Accept the Summer Reading Challenge!

Have you spent your summer days reading? There are staggering statistics that show that kids who read during the summer are stronger readers, writers, and thinkers all year long. Accept the HMS Summer Reading Challenge and be your best!

The Outsiders

My favorite unit of the year is always when we read The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. This year is no different. Given how much time we have left, we have to charge through and read a chapter every class if we want to finish the book, which we do!

During our Outsiders unit, we are keeping journals and practicing our collegiate discussion skills. Discussing a book in a mature and respectful way is a life skill I want all my students to have.

Upcoming dates to remember:
May 9: Finish reading chapter 5
May 13: Outsiders Relay - in class
May 16: Finish reading chapter 11
May 17: 3rd period goes to Alcatraz!
May 20: Finish ch. 12 in class
May 22: Dress up like a greaser or a soc!
May 28: End of year Benchmark III
May 30: Giants Game!
May 31: Yearbook release party! $3 - must pre-order yearbook to attend
June 5: Last day of school!

Get inspired to dress like a greaser or a soc! Check out my "Outsiders Photo Album" tab to see my former students dressed up on this fun day.

Informational Text Unit





We have been working on evaluating and analyzing informational text. This includes consumer, workplace, and public documents. We enjoyed a "Nutrition Nuance Detective activity, where students analyzed food labels on various snacks and then got to enjoy them.

ust before spring break, my students were given the opportunity to choose a non-fiction book and encouraged to read it because a book report project would be coming soon!

Students chose all sorts of books, from informational to autobiographical memoirs. They were told to finish their books during spring break and be ready to report on it when they got back.

Now students are working on Non-Fiction Book Projects, which are due next week, April 17, but extra credit is available to students who turn theirs in before April 15. There will be a short amount of time in class allowed to complete the project, so students must work on their projects at home.
Students are encouraged to bring their project and materials for a workday tomorrow, April 11!

To see the assignment and project organizer, click here.

A Fresh Start

Somehow, we have made our way into the 3rd Trimester! With the District and State Writing Assessments behind us, we are pushing hard to be ready for the California State Tests that will start at the end of April.

Grammar-O-Rama is happening in Mrs. Heartt's Language Arts! We are finishing up our RED packets, due on Monday, March 18th. We are making a little foldable on Parts of Speech and enjoying some School House Rock videos to go along with it. There will be a grammar quiz next week, so be sure to study your foldable once it is finished!

Here are a few School House Rock videos for your viewing enjoyment:

Verbs

Adverbs

And best of all... Conjunctions!

The Powers of Persuasion

With the District Writing Assessment rapidly approaching, we have been working on practicing our persuasive writing techniques. Not only do we have a graphic organizer that pretty much guarantees a "proficient" paper, but we have also been working on making sure we have effective examples and evidence.

On Monday, 2/25 students will be quizzed on the graphic organizer to make sure they remember all parts of the essay. Also, you need to come into class with your practice Writing Assessment (about changing the school day to a 10am to 5pm schedule) finished and ready to evaluate.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a little YouTube video about how to organize and essay:

Wednesday, 2/27 is the day of the actual assessment! I am sure all of you will do an excellent job!

Fakebook: A Novel Idea

Despite the many bugs and mishaps, students in Mrs. Heartt's Language Arts have made beautiful Fakebook pages for the characters in their books.

From 1st period:
Adrianna's page about Massie Block from The Clique books
Laura's page about Claudia Cristina Cortez from books of the same name
Larsen's page about Robert Langdon from The DaVinci Code
Jasmine's page about Anna from In the Cards
Hailey's page about Cazarrina Divetri from The Glassmaker's Daughter
Cameron's page about Will Treaty from Ranger's Apprentice
Emily's page about Darren Shan from Cirque du Freak
Diana's page about Violet Baudelaire from The Series of Unfortunate Events
Yulissa's page about Jenny Greenley from Teen Idol
Xochitl's page about Auden West from Along for the Ride
Ingrid's page about Massie Block from The Clique books

From 5th period:
Merrick's page about Haytham Kenway from Assassin's Creed: Forsaken
Brianna's page about Massie Block from The Clique books
Caden's page about Gregor the Overlander from the book of the same name
Julia's page about President Coriolanus Snow from The Hunger Games
Ryan's page about Artemis Fowl from the books of the same name
William's page about Tintin from the book series of the same name
Alex's page about Eddy Okubo from The Eyes of the Emperor
Veronica's page about Claire Lyons from The Clique series

If your page is not listed here and you sent me the link, the link didn't work. Please send me the link again!

I really enjoyed reading everyone's interpretations of their characters. Thanks for putting so much effort into this project.
I will also be hanging the "hard copy" projects this week, so we can all enjoy their creativity in our classroom.
Great work!

Character Analysis with Fakebook!

Happy new year! We welcomed 2013 with a BANG! Not only did we write thank-you notes and make grammar review foldables, we also started talking about our Character Analysis project: Facebook pages for characters in our independent reading books. (see assignment here).

What is Fakebook? It is an online educational tool to create a fake Facebook page for a historical figure or fictional character. Click here to get to Fakebook. From here, you can start your own Fakebook page by clicking "Click Here To Enter Name." Be sure to save your work and create a password. When your Fakebook page is complete, you will turn in the url address for your page as well as your password to prove it was YOU who created it!

Check out the Fakebook page I created for the character Tiger Lily, from the book of the same name.


You can also create a hard copy of a Facebook page using the template I handed out in class. It is page 1-2 of the linked pdf.

The Fakebook assignment will be due on January 17th, so go forth and make it happen! Happy Fakebooking!