ELA Weekly:
November 2 - November 6
Curriculum Manager Announcements
Instructional Toolbox Added to the Hub
Curriculum Managers Hold Office Hours!
Every other Wednesday afternoon from 4pm-5pm (opposite Wednesday ELA Webinars) will be a designated "Office Hour" for ELA Managers to visit with George and Colleen about anything related to Secondary ELA curriculum. If you have questions, feedback, or just want to discuss upcoming units or assessments, please feel free to hop on BlueJeans via the links below. These are come-and-go "Office Hours" with no set agenda. All ELA Managers and Coaches are welcome!
For 6th/7th & AP Language & AP Lit (Colleen): https://bluejeans.com/2872300923/browser
For 8th/9th/10th (George):
ELA 8-10 Campus Observations
ELA 8-10 Unpacking the Assessment Activity
- Take ownership of the unpacking and make it your own. Just remember that it should include the knowledge and skills for that assessment.
- Note: This is also a component of the SB Implementation/Usage look-out for Quarter 2. Take the time to make this lesson meaningful for students. A visual that looks like it was done with no intention or clarity will allow observers to infer that additional help in this area is needed.
11th Grade IDEA Authors Update
Course Specific
6th Grade ELA
SpringBoard: Students will work on the Embedded Assessment 1, writing a short story using elements of plot and character development through the use of dialogue. This culminating project brings together all of the elements of fiction (plot, character analysis, & theme). Students should go through the writing process, using the graphic organizers in SpringBoard to brainstorm ideas and descriptive words that will later be used in their stories. An important component of this EA is the "Revision Through Sharing and Responding" activities. Peer responses can serve to highlight areas of growth for students in their writing, and provide several opportunities to practice revision and editing skills in an authentic writing assignment.
Assessments: Students will take BWA 5: Reading on Friday. Please be sure to have all student answer documents scanned by the end of day Friday, November 6th.
Do-Nows: Students will practice using verb tenses (6.19A) this week, including past, present, and future tenses as well as the correct use of "will" and "would." Teachers should introduce the concept during the Do-Now, offer explanation and guidance, allow students the opportunity to practice the skill, and then extend the practice to homework assignments or through authentic writing activities. Once a concept has been introduced during the Do-Now, students should be held accountable for that skill in their own writing.
Archived Webinars: Please visit the links below to view previous webinars.
October 28th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Kvp/
September 30th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8E2z/
September 16th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8AMZ/ (SpringBoard 1.14/Expository Rubric and exemplars for EA 2)
7th Grade ELA
SpringBoard: Students will complete the Expository reading lessons this week, with a culminating activity that requires students to synthesize ideas across three texts. Students will then move into the Expository Writing Workshop, which culminates in a published essay. Teachers can continue to provide model texts for students as they explore text structure, author's purpose, and craft. Students' essays should not be formulaic, 5-paragraph essays that all sound the same. Part of dissecting the prompt includes establishing an appropriate organizational structure that adequately answers the prompt. Students should use the graphic organizers for the different organizational structures to plan their essays (problem/solution, cause/effect, chronological, question/answer, compare/contrast, description). Students have practiced using these graphic organizers while reading expository text, and now they can practice using the graphic organizers to structure their own writing. The Writing Workshop provides prompts for the expository essay, or teachers can access the additional prompts on the Hub, located within the Writing Workshop resources folder within Quarter 2.
Assessments: Students will take BWA 5: Reading on Friday. Please be sure to have all student answer documents scanned by the end of day Friday, November 6th.
Do-Nows: Students will practice using verb tenses (7.19A) this week, including past, present, and future tenses as well as the correct use of "will" and "would." Teachers should introduce the concept during the Do-Now, offer explanation and guidance, allow students the opportunity to practice the skill, and then extend the practice to homework assignments or through authentic writing activities. Once a concept has been introduced during the Do-Now, students should be held accountable for that skill in their own writing.
Archived Webinars:
October 28th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Kw6/
September 30th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8E2D/
September 16th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8AN7/ (Strategies for teaching mythology)
September 2nd: https://bluejeans.com/s/8zrR/
August 19th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8zrU/
8th Grade ELA
Bi-Weekly Assessment 5: BWA5 is a 30 minute OER Single Story which is to be given on Friday, November 6. The scanning deadline for BWA5 is Friday, November 13 by 5 pm. This exam is to be scanned using GradeCam.
- Criteria for Success: Ensure that the response has the following three elements in order to ensure success: 1) A - Answer, 2) P - Proof or textual evidence, and 3) E -Explanation or commentary.
- For a more in-depth breakdown of criteria, please refer to the Instructional Notes section of the Q2 Unit Road Map.
How is an OER preparing my students for the ELA 8 STAAR exam when my test is all multiple choice? That is a great question! The rationale is provided below:
- With a multiple choice question, you as the teacher are only able to see if the student chose the correct or incorrect answer.
