend multiple days in "working a piece" to improve it. You can address several different skills this way, and it saves class composing time. In struggling with a designated skill (in response to conferring), students move toward internalizing it and adopting it in future pieces. Plus, it emphasizes the idea of multiple revisions to produce a quality finished piece. Limit the "composition cold writes" where students are writing just for the sake of writing with no feedback or improvement.
- 3) Strategic mini-lessons and small groups: Chances are great that more than one student in any given class shares a need. Teachers should be providing short focuses lessons. For example, three "2-level"students are writing meandering leads that are too lengthy. The teacher could give the students a series of prompts and writing ideas, so that the students can practice writing an effective lead with a clear central idea statement.
- This information was taken from ELA 4 STAAR Success Guide created by Melissa Payne, Academy ELA Curriculum Manager.
Grammar Focus/Do Now: This week's GF/DN focuses on sentence structure and revisions (10.13C). When preparing for the GF/DN, think of this process as an entire lesson cycle.
- Note: The GF/DN should take no more than 10 minutes.
- 2 minute: Assign Yourself/Take-Out Materials/Attendance
- 2 minute: Teacher direct teach
- 2 minute: Teacher model
- 2 minute: Student practice (ensure students share responses with a partner before whole group)
- 2 minute: Student create/explain (ensure students share responses with a partner before whole group)
Additional STAAR Guidance: Conducting a whole class review of each question on the IA or BWA is not going to increase student understanding or their performance. Think about the following process when planning to spiral in purposeful-skill-specific review of material.
- What is the question did students struggle with on the exam?
- What was the skill being assessed in this question?
- What did the question sound like? What was the question stem used?
- What are your upcoming lessons?
- Where can you spiral in the question stem into your instruction to allow students a purposeful "at bat" with the skill.
- How will students demonstrate their new understanding based off of your purposeful review of the skill?
Follow this process when planning and stronger, skill specific lessons that are beneficial for students and their instruction will be the result.
Additional STAAR Resources: Two additional resources have been provided to ensure success on IA3 and STAAR. They include the following: 1) STAAR Question Stem Resource and 2) IA2 Data Reflection. Both of these documents provide information to help with planning and execution. Refer to these documents frequently to ensure effective action
Archived Webinars: Please visit the links below to view previous webinars.
- February 24th: https://bluejeans.com/s/9b5j/
- January 13th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8_9A/
- December 16th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Xoz/
- November 11th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Oln/
- October 28th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Kvb/
- October 14th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Kva/
- September 30th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8D_U/
- September 16th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Av6/
- September 2nd: https://bluejeans.com/s/8D_V/
AP Language
Content: The Quarter 4 AP Success Guide and review documents have been posted to the Hub within the Quarter 4 folder. The purpose of the AP Language and Composition Success Unit is to set aside time for teachers to target and revisit those skills which need additional instructional time for mastery. To support that effort, the AP Success Guide will provide information about resources available for teachers to use for review of critical components of the AP Language & Composition course. Rather than a sequence of pre-determined lessons and objectives, teachers and campuses have the freedom to tailor instruction to student needs. Quarter 4 will consist of a teacher-driven Scope & Sequence so he/she may prioritize skills at a campus and/or classroom level. While daily lessons will not be provided, suggested resources are given within the Guide, and teachers spent Course Collaboration 4B exploring all available resources on the Hub and the NMSI website and establishing a plan for Quarter 4 instruction.
Assessments: Teachers have been provided with one multiple choice assessment, one synthesis essay prompt, one argument essay prompt, and one rhetorical analysis essay prompt, with scoring guides, designed to be administered as appropriate, according to the review plan established by each teacher. All assessments are located on the Hub in the Quarter 4 folder.
Webinar: The next AP Language Webinar will be on Wednesday, April 6th. We will not have a webinar this week.
Archived Webinars: Please use the links below to view previous webinars:
February 24th: https://bluejeans.com/s/9clS/
February 10th: https://bluejeans.com/s/97hO/
January 27th: https://bluejeans.com/s/92t7/
November 11th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Okk/
October 28th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Kwa/
September 30th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8E2G/
September 16th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8ANu/
September 2nd: https://bluejeans.com/s/8zsh/
August 19th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8zsi/
AP Literature
Content: The Quarter 4 AP Success Guide and review documents have been posted to the Hub within the Quarter 4 folder. The purpose of the AP Literature and Composition Success Unit is to set aside time for teachers to target and revisit those skills which need additional instructional time for mastery. To support that effort, the AP Success Guide will provide information about resources available for teachers to use for review of critical components of the AP Literature & Composition course. Rather than a sequence of pre-determined lessons and objectives, teachers and campuses have the freedom to tailor instruction to student needs. Quarter 4 will consist of a teacher-driven Scope & Sequence so he/she may prioritize skills at a campus and/or classroom level. While daily lessons will not be provided, suggested resources are given within the Guide, and teachers spent Course Collaboration 4B exploring all available resources on the Hub and the NMSI website and establishing a plan for Quarter 4 instruction.
Assessments: Teachers have been provided with one multiple choice assessment, one prose analysis essay prompt, one poetry analysis essay prompt, and one open-ended essay prompt, with scoring guides, designed to be administered as appropriate, according to the review plan established by each teacher. All assessments are located on the Hub in the Quarter 4 folder.
Webinar: The next AP Literature Webinar will be on Wednesday, April 6th. We will not have a webinar this week.
Archived Webinars: Please use the links below to view previous webinars:
February 24th: https://bluejeans.com/s/9clU/
February 10th: https://bluejeans.com/s/97hQ/
January 27th: https://bluejeans.com/s/92sT/
January 13th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8@jk/
December 2nd: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Thm/
October 28th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8KwI/
September 30th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8E2W/
September 16th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8ANI/ (Implementing timed writings in class/Integration of poetry during prose lessons)
September 2nd: https://bluejeans.com/s/8zsn/
August 19th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8zsm/