Week of January 21, 2008

Monday, January 21st
Happy MLK (Martin Luther King) day!
1. Bell Work~ Word Puzzle & What happened this weekend that you might be able to use as an essay idea?
2. Mini-Lesson~"Pushing Our Thinking"
3. Quiet Writing~Use as many conversation prompts as you can to push your thinking in your entries today.
4. Share Time~Read an entry to your partner and discuss your observations about whether the writer used our class list of prompts, or tried another way to grow ideas.
5. Wrap Up~Explain Writing Workshop rubric
Homework~Complete "Collecting Ideas From Talk" sheet.

Tuesday, January, 22nd
Note: Today is the last day to turn in missing assignments.
1. Bell Work~Word Puzzle & How many ideas did you collect last night? Where did you get them from?
2. Mini-Lesson~"Generating Essay Writing From Narrative Writing"
3. Quiet Writing/Partner Share Time~Choose a personal narrative entry, ask yourself the "Questions that writers ask of earlier entries," then pick the idea you want to work on. Tell your partner which idea you've chose and what you plan to write about this idea.
4. Share Time~Read your new entry to your partner.
5. Wrap Up

Wednesday, January 23rd
1. Bell Work~Word Puzzle & What is a thesis statement?
2. Mini-Lesson~"Finding and Crafting Thesis Statements"
3. Quiet Writing~Reread your entries, select a seed idea, and then draft and revise a thesis statement.
4. Share Time~Postpone closure on this thesis, reread your entires, looking for a small story that catches your heartstring or seems like it must be on fire. Reread that entry and consider that you may want to put this entry at the heart of an essay.
5. Wrap Up
Homework~Write a new thesis statement for the entry you reread at the end of class. Revise your thesis statement using the "Questions That Writers Ask of Theses".

Thursday, January 24th
1. Bell Work~Word Puzzle & Name one similarity and one difference bewteen narrative and expository (essay) writing.
2. Mini-Lesson~"Writing Workshop" rubric
3. Quiet Writing~Finish any items on the rubric that you have not done so far. Complete the "Writing Workshop" rubric and staple it to the next available page of your notebook.
4. Share Time~Discuss your feelings about this essay unit so far.
5. Wrap Up~Turn in your writer's notebook with the "Writing Workshop" rubric stapled inside.

Friday, January 25th
NO SCHOOL for students today!
Enjoy your time off but keep on living as essayists, talking, looking, listening, and thinking about everything around you. :)