- With an OER, you as the teacher are able to answer the following questions: 1) Did the student truly understand or did he/she guess on this question? 2) What made the student either select the correct or incorrect response? 3) Where in the text did the student identify evidence that lead to their answer selection? 4) What was the thought process they took in order to get to the correct answer and/or where did they make a mistake that lead them to select the incorrect answer choice?
- On the 2015 STAAR ELA release, 25 out of the 52 questions assessed directly link to author's craft within a specific text. Giving students multiple opportunities to practice the skill of decoding, process of elimination, and identifying textual evidence will help transfer the skill to any passage/poem/visual that appears on the ELA 8 STAAR exam.
SpringBoard: Unpacking the Assessment and SB Activity 2.3 are this week's critical lessons.
- Unpacking the Assessment: Unpacking the Assessment is critical to ensure student buy-in and help everyone understand that what is being done daily in class is directly going to be needed to complete their upcoming assessment.
- Ensure that you as the teacher plan and decided on how students will unpack the assessment and what visual representation you will select to put up on your wall for the remainder of the unit.
- Remember to hold yourself accountable to placing the Unpacked Assessment visual on the wall and make it a living document that is referred to after each SB activity is complete.
- Note: This action falls under the SB Implementation/Usage look-out for Quarter 2. Take the time to make this lesson meaningful for students. A visual that looks like it was done with no intention or clarity will allow observers to infer that additional help in this area is needed.
- SB Activity 2.3: This lesson is broken up into two parts and taught over two days. Part 1: You and Media is to be taught on Day 1 while Part 2: Visual Representations is to be taught on Day 2. Review the Q2 Unit Plan for additional clarification and steps to help with the coverage of this lesson.
- Log 1: Media Habits (Page 115) can be an on-going assignments that extends for a full week.
- Log 2: Memorable Ads (Page 117) can be assigned for homework and collected on Monday, November 9.
- Ensure that you have looked at the lesson beforehand, and have created a plan to ensure you meet the objectives outlined for this activity.
Grammar Focus/Do Now: The focus for this week is punctuation marks (8.20B) explicitly focusing on hyphens. Ensure students can articulate two key items in their response: 1) What is the error and 2) What should this change be made.
- Suggestion: You can add additional errors for the student to correct in order to spiral in previous grammar TEKS covered.
- For example, you can lowercase the beginning of the sentence, remove the punctuation, and add in additional errors to challenge the students to recall previous TEKS as well as use academic vocabulary.
- The Grammar Focus/Do Now slides are a foundation to support the specific TEK in the Unit Road Map; however, you can add to the slide to ensure continuous coverage of prior material.
Archived Webinars: Please visit the links below to view previous webinars.
- 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
Bi-Weekly Assessment 5: BWA5 is a 30 minute OER Crossover which is to be given on Friday, November 6. The scanning deadline for BWA5 is Friday, November 13 by 5 pm. This exam is to be scanned using GradeCam.
- Criteria for Success: Ensure that the response has the following three elements in order to ensure success: 1) A - Answer, 2) P - Proof or textual evidence from passage 1, 3) P - Proof or textual evidence from passage 2, and 4) E -Explanation or commentary that connects both answer together.
- For a more in-depth breakdown of criteria, please refer to the Instructional Notes section of the Q2 Unit Road Map.
SpringBoard: Unpacking the Assessment and SB Activity 3.14 are this week's critical lessons.
- Unpacking the Assessment: Unpacking the Assessment is critical to ensure student buy-in and help everyone understand that what is being done daily in class is directly going to be needed to complete their upcoming assessment.
- Ensure that you as the teacher plan and decided on how students will unpack the assessment and what visual representation you will select to put up on your wall for the remainder of the unit.
- Remember to hold yourself accountable to placing the Unpacked Assessment visual on the wall and make it a living document that is referred to after each SB activity is complete.
- Note: This action falls under the SB Implementation/Usage look-out for Quarter 2. Take the time to make this lesson meaningful for students. A visual that looks like it was done with no intention or clarity will allow observers to infer that additional help in this area is needed.
- SB Activity 3.14: This lesson focuses on tone within a text. Do not confuse students with tone and mood as they are two different aspects within a work.
- Tone is the writer's or speaker's attitude towards a subject. It focuses on the author and not the audience.
- Mood focuses on how the reader/audience feels when engaging with the text.
- It is critical to make a clear difference for students so that they can successfully answer a question on their BWA/IA/STAAR assessments.
Grammar Focus/Do Now: The focus for this week is punctuation marks (9.18B) explicitly focusing on hyphens. Ensure students can articulate two key items in their response: 1) What is the error and 2) What should this change be made.
- Suggestion: You can add additional errors for the student to correct in order to spiral in previous grammar TEKS covered.
- For example, you can lowercase the beginning of the sentence, remove the punctuation, and add in additional errors to challenge the students to recall previous TEKS as well as use academic vocabulary.
- The Grammar Focus/Do Now slides are a foundation to support the specific TEK in the Unit Road Map; however, you can add to the slide to ensure continuous coverage of prior material.
Archived Webinars: Please visit the links below to view previous webinars.
- 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
Bi-Weekly Assessment 5: BWA5 is a 30 minute OER Crossover which is to be given on Friday, November 6. The scanning deadline for BWA5 is Friday, November 13 by 5 pm. This exam is to be scanned using GradeCam.
- Criteria for Success: Ensure that the response has the following three elements in order to ensure success: 1) A - Answer, 2) P - Proof or textual evidence from passage 1, 3) P - Proof or textual evidence from passage 2, and 4) E -Explanation or commentary that connects both answer together.
- For a more in-depth breakdown of criteria, please refer to the Instructional Notes section of the Q2 Unit Road Map.
SpringBoard: Embedded Assessment 1 and Unpacking the Assessment are this week's critical lessons.
- Embedded Assessment 1: This EA has different components and strategic planning to ensure student success on all components is key.
- When planning their presentations, designate a specific time limit for each group to make sure all groups have the time to present their information.
- There are purposeful Teacher Flex Days this week to help with timing for EA1. Use the days as needed.
- Unpacking the Assessment: Unpacking the Assessment is critical to ensure student buy-in and help everyone understand that what is being done daily in class is directly going to be needed to complete their upcoming assessment.
- Ensure that you as the teacher plan and decided on how students will unpack the assessment and what visual representation you will select to put up on your wall for the remainder of the unit.
- Remember to hold yourself accountable to placing the Unpacked Assessment visual on the wall and make it a living document that is referred to after each SB activity is complete.
- Note: This action falls under the SB Implementation/Usage look-out for Quarter 2. Take the time to make this lesson meaningful for students. A visual that looks like it was done with no intention or clarity will allow observers to infer that additional help in this area is needed.
Grammar Focus/Do Now: The focus for this week is punctuation marks (10.18B) explicitly focusing on hyphens. Ensure students can articulate two key items in their response: 1) What is the error and 2) What should this change be made.
- Suggestion: You can add additional errors for the student to correct in order to spiral in previous grammar TEKS covered.
- For example, you can lowercase the beginning of the sentence, remove the punctuation, and add in additional errors to challenge the students to recall previous TEKS as well as use academic vocabulary.
- The Grammar Focus/Do Now slides are a foundation to support the specific TEK in the Unit Road Map; however, you can add to the slide to ensure continuous coverage of prior material.
Archived Webinars: Please visit the links below to view previous webinars.
- October 28th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Kvb/
- October 14th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Kva/
- September 30th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8D_X/
- September 16th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Avc/
- September 2nd: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Avb/
AP Language
SpringBoard: Students will explore different fallacies, with specific examples of each to ground their understanding. Students will then practice creating their own fallacies in a FALLACY FACE OFF, stretching their creative thinking muscles in preparation for EA 1. Students will also explore how authors use editorial cartoons to create satire through visuals. Students should understand the differences between comic strips and editorial cartoons, so analyzing examples of each is key to lesson 2.14. As students analyze editorial cartoons, they should focus on author's purpose, rhetorical techniques, and symbolism. Students will finish the week with EA 1, Creating an Op-Ed Page, which brings together the study of editorials completed throughout the first half of Unit 2.
Assessments: Students will take BWA 5 on Friday, which is the Argument FRQ from the 2013 AP Lang exam. Teachers can use the 2013 Argument Scoring Guide along with the AP Language rubric, located within the Quarter 2 BWA folder on the Hub, for specific guidelines on grading BWA 5. All scores should be scanned into GradeCam by Friday, November 13th.
Archived Webinars: Please use the links below to view previous webinars:
October 28th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8Kwa/
September 30th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8E2G/
September 16th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8ANu/ (Norming the Synthesis Essay for IA 1)
September 2nd: https://bluejeans.com/s/8zsh/
August 19th: https://bluejeans.com/s/8zsi/
AP Literature
SpringBoard: Students will continue reading Pygmalion, focusing on character archetypes and transformation. Students will analyze character dialogue and actions through an archetypal lens, considering the historical context of the story. This week's dialogue-writing activity will prepare students for EA 1, which requires a rewrite of a full scene from the play. Students should also extend on lesson 2.8, which focused on subtext, as they analyze the dialogue in Act IV.
Assessments: Students will take BWA 5 on Friday, which is the Prose Analysis FRQ from the 2013 AP Lit exam. Teachers will assess student essays using the AP Lit Rubric, which can be found on the Hub within the Quarter 2 BWA folder. All student scores should be scanned by Friday, November 13th.
Archived Webinars: Please use the links below to view previous webinars:
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/